MP3 Player in a Watch

Myriad writes "Casio has announced a new wristwatch that doubles as a MP3 player. Set to begin shipping in summer, it will initially be available in 16, 32, and 64MB versions. All versions use a built in USB port for transfer. Another new watch sports a built in 120x120 16-grayscale digital camera and LCD display. It uses an infrared port for communication, and can store 100 images. Click here for the rundown with picture from ZDNet, or here for all the specs from Casio."

Comments

Nice, but is it durable?

[Magus311X]

I've owned a numerous deal of gadgety watches from Casio, as several co-workers of mine. They're truly ingenious little wonders, and we often do make excuses to justify purchases, but they never seem to last long.

First I had a watch with a calculator. The buttons were minute but I got used to them after a bit. It was a nice device, and fairly solid. This is the only Casio I've owned that's managed to last. It was annihilated by a racquetball that hit me in the wrist. I mean, no way it could've been saved. I give this one credit though, as it held up through years of showers, swimming, and abuse.

Then I moved onto the Databank 150. It was a nice watch, and it really was quite useful, freeing me from carrying around a small notebook for phone numbers and reminders. Unfortunately, one of the buttons had a habit of sticking inside the watch, which would drain the battery in 2-3 days. Friends reported that small bumps and even a decent static charge would knock out their organizer for good.

Then I moved to the touchscreen version. Ah, no more square inch keyboard. It was great, until a static discharge from a combination of a monitor and the fiber/cat5 switching system knocked it out. Being under warranty I shipped it out to Casio in which its currently being repaired.

The other thing that was often a nuisance is getting a battery replaced. No shop in the area was Casio certified and had the battery replacement tools, except one. I went in asking to see if they replaced the batteries in a Casio and they told me to come back the following day around 6, in which her brother with his special tool would replace it for me. I wanted my info back, so I came back and he gladly took my watch and used his special tool -- a paperclip which he masterfully bent and shaped to remove the covering -- and replaced the battery. What can I say, it worked damn well.

Currently though I have a pretty stock $18 Timex w/ Indiglo. It gets me by. These new watches look keen, specially the mp3 watch, and the new organizer, but I have some reservation in buying yet another watch to again handle and lose important information.

I think I'll just wait until the color Palm Pilots come along and just use my watch as a watch. =)
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They switch on HTTP_USER_AGENT!

[wowbagger]

&LT funny &GT

They Casio site wouldn't let me in until I allowed HTTP_USER_AGENT through my proxy. The dastards! We should all nuke their site for having the temerity to invade our privacy like that!
&LT /funny &GT


Seriously though, with all these single function wrist gadgets, you'd have to be an octopus to have everything: PCS phone (Swatch), Camera (Casio), MP3 player (Casio), AM/FM Radio (various), TV (Casio), PIM (Casio). Why don't they combine them all into one uber-gadget that you wear like a bracer. That way, not only do you have all your toys, you also have AC +1 on one arm!

Casio has some dumb ideas

[JoeShmoe]

I don't understand why Casio is advertsising their PIM watch as "being able to syncronize with a Palm device". Aren't the functions of these devices identical? I mean, either you carry around the watch or you carry around the Palm...but never both. How annoying would it be to have to mute two alarms every time you had an appointment?

And as far as the MP3 watch goes, I don't understand the point of having rechargeable batteries. I have owned Casio watches for years, and the main reason I buy the waterproof ones is so I never have to take it off. If I have to take the MP3 watch off my wrist every night to recharge the batteries, then I'm going to be walking around my house staring at the blank wrist where my watch is supposed to be.

The wrist camera, however, is a totally cool idea that has almost 1000 possible abuses. It's small enough for perverts to embed in their shoes for crystal clear upskirts. Take off the bands and then you can wedge it into a crack in a changing room. If Casio is truly sick, they'll link the timer to the camera so you can program the watch to take pictures in X minute intervals.

Way to go, Casio!

- JoeShmoe

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How about an Mp3 pacemaker?

[Wag]

Perfect for those of us who are tone deaf. Always keeps you in time with the music. Don't play anything too fast though...

Gaget watches

[Nelson]

I've always been in to them. The Casio thermo watch, back in the day was semi cool, not a terribly accurate thermometer though. I got the Avocet alpine watch, it is much better but rather hefty, it's flaw is one of calibration it could be accurate or it could be terribly inaccurate if it wasn't calibrated. Then I got a polartec heart monitor, it has changed the ways I workout, not terribly accurate but provides enough information to make adjustments if you're training for something. I've looked at Suunto's recently. There seems to be a theme, these gadgets are remarkably cool ideas but they never seem to work very well. I'm comparing the suunto to the avocet and while neither is going to be 100% accurate both are reasonable and then both are flipping huge, wear it daily and you'll probably need to go to the chiropractor because you back will get screwed up with all the extra weight on one arm. When it's all said and done, I have my specialty geek boy watches but for daily wear I wear the timex.. it's much smaller and more comfortable and for some crazy reason I feel like it is more likly going to get destroyed and I'd rather buy another $30 ironman than a $200 Suunto Vector. Most important, it keeps the time very well. The avocet runs out of batteries about every 18months and I've always been on top of a mountain when it happens.

I like that camera watch.. I see two good uses for it, snapping pictures where you aren't supposed to and those candid moments where you wish you had a camera and don't. The pictures will be low quality, read fun snaps, but it's a picture where you otherwise would have none. I'm guessing the actual model will make the avocet vertech alpine look like a feather. It will be a great watch if you wear it every day but it will be too big to wear every day. In my weakness, I could see my self forking over the cash even though I know it won't work so well. I suspect this watch will end up being outlawed in a few places.

The MP3 watch is also a wicked cool idea but I just don't see the practcality in it. I'd rather go buy a rio and then have a watch that doesn't run out of batteries and lose the time. I'm betting this one will be a real piece of junk.

Then the palmpilot watch is cool but I've got a palmpilot. Watches aren't terribly good interfaces for a lot of stuff, I think my palmpilot will be magnitudes easier to use and it's small enough. Probably the best functioning one of these watches but it will be a pain to use it and it's not nearly as cool as the camera.

Why no cellphone watch yet? I would think that Casio's number one competition with this stuff is the integrated PCS phone market, if palm signs a deal with Ericson or something and integrates a pilot into a cellphone that would be a pretty killer product.

I'm betting that all of them will be junk but at least the camera will be cool enough that people will buy them.

Portable CD player w/MP3 decoding of CDR :-)

[SpiceWare]

Pine Technology has(or will have) what you desire, the SM-200C which has a suggested list of $299. This article at Computer Currents says it should have been out in November.

More info from ZD-Net.