Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft SPOT Watches
Octagon Most writes "PocketPCThoughts has a report from a graphic designer who worked on wristwatches using Microsoft's SPOT. Tons of design images here and a soon-to-ship model from Suunto here. Data plans from MSN Direct will be USD$9.95 per month. This is the coolest vapor from Microsoft in a long time. It's geeky _and_ stylish!" Our older story about the watches also notes that since it's a proprietary service, when the service provider decides to stop providing it, the device becomes useless.
Notice in this picture - it shows MSFT stock is down. Nice marketing images designer >:-)
How come none of them actually look like a watch? Looks like something Kaptain Kirk would wear.
When Rolex or Citizen makes one, I'll think about it.
This image shows the watch, complete with BSOD. Sorry - I saw it, had to comment...
Clinton made me a Republican. Bush made me a Libertarian. Trump is making me question reality.
Whoa.. I completely misread this.. I thought it said Microsoft STOP Watches.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!!! (shoot me)
But sheesh, do we really need any more inaccurate stopwatches? I already incorrectly measured gravitational acceleration as 3.1415 M/S^2 thanks to my piece of crud watch... Give me Timex any day.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
But Microshit would never, ever screw its customers by discontinuing this service....
"He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once." - Steve Jobs on Bill Gates
Microsoft can track anyone wearing one! This sounds like a great idea!
hey, remember those C:\ C:\DOS\run run DOS run jokes? Now we can do C:\SPOT jokes!
I don't mean to MS-bash here--even if this /is/ Slashdot--but these are ass-fugly timepieces. That, plus really crappy ad mock-ups, equals /not/ "stylish".
Remind me again why we need a watch that does twenty million things? I was fine when my watch just told me what time it was.
Mikey-San
Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
...Does it tell time?
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Captain: Take off every sig !!
..everything except TELL TIME.... figures.
:-/
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
since it's a proprietary service, when the service provider decides to stop providing it, the device becomes useless.
True, true... that is, until the hardware hackers port Linux to the watches and write their own software for them.
For a second I thought the design images link had misdirected me to a fark photoshop contest. That âoeyouâ(TM)ve got maleâ was particularly pukey. I just donâ(TM)t think it's proper to learn of a birth from your watch.
seeing as these watches are no more than glorified pagers 10$ a month seems a bit steep just to recieve very trivial information, hell i can get a mobile phone with free minutes for 10$ a month, even my mobile GPS is free
why not build the price into the watch instead of _another_ monthly subscription, are our lives desending into a rental culture ? where i spend cash but never actually own anything and when i stop the investment i have made in the device it instantly becomes worthless as the device ceases to function without the constant input of $
whatever happened to buying shit that is MINE, is that concept to hard to grasp !
And how do you download hotfixes and service packs onto these things?
1. battery life.. does it need recharging? 2. display .. most watched can take a few bumps and bruises.. i wonder if this can
3. why does teh guy in the picture look so dorky?
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
i w o n d e r i f t h e y u s e a d o b e p h o t o s h o p . . . i h e a r d i t s t h e b e s t e s t .
But can you talk to K.I.T.T through it to get you out of tough scrapes with a blast of TurboBoost?
also notes that since it's a proprietary service, when the service provider decides to stop providing it, the device becomes useless.
A proprietary service is the ONLY means of pulling something like this off. Open Source does not have the time, resources, or coordination necessary to produce the hardware, software, and services required. But you forgot to mention that.
Feed the need: Digitaladdiction.net
wow! they can draw pictures of watches! Show me a real picture of a real prototype...
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Captain: Take off every sig !!
Don't worry. Some contingent of hackers will figure out how to:
So, don't be so pessimistic. There's no way a hardware device will die just because the provider stops service.
...how long will it take MS to monopolize the watch industry?
your sins into me, oh my beautiful one.
You'd figure something this futuristic would use an OLED color screen already...
Fossil already has a watch designed to work with SPOT, and it is supposed to be available this summer. It looks a little bulky, but definitly useable.
Click here to see it.
Instead of hiring that web designer Rob to make smart watches, they should have hired, say, Jasmine St. Claire. Now I bet any Smart Personal Object Technology gizmo she would design would be a huge seller, much more than a silly wristwatch.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"You'll even have the option to have an alarm automatically set itself earlier based on traffic delays or poor weather conditions"
There goes my 2 favourite excuses on why I'm late for work!
Why do half of these ads look like they're straight from a fark.com photoshop contest?
::.. check out some Cell Phone Reviews
but I see 2 problems cost and text input, If they could sell them for under 200$ I may get one but chances are they will easly be over 300, as for input, one of the best things about a pda is that you can enter data without having to write it down first, if I have to cary an adressbook to write stuff down whats the point of having a pda. hell you can get a casio with basic phone, adress and calculator functions for around 50, and you have a keypad to use, sure they look geekish but they are usefull
I'd definitely call this thing STAIN: S: Superfluous T: Throwable A: Awful I: Interface N: Novelty
...Microsoft Bob's dog?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
pr0n at the flick of the wrist. heh. sorry, just couldn't resist. But seriously though, "flick, flick flick, flick" for each "image". ;) and plus its for geeks so, even better!
Fight Crime - Shoot Back!
I really can't see how you're supposed to get text onto this thing. Stylus? Nah, it's too small. Voice recognition? Yeah that won't look weird and stupid talking to your watch all the time, plus I doubt it'd be very accurate especially in noisy environments. Looks like it's upload from another device then, which makes it seem pretty lame to me. Either that or some really lame button combos to get text on it, which is even worse, even if the buttons are onscreen.
Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!
Check out that page from the SPOT page, and dig that quote :
...
"This is the next evolutionary step in personal computing."
- Bill Mitchell
Corp Vice President,
Microsoft
No ? Really ? Messrs Microsoft, you should at least find someone who doesn't work for you to praise your products. We're certain Bill Mitchell is genuinely impressed by SPOT, from the bottom of his heart, but in any case it's not like he's ever going to say SPOT sucks toilet water as long as he's one of your employees. This quote is so useless it makes you wonder about the rest of the product
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
when the service provider decides to stop providing it, the device becomes useless.
How is this any different from Windows XP? (I'm specifically thinking of product activation here)
Now I can look down at my watch and see "1 H4X0r'd U! YuR 5P0+ iz m4 b17c|-| N0w!"
There's no wrong way, to eat a Rhesus...
I was pretty geeked about the tablet PC
A laptop while docked - and a PDA while in a meeting, or on the plane...
I still don't have one
And I don't wear a watch, my mobile phone can tell time, messages, surf sites, play games, remind me of date/times, yay.
blah blah blah
Its oneway..data to your device. Not 2 way entry. If there is 2 way entry it is just to update small things.
/b
BTW: Did anyone notice that the snow report was for packed powder but he was riding 2 ft of fresh?
And 9.95 a month? i would only pay 9.95 a year!
[Please type your sig here.]
never will they monopolize watches.
the american watch companies have been out of business since the 70s. even timex is now owned by japanese.
you can't compete with the japanese for quartz movements, nor the swiss for mechanical/automatic.
Person A: "Hey, what time is it?"
Person B: "Time for you to get a watch...that tells time!!!"
"I've been called worse things by better people." -Pierre Elliott Trudeau after being called an asshole by Richard Nixon
Didn't one of those babies shoot out of John Hurts belly in Alien?
True, true... that is, until the hardware hackers port Linux to the watches and write their own software for them.
Dewd!
1) I just had to compile my GNU/WATCHKERNEL last night
2) Of course it runs NetBSD
3) Tell my boss that I won't be able to show up for work today, i'm under a Denial Of Time Attack!
4) Linux is not ready for the WristTop!
5) Apple announces the worlds fastest 64-bit watch
And they're a steal at just $599.99 + $9.99 a month. Oh, and the annual support license at $299.99, and the annual software upgrade at $199.99, and...
I love my $50 fossil that's last me about 15 years now.
http://torsion.org/witten/watch.jpg
Seiko had the nifty watch that could act as a pager and you could subscribe to all sorts of nifty alerts like weather a sports and whatnot.
A bit before they discontinued the service a document was floating around detailing a way to cheat the service. All you had to do is subscribe to everything, and they would send a message to your watch to tell it to start reciving particular messages.
Then all you had to do is turn off your watch and cancel everything. When you turned your watch on in the next day or two, it would of missed the unsubscribe signal and continue to get everything it thought you were supposed to.
I wonder if they thought of that this time around.
I don't really mind double posts on
Here's why we're seeing more services vs. goods. Services allow the company a continuous revenue that is flexible with what people can/will afford. If X cellphone company needs more money, they'll do a CBA to see if it's better to raise rates or raise advertising or something to attract new customers. Also, services allow you as the consumer to be more flexible (in theory). Say you're leasing a car, but you don't like the way it rides. Turn it in, get another one, no big deal. You rent an apartment, but the neighbours upstairs have very loud sex (I speak from experience...), you can move out.
If you owned a car and you didn't like it's styling, too bad -- unless you want to sell it permanantly, which takes time and then you have to buy another car (meanwhile, losing thousands of dollars in value).
We're becoming a very fluid society in which change is the very essense of who we are. Therefore, services instead of goods is to be expected -- I mean, do you want to pay $5000 for a cellphone and then never pay for minutes? What if you break yours, another 5 grand? Or a new model comes out?
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
Wired Mag had a good profile of Fossil a few months back, covering both the SPOT watches and the Palm OS ones.
wonder if spot is powered by bob?
I can on my Linux watch. :)
STFU about slashdot bias.
Will these devices be sold at a loss to get recurring subscription revenue???
Will OSS hacks try to reprogram the watches to run Linux???
Will Batman and Robin escape the trap set by Mr. Gates???
Tune in next time. Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!
Outside of these areas? Sorry. Stuck in the subway or the Lincoln Tunnel where FM signals can't reach? Too bad. Should have brought a back-up watch just in case SPOT can't latch on to a signal, maybe one of those $1.99 LCD Toy Story II watches you get with purchase of a Happy Meal and a medium beverage.
On the other hand, there's the possibility of some real fun for someone who has the know-how to cobble together a low power FM transmitter that can broadcast on the SPOT sideband.
"Hang on, I've got to check my mess...Holy Mother of Goatse.cx!"
Damn. Now I hope these things really take off.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
Mine got fucked up one day when I had to change a tire and I received the third page in fifteen minutes... felt fucking fantastic to throw the POS off that overpass.
1)Do some reverse engineering
2)Setup a FM transmitter
3)Fuck with some spot users
5 of the top 10 stories on /. are Microsoft stories.
Where do you want to viral market today?
http://jesus.everdense.com/
So, can you SPOT BOB with it? Maybe Spot and Bob can play together, because I want nothing to do with either of them.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Is it just me, or do these prototype designs look really bad?
Am I supposed to believe that Microsoft just hired someone from a forum/enthusiast site, and asked them to come up with new designs?
When are they going to realize that if you want to create lifestyle products, design/looks has to be a number one concern? I really don't see it reflected in the current protoype images. I've seen better simulated clockfaces on my 3Com Palm III!!!
MS needs to buy a clue from the Mac design team... become user oriented already!!!!
This doesn't seem like a magic nice application top me. I'd have trouble justifying its purchase even if the subscription were free, but $10 a mo?
If I want to walk around with access to stock reports and weather, I'll get a wireless PDA or something.
I mean, how useful can the information be when filtered through a watch? I can't web browse, I can't type or read emails, I can't even tell it what kind of food I want to eat for it to send me to an appropriate restaraunt (assuming it knows where I am).
The whole problem with watches comes down to user input: there isn't one. This make communication decidedly one-way. So with this in mind, the only real input the user has (assuming they're not beaming IR to it from their PDA in which case why not just use a cellular internet connection), is their location in the real world. Context sensitive help has come a long way, but it's not going to let me control a watch by walking down the street in a certain pattern.
for these things. They could keep the watch busy 24x7 just reporting security breaches and bug fixes in Microsoft products! Flexstrat
+ The site must be on running on the watch too.
/.
+ Their server needs to keep up with the times if they're going to survive a
+ Are you telling me that the MSFT watch just BSODd?
So many jokes, so little time.
Oops I did it again, I'll STOP now.
Damn, yet another. I'm done now, seriously....
"I filter at +6, and have yet to miss out on an important comment." (#822545)
The thing I don't like about these watches (I've actually seen them being demoed) is that they require you to basically charge your watch every night. I already have to remember to charge my phone and my pda. Now I have to remember to charge this thing as well? My PDA and phone at least lasts a few days. Hopefully that's something that will change when it's released.
-Shippy
no it is not
really
I just hope an impressionable 14 year old did not read your comment and believe it.
really, wear that watch and you will not get laid.
- A bunch of Swatch Access watches with contactless smartcard technology in them, and not a single compatible service in the state (possibly now the country).
- A Swatch pager watch not compatible with any Australian services.
- A Casio GPS watch that has a hard time talking to satellites anywhere I'm likely to be (I'm a city boy).
- An old Casio watch that shows the positions of the planets on a cute little display.
- Again, a Casio digital camera watch with a picture only slightly "better" than a Gamboy camera.
And I don't wear any of them, I just look at my mobile phone for the time.And with the waterproof version, can you imagine the advertising campaign?
...
"Now you no longer have to worry about the wet spot..."
Uh oh, I can smell the Karma forest catching fire now.
...do you have to reboot the watch?
I am not being a pain here but why does this need media play there are second linux did it first just because they are catching up is no need for a news party. O well microsoft just made a watch does it crash yet or does it get viruses yet.
"How is this any different from Windows XP? (I'm specifically thinking of product activation here)"
Actually, product activation resets itself after 6 months. That is, if you install and activate XP, and then do it again on a different computer after 6 months have passed, it won't complain.
Also, there are plenty of ways to get around activation if you really want to (and install SP1 as well.) You can also use Windows 2000 if you want to get around activation completely.
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
Joe User: My watch doesn't seem accurate since I switched default graphic design. What's wrong with it?
MS Tech: Shut up and just reboot it.
If you hold your laptop up to a mirror and read the article, you'll get a really cool story about a micrsoft watch that stops and runs TOPS.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
can someone hack the watch and install Gentoo or Debian for the sake of stability?
WTF? It's sunny in Seattle, and the Mariners are winning?
(Disclaimer: I'm from Seattle, I can dis on them)
Patent: from Latin patere, to be open
They're all pretty spiffy except the one with the bright blue band which is cluttered and confusing. Therefore, I predict that Microsoft will pick that design.
- I am made of meat.
might be a trite question but did anyone notice if they put a restart button on the thing?
even my mobile GPS is free
Isn't 'mobile' the whole point of GPS?
I don't understand... How is this different from WAP?
WAP failed because users couldn't chose their content: their phone operator chose it for them and put it "online". This is the exact same thing, as far as I understand.
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
digital watches are never stylish.
;-)
only geeks could possibly think otherwise
this watch
I think MSFT is right to think that these intelligent little devices will be used increasingly in the future and that they should be data-linked. However, in my opinion a proprietary service from an external data source is not the way to go.
If I wanted to buy those little gizmos for my home, I would like to distribute content from my internal network (e.g. bluetooth, 802.11). I can even imagine an optional imode-like subscription service for when you are away from home. But without open standards and without the possibility of tinkering with the content/functions those things won't make much sense to most of the geek world (which the devices are primarily targeted at).
Of course if you wear this watch and get your news from it, you will only get liberal news coming from msnbc.
If you really want to have info sent to you wirelessly then why not get an alphanumeric pager or a phone with text messaging and get datacast on it or use something like g-page to grab whatever data you want and send it out to you automatically.
Why do so many of them simulate analog displays? All of the displays are digitaly generated, of course, but the majority simulate and analog watch face. What's the point? Digital time is easier to read and can be clearly displayed on less screen area, leaving more room for other usefull(?) functions. I'm not surprised they'd have SOME analog displays, but why MOST?
You said this watch would tell! It don't tell nuth'n, I still have to LOOK at it!
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
(and I personally don't think that these watches are all that great looking)
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
It's amazing what money can do... If you have enough money, you can branch out into a new market almost instantly, and provide your services. Microsoft has enough money to whatever they want.
I really dont know why I thought of that when reading this article, but there was something about Microsoft, and watches...
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
Wonder how long before someone tries to put linux on one.
Insert witty
Seems like it would be worth while to make a wrist watch that you could assign a capcode and page to it alphanumerically... being that pagers are dieing out, but companies still have the towers and equipment. Perhaps you could set your computer to send the watch certain stuff.. maybe it gets a stream of standard stuff like
er.. I guess the pager companies could provide content.. via broadcast capcode, and you could provide custom content from your PC (via the internet (you can page people from the net for the most part nowadays) or by telephone.
i'm thinking that maybe they should change the name to SPOD, given the style of these mock-ups..
Today microsoft released the first service pack for it's Spot line of watches. When the microsoft programmers who designed this watch were informed that New York and London have a five hour time difference rather than one, the blushing engineers claimed "but it looks so close on the map".
Open source enthusiasts responded: "this is yet another case of microsoft taking an open standard and mostly complying with it, but then perverting it enough to become incompatible with the rest of the world. They are clearly abusing their monopoly position in operating systems to force changes in world timekeeping."
Service pack 2 (to be released on Febsoft 29th, 2004) will hopefully also correct the direction of the earth's spin. Normally, London time is New York time + 5 hours, not - 1 hour.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
virginmobile.com has pay as you go phones. The cheapest is ~$60. They can recieve unlimited SMS messages. Yahoo has free alerts. I get scores, news and weather for free daily, plus it's a cell phone with an events calendar which is all I needed from a PDA. No monthly fees. Nuff said.
F.O.Dobbs
Wow, real stylish. Looks like they're reviving styles from 1G electronic watches.
Sleep is for the Weak
My desire to wear a watch on my wrist evaporated when I got a cellphone. It tells me the time (synchronized to the service provider which is far more accurate than any manually-set quartz watch), plus it has a calendar/datebook, alarms, etc. Oh yeah, I can talk to people on it too.
As far as I'm concerned, wristwatches are obsolete. At least until wrist-cellphones become popular.
Another "we did it because we could" product. On the long list of things I don't want.