Rating: Summary: Hey, its definately cool, but lets not consider it a watch! Review: You may want to know why such a great looking, gee whiz product gets such a low rating from me. I looked at the watch in a store locally, and was impressed until I heard the punch line. MSN subscription! I'm not going to go into detail that MS has more money than God does. I will say, they're very clever in keeping continued money streams flowing. The subscription service costs, are roughly equivalent to a low cost Internet dial-up connection. Unless you really have a strong need for this, I don't see the value of getting it on a "watch". Lets be honest here, if you are a high-powered business type, or imagine yourself to be one, you already carry a high-tech cellular phone. Compared with the capabilities there, using this is just overkill. In addition, most people would agree, that a watch is something that should be low maintenance. They recommend you recharge the Smartwatch "daily"! Do you really want to become a slave to your watch? The FAQ says, the battery on this watch is not even replaceable. I'll assume MS thinks by the time it wears out, in a year or so, (from daily charging) you won't mind buying the next model, probably for more big bucks. All that said this is an attractive watch, with a strong geek appeal factor. People buy expensive jewelry all the time, to impress others on just a few wearing occasions per year. I can't complain if that appeal is why you are considering buying it. The watch face is just like a little computer monitor, (although not color) and can display many things. I just don't buy this as a practical item, unless it's the only thing you use (no PDA's, cell phones, or notebook computers) for these features. Down the road, this may become a better technology, one that I may want to use. What it needs is a hot-switchable, rechargeable battery, so you can avoid putting the watch on a charger. In the future I believe there will be some recognition that working people can't afford to pay for dozens of subscriptions for phone(s), Internet, CATV, PDA, beeper, and now a watch. Combine that with all the "net" services, "email", sports, music, news, entertainment features, and others we expect to pay for. When that time finally arrives, we'll see many of these services combined. Then the "smart watch", might be worth a second look.
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