The Suunto n3 feature-packed, but just a little too big for me.

At CES in January last year, Microsoft announced its new Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT), which the company said would enhance the core purposes of everyday devices through easy-to-use software. The first of these devices is in a watch form factor, available from Fossil and Suunto.

The idea is that, in addition to telling time, these watches can access Web information wirelessly via Microsoft's DirectBand technology, which includes a custom radio receiver, a wide area network based on FM subcarrier technology and some new radio designed to make it all work. All of this it tied together by watch users specifying the information they want to receive via Microsoft's MSN Direct Service.

The questions we'll try to answer here are how well the watch works, how valuable the service is and whether the whole package is ready for prime time. In other words, if you buy into it, will you purchase a valuable information tool, something that will soon become obsolete or something that you just don't need at all?