Hi,
I just came across this link on microsoft's website. Looks like they are making their own watches. They look pretty neat, kinda makes me want one now, not in the fall

A microsoft watch! I'd watch out, does it crash - - go crazy at daylight saving time - not respond when you're desperate to see the time. I can't see ctrl/alt/del buttons, which I regard as an essential tool.

These appear to just be the next generation of the watch I have now. It's a Timex Internet Messenger watch, and is essentially a one way alpahnumeric pager. Yahoo top headlines are delivered every night, anyone can call and page it and/or leave a voice mail, and it's got it's own email address. it's not quite as attractive as the ones they've got pictured, but those look like photoshop mockups.

Matthew

Just to clarify, the watches are not made by MS. Suunto and the others are very well known watch makers and MS is marketing a new "OS" to run on them and yes, probably make them crash at some point. I wonder if they'll include "ctrl-alt-del" buttons to reboot them!

Why the hell does a damn watch need a bloody operating system.

They will still follow the rule cheaper the watch the longer its lasts

three watchs cheap casio still going strong, animal watch died after a year, sieko titanium bits feel off

I was really looking into buying the Fossil Palm watch that's coming out this spring. However, there are some big detriments to it that put me off and made me satisfied with the watch my girlfriend gave me for Christmas

First, navigation on this type of thing is going to be tough. Fossil's watch has a touchscreen, so that might make it easier. Still, I have to wonder if thinfourth isn't right, because what happens if you accidentally smack your wrist on something? Bye-bye touchscreen.

The other thing is, battery life is so short on the Fossil. They're saying you'll pretty much have to recharge is every night. I can't be bothered. Perhaps this new OS they're making will be lighter on the batteries.

Those were the main things. I'll be happy with a normal watch

What is the purpose of a watch again?

I've had one of the casio touchscreen, drop-down-menus, all singing all dancing watches for 4 years now. Still works a treat. The only issue is that it doesn't work in very humid environments, such as the Eden Project, or steam rooms, but it's fine once you caome back out.

It does look a bit casio, and plasticky, but it was under £100 so what do you expect.

In reply to:

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What is the purpose of a watch again?

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Reminds of all those cellphone ads touting how great the games and color screens and downloadable ringers are while neglecting to mention the poor voice quality, bad reception, and short battery life.

What is the purpose of a cellphone again?

This isn't the first ones MS has heped out with. The Timex Datalink Watches used a horribly written MS Visual Basic program to sync info to them. Outlook also has hooks into it for those watches.

I owned one of the second gen ones for a long time. Was actually pretty cool with some 3rd party apps, but over time my cell phone replaced it's functionality. Eventually I let the watch fall off my wrist during a white water rafting trip on the Colorado river, and haven't ever bothered to put something else back on my wrist to replace it.

I have one of the Timex Datalink Ironman Triathalon watch's you speak of. Had it for 6 years now. Battery has never died, screen never cracked, I almost never take it off, including when swimming. I don't use the datalink anymore because it requires the use of an external IR module for my computer to work on anything other than win98+ But it's in great working condition and actually has been used as my alarm clock for the entire time i've owned it.

Yeah, I had one of those back in the day. The real excitement was holding it up to the monitor and having it read the flashing lines. It wasn't too usefull, but then I don't keep contacts and appointments on my computer, especially back then. My cell phone has also replaced my watch, and the only reason i've got the Timex Internet Messenger is because it was cheap and too geeky to pass up.

Matthew

Yeah, I had one of those back in the day. The real excitement was holding it up to the monitor and having it read the flashing lines. It wasn't too usefull, but then I don't keep contacts and appointments on my computer, especially back then.

I still have, and use, my Datalink. One of the reasons that I haven't yet switched to Win2k on my home PC is that the flashing-lines DLL doesn't work on 2k. They have a newer NT-compatible version of the flashing-lines software, but it requires a newer version of the watch to work.

But since I don't carry a cell phone or PDA, I really need/want to have instant access to a personal telephone number directory. So at the moment, my datalink is the only way I can do that easily.