From: Gopi D Flaherty (gf2e_at_andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 07 2005 - 05:57:22 PDT
> I know it's probably blasphemous to ask, but has anyone any
> experience of the Fossil Palm watch, shown here...
It does seem to have been very blasphemous. The message didn't even have a
subject in it :)
I just got one of those devices on Monday. It's somewhat interesting. It
is actually my first PalmOS device.
It is a PalmOS 4 device. The core is still the same. It has the same
number of pixels - 160 x 160 - as the older devices. They've made some
changes to the OS, but not many:
It doesn't have a hardware graffiti area. It uses either Graffiti 2 (the
nasty one that requires two strokes for some letters) or Jot. You write
anywhere on the screen.
Pixels are tiny. Extremely high density screen. The built-in apps have
been modified to deal with the screen size somewhat - they have some more
font options, I believe. It has two up/down type buttons: On the right
side, you have a standard button, then a joystick-like up, down, or in
button, and then another standard button.
The built in apps treat those as two different types of up/down events. In
the calendar app, you can change the minutes with one and the hours with
the other. In other apps, you get page up/down or single item scrolling.
Battery life is...don't leave the charger far away. Expect to probably
charge it every day. They claim up to 3 days, and you might actually get
that, but not if you use it too much...
I've found it to sync to my Macintosh without any real problems. I
installed the software that came with it and it's functional. It's got
enough space to install a fair number of apps. Probably all you'll want -
apps taht aren't optimized for it are quite difficult to read on the
screen.
It has an IrDA port, and a USB port. It doesn't have any other options.
IrDA could probably be used with some sort of keyboard - I don't know if
it will work with the older style IR that the Newton initially used - and
I don't know if there are IrDA keyboards.
The stylus it comes with in the band is, well, _tiny_. It works, but it's
not pleasant to use.
In theory, you can probably do GPRS on it via IrDA from a cellphone. I'm
going to try that out as soon as I finish my current project demo. You can
run an e-mail client on it, as well as SSH even. If, of course, you can
actually _read_ the text without a magnifying glass :)
Do you want a small device on your wrist with your schedule and address
book? Why not just get something like an Ericsson T39m phone. It's tiny,
has great battery life, syncs with iSync to your Mac, and has more
buttons. It's a better bet for the scheduling functionality IMHO.
I guess my summary is this: It is an excellent implementation of what they
set out to do. Do you want what they set out to do? Are you happy with a
PalmOS device with a screen marginally larger than most postage stamps? Do
you mind not having a second hand on your watch (battery life. They don't
have a seconds display!)
I'm happy to have one to play with for $80, and find it interesting enough
to be worth having in my gadget collection. I can't say I do, or I don't,
recommend it.
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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