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$9.95 per month. This is the coolest vapor from Microsoft in a long time. It's geeky _and_ stylish!" Our older story about the watches also notes that since it's a proprietary service, when the service provider decides to stop providing it, the device becomes useless.
seeing as these watches are no more than glorified pagers 10$ 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 !
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
It is very unlikely that MS could track the people wearing these. Have you read any of the articles?
The SPOT watches use FM as the method of data transmission. FM. Like FM Radio. The watches are one way. You can get info on weather, IMs, stocks, etc, but you cannot send any data out. Any perception of "asking" for data is faked- the watch simply filters out data that doesn't apply to it.
Unless you think MS will start including 10kW FM radio transmiters in these watches and GPS recieves. MS SPOT watches: now with a big ass generator in every box!
The only thing close to MS having the ability to track is your geographical region. The MSN Direct stuff sends out data depending on your location; the local radio station will send out weather data for that area. There is a chance that if someone wanted to IM your watch, you would have to select the region first- otherwise, the IM would be sent to every MSN Direct station there is. But then again, there's probably just as much of a chance (or perhaps higher) that they will do that.
Frankly, if MS wanted to know what state I was in, they could've figured that out already by a number of means. I would be uncomfortable with MS or any other company tracking my relatively exact position, GPS or even something more coarse.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
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)
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
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
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.
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.