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Citizen/IBM To Make A Linux Watch
backtick writes: " Yup, they're making the Watchpad.
'Besides telling time, the WatchPad comes with a calendar-scheduling application, a pager-like application for sending and receiving short messages, and a Bluetooth chip for wireless communication with notebooks, handheld computers and cell phones'" If they'll make a watch that runs Linux and takes pictures like Casio's camera watch, I might just switch back to a digital. Gerdts points out that the watch's battery life is either up to six hours, or only six hours, depending on how you look at it.
If this device only has a battery life of 6 (or fewer hours) *I don't want it*. I expect my watch to continue telling time for serveral months without replacing the battery. I don't want another charger to clutter up my house either. (Let's see palm cradle, laptop cord & docking station, three cell phone chargers...Too many already).
Hell, I sleep with my watch on. If it's on the charger, I can't tell time.
Hmmmmm, maybe i'm just in a bad mood, but the geek factor doesn't overweigh the stupidity of this.
mr.
First, what's the point of a watch whose battery life is measured in hours, as opposed to months? It's nice as a concept toy, I guess.
Second, the fully loaded digital watch was all the rage back in the 80s (you kids may not remember that decade very clearly, so I'll let you know that those watches covered a substantial part of your wrist and then some and if you had the muscles to wear them for long you could probably get tennis arm...). It died out pretty quickly then, partly due to their weight, but also because it really isn't very convenient to handle lots of buttons or operations when 1 hand is incapacitated (the one the watch is on) and the other is busy activating the device....
Maybe these guys can get with Applied Digital to make the watch powered by a body heat battery.
I know that citizen watches use Eco-Drive technology...
From Citizenwatch.com ---
Citizen Eco-Drive watches use the simplest, yet most technically advanced power generating and storage system in the Watch Manufacturing Industry. A Solar Cell and a rechargeable battery are the power provider for these Quartz Watches. Eco-Drive's ability to use light from any source to generate electrical power means that the supply is limitless and free. The absence of any added complex power generating machinery that would require additional upkeep is another big advantage. ---
Including this type of technology might help to extend battery life. Recharge while in use during the day, drawing on the 6hr life at night.
OR--- Some type of kinetic energy transfer. Will add to the bulk, but this is in Dev as it is.
Just a thought---
I am me...I think
Anyone who's not getting excited about this has no imagination. Don't think of it as a PDA -- think of it as the first fully programmable watch! How many of you have seen the Casio filmwatches with little animations on them? As an animator I've always wanted to be able to program my own. Add bluetooth to the equation -- a hobbyist's dream. And a 1 GB Microdrive? ... It sounds wonderful.
Yes it will be cumbersome to wear. But this is a step in the right direction for a toy that is long overdue in my opinion. Now it needs a motion sensor and digital camera...
People looking for serious tools like PDAs should look elsewhere.... in the meantime, I'll be writing the code for an animated avatar who tells me the time, waves at me when I have an email, and gets jostled when I move my wrist quickly (to be implemented when that motion sensor gets included). Insert Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas song... here.
Yeah, that kinda sucks. They do say in the article, however, that all-day battery life should be available in a year or so.
Here's what I'm wondering, though. Why does my wristwatch have to be so damn smart? This thing has bluetooth. In theory, so should my visor/palm/newton/pocketpc/agenda/whatever. Right? Why, then, can't my wristwatch just act as a wireless display/input device (using that nifty Bluetooth piconet!) for a slightly larger, more intelligent device that I keep in my pocket/purse/backpack/etc, which can have *much* longer battery life?
I think that would be cool, and I think they could squeeze a bit more battery life out of the watch this way - it wouldn't need any CPU or RAM to speak of, just enough to talk Bluetooth to some other device.
--
This post is fully buzzword compliant.
Sorry, I don't have the physics/ee chops to seriously think about this, but couldn't you combine this watch with the kinetic battery seen in some watches, so maybe you can extend the life?
Or am I missing something?
ceci n'est pas un sig.
Matsucom has been making a similar watch -- the "onhand" for some time now. Technologically, the ibm watch does a whole lot more, but if all you want is the ability to run your own programs on your wrist, it'll do.
Most important, the onhandpc has a free SDK. The specs: It has a 16-bit CPU (V20ish I think), running a dos look-alike. It has 128KB RAM, 512KB ROM, and 2MB FLASH. The display isn't nearly as nice as IBM's prototype OLED: 102x64 backlit STN LCD. But it does have IR and wired serial ports. The battery life is rated at 3 months (assuming display one hour per day). The big thing missing is the bluetooth. (Well, that and linux).
The nice part: Price = $300. But still (in my opinion) a toy. For more info, here's a nice review (from late '99).
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Reminicent of the old LED watches that couldn't spare the power for a constant display either, It led (pun intentional) to a Saturday Night Live parody commmercial of a functionally-overloaded watch; a voiceover enuumerated all the modes the watch had while we see the watch on a wrist and a hand comes in to start working buttons...then another hand enters, then a third, a fourth, all furiously working buttons on the single watch. The commercial wraps with the slogan something like: "Robowatch: it's like asking a stranger for the time"
-=Maggie Leber=-