SPOT and the Alerticons

So, when Microsoft initially announced their refrigerator magnets and watches,i thought, oh boy, here they go, trying to cram futuristic functionality into a watch, AGAIN. I'm thinking really, what kind of information would I want to get -- and pay for -- on such a small display.

Apple's philosophy is, for any one of their products, to pick the top 5 things you want to do and do those better than anyone else. The iPod does music the best. Have all your music all the time, period. Not.oh it has a display and a hard drive what else can we do with it. (sure you can add calendar and contacts, but they sell it as the best music device, not a PIM platform. My fear is that MS and it's OEMs will try to cram more and more features and info to where they will end up enabling a platform for the 5% to access the exchange server or edit word docs on their wrist.

If they keep it simple, to truly at a glance information then the kind of awareness that a clock brings could be good for weather or buddies-- outside and separate from a computer. A watch is for 2 things: Giving the time at a glance and self expression. Yes they make calculator watches and pedometer watches and radial MP3/communicator watches. But, the vast majority of people buy a simple watch that tells time and matches their personality-or outfit. But when I hear mention of restaurant reviews, oh brother, someone's scenario designer was laid off last year.

I guess it's the same way with the cell phone, but, does anyone really use a cell phone for restaurant reviews? It would probably take going through 14 ui menus to get to the restaurant plus keying in a name using the alpha numeric keypad. Maybe I don't have the fortitude, but the web on a cell phone stinks, and i don't think it would be any better on a watch.

Here's what I could see as being useful. If they want the tablet to have more of a companion-like device, it could have some at a glance indicators. i think what palm did for some of their handhelds is similar. Give me some alerticons in the chrome.