Rich Davies - Inside the SPOT watch team

I can't wait until these SPOT watches are out in the UK.

Question to Mike, when you were over here last week (or week before?) what happens? I'm guessing the time can no longer sync.. but what else?

So, (can I start a sentance with 'so'?), I flew British Airways from Seattle to London Heathrow, I turned off the radio receiver on the watch since I knew that I wouldn't be getting services like news, weather etc... 

The watch still keeps time (it's a watch!) but doesn't auto sync to BST/GMT - one of the custom watch faces you can download from http://direct.msn.com gives a dual time view, so I set this to show Seattle and London.

Once I arrived back in Seattle I re-enabled the radio receiver on the watch and started to receive stock/news/weather etc...

- Mike

I'm guessing that time sync will work in the UK etc when they get SPOT technology too.

But then again, is it too soon to speculate if it will be the same system in other countries?

The ultimate would be having the same technology across the world and just being able to go from country to country with your data following you around.

Oh when, oh when can we get these in the UK?

and to Spain?

I don't like how there running this spot network, i live in the caribbean and i have a buddy that owns local FM radio stations and my family owns the local ISP but even after contacting microsoft no one could give me a straight answer on how to get local SPOT coverage i mean what more can we do we have our own infrastructures we just need the fm->internet part i mean HELLOOOOO OUT THERE how do we get SPOT

Hello - We currently offer service in select Canadian cities. Moving forward we intend to expand the MSN Direct service to other geographies. We do not have specific details to share at this time.

Thanks...Rich

Would it be possible to design the watch to rely on shortwave frequencies/transmitters instead? Then, the SPOT watch could go worldwide (vs. the limitations of FM).  The signals travel much farther and sometimes it can be done on less power, although the signals are more susceptible to sun spots, ionospheric bounce, etc.  I'm not sure how the data is actually embedded in the FM carrier, or whether it would be possible to do it with shortwave carriers.

cool video:D i love my msn direct watches

2 ideas to improve msn direct that I do not think microsoft is in a hurry to use....
http://forum.spotstop.com/showthread.php?t=2985

http://forum.spotstop.com/showthread.php?t=2696