RSS Possibly the Worlds Most Connected Man
03 Dec 2004 @11:43
So my cool new toy is the Abacus by Fossil. It’s a Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) enabled watch, which means that it uses Microsoft’s MSN Direct service. SPOT works by using an FM subcarrier frequency (SCA - Subsidiary Communications Authorization) in major cities. If you are old enough to remember the change from mono to stero FM stations, the stero component ( a Left minus Right signlal) was broadcast on a SCA channel. This allowed users of mono FM recieves to still receive that signal, but users of stereo FM receivers to recieve both signals. In short, anywhere I can hear an FM radio, I can get data for my watch.
So that’s how it works, but what does it do for me? Well, to start out, the watch receives daily corrections to the time based on the atomic clock. Also, because the data signal is sent regionally, the time automatically changes based on what time zone I’m in. I also receive local, national, and international news, plus breaking news on my watch, sort of like one of those fancy pagers. Even better is the fact I get current forecast, both locally in Golden and in my Frequent Destinations (i.e. Seattle), plus international weather information. I also get wind direction and windchill information plus a three day forcast for my location. I get daily diversions which include things like quote of the day, word of the day, and this day in history. And now the really cool parts: If you use MSN Messenger and I’m on your buddy list, you can now send messages directly to my watch…as well as my cellphone. AND…and this is part I like the best and half the reason I got this watch…my Outlook Calendar syncronizes with the watch to AUTOMATICALLY alert me of appointments I have scheduled. Now how cool is that? Really! How cool is that? That is awesome, that’s how cool that is. Check out the online demo.
I just learned that SPOT does not use the SCA (aka RDS). It uses a technology called DirectBand which pushes data every two minutes at a rate of 12kbit/s (RDS is only 1.8kbit/s).