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SPOT watches, R.I.P.: 2004 - 2008
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. Those who've followed the technology recently (you know who you are) already know that 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; quite the contrary, in fact, with compatible Garmin and Windows Mobile products still going strong. Though your impetus may have been misguided and your fate sealed from the moment you hit the market, dearest wristwatches, your overwhelming nerdiness will be sorely missed. Oh, and for those of you who plan on sporting your piece of Microsoft history to the very bitter end, take some comfort in knowing that existing content types will continue to be delivered, at least.
Sony Ericsson MBW-100 unboxing
Yeah, early reviews seem to indicate that Sony Ericsson's MBW-100 Bluetooth (along with its Fossil and Abacus cousins) watch isn't all that, mainly on account of its bulk, its price, and the fact that it only seems to work with Sony Ericsson phones -- but that doesn't mean it isn't still cool. Reader Gareth was kind enough to send us some comprehensive eye candy of his MBW-100's unboxing, and he reports a pretty positive experience with it so far. In pairing it with his P990i, he found that setup was super easy and the controls / caller ID were quick to operate, but the crown jewel might be the "out of range" functionality that notified him quickly when he left his abode sans phone. Click on for the rest of the pictures![Thanks, Gareth M.]
Fossil's Bluetooth watches earn FCC thumbs-up
It pretty much goes without saying that these little morsels of wrist tech were going to be finding their way into the FCC's clutches, but it's still always interesting to browse the documents nonetheless. It appears that this filing represent approvals for Fossil's own FX6001, along with the Abacus branded AU6001 and AU6002 and the Sony Ericsson MBW-100, which makes sense considering the guts are identical among all four variants. Most notable for folks anxiously awaiting the arrival of these timepieces in their friendly local Fossil shop will probably be the user's manual, which while short and sweet, still manages to convey the stuff you absolutely need to know for when you tear that box open. Enjoy the reading material!
Switched On: The gist on your wrist
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Watch maker Fossil was among the first companies to support MSN Direct, the smart objects technology first offered by Microsoft in a number of timepieces. Earlier this year, the company, through its Abacus brand, revisited the technology in its Abacus Smart Watch 2006. While the watch is still on the bulky side, it's slimmed down a bit and Fossil has used a sloping profile to minimize the watch's girth. In fact, the Abacus 2006 was no thicker than a workaday Seiko men's watch I purchased last year. Other improvements include more memory and the inclusion of a year of MSN Direct service. Abacus offers the watch with a metal band that nicely complements the watch's masculine design for $179, as well as a number of leather straps. Unlike nearly any other consumer product that includes Microsoft software, it has nary a trace of Microsoft branding. Like all of the MSN Direct watches, the 2006 Abacus uses FM radio technology to communicate updates to the device. After activating the timepiece, you choose content channels from a Microsoft Web site. The content has diversified considerably from when the watch was first launched, but it's still mostly focused on the basics, including a variety of different "faces" -- two of which I found attractive, three more of which were acceptable, and several of which were just hideous.
SPOT lives: Abacus Smart Watch 2006
Even though Fossil has washed its hands of SPOT, Abacus, its "tech" brand, soldiers on. Some shady character was trying to hawk these to us at CES, but it looks like Abacus' next attempt at MSN Direct will debut in more official channels starting next month. Besides being incrementally prettier than their last round, the Smart Watch 2006 is available in a wider variety of styles, has twice the memory, and is alleged to download data faster from the SPOT network. What may not have occurred to Abacus, however, is that a cheesy black-and-white digital watch face is a cheesy watch face at any speed. We'll wait for SPOT 2.0, thanks. [Via SpotStop]
