Marshall Brain's Blog

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Amazon is now advertising the Fossil "PDA Wristwatch" -- a Palm PDA in a wristwatch package:



It's $295. Looking at the technical data for the watch, it looks to be a normal PDA and includes the complete Palm OS, the infrared beaming capability, etc. The only possible problem is the screen size (160x160 -- hard to say if all palm apps would respond "normally" to a screen that small) and the battery life: "Approx. 4 days (Based on an average use of 30 minutes per day, with backlight set OFF. The battery life varies depending on the temperature and conditions of use." [Source: Amazon Technical Data page]

If you scroll down to my June 5 post on the Microsoft wireless watches, there are at least five questions that come to mind:

1. Will 2003 be looked upon as the "Year of the Big Watch"?
   
2. Are we seeing the first step in an evolutionary chain, so that by 2004 we are seeing watches double or triple in size again to become a "cuff" more than a watch?
   
3. How long will it be before cell phones are integrated in, talking to a Bluetooth headset (or maybe using a speaker phone) and voice-activated dialing to eliminate the keypad?
   
4. The obvious: how long before cell phones with cameras are integrated in, replicating the Dick Tracy video-phone watch?
   
5. What is going to be the solution to the battery problem, and how long will it take to get here? We need either to shrink batteries quite a bit more, or perfect the fuel cell battery, or develop a "wireless battery" -- the battery is on your belt or in your pocket, beaming power wirelessly to the watch.