Goodbye To the SPOT Watch

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."

Re:It was a dumb concept

[iamsamed]

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

Which touches on another thing: watches as a time keeping device are in decline. People are using other devices for time. And considering that just about everything these days has a clock on it, what's the point of a watch other than as jewelry.

Re:It was a dumb concept

[BenBenBen]

I have a SonyEricsson Bluetooth watch (MBW-100) that does CallerID, silences then rejects incoming calls, lets me know when SMS or email arrives and plays/pauses/track advances music. Oh, and does time and date too :)

Never used to wear a watch, wouldn't be without one now.

PAN for the win :)

Just Like the DataLink

[MrLogic17]

Reminds me of the classic Timex Datalink watchs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink [wikipedia.org]
I had the original model, the one with the "Listen to the light" printed on binary on the wrist strap.

Both had the problem of good technology with way to small of an interface. Some day watch designers will realize that a watch size is about big enough for an interface for... a watch. And not much more.

Re:Idea = Good... implementation = bad

[bluemonq]

If you have a large phone, it can be a minor hassle getting it out of your bag or pocket everytime you want to check the time. Also, clocks are a little harder to come by when you're out and about. On my campus at least, there are a considerable number of classrooms without clocks; that, or they're positioned in a really awkward location (meant more for the professor's use).

Anyways, I picked up a Swatch-made SPOT watch for $15 on ebay a few weeks ago. Basic service is free, and even if they end that, it still makes for a decent cheap watch.

Where's the evolved idea of this?

[schweini]

What i'd really love to have is a wristwatch that simply 'speaks' bluetooth, and lets me remote-control any compliant cell phone i have in my pocket. Additionaly, (and that's the catch), it would have to relay the phone's display onto it's own display, so i could use it to rudimentary surf the web, read SMS, use J2ME apps, etc. I wonder when this kind of interchangeable modularization will at last happen: the cell-phone will be the computing and communications module, the watch (or a micro-tablet-pc-like-thing) the display module, the headset the audio module, etc. It really doesn't sound so hard to implement (although i dont know of a bluetooth profile that could forward the display in an efficient manner), and this would IMHO really revolutionize the way that people could use mobile tech.