Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - NEWSFLASH: Microsoft Wrist.NET - Fossil launches new Fossil Wrist.NET Watches and is taking orders

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NEWSFLASH: Microsoft Wrist.NET - Fossil launches new Fossil Wrist.NET Watches and is taking orders

Posted 2004-01-07 10:19 PM in Musings.

Some news for me and the three other dorks ;) that will be buying one of these watches. Fossil just sent out their opt-in email to announce the availability of their watches on the Wrist.NET MSN Direct Platform. Here's the Microsoft Press Release and the MSN Direct Site.

There's a great PDF from the CeBIT conference here.

Here's some interesting details about the hardware:

28 MHz ARM7 Baseband processor
512 Kb ROM, 384 Kb RAM
FM Radio Receiver: 12 Kb/s data rate
Cool internal hardware diagram from National Semiconductor:

Of course, I'm having MINE overnighted.

Thursday, January 08, 2004 8:50:27 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

See I'm definitely a gadget guy - but I'm not buying a watch like this. I want my watch to be nice - not a gadget.

That's why I'm more interested in the smartphones or maybe even some wearables.

Tim Marman

Thursday, January 08, 2004 10:10:41 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

I wish companies would come up with a more "innovative" price point. $10/month is a bit much. But every new online service (XBox Live, SimsOnline, EA Sports, etc) seem stuck on it. Those $10/month services really start to add up. Consider that I can get basic landline phone service for about $15 month - that is a LOT of functionality.

This service would be really attractive at $1.99/month. Let's get this service out to the masses, not just for the geeks that have to have everything (and probably already have a fancy cell phone, blackberry, etc that can do pretty much everything this watch does).

So come on Microsoft, innovate on the price! Watches for the "real" masses, not the geek gadget elite.

Josh

Thursday, January 08, 2004 10:46:52 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)

Let us know how the MSN Messenger 6.0 functionality works with the watch. I'm curious how even if your away from your computer messages can be routed to your watch. That is if that is how it's supposed to work. Enlighten us when you have the time. :)

Thanks

KP