" [color:"blue"]if I've understood it correctly, one feature of the Spot Messenger is that you can use a variety of combination taps to send a specific, pre-determined message. For instance, tapping "OK, OK, Help, OK" could mean "I am fine, but running one day late"[/color]"

I've seen this "make a code table for it" idea before, but not to my knowledge from anyone that actually owns a unit. I'm going on a backpack next week with a friend that actually does own one, and when I put this to him (suggesting we work out a code table in advance), he didn't think it was practical, apparantly there's about a 15-minute delay between when you can send signals, the unit resends a button press multiple times to ensure delivery. So if you were willing to spread your button presses out over a lo-o-ong period maybe you could work out a code, but at least from what he told me this doesn't seem practical.

Would be nice, and of course, even nicer if the other poster is right that at some point they'll come out with a text messaging solution. Ideal for me would be a bluetooth keyboard that I could dual use with both SPOT and my smartphone ... !
Or a version of SPOT that has a slide-out keyboard like some cell phones do, or, really whatever allowed for sending some actual details.