Fossil Wrist Net Smart Watch for MSN Direct (AU4000)

by Fossil

Product Details

Supplementary Guide [3.75mb PDF]

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Product Manual [773kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0001540G4
• Item model number: AU4000
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,847 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 6, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

It's a great idea, and, for the most part a great product: a watch that keeps time with atomic clock accuracy and displays useful, timely information. The Smart Watch gives you stock prices, news, and weather, and personal messages, all right on your watch face. You get all that stuff on your cell phone already, right? But the idea of the Smart Watch though is that it offers this information in glanceable form, and on a device that is always at hand. Simplicity and unobtrusiveness are key--you can rapidly navigate through all the different types of information quickly, and immediately read your text messages the moment they arrive with a discreet little beep.

MSN Direct is the subscription service that broadcasts data to the Smart Watch via an FM signal. The first thing you have to do when you get your watch is set up an account and customize your information channels. It's a fairly quick process, though you have to jump through a few Microsoft hoops (like getting a .NET Passport). Immediate gratification junkies should be warned, however, that you most likely won't start getting any data until about 12 or more hours after set up. Also, the channels are very much a work in progress--the news I was getting initially had a random quality to it, but more recently the watch's timeliness has compared favorably with CNN.com in breaking major stories.

Information delivered to your watch includes:

	Stock quotes: Get updates on the stocks you care about, as well as information on the major high-volume stocks and indices.		News: Get headlines and the full text of local, national, international, business, entertainment, sports, health, and travel news stories.
	Time: Wrist Net watches display the current time, automatically updated for different time zones, and include a chronometer, an alarm, and a timer. You can choose from a wide variety of watch faces for just the right look.		Weather: Get the latest reports for cities all over the world. Local city weather information includes current conditions, a three-day forecast, sunrise and sunset information, humidity, barometric pressure, and ultraviolet (UV) index.
	Text messages: Receive messages from friends and family through MSN Messenger version 6.0 or later.		Sports: Continuous sports updates keep consumers current on game times, scores, pre- and post-game stories, and standings for their favorite collegiate and professional sports teams.
	Daily Diversions: Currently, consumers can select from Word of the Day, Quote of the Day, Born on This Day, and This Day in History.		Horoscope: Consumers can receive a personalized horoscope based on their specific time and place of birth.

The need to recharge frequently--a single charge will last two to seven days, depending on usage--has some users unhappy, but for me it is a non-issue. You charge the watch by simply placing it on its cradle, so if you set the cradle up wherever you stash the watch at night, the watch will always be charged.

There are a few real drawbacks, however, most prominent (literally) being the size of the watch, which is on the humongous side of fashionably chunky. Another downer is the strap which is hard to close and, since it contains the watch's antenna, tends to spring open. The most serious complaint however is that reception can be sporadic--there were entire days that I got no new data at all. When MSN Direct improves service--and it has shown signs of doing so since the watch launched--they will have a truly revolutionary product on their hands (and the nation's wrists). --David Stoesz

Pros

• Geek factor is through the roof
• Intuitive navigation
• Recharging is a snap

Cons

• It's HUGE
• Coverage can be sporadic
• Strap is unwieldy

Product Description

With The Abacus Wrist Net? for MSN® Direct, you get the information you need delivered to your watch so you're in the know while on the go. Find everything from a great new restaurant to the latest sports scores of your favorite team, all at a glance! By delivering services tailored to your interests and location, Abacus Wrist Net keeps you in the cutting edge, any time. Enjoy any or all of the following features: Stock Quotes, Time, News, Weather, Calendar, Text Messages, Glance, and much more. For more information, please check our website at www.abacuswatches.com.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Watch + Data = Smart Watch for MSN Direct, January 7, 2004

By 

S. Sande "pdantic" (Highlands Ranch, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fossil Wrist Net Smart Watch for MSN Direct (AU4000) (Office Product)

I heard about Microsoft's Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) devices a while back, and it intrigued me. Although as a certified gadget geek I have a number of wireless devices that can receive news, weather, and sports, I had always thought that the perfect device would replace my existing watch. While this first generation device isn't perfect, it's not bad.

Opening the box containing the Abacus Wrist Net Smart Watch for MSN Direct (there's a mouthful!), you'll find two small manuals, the watch, and a two-piece charger. The charger consists of a plug (thoughtfully made to fold flat) and a rather clunky charger with an "arm" that rotates into place to hold the watch. You just lay the watch onto the arm and it starts charging through induction - no charging port or contacts to get dirty!

You need to activate the watch through MSN Direct to get your news, and it's best to take the $59 one-year subscription rather than go with the $9.95 monthly plan. You will need a credit card to subscribe. Once you've entered your unique watch ID and personal information, you get to pick the type of content you want sent to your watch. At this time (1/7/04) the sports channel powered by ESPN isn't available, but it's supposed to be ready soon.

It takes about 10 minutes to get a confirmation message on the watch telling you everything's OK, and then it can take up to 12 hours for all of your info to show up.

There are five buttons on the device that are used to turn on the white backlight (rather uneven, I thought), change channels, and navigate (enter, next, and previous). The buttons seem a little spongy, but not too bad. The Abacus AU4000 isn't waterproof but will survive splashes. If you're used to very expensive thin watches you'll hate this, but anyone who likes clunky multifunction watches will love this. From a design standpoint, the $299 Suunto N3 sure looks a lot nicer, but functionally it doesn't do anything different than this watch.

A charge is supposed to last 2 - 3 days, and I think I may just put my watch on the charging arm every night when I go to bed. Heavy use of animated screens will drain the battery faster; like any first-generation electronic device, battery life is an issue.

So far I'm fairly impressed, and find the display to be clear and easy to read. Just showing the Weather Channel info to friends has been good for a lot of positive comments, and folks have been sending me MSN Messenger "pages" just for fun. If you're an early adopter, you'll probably want to get one of these new watches; if not, wait for the second generation devices.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of gadget geek appeal, but not ready for prime time, January 20, 2004

By 

Gadgester "No Time, No Money" (Mother Earth) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fossil Wrist Net Smart Watch for MSN Direct (AU4000) (Office Product)

Wow, that guy from Boise sure has a lot of watch rage! Most of what he/she says doesn't make sense and is not even accurate. Anyway, I've had this watch for a little over a week now, and let me give you a quick review.

The upshot is, at first I found a lot to complain about, but after a week, it started to grow on me, and right now, I like it a lot, and everyone I show it to is impressed, although most don't think it's worth the price + subscription fee. Anyway, I don't regret this purchase like I did with the T-Mobile Sidekick.

Pros:
- Lots of geek appeal with real-time information updates
- Changeable watch faces
- Can receive updates from Outlook Calendar
- Atomic clock auto-syncing
- ESPN channel coming at end of January
- 10-second white backlight at the touch of a button
- Alarm clock, chronograph (stop watch), timer, time zones
- FM radio frequency, so low power and potentially low chances of us getting tumors from wearing this

Cons:
- Kinda large, not for slim wrists
- Not particularly attractive physically
- No color
- Battery life can be an issue; I've recharged only once but it's only because I use the animations sparingly and turn off the radio at night
- The wrist band is hard to use and adjust (this is one thing the rage man from Boise got right)
- Update can be slow at times
- You need to set up a travel schedule to receive personalized information (i.e., Outlook appointments) when you travel, which is totally stupid, especially as the set-up page on the Web is a perfect example of stupid programming (but not unlike the typical Microsoft goofs) -- too complicated to explain here, let's just say it doesn't work the way it should.
- Coverage is not consistent, and only works in the U.S. and Canada

My initial impression was this deserved no more than 2 stars, as the watch was kinda ugly and all the information you get (weather, news headlines, up to 15 stock quotes, Outlook calendar, etc.) is nice to have but totally not necessary, especially for people like myself who sit in front of the Internet all day and half night. Plus, set up was more confusing than warranted, and the battery life issue was a big turn off.

But there is just so much gadget-freak factor in this watch. It's actually more useful than my Casio camera watch or some prototypes of communicator watches I've seen in Asia, because, at least for a guy, the size is acceptable, and there's something about getting real-time weather and stock quotes that just fascinate me. The weather channel is especially impressive, especially on cold wintry days like these in New York. Pressing the channel button to cycle through the various channels -- BTW there's also a special channel that automatically cycles through the channels for you -- has a certain magical power of its own, and I just love showing this off to friends and coworkers, and get lots of pleasure when people come into my office to ask "oh what is like outside?" or "hey show me your watch again."

Should you buy this? It's very hard to say. Luckily MSN Direct offers a free month if you sign up with the monthly plan. Then if you like it, you can switch to the annual plan and save 50%. If you don't, at least Amazon offers a nice 30-day MBG policy.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beyond-SPOT.com for all your msn direct needs., November 28, 2004

By 

Barry Brendel - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fossil Wrist Net Smart Watch for MSN Direct (AU4000) (Office Product)

I found a great website to discuss these watches. Beyond-spot.com they have reviews forums and more! I had many questions about the watch and they answered them all!