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Goodbye To the SPOT Watch

Posted by kdawson on from the hardly-knew-ye dept.

Starturtle sends along an Engadget article on the demise of the Microsoft SPOT Watch. We've discussed related devices a few times in the past; here's a picture of one. "After a long, painful, nearly anonymous ride on the wrists of a select few uber-geeks, Microsoft's finally throwing in the towel on one of its longstanding pet projects: the SPOT watch. The writing's been on the wall for some time; the applications and content available to the watches haven't been updated in ages, and indeed, the entire line of Abacus Smart Watch 2006 models — the only type being recently offered — has been discontinued and out of stock for a few months. For what it's worth, MSN Direct's program manager is quick to note that the underlying technology most certainly isn't going away."

6 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Pocket version is better. by twitter · · Score: 0, Insightful

    The pocket version of this watch made by Handspring ten years ago still works and I like it. I alwasy wanted the screen and battery to be bigger not smaller. Changing my watch battery every few years is painful enough that I'd never do it every few months. Getting M$ involved would probably rob the thing of my favorite features like datebook+. Good riddance to a bad idea.

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    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  2. It was a dumb concept by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It was a pay service for your watch when one's cell phone does most those features and more.

    1. Re:It was a dumb concept by archkittens · · Score: 2, Insightful

      i dont know, i think it'd be convenient to have some features on a watch. the only thing i'd have to have, really, was the watch and the phone to talk to each other and keep in sync.

      you can look at your watch any time, but pulling out a cellphone willy nilly is rude.
    2. Re:It was a dumb concept by RiotingPacifist · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What exactly is it? it seams to me it never got anywhere, i didnt even know what they were and after wikipedia and RTFA, when i have to goggle a product line to even get a clue what it is, youve failed!
      It seams to me the only feature it offered over my a satellite based weather watch was, instant messaging, but as i have a phone that's not really that useful.
      Unless people REALLY care about stock prices in the US ?

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      IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
  3. Idea = Good... implementation = bad by JCSoRocks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd always thought that this was sort of a fun idea, but it always seemed like it cost a lot, the watches were huge, and the feature set was never that amazing. Ultimately... if you have a cell phone on you 24/7 that's capable of doing everything the watch can - why buy the watch? I've stopped wearing a watch for this very reason.

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    You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
  4. And what exactly is a SPOT watch? by tobiasly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This post demonstrates one of the most annoying habits of Slashdot, which is its tendency to assume that everyone already knows what the hell the article is referring to in the first place. WTF is a SPOT watch? Has it been discussed on Slashdot before? Sure, it's easy to Google it but would it kill the editors to add a link to a description or a prior article?