Introduction:
We are
following the Microsoft Smart Personal Objects Technology
(SPOT) initiative since Bill Gates announced
it January 2003.
Fossil, Suunto and Citizen said they will build Wrist
Watches with SPOT. Fossil
and Suunto
have their MSN Wrist Net Watches on the market since early
January 2004, when they launched at the CES 2004. Fossil
is pushing two brands with their Technology Wrist Watches. The
more affordable Abacus and the Fossil main brand. The Wrist
Net is the only Technology Watch from Fossil, because they had
to delay the Palm
Wrist Watch they also announced last year.
A PR Company, Microsoft hired for the
MSN Direct, sent us the Abacus
Wrist Net for MSN Direct to review it. The idea of
getting the latest news, stock ticker and appointment
notifications on your wrist is definitely something that I am
excited about. So I was looking forward to try the MSN Direct
service first hand. There are already a lot of reviews about
the MSN Direct and Wrist Net watches available on the web and
in the mainstream media (Feel the Microsoft Marketing Muscle),
that is why I will be focusing on specific observations I made
and not go through the whole product in detail. At the end of
this page is a list of Wrist Net reviews available online. |
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The Abacus Wrist Net Watch:
The Abacus watch and all other Fossil Wrist Net Watches are not
very fashionable or cool looking. I have the watch now for a week
and nobody I met said a thing about the Abacus. Wearing my good old
Spoon SAM (sadly discontinued) people are constantly asking about
what this watch can do. As I already pointed out in the Review about
the Laks
USB memory Watch, high-tech gadgets should be packaged in smart
and edgy design. I don't want to wear a boring and unfashionable
watch, just because its receiving messages or storing files. I am
also sure, if Apple would have designed the iPod to look
conventional and boring it would not be the success it is.
The induction based charger is very considerate way to solve the
need of charging the watch. No hassle with plugs. The watch lights
up when placed on the charger and shows the charging status. The
watch needs to be recharged about every 3 days. Some reviews
complain about the wrist band as not being comfortable. I did not
experience that, I prefer plastic or resin bands. The band-clasp is
a bit hard to open, but else its fine. I am more concern about the
buttons that need to be pressed pretty hard to get them to
act.
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| Wrist Net Watch on Induction
Charger |
The backlight works well, it stays on when I continue pushing
buttons. Other watches switch off after a set time, without
detecting usage.
To delete a message or news story the big enter button needs to held
for about 2-3 seconds. A little animation on the screen shows that
the message is being deleted. This is a nice idea, but the hold-time
should be a bit shorter. I suggest 1.5 seconds.
Through the watch settings, which is reachable by pressing the
previous button when the face channel label is displayed, the
annoying alert sound can be switched off. Also the radio reception
can be switched off in the settings, which is recommended during
Flights.
The MSN Direct Service:
So now lets look at the service. After charging and signing up for
the msn direct service
($10/month or 59$/year) it took 12 hours till the Watch first
received data and adjusted the time setting.
From the available channels (Faces, News, Glance, Messages, Weather,
Stocks, Calendar and soon Sports) I find News, Calendar and Stocks
the most interesting ones.
A real big design flaw currently is that there are no time
stamps on the received news on the watch. Which for me basically
renders the news service useless. If I don't know how fresh the news
is, its worthless. I cannot imagine why Microsoft forgot that. Push
Technology is not a new thing. It was hot in the mid nineties, it
has been done before. Funny enough if I look at the received news at
the MSN Direct Web Site, there the Date and Time is displayed on the
News entries. Same time-stamp problem exists with the Stock Tickers.
I have to select Stock Ticker to see on the second page from what
time the stock price is.
 |
 |
| No
time-stamps on News and Stock Ticker Messages. Big Design
Flaw. Time displayed is the current daytime. |
The Calendar/Appointment Channel in contrast works excellent.
The little software that I had to install on my Outlook works
basically by itself no configuration needs. The software sends my
appointments to the watch the msn direct service. The watch displays
the next upcoming appointment on my calendar and tells me how much
time I still have till the next meeting. Which works really nice.
I also like the Glance channel where the watch is automatically
displays news and messages. When I am in the car and stand at a
red-light I can read one or two messages on the watch by just
looking at it.
The received News stories are surprisingly readable on the Wrist Net
watch. With the enter button I can page easily through the short
story. All in all the service works pretty well. The only real big
issue is the time-stamp problem I raised above.
Pro:
The MSN Direct Service works well and is easy to use
Charging a watch is an annoyance, but solved well with the induction
charger
$129 is a fair price for the abacus watch considering the technology
inside
$10 per month is a bit high, with the yearly subscription the
service becomes affordable with $5/month.
Cons:
No Time-stamps on News
Not full US wide coverage, only major metropolitan areas
Boring Watch Design
Wish-list for Future SPOT Watches:
Enable Time stamps on News and Stock Tickers
Make Watch-makers design cooler SPOT Watches
Color Screen
Image Support
Integrate Flash Drive
Bluetooth
Final Words:
The Abacus
Wrist Net is a affordable way to be an early adopter of the
Smart Personal Objects Technology. I hope the service gets a large
enough subscriber base so Microsoft is take SPOT to the next level.
I also hope other Watch Manufacturers like Casio, Swatch and Seiko
get into the game.
SPOT
Watch Discussion Forum
Other Wrist Net and MSN Direct Reviews:
CNET
NYTimes
(subscription)
SiliconValley
SPOTBuzz
PDAntic
KStati
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