Gates announces timely watches

 

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By Matt Whipp

Posted on 9 Jan 2003 at 12:16

In his keynote speech at the opening of the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Bill Gates showed of the first fruit of Microsoft's SPOT platform: watches.

The Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) platform is designed to 'make everyday objects smarter and better at their core functions', according to Bill Mitchell, general manager of SPOT at Microsoft.

During Gates' keynote SPOT watches (or 'wrist-tops' as manufacturer Suunto calls them) were demonstrated from Citizen, Fossil and Suunto. They offer users location-based time adjustment, customised faces and personalised Web content such as weather, sports scores, stock prices and other time-sensitive information.

SPOT makes use of Microsoft's .Net Compact Framework to access personal Web pages where the user can set up what information the watch shows. It uses a 100MHz RF receiver to get the information using Microsoft's DirectBand FM radio network that will initially cover more than 100 key areas in the US and Canada.

Under the face, Gates boasted of technology that was faster and offered four times the memory of the first IBM PCs, comprising an ARM7 chip and ROM and SRAM memory.

Microsoft also sees the technology being used in other everyday equipment such as alarm clocks, key fobs and that old chestnut refrigerator magnets.

The watches from Citizen, Fossil and Suunto will be available within the year.