What seems to be really good is that it seems like you never miss a message. The service must be constantly be broadcasting your message for a quite a few hours and ignores the message if already recieved or grabs it if not. I have not missed a message yet of the 12 or so I have sent myself!! Quite surprised to discover this. However the messages are much slower to be recieved than the beepwear. They seem to take from 5 or 10 minutes to one which took 7 hours probably because my watch was sitting out of range. I would say the average is something like 15 minutes, but it varies greatly. With beepwear in 2 to 10 minutes you either rec’d your message or you never did at all.

The special alert news messages are good. You get about 2-4 per week. Not too many or too few. The watch band is terrible as many others have described. I am mechanically inclined so I had no trouble adjusting it initially but I find it very uncomfortable to wear (too stiff) and time consuming to put on since you have to tuck the extra end under a plastic loop.

I had the watch reset twice, where it went balnk and lost all data and started at 12:00 again. Took about 1/2 hour to get the time to reset itself again and all my settings done on the watch were gone. Don’t know what that was all about.

I am having some reception problems, especially in my house. Sometimes it doesn’t seem to work at all and other times it works perfectly even if I have the watch in the same location. Nice that it has a diplay that shows signal strength although a pain to access to display.

It seems such a simple idea to have different watch faces but I really haven’t seen it done before and the Beepwear didn’t do that, so I have to really give them credit for it. However quite a bit of the software operation leaves a few things to be desired. Hopefully it will be updated in future versions. I am kind of disappointed that you can’t connect this watch directly to your computer. I’m sure if you could, and MS allowed you to update it, people would make all kinds of programs to increase useability just like on the Palm. They’ll have a real winner when and if they do that.

My complaints about the software:
Some of the menu orders are very poor. Under watch settings are listed things which you change only once or not at all like ‘time zone.’ But ‘watch info’ which I use all the time for signal strength and battery life is way down on a scroll list. ‘Watch Info’ should be at the top of the list or even a separate category similar to ‘Settings.’ You should be able to choose a watch face and have it stay there. I am forever pushing buttons to navigate around and end up changing the watch face by mistake. Navigating around could just be easier than it is. When displaying the news headlines you should be able to select whether to browse with just a few words as it is now or to display all that will fit on one screen. You can do that now if you browse backwards but that is a hastle to do if you want to read the whole message. Displaying stocks works well but you should be able to display the listing order (even if you have to select it from the web page). I haven’t tried syncing the calendar feature with outlook. None of the watch faces seem to be able to permanently display seconds.

One final comment-make it three times the watch reset. One time now when I just was picking it up and writing this review. Moving it around doesn’t seem to be the cause since it never has happened when I was wearing it or when pushing the buttons so I am baffled as to whether this is a software or hardware problem. I suspect software. So far I can live with it’s shortcomings.

I was referring to Julie’s previous sentence when she mentioned the watch’s chronometer, timer, and alarm features. She then asked if the added faces would justify buying the watch if you didn’t have access to the SPOT features and the watch was performing “strictly as a watch only,” which is what I was replying to. Sorry if I wasn’t more clear.

Judie :0)

As far as learning to tell time, I was hideously behind everyone else. It didn’t come easily for me. Sigh.

Anyway, in the review, Judie says, “…there are plenty of less expensive watches that can perform the same functions.”

Would you mind naming a few names?

By the way, I want an atomic watch, but their looks throw me off. I happen to like Timex watches that offer Indiglo light. I have two of them. I’d like a Timex atomic watch with Indiglo, but haven’t found any yet. Am I missing something?

Originally posted by Julie
Like Judie said in the review, if you don’t wear your watch to bed, it’s not a big deal to just set it on the charger instead of setting it on the nightstand. Seriously, there is no plugging in involved at all. The only time the charging aspect would bother me is when I travel. I would have to pack the charger…

Originally posted by Judie
[B]Thanks, I think!
[/B]

Yes, I meant it as a compliment

This is probably the most exhaustive review I’ve seen on Spot technology.

Originally posted by prismatic
Judie with your great fashion sense I can’t believe you would be caught dead wearing one of these!

Thanks, I think!

But remember – clunky watches are in style – as long as they look cool. I think the Dick Tracy watch looks cool – and since it occasionally garners compliments, I guess it looks cute on me.

Judie :0)

On a large person these things look huge, on you ladies they look like the proverbial ball and chain I mean these things are cruel and unusual punishment.

Judie with your great fashion sense I can’t believe you would be caught dead wearing one of these!

Looks aside the described functionality is very limited, perhaps down the road when there are more services, better coverage, and a more manageable size, it would be worth looking into.

Thanks for another great review!

I’ve had my Fossil Square for about a month now, and so far I love it. Yes, the news snippets can be inscrutable at times, but for the most part they are more than enough to keep me abreast of events in the world, and if there is something on my wrist that bears further scrutiny, I can always look it up online later – something that I might not otherwise think to do. Ultimately, though, I find the weather reports and Outlook syncing are the most useful features, and I have come to rely on them in a way that I didn’t think would be possible given that I own a WiFi enabled PDA. Yes, folks, there are times when it’s inconvienient or unacceptable to carry/check my PDA, or go through the cumbersome and laborious (and expensive) process of looking up information on my cellphone. As for the messaging function, until it’s opened up to include Yahoo and AIM, it’s little more than a novelty. I don’t know a single person who uses MSN Messenger. The news alerts are handy, though. The stock feature is nice, though with a 15-minute delay, you won’t be doing any day trading with this device. Still, the week-long activity chart is a nice resource to have handy.

Is there room for improvement? Of course there is. This is v1.0, so a few bugs are to be expected. But, for the most part, these devices work as advertised. Sure, longer battery life would be nice, but I can go four to five days on a single charge, which is more than enough for a long weekend at my countryhouse. And c’mon, how hard is it to place the watch on the charging stand at night? Personally, I don’t sleep with my watch on my wrist, so this is a non-issue for me. Interestingly enough, I have a rotator for my automatic watches that is far more “labor-intensive” when it comes to mounting my timepieces.

From an aesthetic perspective, it really is a matter of taste. Personally, I love the look of the Square, and judging from the comments I receive regarding the watch on an almost daily basis, quite a few others seem to agree with me. I have actually received more compliments on my Square than I have on my Rolex, Omegas, Doxa, or even my negative-display Phillipe Starck (a digital “fashion” watch from Fossil that most closely resembles my Square). I won’t deny that it’s large, however, which is a shame since more than a few women have said that they would purchase this watch if it were sized for their wrists.

In the end, this technology isn’t for everyone, but if you’re an avowed gadget-freak, they do make for a nice adjunct to your PDA. Also, we can look forward to real-time sports scores, customized traffic reports and movie times in the near future. As more “channels” are added, the value of this service will increase considerably.

Just my $0.02

- Adam

PS – It does help to live within a solid coverage area.

PPS – As for the late and lamented MessengerWatch – I had one of those too. IMO, there really is no comparison between the two

Originally posted by lgreenberg
…Sometimes a news flash is only one sentence and it’s not enough to get even the smallest gist of the story. I realize the content has to be limited but it’s almost not worth it at all.

Sounds like the AvantGo version of USA Today!

It was called the Timex Internet Messenger. You could send stocks, news clips, daily weather reports, and messages to it. The time synced automatically (my favorite feature).

And the battery lasted for 2 *MONTHS* a pop. Oh yeah, and it was water resistant.

It wasn’t as flashy, but it was only $49 with a year’s service free and you got your own 1-800 number from SkyTel.

Still, how much are you willing to pay for something so gimmicky in the first place? Do you really want to read the New York Times on your wrist?

These watches are a showcase of interesting technology, nothing more….

Originally posted by Julie
Like Judie said in the review, if you don’t wear your watch to bed, it’s not a big deal to just set it on the charger instead of setting it on the nightstand. Seriously, there is no plugging in involved at all. The only time the charging aspect would bother me is when I travel. I would have to pack the charger…

I don’t like wearing any watch to bed, so that would not be an issue with me. Strangely enough, my current watch was given to me as a gift by a close friend along with two pairs of socks. Up until then I had never had a watch last more than a year. I was fully expecting the socks to outlast the watch, but here I am replacing the battery for the second time in 15 years. Even more amazing is that I still have one pair of the socks. (Thanks Vicki, you know who you are! )
:love:

Back on topic, the charging would not be an issue, as I already charge my PDA nightly (well, most of the time even though it does not really need it). What would be an issue is duplication of services. All my info is already on my PDA which I am never without (except at Cedar Pointe), and my pager can get updates even in my underground office. Still, it’s a cool concept.

And yet… I cam about this close to buying one a few weeks ago, when I discovered that I live and commute through and work in a coverage hole; my house is about 3 miles from the edge of coverage, work about 10.

I also have a pager that has a news update feature that has far better coverage than MSN Direct, and I only have to replace the battery once a month, so I think I’ll stick with that.

While, I’m into gadgets of all kinds….I’m into mechanical watches….though they can cram into self-winding mechanical watches to neat they are to me.

I just find that with digital watches being so common…it is much more gadget like to have a non-digital watch that does lots

The Dreamer.

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/spot-watches-review.html

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