Smart Phones @ Best Buy.
- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 13 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Nice PDA-Watch with room to improve"
Pros: Palm OS 4.1.1 compatible, runs stable, Serial interface (USB, IR)
Cons: Display, small battery, speaker + alarm functions.
Summary: First of all: I really like almost anything with a serial interface. Because whatever it may be - it might run Linux and TCP/IP if it can connect in some way to the outer world.
Turning the watch "on" feels like having a mini entry level Palm Organizer having around your wrist. It's solid and big. Still, it's somewhat elegant and looks more stylish than the 50.-$ cheaper Abacus version, by combining black leather with brushed steel.
If you live in a big city and might end up in a street fight, you can sacrifice the not so good display to have an edge in the fight. The display has background illumination, which is more than the cheapest Palm devices come with.
8 MB RAM total leaves you enough to install Palm OS 4.1 compatible software. There's much free stuff out there on the net - so you won't have problems to feed your PDA Watch with programs beyond with what it comes with.
Some apps don't seem to work though: I had difficulties to get any alarm clock or remote control software to get work right. Also, many "drawing" programs seem to cause a crash.
While you can do things like download your text messages from your cell phone to/from your PDA Watch, I would have really liked to see a watch (!) come with a speaker loud enough create a working "wake-up" sound volume.
Even, when you're awake, you may not hear the alarm of an appointment from your datebook, especially, because the alarm function is not piped thru, when the PDA Watch is in "watch mode" with the PDA turned off.
Finding a remote control software that didn't crash the watch or was readable was also not possible. So controlling your TV/DVD/VCR/CD won't happen at least for now. The TV would have to be close anyways, because the range of the IR isn't too big. It does let you beam information to other Palms easily, however.
It's true, some programs are much better readable on the tiny display than others. You have to try and see.
Data entry with the supplied pen is painful - get a PDA replacement pen! This is really important if you actually intend to enter data into you Watch beyond sync-ing it. In fact, get PDA pen with a built in LED (i.e. Belkin, ca 15.-$). In dark areas you can rather use the LED of the pen than the PDA Watch's own light. The PDA Watch allows for both - Gaffity 2 and the newer Jot technique for handwriting recognition. The keyboard is there too, if you need it - but it's small!
Getting your PDA Watch sync with Apple's iSync or the Palm Desktop v 4.0 is easy. Using the more recent Palm Desktop v4.2.1 caused problems, also + especially when iSync is what you really want. Keep it with Palm Desktop v 4.0 on the Mac side.
If you are on a multi day trip without a computer around, make sure you take the supplied charger along with the special USB cable.
Summary:
Sometimes it's not so much what the monkey has to say, but that the monkey can talk at all!
It is really possible to have the same contact infos, calender + datebook + to-do-items synchronized on your computer, PDA Watch and mobile phone, using i.e. iSync under Mac OS X Panther. But you will still need your phone's alarm function. Typing a SMS with T9 on your phone is still faster and also send out quicker than to write it on your PDA Watch and finally any Nintendo Game boy has more to offer in the games section - but yes - you can play anything from backgammon, black jack, chess, checkers to Monopoly. But please don't try to do spreadsheets from work with it
...
You can use it for electronic books or dictionaries, but need good vision.
On the wish list:
- louder speaker
- alarms working with PDA off
- TCP/IP
- email + ssh client
- larger battery
- better display (shades)
