Microsoft SPOT and Suunto n3 Smart Watch review

About four years ago, Microsoft's Research and Development team came up with a new technology called Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) that uses FM radio signals to broadcast news, weather and other information to wristwatches. The first Smart Watches leveraging SPOT were first launched last January at the Consumer Electronics Show however it did take them a few extra months to get the wireless service running with all its features and have wristwatches available more widely.

According to the software giant, the technology is comprised of three pillars: the computing platform (SPOT), the wireless service (MSN Direct) and a new FM radio-based network (Microsoft DirectBand network).

Over the past few months we were given the opportunity to review Microsoft's SPOT service. The service costs either $39.95 per year or $9.95 per month, plus tax.

On the market today, there are four companies producing SPOT enabled watches that users can choose from:  Suunto, Fossil, Tissot and Swatch. Something potential customers should take into consideration is that the watches are not cheap.  The watch we received for testing the SPOT service was the Suunto N3 which currently retails for about $200 at Amazon.

It would seem that something Microsoft understood from scratch was that users don't want to spend a long amount of time trying to figure out how to activate the watch. They actually did a pretty good job making the registration and activation of the watch painless.  As long as a user has a credit card, internet access and a SPOT ready watch, no problems should surface.  Once logged in, a user is able to customize everything that will be sent to the watch. 

First thing that we noticed is that the Suunto N3 does not have a battery like ordinary watches.  The Suunto N3 comes with a USB charger that will let you recharge the watch using your computer, or a wall charger which can be plugged into a standard wall outlet.

MSN Direct is a wireless service that delivers personalized information to the watch using a FM network.  All watches that are connected to MSN Direct use an atomic clock (one of the most precise time readings available).  Once the watch was activated, the time was automatically set by the wireless service.

Another of the features of MSN Direct is that you can have content sent to your Smart Watch, at the time of testing I had available: Weather, news, stocks, calendar, downloadable watch faces, sports, daily diversions, horoscopes, and lottery results.  Throughout the day, the watch will constantly receive updated content for users to browse. You can also have text messages sent to your watch via MSN Messenger.   

Although the weather covers many major metropolitan areas, it doesn't cover many of the mid-sized towns across the continent, which is disappointing. I did find that when leaving a certain area, the watch would automatically adjust time and weather accordingly. 

Something I did not enjoy however was how often the watch had to be recharged. Although this should vary from watch to watch, our Suunto N3 had to be recharged about every two and half days, something that can be troublesome. According to specs, the Suunto N3 is slated to proficiently operate up to four days with no problems, depending on how much use the watch occurs.

One of my favorite features about the watch was the ability to view the information available on it while not being blatantly obvious about it.  During class or a meeting, it is much easier and less obvious to glance at the watch over reading something from a cell phone. As a side note, I found the Suunto N3 to be rather bulky compared to a normal wristwatch, this was to be expected and I have seen other models that are definitely worse. I thought I’d mention Suunto offers a slimmer version called the N3i which cuts the fat considerably but is more expensive, too.

The SPOT watches also are something that people don't see everyday so you still call this a tech gadget despite of the fact the technology has had constant delays, products are still fresh in the market.  It was unbelievable how many people asked to see the watch or just wanted to see the different features that I had enabled on the watch.  Even a few people were going to do further research on the watch to see if it was something that would be a good present. 

Unfortunately however, SPOT and the idea behind Smart Watches suffers from certain shortcomings that not necessarily have to do with the service itself, the most important is perhaps that many of the services currently offered by MSN Direct are now commonly available on cell phones,

"Unlike cell phones or PDAs, MSN Direct is on your wrist is 'glanceable' information you select to receive and is discreet," said a person close to SPOT development.

The MSN Direct Service is available in more than 100 metropolitan areas across North America but our international readers will be disappointed to hear that SPOT watches do not currently work outside of North America. Last June, the MSN Direct Service was successfully launched in Canada, while the service will be expanded to more locations in the near future.

Final Thoughts

Smart Personal Object Technology is an innovative enough product and certainly still a work in progress so consumers can expect more watch styles and more content categories to be available as time passes, adding more personalization features to the watch.

MSN Direct service is something unique in regards that users are able to get different services sent straight to a wristwatch. Unfortunately nowadays we can no longer call the technology to be earth shattering and many people can easily get the same features sent directly to their cell phones. Still, we are the kind of people that like having choices and SPOT might be a very appealing option to many of you.