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Technology

Assorted CES Gizmos 237

Posted by michael from the forget-macworld dept.
Frank Buckheimer writes "The CES 2003 show in Las Vegas will give us some pretty nice introductions of some brand new products." Other submitters sent in news about a "Mini PC" the size of a paperback book, and a spiffy digital sound projector. mbstone writes "Bill Gates announced a line of MS wristwatches that receive email, stock quotes, sports scores, etc. by FM radio. Gates claims it's a 'whole new product concept that was completely incubated by Microsoft Research,' but it's really just a reprise of the Seiko MessageWatch -- mine became just a watch, sans atomic time, as of 12/31/99 when Seiko called it quits. Once bitten, twice shy. Has anybody proposed an open standard for such gadgets so that new wristwatch-data-service providers can enter the market when the old provider leaves?"
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Assorted CES Gizmos More

Assorted CES Gizmos

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  • Noo! Not the MS Wristwatch! (Score:4, Funny)

    by djhankb ( 254226 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:17AM (#5047253) Homepage
    It probaby has some sort of scary homing device on it...

    -Henry
    • Maybe we can put linux on it

    • It has to be said... (Score:4, Funny)

      by calags ( 12705 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:00AM (#5047618)
      The Microsoft Watch - it watches you!!!

    • 802.11a Leaves me Cold, compared to apple Macworld (Score:5, Informative)

      by goombah99 ( 560566 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:40AM (#5047928)
      Does anyone else find these offerings utterly tepid compared to Apple innovation the day before?

      Bill gates announces a recylced idea for a Nerd watch that shows sport scores, headlines. The debut the smartScreen, a 1500$ screen-only that hooks to your compute by wi-fi but cant play movies or mp3s, then they announce that anyone who already bought was is out of luck since that they will be changing the specs to use 802.11a to get better bandwidth for movies. then an oversized so-called "video" ipod that also cant show DVD movies, for more bucks than a ipod.

      The only thing I thought was interesting was that they decided to go with 802.11a and not 802.11g
      I dont know much about these standards except what Jobs said. 802.11a is dead, because it is not backwards compatible with 802.11b hotspots whereas 802.11g is.

      How is it possible that one company can lead the entire market year after year going back all the way to the taming of dynamic memory. While the other company can lead the bussiness world and innovate nothing.

      • How is it possible? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by talesout ( 179672 )

        Because the two companies run on completely different philosophies. One is run on the philosophy of coming up with new things that are cool and interesting. A desire to make something new. The other is run on a philosophy that dictates that money is the bottom line.

        One, as a company, preaches innovation. The other, touts innovation, but preaches dollars. Of course, I could get into the whole Apple doesn't make the big bucks because they don't want to argument, but I'll save that for another time.

    • Re:Noo! Not the MS Wristwatch! (Score:5, Funny)

      by karmawarrior ( 311177 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:47AM (#5047986) Journal
      That's not the problem. The problem is that due to the DRM, Product Activation, and Palladium technologies built-in to the watch, you can't tell the time to anyone else when you're wearing it...

  • Proposed Standard? (Score:4, Funny)

    by medscaper ( 238068 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:19AM (#5047270) Homepage
    Has anybody proposed an open standard for such gadgets so that new wristwatch-data-service providers can enter the market when the old provider leaves?"

    I think you just did...

  • Excellent things for the work place.. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Gortbusters.org ( 637314 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:19AM (#5047273) Homepage Journal
    I hate paper documents... besides being wasteful of trees, any notes you take normally have to be typed up and recorded for quality purposes (like ISO). Give me a mini-PC or tablet PC anyday.. I'll even sometimes lug around a laptop.

    In regards to the MS watch? Who needs that when you carry around a cell phone with the same thing or a PDA with the same thing.

    • Re:Excellent things for the work place.. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Rhubarb Crumble ( 581156 ) <r_crumble@hotmail.com> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:38AM (#5047425) Homepage
      In regards to the MS watch? Who needs that when you carry around a cell phone with the same thing or a PDA with the same thing.

      Because it's a lot more convenient to just look at a wrist watch rather than at a PDA - or do you have your PDA strapped to your arm? My cell phone is in my pocket, and I don't want to have to take it out whenever I want to check the time.

      Also, my wristwatch is a lot more lightweight than any PDA or cell phone I've ever seen...

      • What would be cute would be a wristwatch that Bluetooths to the PDA/phone in your pocket, and you the user could configure what to send to it to display as an alert...as well as stock quotes, newsflashes, etc., you could have notifications of incoming e-mails/text messages/telephone calls, appointment reminders, etc., all without having to dig the main unit out of your pocket.

        [Happosai]
      • I think the point is that a cellphone + watch is still heavier than just a cellphone.

        OK, you want the time on your wrist. You can buy that for $6. Do you really want MS Spam on your wrist too though?

        The expensive, heavy thing is the radio tranciever and battery to power it. Unless you can fit EVERYTHING on the watch, you're still carrying a cellphone, which already needs a lot more power than an pda or wristwatch.

        So my bet is for convergence on the cellphone.

    • It doesn't have to be useful, it's just a gizmo.

      The people who want this are the same ones that wore the completely impractical and unusable calculator-watches in high school.

      I still fondly remember double-checking my trig homework with one of those, while I held it's owners head in the toilet.

  • Oh there's that world class Microsoft innovation (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A watch!! Wow!! Bill, you've outdone yourself yet again.

    And it probably runs XP, needs 512M of RAM and a P4 processor, burns your arm, keeps shitty time, locks up, is riddled with security holes, and will end up the target of some crazy project to hack in and boot linux on it.

    • "And it probably runs XP, needs 512M of RAM and a P4 processor, burns your arm, keeps shitty time, locks up, is riddled with security holes, and will end up the target of some crazy project to hack in and boot linux on it."

      Could be worse, it could be a Linux watch. The time would be undecipherable, you'll have to flash the ROM when somebody writes the am/pm upgrade, and to set the watch you have to edit an obscure .conf file. It'll burn your arm anyway since Linux users prefer AMD processors. It'll also be completely security hole-free since it has no features to exploit.

      (It's a joke, laugh.)
  • It has a folding 5.8-inch screen with 800 by 400 resolution,
    That's gotta be a mistake.

    • Re:800x400? (Score:3, Funny)

      by uradu ( 10768 )
      > That's gotta be a mistake.

      Well, on the 5.8" screen the 6 looked like a 4, so they got fooled. Squinty strangely didn't help.

    • So, what's the big deal? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by zrk ( 64468 )
      Has everyone forgotten the Toshiba Libretto? This new thing seems only marginally larger.
      • exactly what i was thinking, except i thought it was a toshiba dolphin for some reason. still, its hardly an innovation. i guess allen took his billions and had people search on ebay [ebay.com] till they found something cool, declaried searching a valid innovation, and recreated what they found.

    • Re:800x400? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by b_pretender ( 105284 )
      From the mini-PC website: Vulcan hopes it will attract mobile computer-users willing to pay for wirelessly transmitted movie trailers"

      Although I would often find streaming wireless movie trailers usefull (e.g. I'm at a restaurant with friends and we're deciding which movie to go see), I don't know of anybody who would actually *pay* for this service. After all, we are going to *pay* to see the actual movie, right? I also wouldn't put down $1200-$1500 that doesn't even work as well as a Sony Picturebook, just for the privelege of these wireless movie trailers.

      Luckily, this is one of those *concept* electronic show ideas that will never see the light of day (in it's current form).

  • MS Messagewatch (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hanno ( 11981 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:21AM (#5047290) Homepage
    If I understand the concept correctly, these watches are only receiving data, not sending. So basically, it's a mini-pager. Is this revolutionary?

    • Re:MS Messagewatch (Score:2, Interesting)

      by stratjakt ( 596332 )
      >> Is this revolutionary?

      No, and I don't think anyone's said that it is.

      Does every new product have to be a revolution that ushers in a whole new paradigm and way of life, or is a company allowed to just make a neat gizmo?

      Btw, I don't see any pagers using broadcast FM.

      • Re:MS Messagewatch (Score:4, Insightful)

        by nojomofo ( 123944 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:56AM (#5047575) Homepage

        Does every new product have to be a revolution that ushers in a whole new paradigm and way of life, or is a company allowed to just make a neat gizmo?

        Well, a "whole new product concept that was completely incubated by Microsoft Research" would be expected to be a revolution or something, not just a copy of 20 or 30-year-old technology with a watchband on it. I'm also not particularly impressed that it uses FM. Should I be?

        • Re:MS Messagewatch (Score:2, Insightful)

          by stratjakt ( 596332 )
          Well the 'whole new product concept' refers to the Spot technology as a whole, the watch is just the flagship.

          And if you read the interview, it's clear they expect the market for this thing to be as a novelty gift to geeks, I doubt they expect anyone to buy it out of necessity.

          I have a plastic bass that flaps it's tail and sings a corny parody of "take me to the river". The technology there doesn't impress me either, and the sound quality is nowhere near taht my MP3 discman. So therefore the person who invented and marketed it must be some kind of idiot, right? Wrong, I bet he's rolling in cash.

          I'm just saying that every product that hits the shelves doesn't have to be mind-blowingly high tech and innovative.
        • What the hell do they mean by FM? Frequency Modulation? As in the same things that all pagers, radio stations, wireless microphones, family radios, walkie talkies, cordless phones, two-way radios, etc. that all use FM for signal transmission. I don't consider that innovative. Using frequencies in the same band as FM radio (88-108Mhz) is different but there is no corrolation between a radio station your listening to on a seperate reciever and what your watch is tuned to? I am confused. Now if they were using light beam or amplitude modulation, that would something different...

        • "Well, a "whole new product concept that was completely incubated by Microsoft Research" would be expected to be a revolution or something, not just a copy of 20 or 30-year-old technology with a watchband on it. I'm also not particularly impressed that it uses FM. Should I be?"

          It depends on if you're willing to use your imagination or not. If you sit here in 'I can live without it' mode, then no, you cannot be impressed with it. Frankly, you can oversimplify anything to make it sound bad.

          "Techno music is nothing but a bunch of computer noises!"

          "Humans are nothing more than talking monkeys!"

          "I don't need a cell phone, there are payphones all over!"

          Etc. These comments are not insightful nor interesting. They are, at best, ignorant. Choosing to ignore the value of something does not make you any wiser.

          I'll tell you why this caught my eye though. Right now I have a Bluetooth enabled cell phone. It syncs up with Outlook on my laptop. If I set an alarm/appointment in Outlook, it'll appear on my phone. I carry my phone with me nearly all the time, but I don't carry my laptop or PocketPC around. I can check my email while I was on the other side of the country on a business trip with it. When I save a phone # on my phone, it gets stored on my laptop so I have a backup. Etc.

          Long story short, my phone acts more like a PDA now than my PDA does. This is damn cool and surprisingly useful. The only thing I ache for now is for my watch to reflect some of this data. I'm not sure if that's exactly what MS has in mind with this watch, but I wish my phone could transmit a message to the watch to display. So when my appointment alarm goes off, I can look at my watch instead of pulling my phone out of my pocket. Chances are this is (or will be) possible.

          I don't really care if this is new or innovative or not. I do care that it's useful.
    • I bet it's as revolutionary as the RDS system in use by radio stations. Subcarrier data transmitted along with the FM station.

      It's probably just hype. As soon as RDS really becomes popular (My RDS capable radio only shows the station ID and slogan of the nearby radio stations), more stations will broadcast continuously changing data on the RDS feed and not just the station name as most of them do now.

      The MS Watch (or could they call it MSwatch and sue Swatch for using a similar name) probably just reads RDS signals. RDS was NOT their brainchild, but it's an infrastructure that's currently in place that they can exploit.
    • If I understand the concept correctly, these watches are only receiving data, not sending.

      It's hard to say. The news clip doesn't say much.

      My watch (see it here [timex.com]) can send and receive pages, although typing on it involves a whole lot of keystrokes(!).

      I know I'm bordering on almost an ad here, but I think the watch is really a great deal. $50, includes one year of skytel service, and a voicemail box.

      Once you get it, go to mobile.yahoo.com, and click on the alerts tab. It's pretty easy to customize it for weather, stock, news, and sports alerts. I normally don't like dinner interruptions, but 15 seconds to read the Illini score at half-time is well worth it. I suppose there are non-entertainment purposes for the pager too, but I haven't used them yet!

      If you're a bargain shopper, you might want to wait. The regular price on these has been as low as $40 before, and I got mine for $32.50 using a coupon code (which is now expired). Watch your favorite bargain hunting page for new coupon codes.

    • If I understand the concept correctly, these watches are only receiving data, not sending. So basically, it's a mini-pager. Is this revolutionary?

      Does it have to be? Most new products today are not new concepts but are old products that have more features and are better packaged. Look at the other items featured at CES ... you have some great new concepts and designs, but most are just recycled stuff that are taking evolutionary steps forward. However, most significant about this Microsoft watch is that there isn't one now. They're trying to feed the market for wristwatch data devices. There was one before, but MS thinks they can succeed.

  • Advice for potential buyers of this watch... (Score:3, Funny)

    by realmolo ( 574068 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:23AM (#5047315)
    If you think that being able to receive stock quotes and sports scores on your watch is cool, then pleas, kill yourself.

  • MS Watches (Score:4, Funny)

    by BornInASmallTown ( 235371 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:24AM (#5047317)
    Bill Gates announced a line of MS wristwatches that receive email, stock quotes, sports scores, etc.

    Microsoft: Now we know where you wanted to go today!

    or perhaps:

    Microsoft: At least the BSOD's are smaller now.

  • Digital Sound Projector (Score:3, Informative)

    by nattt ( 568106 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:25AM (#5047328)
    Although the article says that the sound projector sounds great, I severely doubt it.....

    Each of the 254 little speakers works off a helix of plastic that expands or contracts on an electrical signal. Because the speakers are small, they do not do bass frequencies - which means you'd need a seperate bass speaker, and for home cinema, a subwoofer also, or some combined bass / subwoofer device.

    The original idea of 1ltd for the digital speaker didn't include 5.1 channel support. It was just going to be a digital hi-fi speaker, but now they're using extra computer processing to send beams of sound which you're supposed to bounce off the walls of the room to make it sound like there's speaker behind you. This is a recipe for disaster because bounced sound sounds bad, and not all rooms have walls suitable for bouncing sound. And rooms with walls that are suitable, will actually sound bad, beacause of the resonances bouncy rooms set up.

    This technology will fail.

    • Absolutely right (Score:5, Informative)

      by HEbGb ( 6544 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:38AM (#5047911)
      You are correct.

      While it is possible to create reasonable amounts of bass using a sufficient number of small transducers, the 'real' advantage of big woofers is generally their long throw. A good woofer can have a clean displacement of several millimeters, while these small transducers cannot, without causing extreme distortion.

      [The transducers don't use the helix method, as far as I can tell. They look like the same ones used in consumer audio systems by Harman and Creative Labs. The helix stuff is a different technology they're hyping.]

      As for all of the 'beaming' claims, it's a load of nonsense. There may be vague lateral effects possible with this, but a phased array has to be much, much larger than the wavelengths its generating to create any substantial beam steering. Quite telling is that there isn't a shread of data available anywhere on their website or published reports.

      Traditional "3D Audio" systems are a much better bet - far cheaper, and I'll bet they work as well as this (which isn't saying much).

      1Limited is a VC backed company, and do not have any reasonable prospect of becoming profitable. Thus, they have to rely on hype to convince investors to keep propping them up.
  • "The new gizmo gives users personalized, up-to-the-minute information such as stock quotes, sports scores, local weather, news headlines, horoscopes, calendar info, and even one-way instant messages -- all on their wrist. "


    So exactly how does this differ from a full powered 3G_UMTS_imode_etc phone ? They offer all that AND phonecalls, so I would give this a big ZERO for innovation.
    My guess is that MS Research has been watching too many "Inspector Gadget" reruns.

  • Attention all Vegas hookers: (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gizzmonic ( 412910 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:26AM (#5047335) Homepage Journal
    The CES is in town. Prepare to work double shifts! Young men will venture forth from basements across the country, paying big bucks in order to be deflowered by you. Dress like a 'booth babe' and score big!

    Older nerds will scrape your gullet with their rough beards, then tearfully confess that they're married, and this is the first time they've cheated on their homely wives. Laugh in their face, then go get some more geeks!

    Sell, sell, sell, ladies! This is your time! And don't fall for that "I can get you out of here, and set you up with your own adult website line." The first bitch that gives me that shit will hear it from the side of my cane.

  • no no (Score:5, Funny)

    by digitalsushi ( 137809 ) <slashdot@digitalsushi.com> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:27AM (#5047340) Journal
    Once bitten, twice shy.

    dude i wouldnt worry about you hitting another y2k :D

  • My GOD! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by uradu ( 10768 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:27AM (#5047343)
    > Vulcan hopes it will attract mobile computer-users willing to
    > pay for wirelessly transmitted movie trailers and other content

    Is there no point at which shame kicks in? Who where these people raised by? While I do realize that some people will pay $10 for a movie they don't intend to see just to see an anticipated trailer preceding it, $1500 for trailers seems just a tad over the top. Like there is nothing else well-heeled geeks could do with a wireless computer except watch trailers--TRAILERS, mind you, not movies. Because we certainly couldn't bring ourselves to invite global piracy and the resulting collapse of society by offering actual movies online.
    • Noticed that, too. On the planet these people live on, it must be common to spend $1500 for a little box so you can watch movie commercials. On this planet, I wouldn't spend $15.00 on it.

      Too bad so many rich IT folks want to turn it into showbiz.
    • You see, on the mini PC you'll be able to see trailers on the full and glorious 5.8" screen with sound coming over a crappy little piezo speaker.

      Try matching *that* technology on your desktop or home theater.

      It's a brave new world.

      KFG
  • TechNews.com's Cynthia L. Webb surveys the media coverage of CES in her daily column [washingtonpost.com] today.
  • How is this `mini pc' different than the Toshiba Libretto? It looks to be around around the same size (judging from the picture), and the Libretto ran windows, just like the mini pc, so ...?
    • The Libretto, while being a great machine, had a number of problems:

      - crappy plastic casing (it broke _way_ too easily)

      - too short battery time (I owned a 75 MHz P1 Libretto and it ran 45 to 70 minutes one one battery - too short!)

      Both may have been improved with later models. But a lightweight ultra-portable PC with a good case and long battery time is something I'd buy.
  • Built-in DTM, Digital Time Management.

    I can just see people buying these, trying to use it outside their home time zone, and being greeted with a message stating that the EULA on the watch only allows it to be used in one time zone.

    Seriously, this seems another indication that when it comes to consumer products, Microsoft has no clue what people want. The X-Box is still #3 and losing them money, and Bob was an unmitigated disaster. Do they really think that Joe Six-Pack wants and needs something like this?

    • Re:Another Microsoft Innovation, (Score:5, Insightful)

      by macshit ( 157376 ) <snogglethorpe AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:36AM (#5047411) Homepage
      Seriously, this seems another indication that when it comes to consumer products, Microsoft has no clue what people want. The X-Box is still #3 and losing them money, and Bob was an unmitigated disaster. Do they really think that Joe Six-Pack wants and needs something like this?

      It's looking more and more like their strategy is simply to try everything, until they eventually succeed (in taking over the world). For a normal company, this would be quick suicide -- but MS has Lots And Lots Of Money.

      Gah.
      • Well the try everything approach worked for Edison. He did coin the phrase "Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." Though then Tesla came around and royally pissed him off. As everything Tesla tried worked.

      • It's looking more and more like their strategy is simply to try everything, until they eventually succeed

        You've never heard the old saying "if you throw enough shit against the wall, some of it is going to stick"?
    • This is the most tinfoil-hat wearing anti-MS unfunny joke that I have seen for a while.

      If you read the article you would see that MS is experimenting with the market and the concept mostly, to see who would pay for it and how much people are prepared to pay. They don't care if the whole thing is a flop.

      Do you think that Joe Six-Pack wants and needs linux on his desktop? Are you saying that if Joe Six-Pack does not want or need something then it shouldn't be done?
      • If you read the article you would see that MS is experimenting with the market and the concept mostly, to see who would pay for it and how much people are prepared to pay. They don't care if the whole thing is a flop.

        In the comsumer market, yes, I am saying this. What's cool to a geek (or a recovering geek, such as myself :) ) is not necessarily cool to Joe Six-Pack, and Microsoft seems incapable of grasping this.
        As was stated in a number of locations recently, the fact that Microsoft is a monopoly is a given now. But just because they are a monopoly does not garuntee them security, income or future success. AT&T was a monopoly in phone service that found that met with limited success in it's other ventures while it was a monpoly.

        When you have to invent to survive, the products you bring to market will be quite different from those that are brought to the market by a large, successful compnay that would just like to bump Q3 revenues up a notch or the like.

        Hunger is the mother of innovation. And Microsoft just ain't hungry right now.

    • I can just see people buying these, trying to use it outside their home time zone, and being greeted with a message stating that the EULA on the watch only allows it to be used in one time zone.

      That's stupid. Microsoft wants to make money; how exactly would they make money off of such a restriction?

      The X-Box is still #3 and losing them money, and Bob was an unmitigated disaster.

      Yeah, if you point out only the two largest MS failures of the past ten years (and the Xbox just barely qualifies yet), your point seems valid. But what about the other hundreds of products they've released? The scroll mouse has become ubiquitous since MS introduced it, there's a success story.

      Do they really think that Joe Six-Pack wants and needs something like this?

      Maybe not Joe Six-pack, but Joseph Sharper-Image can probably be counted on the buy one.

  • What's the frequency Kenneth? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by prgrmr ( 568806 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:31AM (#5047370) Journal
    The data will be beamed over FM radio airwaves to the gadgets, wherever they are. Consumers will pay $120 to $300 for the watches and perhaps $99 more a year for the data service.

    Once the frequency is know, anyone with a shortwave will be able to pick-up the information. Of course MS could have it sent digitized and encrypted, but how long until that gets hacked? Could this be the precursor to DRM for radio?
  • Leave it to M$ to get the Dick but not the Tracy.

  • ...Microsoft has announced:

    1) A wristwatch pager that supports 'push' data streams a la Pointcast (c. 1996); and

    2) A 'mini-PC' that has the same form factor (and probably fewer features) than Apple's late Newton device (c. 1993).

    If releasing ten year old technology isn't innovation, I don't know what is!
  • Doesn't it seems like the market is being cluttered with a variety of devices that do essentially the same thing? PDAs already do this, my old cell phone delivers text alerts, hell my old pager did it as well, the tablet pcs will facilitate this...its just same content, different devices.. I already have one of these [sprintpcs.com] given to me by my employer, its much more convenient than a clunky watch, plus, sprint gives us unlimited data on our montly plan... As far as MS goes..All of these devices center around their "software as a service" plan, which integrates into your .NET wallet which will efficiently handle this [slashdot.org] (-_-)
  • If they start broadcasting FM data signals with weather/stock quotes/whatever, can anyone legally pick them up, decode and use?

    Or would you be violating some sort of law if you created your own device to 'hijack' the signals?

    And if the latter, is it even legal to 'encrypt' a transmission in the FM range? I thought it was licensed by the FCC solely for public broadcasting?

    What's the legal status of FM/AM/VHF/UHF? I thought it was a 'you can use this frequency but anyone can hear your broadcasts' range?

  • There's a Chinese saying. . . (Score:3, Funny)

    by kfg ( 145172 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:37AM (#5047423)
    "A man with one watch always knows what time it is. A man with two is never sure."

    Just imagine a Beowulf cluster of MS watches.

    Not that it'll matter anyway:

    "Excuse me, but could you tell me the time?"

    "Well, I'd like to. Really I would. But the EULA on my watch says that its output is a trade secret and covered under DMCA copyright protection. At the very least if I told you I'd have to kill you."

    The Dick Tracy watch didn't turn out quite the way we imagined when we were kids, did it?

    KFG
  • I noticed in this article in Wired news [wired.com] that the agreement last month that supposedly paves the way for HDTV to be broadcast on cable will force DVRs to only allow the programs recorded to be watched within 90 minutes of being recorded!

  • Other Wristwatch failures in history. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anand_S ( 638598 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:41AM (#5047456)
    Several other tech companies have tried this and failed. Will MS learn from history?

    1.) The Apple/John Sculley watch --- Your own watch fires you every hour.

    2.) The IBM watch -- They had a $35M marketing budget, and forgot to ship the watches to their distributors.

    3.) The Xerox watch -- The Xerox executives decided that people don't want watches, they want photocopiers. Project scrapped.

    4.) The Compaq watch -- "Sorry, we discontinued that watch. It's your problem now."

    5.) Dude, I'm getting a watch!
  • Q: How important is Spot toward the goal of ubiquitous computing, where there are smart devices everywhere?

    A: It will really make people think. [If] you can get the instant message on your wrist, people will start to think, "Gosh, this information is everywhere." And it's not just text. We can download a program that understands smiley faces and whatever you want. You could even have some specialized symbols that are just for you. So I think it's a big milestone in that.

    Way to push the envelope, Mr. Gates.

  • Market for these Devices? (Score:5, Informative)

    by webword ( 82711 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:42AM (#5047470) Homepage
    I'm very skeptical of these kinds of devices. For example, how many people really want stock quotes on their watches? Is there real value in that? How is a stock ticker on a watch significantly better than a stock ticker on a PDA or cell phone? Also, beyond the cool factor, how important is atomic time to Joe Sixpack? Let's face it, if it isn't significantly better, then only technogeeks will care about it. It'll die a quick death. But wait, there's more. The other factor is this. Even if the product is significantly better in terms of functionality, if the usability sucks then uptake of the product in the market could be minimal. IMHO there are many strikes against these products becoming mainstream products any time soon.

    1. More on usability: webword.com [webword.com] (Disclaimer: This is one of my web sites.)

    2. Bell Labs Reports on Progress Towards "Dick Tracy" Watch [aps.org]

    3. Check Out a Watch Dick Tracy Would Envy [zdnet.com]

    4. IBM stuffs Linux into "Dick Tracy's watch" [linuxdevices.com]

    5. A User Interface Toolkit for a Small Screen Device [cs.uta.fi]

    6. Is Timing Ripe for Wrist PDAs? [wirelessnewsfactor.com]
  • If the DoD shuts down the Global Positioning System, I will look like an asshole [slashdot.org] ;)
  • And now they expect me to buy one just because it does, uh, one heck of a lot less than my cell phone does? My watch is my phone and I hardly ever need to look at it. There are watches everywhere these days. you can't walk or drive around Lisbon for very long without seeing one of those crappy watches that also say the temperature... it's a "public service" excuse to throw more advertising in our face since each of them is basically a tall metal pole with a big ad-rotator on top. I wish I could live in a world where business people would at LEAST be honest about their greed instead of trying to look like they're some sort of benefactor. *sigh*

  • Pay for movie trailers? Yeah. Right. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by thaddjuice ( 235568 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @10:58AM (#5047596) Journal

    Vulcan hopes it will attract mobile computer-users willing to pay for wirelessly transmitted movie trailers and other content.

    Who is actually going to pay for advertisements? Do the companies really think they'll be making money from trying to convince people to go see their movies so they can make money? Not a business strategy I'd invest in.

  • Billy Gates interview is a gem (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lovebyte ( 81275 ) <lovebyte2000@NOSpAm.gmail.com> on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:05AM (#5047667) Homepage
    From the businessweek interview:
    Q: How does the Spot stack up in terms of other innovations that have come out of Microsoft Research?
    A: Well, Microsoft Research has contributed so many innovations to so many products that I will get myself in trouble very quickly if I start ranking or comparing. ...

    Why is it that each time you ask MS what innovations they have done, you get no real answer?

    Funny interview anyway. For once, slashdotters should read the article.
  • ...while developing the MiniPC:

    "You know, we're just not making enough money selling software. Let's get way into hardware, that's where the _real_ margins are."

  • Takes A Licking (Score:5, Funny)

    by scotay ( 195240 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:18AM (#5047776)
    The MS wristwatch takes a licking and keeps onIRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL *** Address 8012abce has base at 80100000 - tick.exe

  • So utterly disappointing... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by airrage ( 514164 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @11:19AM (#5047781) Homepage Journal
    I think we've hit a plateau culturally. This is the cutting-edge, next generation of technological advancements: a wristwatch? Where's the great leap of technology? Are we that stagnant?

    And yet, I realize that this is somewhat inherent in our marketing trade shows. Since the early World's Fairs, we marveled at a picture of a future we could only dream of, now we marvel at item-rehash, and spins of the same-old-technology. It reminds me of the car shows, where a beautiful new designer car is rolled out under the bump-bump music, ballons, and half-naked girls, and yet, it's a car, whose technology innards were invented in the 1950s.

    So whose to blame for all this crap? I blame patents (and their extension thereof). But what good is it to complain about something without at least looking at solutions. My solution is thus: patents should only extend as far as a multiple of the current technological turnover.

    Let's assume a late victorian-era inventor who invents some new whirly-gig. The invention is no small feat: precise forging and machining of parts, new alloys, highly-specialized techniques; all not to be repeated anytime soon due to the flow of information, barriers to entry, etc. Let's say the whirly-gig is a product of immense mass-appeal. The market loves whirly-gigs! How long should our inventor be able to keep a right to that intellectual property? Let's say, just for grins, 20 years. Now let's say that during that 20 years, the whirly-gig is refined, better, faster, cheaper, smaller, more features, an instruction manual in chinese; all the things associated with progress. However, at the 20 year mark, a new inventor, inspired by the whirly-gig's mass appeal, and astitute to it's inner workings, takes part of this design, and makes a toodle-doo. The toodle-doo is the first truly global product. Germans, French, English, Australians, they all love it. It spawns new products, new trade, international cooperation. But what if the patent had been granted for 40 years? Well we could assume at some point that the whirly-gig would become so cheap and affordable that it would be like selling some sort of commodity product like pencils. At some point, the manufacturing costs would become burdensome for a product at the end of it's life cycle and we'd see for perhaps say the last eight years of the patent, the same old product again and again and again. Change the colors, add some bells and whistles, but beneath it all, just a plain old tired whirly-gig.

    I believe in the patent process, I believe it's made us a great country, and yet I fear we are now in the business of protecting whirly-gigs for at least a generation more to come. When I see the latest slew of gadgets, I wonder to myself: 'Will our posterity sit in some future tradeshow and watch Bill jr. show off a neato-wristwatch?'
  • --the only market I can see for the watches is to help increase some box vendors sales "buy the new belchdata2003 turbo PC, get this nifty watch *free* with purchase" like they do with printers now.

  • I've owned... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Inda ( 580031 )

    I've owned a watch that picked up Radio One in stereo.

    I've owned a watch that stored all my phone numbers.

    I've owned a watch that told me the room temperature.

    I've owned a watch that took my pulse.

    I've owned a watch that let me change the channels on the TV.

    Internet? On a watch? With a Velcro strap, a non-scratch face and digital analogue hands? Nah, no thanks Casio.

    ...I think I get one with a built in camera instead.

  • I can't wait to see the interface on the wristwatch.
    Can I bring up a DOS prompt on it?
  • Microsoft announced that to prevent piracy they will be assessing $100 to anyone who has a wrist even if the MS wristwatch is not intalled. The BSA has proposed challenge audits, in which all persons hanving one or more wrist must be able to document thay have paid the $100 wrist- site liscence or that they have purchased a MS wrist watch.

    "it is just to easy for someone to remove the watch from the wrist and install it on another Wrist" said a microsoft spokes person, " that is a violation of the EULA".
    • cut off both wrists, but the BSA said i had record of having had wrists, and then assessed me an extra penalty for having tried to cover them up...

  • Douglas Adams on Digital Watches (Score:3, Funny)

    by sakusha ( 441986 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @12:09PM (#5048172)
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A39647

    One of the most pointless inventions known to mankind (Although we still think that they are a pretty neat idea). Although we already had a perfectly good way of telling the time we thought that we ought to invent anouther one just because we can. If it had stopped their it would only have been mildly pointless but no. The people who made these watches decided that they sould have lights, oh and an altimeter, and air pressure function and oh it should do all this at 1000m under water and with a series of musical alarms whist telling you the time in 50 countries. What mankind failed to realise is that situations which REQUIRE knowing your altitude and the time in bangladesh and Paris whilst 100m underwater in the dark to the tune of the national anthem, are quite rare..
    ---

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A183476

    For hundreds of years, clocks, pocket watches and most recently wrist watches have been elegantly ticking off the seconds with style, grace and perhaps most importantly an ever increasing degree of accuracy.

    Analogue watches (especially the expensive ones with sweeping second hands) are testimony to human kinds mastery of materials, art and science.

    Digital watches are not.

    I have resisted the urge to mention that man thinks these ugly things
    "a pretty neat idea" -

    Ooops.
    ----

    Oh he goes on and on and on about digital watches. I wish I could find that quote about how Humans are the only species that things digital watches are a good idea.

  • The time? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Oh, about half-past Blue-Screen...

  • So you want what? (Score:3, Funny)

    by rnturn ( 11092 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @12:28PM (#5048291)
    ``Has anybody proposed an open standard for such gadgets so that new wristwatch-data-service providers can enter the market when the old provider leaves?''

    Oh, sure. The manufacturing sector should suffer because you want to use the same technology for more than a few years. Where would our world economy be if we didn't replace (every few years) all our LPs with 8-track tapes, our 8-track tapes with cassettes, our cassettes with CDs, our CDs with music DVDs, etc. And that's just how music listeners help to maintain world economic growth. Get with the program!!! :-)

  • I Love Irony (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lamz ( 60321 ) on Thursday January 09, 2003 @12:36PM (#5048351) Homepage Journal
    I love the irony of two slashdot articles in a row, where one talks about Apple's Rendezvous, and the next talks about Microsoft's new 'Spot' wristwatch thingy. Apple's product is useful, open-sourced, and can provide benefits beyond Mac owners, since devices can communicate without a Mac or any Apple products at all. Contrast this with the Microsoft announcement: a clunky, expensive watch that will cost at least $100 year in service fees.

    Apple Press Release [apple.com]
    Microsoft Watch Article [businessweek.com]

    But there is something more going on here. Apple is returning to its roots, and to computing's roots, by giving away software in order to sell hardware. Microsoft sees the "free software" writing on the wall, and is desperately trying to sell hardware and services. Who's going to win?
  • ...the size of a paper-back?...

    well the phone book is a paper-back book. so are many very large tech manuals.

  • "And where the heck do you think YOU'RE going today?"
    Big Brother is watching you (ouch!)

    (Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Gates Clones)
  • Allen's "Mini-PC" is about a stale and outdated a concept as they come. Between the Tiqit [tiqit.com], Oqo [oqo.com], and the IBM spinout, we only have some of the recent companies trying this. Previously, of course, HP had its palmtops, which, back then, were full DOS machines (yeah).

    If you want something today, get a mini laptop from Fujitsu [fujitsupc.com], Sony, or Dynamism [dynamism.com].

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