The retirement of Bill Gates from daily duty at Microsoft prompted bloggers and journalists to write long articles about Microsoft technology. It’s summer, and we have to fill the pages somehow.
This Engadget article called Bill Gates: top ten greatest hits (and misses) has some details and product photos. Two of the “misses” are interesting.
The AutoPC was a voice controlled system that connected the driver to music, GPS and Outlook services. It went on sale in 2000 and died a quick death, but many auto manufacturers are offering systems with similar features in 2008. The same Microsoft business unit that developed the AutoPC also developed the SYNC system for Ford.
The second “miss” is another example of pervasive or ubiquitous computing. It’s interesting that both of these products were championed by Bill Gates himself.
I have worn my Suunto N6 HR SPOT watch almost every day for the last 2.5 years. Yes, the watch is a little large, and I have to clip it to a USB charger every 2 or 3 days to freshen up the battery. I never got the heart rate monitor feature to work properly, though.
Microsoft partnered with Clear Channel to distribute news, sports, stock market and other data to users via Clear Channel FM radio stations.The silvery rim of the watch face is the FM antenna. It’s a one-way device that receives broadcasts, so it’s impossible to send information from the watch.
I don’t use Outlook, so I never use the appointment and messaging features. But the baseball scores are usually up to date, as long as I’m in a Clear Channel city, and I never need to set the time. It’s synced by an atomic clock somewhere in the cloud.
Sadly, Microsoft discontinued the SPOT watch line in April 2008 — see this Engadget article called SPOT watches R.I.P. — 2004–2008. The cloud service still works on MSN Direct. I just go to the web site, log in, and select the information and faces for my watch.
I see fewer wristwatches on wrists these days. Many of my friends rely on their mobile phone’s clock instead, as they carry their phones with them everywhere. Most modern mobile phones sync their clock to their carrier’s system.
Image courtesy of billso through a Creative Commons license.
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