MSN Direct Service Will Soon Be Available in More than Just Smartwatches

Microsoft Corp.'s Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) Group today announced a pair of new licensees. Oregon Scientific and MZ Berger are developing innovative devices with MSN Direct service.

The SPOT Group also revealed that several new smartwatches with MSN Direct are being unveiled at CES this week.

New Licensees

Together with Oregon Scientific, the SPOT Group plans to develop a line of weather station alarm clocks.

Weather information has continued to be a high priority for smartwatch owners, and soon users will have access MSN Direct weather information on an alarm clock. This will include the day's forecast, high and low temperatures, a three-day forecast, sunrise and sunset times, and more.

The alarm clocks will be available in a variety of styles and price points.

The other new SPOT licensee is MZ Berger, who offers high-tech alarm and wall clocks under the Sharp brand. These include "atomic" or radio-controlled clocks, as well as multifunction alarms. Courtesy of its agreement with Microsoft, MZ Berger's clocks will soon feature MSN Direct content and functionality.

New Smartwatches

Suunto is unveiling at CES the n6hr, which features a heart-rate monitor and advanced sports training tools, such as interval timers and training manager software, in addition to MSN Direct services.

The Suunto n6hr will be available soon in sporting goods and consumer electronics stores in the United States. It will retail for $399.

Fossil is showing two new ABACUS Wrist Net smartwatches that will be available in two styles. These will feature new casings and an assortment of colorful integrated leather bands.

More about MSN Direct

These watches are able to display headlines, weather reports, and other information. To do this, they don't need a physical connection to the Internet. Instead, they receive information through FM radio transmissions.

To provide people with a glimpse of available MSN Direct content, all smartwatches will receive some content automatically from the time of purchase.

For $39.95 per year, users are able to receive news, entertainment content, horoscopes, sports updates, weather forecasts and personalized stock and lottery information, with the ability to personalize content the user wants to receive.

For an additional $20.00 per year, subscribers can also choose to receive calendar appointment reminders via Outlook and personal messaging through MSN Messenger.

Visit the MSN Direct web site for more details.

Related Links

• Fossil's Palm OS Wrist Watch Now Available
• Fossil Introduces Three New Smartwatches
• Brighthand's Coverage of CES 2005