Entered CNET Catalog: 02/01/2005
SKU: FX20082208
Manufacturer: Fossil, Inc.
Manufacturer description
Check more than just the time with this Wrist PDA watch, a revolutionary personal organizer cleverly disguised as a stylish wristwatch with a black leather strap. This oversized watch, powered by the Palm OS platform, can store hundreds of contacts, check your calendar, and make a To-Do list from its surprisingly big 8MB of memory. Other features include convenient drop-down menus, alarm reminder window for recurring appointments, a memo pad, and a selection of different time and date displays to give your Wrist PDA its own personalized "dial" when not in PDA mode. A stylus is integrated into the buckle.Product summary
The good: Mac compatible; stable Palm OS 4.1; unlike Microsoft SPOT watches, it doesn't require a monthly or yearly service fee.
The bad: Display elements are tiny and difficult to manipulate; using the stylus is a joke; not water resistant.
The bottom line: From the tiny display to the difficult input methods, the Fossil Wrist PDA isn't worth the price. Windows users interested in a smart watch will find their needs better met with one of Microsoft's SPOT watches.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 03/03/2005
Physically, the Fossil Wrist PDA is huge. Of course, that's not necessarily a bad thing, seeing that chunky cuff-type watches are in--for the moment. On the left side of the watch is the Back button, which takes you one step out of the interface. Above that is the USB port, which has a plastic cover. On the top of the watch is the infrared port, and on the right side, you'll find the page-up and -down buttons that flank the three-directional rocker switch, all of which are easy to use. Criticisms aside, the Fossil Wrist PDA feels pretty good and solid on the arm, as it should at 3.8 ounces. Nevertheless, we were disappointed that the Fossil Wrist PDA is not water resistant, unlike the various SPOT watches that work with Microsoft's MSN Direct service. Furthermore, battery life is relatively short, at about three to four days. Thankfully, you can charge the Fossil Wrist PDA via the included USB cable.
The Fossil Wrist PDA runs Palm OS 4.1and is powered by a Motorola DragonBall Super VZ 66MHz processor. Add to that 8MB of built-in memory, and you have a smart watch that also packs some brawn--in theory. Furthermore, since the Fossil Wrist PDA is essentially just another Palm device, it will run most Palm OS applications. Of course, its monochrome 1-inch (diagonal) display is a scant 160x160 pixels, so you can imagine how good most third-party applications will look on it. Applications specifically designed to run on the Fossil Wrist PDA will work better. That said, however, at the time of this writing, there were only a handful of such applications available, including PIM software such as HoliDates and Wassup and games such as Karateka and Sub Patrol. As far as customizing the look of your screen, you can choose from 11 watch faces.
The Fossil Wrist PDA ships with several useful applications: an address book, a date book, a to-do list, a memo pad, and a calculator, among others. The Fossil Wrist PDA connects to your PC or Mac via the included USB cable and uses PalmOne's HotSync application to sync data between the device and your computer. Our test machine initially had some problems detecting the Fossil Wrist PDA, but eventually, we were able to connect to our Windows-based PC. Also, since the Wrist PDA has an infrared port, it supports beaming data and infrared HotSync operations. Once we were able to make the connection to our PC, synchronization was smooth.
Being able to access the date book and the address book on the go was fantastic, but inputting data to the Fossil Wrist PDA was, for lack of a better word, a joke. The Fossil Wrist PDA ships with a tiny foldable stylus that is tucked into the clasp of the watchband, and you can use it to input data to the device via its touch screen through handwriting recognition or the insultingly tiny virtual keyboard. When shown the virtual keyboard, one of our colleagues remarked that the device was like a computer built for a dollhouse.
The smart watch scene is young, particularly the PDA-type breed, and because of this, the whole genre has some growing up to do. That said, while there's a lot that we like about Microsoft's SPOT watches (for instance, their ability to update your watch with real-time data on the go), there isn't much that we like about the Fossil Wrist PDA. The display is so small and the text and onscreen elements are so difficult to read that using the device is more frustrating than helpful. We'd opt for a standalone Palm device before going with the Fossil Wrist PDA.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13out of 13 user reviews
Comes with just a 3 month warranty on a shoddy product
Pros: I like the service
Cons: The watch broke under normal use before I had it 9 months
out of 13 user reviews
wrist watch HEAVYWEIGHT
Pros: cool OS, no one else has one
Cons: a bit dated feeling, way too heavy and thick, not color
it sux that it is not water resistant and is so heavy and cumbersome
it is fun to play games but some of my buttons are really hard and make it difficult to use
i think i will take it back and wait for the next generation one that isnt so archaic feeling
out of 13 user reviews
price mis-reported
Pros: A PDA on your hand!
Cons: Hard data entry, Short battery life.
out of 13 user reviews
This Palm OS PDA stays with you.
Pros: Harder to froget, loose, or break than most other PDA/phone.
Cons: Not preset to the loudest sounding alarm.
If you do not like the stylus in the watch band, you can buy a combination pen/stylus. That is what I did and it works for me. Then you still have the stylus in the band for emergency.
Not all the alarms are loud, so you need to find one of the louder alarms. It would have helped if they preset it to the loudest alarm. Also, turn off the IR to make the battery last longer. It is turned on by default.
Someone inventive could put the body in a hard case and turn it into a pocket watch/PDA. I know of no other Palm OS PDA that is as small in diameter.
I am never without my watch, so now I am never without a PDA.
I gave it a rating of 10 for what it is, not what people want it to be. Otherwise I should give all PDAs a 2 or 3 compared to desktop computers.
out of 13 user reviews
Can't hear alarms and battery life is terrible...sent it back
Pros: Neat concept...ready for round 2 attempt
Cons: I freshly charged the battery and it lasted all of 6 hours. I wanted to use this as an alarm to alert me of scheduled items in my Outlook calendar. Beeps were too quiet to hear.
out of 13 user reviews
I think its not bad, but have some marks
Pros: The good thing in it, thats is convinent and it has a nice shape with many features
Cons: it has a small keys, and its not colorfull, small icons
out of 13 user reviews
Love this gadget!
Pros: Quality product with much usefulness
Cons: Not water-proof but then neither is my PC
out of 13 user reviews
Awesome product
Pros: Does everything my PC does
Cons: Used a bigger stylus sometimes
out of 13 user reviews
pretty good
Pros: A real Palm, on the wrist. How many watches let you write software for them? (Besides the OnHand one :)
Cons: Tiny display, tiny speaker, battery life
of pixels as most older Palms, which might
not be clear from the main review
One fun aspect of the watch is that the
Wrist PDA specific developers are interacting with the users (frequently at the Yahoo! wristpda group,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wristpda )
The Software Development Kit (SDK) is free
from Fossil.
I enter calendar/contact information via
the Palm Desktop on my PC, because data entry on the Wrist PDA is indeed a bit hard.
If this had come out before the Treo 300,
it would be a definite winner. How,
however, it's less interesting to the
mainstream user. People who like gadgets
will love it.
I'm currently running the "binary" watch
face (free if you have "Bob's Watch", check the Yahoo! wristpda group for info),
and there's a contest to design your
own face ... what other watch lets you
do that?
out of 13 user reviews
Try the TIMEX DataLink USB $60-$99
Pros: Hi-Tech look
Cons: Too expensive
out of 13 user reviews
Nice PDA-Watch with room to improve
Pros: Palm OS 4.1.1 compatible, runs stable, Serial interface (USB, IR)
Cons: Display, small battery, speaker + alarm functions.
Turning the watch "on" feels like having a mini entry level Palm Organizer having around your wrist. It's solid and big. Still, it's somewhat elegant and looks more stylish than the 50.-$ 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)
out of 13 user reviews
Mine rocks!
Pros: everything! i have my pda on my wrist, after losing my first pda in a cab i'll never go back to old school pda's
Cons: it's a bit bulky i have to admit...
out of 13 user reviews
Gotta give them an A for effort
Pros: Palm platform is simplistic and works
Cons: A Stylus that folds into the clasp?
