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Real PDA Wristwatch
Larry Groebe writes "Just before COMDEX, Fossil announced a new PDA in a wristwatch. Based on the Palm OS, this is nothing less than a complete Palm Pilot on your wrist. See here for features and a picture.
This is completely UNLIKE Fossil's *first* attempt at a wrist PDA, which was a hopeless view-only gadget. This new model allows regular Graffiti input and appears to run all Palm programs! At $149, I may be the first in line when it comes out next spring."
I don't even use a PDA, but looking at that picture, it strikes me that maybe this thing is *too* small. How can you input anything? You'd better be good with a stylus...
--Gaz
"I turn away with fright and horror from the lamentable evil of functions which do not have derivatives."
While it looks cool and all, it may have hit the market be too late. Cell phones and PDA look to be heading for convergence and almost everyone I know carries a cell phone. Does my watch with its much smaller screen really need to be a (Palm) PDA too? Isn't that why its called a "Palm" and "PocketPC" device?
The day you realize Anonymous Coward isn't the name of a really prolific user, then its time to create your own
At $149, I may be the first in line when it comes out next spring.
You are a whore.
Most people don't recognize the difference between "water-resistant" and "water-proof" when they buy a watch. Water-resistant means that it can survive the shower. If your watch is truly water-proof, then odds are it's a dive watch, and you're going to be spending some bucks.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
It's underpowered, sure, but the 68k architecture has been around long enough that, by now, it's a straightforward proposition to manufacture cores at low cost. Device makers are still trying to figure out how to put together ARM devices that land in impulse-buy territory, but Fossil can pack a totally functional 68k PDA into a $150 wristwatch. Nifty.
Of course, I could be high.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
... and be the first one on your block to NEVER EVER GET LAID AGAIN.
Like slashdotters aren't already having enough trouble getting a date without wearing one of these goofy things.
At least it doesn't have an antenna...
What's not to be worried about? Everything!
This is not the first wrist-pda made by fossil, just the first Palm based one.
They've been advertising their products as something that could interface with a PDA. In other words, they expect you to already have a PDA when you use it. The process of inputting data into it is something like this:
1) Buy a PDA
2) Put your data on your PDA
3) Beam your data from your PDA to your fossil.
I don't really like that too much. What's the point of the middle man? I want a pda for two reason, and two only:
1) Addressbook
2) Expenses data entry (not NEARLY as important).
I need to be able to get data to my PC and from my PC, and I don't need another PDA. And for what I need, I don't need a touch screen, really. I'd rather have a more rugged watch than a touch screen.
I expect that I am not alone in this assessment. I wonder when fossil will get the idea; reviewers have been talking about the serious shortcoming in their product (that they can't interface directly with PCs) for quite some time.
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
Now you can cheat at your exam by storing hard to remember formula, historical events, famous quotes, etc, in the palm enabled watch. When no one is watching, you could browse the information at your own pace. When your teacher is walking nearby, press a couple of the button, it becomes an ordinary watch again. Also, use the IR to beam back and forth for networked cheating. (Assuming your next chair neighbour also has this watch) It is the student's ultimate learning tool :-)
holy crap...now we'll have some bitch in a SUV on her cell phone planning her calendar on her watch
------ hi mom
You'd think it would be pretty simple to make a left handed version. Rotate the display 180 degrees (in software), and have lefties put it on backwards, and flip the pgup/down keys, along with the rocker switch.
The "Back" button would be oriented towards the top (rather than the bottom) and the clasp would probably be a bit weird to put on, but other than that it should be perfect.
Most watches aren't too bad worn on the right wrist, but this one looks like it's going to be really inconvenient for lefties... :-/
Actually, So far as I can figure without actually using it, It would probably be better to user the rocker control with your thumb, kind of like on the blackberries..... I think they designed this thing backwards for the majority of people who are going to put this on their left wrist. I don't care how it was "meant" to be used, it seems to me that using your thumb would be the easiest way to operate the rocker controller
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
If you are 100 metres deep, you are either going to be:
a) already dead, or about to die from decompression sickness
b) a highly experienced scuba diver (in which case you will have a dive computer strapped where your watch would be) or
c) in a pressurised submarine
You are unlikely to return alive and well from 50m unless you really know what you are doing, get anywhere near 100m and your watch will be the least of your worries.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
How does this watch compare to my Palm V?
The main reason I got the Palm V was to be an alarm clock. I kept missing appointments, even though I had them written in my DayRunner(tm) diary - I just never got into the habit of checking my diary every 15 minutes.
This watch would make life a little easier for me - as slim as the Palm V is, it's still something extra to bulk up my shirt/trouser/backpack pockets with.
The biggest drawback for me would be that the watch isn't designed to be a PDA by itself. It's almost like Fossil only wanted the watch to be a fancy alarm clock with address book function. So you'd have to have the watch as well as a PDA in order to get full functionality from it (using beamed business cards for example).
But for the original purpose that I bought the Palm V - reminding me of appointments (and putting out the trash, and leaving the computer game to go to bed) - this watch is just right. I don't think I'd be willing to pony up the $AU600 though - that kind of money would get a really nice watch from Casio.
Since I already have a PalmOS device, this watch wouldn't really be much use to me. If I didn't have a PalmOS device, I'd consider buying it, if it was half the price.
Why does everybody pick on Bob when you have Strom Thurmond? Dole at least still looks human. I mean, Strom looked older than Dole when Eisenhower was president.
Oh, and YEARRRGHH!
I'll be sad when the guy finally dies and it's politically incorrect to comment on how how much better he looks enbalmed.