** DEAD ** -- $29.99 no reabate on abacus msn watch -- OPEN BOX ITEM

I think you have to pay the service fee ($40) and then they throw in the extra month. It's not like a no obligation thing. The question is whether the basic service gives me enough (if I got full news and weather I'd be happy) or whether it's worth it to upgrade to the full service.
 
I got it earlier today, it's wonderful. Yes, it's big but the size seems just right. I'm amazed at how clear the screen is, you can actually read the news stories on it. The basic service seems to be good, it automatically synced up with the atomic clock and a few hours later it updated to the latest news stories. It seems like I get a few news headlines per update, weather daily, the three major stock markets and synced time for free, which should be enough for now. I might reconsider once college basketball comes around and I'm in school (it would be cool to follow the scores all day). When I go into watch settings, it shows my signal as being 100%, which is great. I looked at it a few times tonight in different areas and most of the time I was at 100%. The battery charged in a couple hours, pretty fast. It reads 100% now. It had some old stories on it when I got it (like the Christmas US Airways disaster) so it must be a recent return. The front sticker was still on it and the unit had fingerprints, but not one scratch. The box was cut open but all the manuals were included and everything. I'm very impressed with the TigerDirect open box.
 
Got my watch. Its freakin' awesome, but while activating it online, there is no option to not pay for service. Perhaps I receive the weather, time and news without having to activate?

Erik, have you gone through this?

NM, Erik.. I do not have to activate the watch in order to get my 'free base plan', it just can take up to a day to get all the info into the watch.

Sweet. Aside from it being a little too big, Its awesome and the text in the display is really clear and crisp.

And how about that charger? Thats the coolest thing Ive seen in a while.
 
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Yeah, the charger is very cool. Yeah, the basic service requires no activation, and the news section on the base service is extensive.
 
Wow. Looks like we got in on it just in time.

Thanks again for telling us, I love this thing, even if it is quite a bulge in my sleeve.
 
you're tellin me, i ordered another one and got it yesterday, didnt work, so they are going to send me another one. that was last night, i checked this morning and there is no more. luckily mine shipped already, even more lucky that i didnt wait until today to call :eek:
 
Yeah, I'm really enjoying mine. It's big, but it's a good big. Either way, I think it's lighter than the old Fossil metal regular watch I was wearing. The bottom clip on mine is starting to scratch nicely but that's to be expected. I'm still deciding whether to go for the full service or not. I'm using the watch a ton, and having the advantage of sports scores and movie showtimes would make it even better. For $40 a year, it's a bargain as well. I'd like to get some new watch faces too, like a regular digital one like the one that shows two time zones but without the second time zone So far I love mine, might jump for the service too.
 
Well, I just can't hold on to my money. I've been using and enjoying this watch so much lately that I just decided to go ahead and activate it. I just processed it so it should start receiving the content soon, but I'm on the personalization page and it gives you a ton of options. I have a feeling this is going to be $40 that won't go to waste.
 
So, erik, my fellow firefox, did you activate? Tell me, is it freakin' awesome to the max or what? If its really cool, I'll spring for it, but when reading about the channels on the website it didnt seem like there was a whole hell of a lot offered aside from novelty items. So I just thought Id ask.
 
I don't know what I think so far. I'm not as thrilled as I thought I would be. It gets a TON of content. It has "memory units" that you configure on the MSN Direct site with your subscription according to what content you like (you can have 10 news sources out of 20-something for example). Overall, it's a ton of content but little things are bugging me like with news. When I read the news, it does a standard scroll of all the news stories but it doesn't let me organize them into categories at all, so I'm reading stories that I'd really rather skip over. It would be nice if it had categories. The weather section is nice. It gives you current temp, three day forecast, and international weather. The movies section is awesome because you can find a movie anywhere and everywhere. I'm half satisfied with the sports section. You program your "favorite" teams into it (you can have 5 per league) and it gives you game times and information only for those teams. The plus side however is that it gives you all the playoff information for that league or sport. The daily diversions channel is cool, fun stuff to read every day. I don't have horoscopes or lottery enabled due to lack of memory. Overall, I think it's probably worth it but I can't say how happy I am with it yet. I don't know if I have a moneyback guarantee during my first free month (do I?) or if I'm stuck. Either way, it's a ton of great content, some of it could be organized a little better though. I can tell you however that a lot of it is jumbled and the news headlines, and hi/low temperatures is more than enough if you're happy with it so far. The news section is REALLY big when you upgrade, but it means nothing if you can't easily navigate it. Same goes for the sports section and how it doesn't organize well. I think I'll end up keeping it because it would suck to lose functionality now that I'm used to it, but I don't know whether I'd recommend upgrading it or not.

I guess the final verdict is that if $40 isn't a big deal to you and you're using the watch a lot, there's no reason not to spring for the service. If it's tough for you to pay $40 a year and you're not using the watch a ton, pass on it.
 
Great review! Thanks a heap. I know what you mean about the news. I find that it updates the headline, so I think its a whole new story, but its not. Also, Its not in an order, its like if Im scrolling thru the headlines, its random.
 
Yeah, it's weird and random. Imagine having the same view when you have about four times the news coming in at one given time. You have no way to control it and figure out what you want to read.
 
did your watches power on immediatly or did it take a while?
 
What do you mean by power on?
 
It was pretty much immediate, but it was finicky. I had to press all the buttons at one point. aybe you should charge it first?
 
i put it on the charger and nothing happens, my other one i dont remember becaus i set it on there and left. this is on the charger abd it is just blank
 
try pressing the three buttons that are on the same side. If that doesnt work, press all of tem at once. Thats what I had to do.
 
I think I might've pressed all three buttons and it came right on.
 
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