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Fossil/Palm PDA Watch Reviewed
SLiK812 writes "Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal has a pretty good review of Palm's and Fossil's new wrist PDA. We all knew some time ago that this was coming out, and was initially covered last November and briefly last month. This is the first review I've seen, and Mossberg does bring up some interesting points, both good and bad. Definitely worth the read before buying it."
that this thing is going to sell very well. It doesn't even look like it would be easy to use. And as I recall the battery only lasts like 48 hours. I wonder how they ever got this idea to market...
"Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
...even in major newspapers. There are many interesting things about this watch/PDA I always wanted to know, but the fact that "The watches...come with a tiny stylus" is a little more personal than what I wanted to know.
The Fossil
wrist pda
is very co
nvenient i
f you dont
mind a ver
y small di
splay area
and a tiny
stylus.
But it is
so very st
ylish and
gets me la
id daily.
sulli
RTFJ.
It's a great idea, but it's just too small. I hate the cell phones that attempt to cram so much into such a small space, or the laptops that cram a 1600x1200 resolution into a 15" monitor. With only 2MB of memory and an extremely small screen in a relatively bulky enclosure, I just don't see this as a great product.
It definitely has its uses, but many would be well suited with a larger Palm Pilot or PocketPC.
The Political Programmer
Summary: Functionally clumsy, but it looks cool!!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
For those people who think that a calculator watch just isn't quite geeky enough.
Fossil PDA:
Looks very
high-tech,
but it's
Super hard
to use.
Traditional PDA screens are about as small as you can go while still retaining a reasonable degree of usability. Get a watch that's too large, and it's no longer anything that you want to wear on your wrist.
While the entire concept of being able to wear your gadgets on your wrist is cool, it takes more than simply saying "I'll meet you halfway" to design such a device. Simply put, the PDA is too small, and the watch is too big for most people to be interested in this device.
Unless you're dealing with a very limited input style--think at most four or five buttons and maybe some form of roller switch--it's going to be nearly impossible to develop a viable wrist-worn device that relies on tactile input. Data storage, sure. Even limited data output is doable--an iPod-esque control system could be adapted to a wristwatch, and one can create relatively unobtrusive displays for a watch (without too great of expectations for resolution, readability, or volume.) But trying to drop a PDA into a watch--that's just too much fine motor control and tactile interaction in too small a space to be practical.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
As it it wasn't hard enough to get a date, now they want me to strap a PDA to my wrist. Yeah, that'll reel 'em in...
While I think a watch is one of the ideal places to keep a data device - since you always have it with you (the other being a keychain), I don't see the point of paying a $100+ premium for a fashionable one over a functional one - no matter what you are going to be considered a geek for wearing one these, that you paid $295 for a Fossil branded PalmOS watch versus $179 for a Abacus branded one, only makes you look like a geek that is careless with his money.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I found entering text, and even accurately tapping on items on the screen, to be awkward and frustrating -- especially with the watch on my arm, but even when I removed it to hold it with both hands.
Yeah, I've always had the same problem with my regularly sized Palm. Whenever I hold it using both hands, it is damn near impossible to use the stylus with any accuracy, much less trying to write letters. However, I don't suspect Palm is going to fix this anytime soon. My inclination is that they will just wait for users to evolve a third hand. Even then, I suppose you will have people trying to hold their Palms with all three of their hands.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
Assuming I would want to wear an ugly huge watch (that's a personal opinion of couse) that's called "Fossil" and is MSN-enabled (uuh), I have a problem with such small devices that have an internal battery.
:
...
From the specs page
POWER REQUIREMENTS : AC power adapter (100V-240V), DC output (4V-9V), Lithium-ion rechargeable battery (internal).
BATTERY LIFE : 4-5 days (based on average use of 30 minutes per day with no backlight or IR)
Right, so in real life, if I was to use the thing normally, with backlight at night and syncing with my desktop with IR, I'd say I'd probably have to charge it up every 2 or 3 days. Given that a real-life Li-Ion batteries have a typical life of 300 recharge cycles (yes, you can get more out of them, but you have to be *very* careful when you charge and for how long, which isn't always practical in a consumer device), especially since it's probably a super-small fragile battery, that means the battery will have to be changed after 2.5 years of use at most.
Do I want to see the face of the watch repairman when I bring him the Fossil for a battery change? Do I want to see the bill when I have to send the watch back to Fossil for a battery replacement? No.
So, no PDA watch for me. Nosiree
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
that Flava-Flav will now hang an iBook around his neck?
I'm left handed, and I wear my watch on my left wrist... so am I supposed to change which wrist I wear my watch on after 20 years?
Should I try graffiti with my right hand? I have a hard enough time with my left.
Palm pilot...$70
Palm pilot watch w/ almost no features...$300
Look on wife's face...priceless.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
LARGER!!!
add THREE
INCHES to
your styl
us!!
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
From the article:
But the most interesting feature of the Wrist PDA has nothing to do with the Palm functionality. In watch mode, when the thing is just telling time, you can scroll through and select from a wide variety of different watch-face designs. This is the first watch I know of that lets you pick the way its face looks and change that look as often as you like.
Well, duh! It's a Palm, so of course you can make the watch have whatever face you want!
My Palm III (all of $11 on eBay) has multiple clock faces, too -- Analog, Big Digital Clock with world time and weekday-only alarms, another Analog version, and my favorite, the Hell Clock with built-in countdown to Halloween. "Hell Clock" is the one that I like to beam to the cell phones at the Verizon store, to give them more "visual interest".
I'd have dozens more, but I lost interest after four. And I didn't pay one red cent for any of 'em (all were freeware at the time).
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
For those people who think that a calculator watch just isn't quite geeky enough.
Uh huh. And the rest of us look like James Bond with our tri-corders clipped to our belts, right?