Fossil Abacus - Palm PDA Watch

Pro's:
- You have a PDA that is fairly unobtrusive that is always with you becuase you wear it.
- The software is an old version of Palm software that has been customised for a watch - if you are after simple PDA functionality (you shouldn't want more in this form factor!) the software works very well and is intuitive to use.
- The PC/Mac software is very useful and synchronisation with you diary and address book is simple.
- There is a good range of add-on software available on the web.
- Entering brief notes and appointments directly onto the watch is easier than you would expect (easier than a mobile phone for instance).

Con's:
- The battery only lasts about 2-3 days, when it runs out you need to resychronise with your PC/Mac and any data entered since your last synchronisation is lost.
- The screen is too dim, meaning you have to use the backlight a lot.
- The watch is not waterproof.
- You will either love the style or hate it. The watch is big and bulky, it won't fit on very slim wrists.

I now use my Fossil Abacus as a main watch at work, finding the lack of being waterproof less useful at weekends. Even with room for improvement I find the product genuinely useful and quite a talking point, I no longer use my handheld PDA.

On balance if you are either an early technology adopter or use a calendar and address book simply but often, and you dont want to always carry a PDA or mobile - this product is both fun to own and value for money, held back from getting 5 stars by the niggles mentioned above.

Out of the Box - I plugged it into my USB Port (which also charges it with a powered USB Port) and Syncronized it with the data from my Existing Palm Data using Hotsync and within Minutes I had all the 7.4Mb of Data from my Palm viewable on my wrist! Even Photos from my Adobe Palm Photo program were viewable. Shame the the Scribble Notes which don't appear to be supported on this Palm were not there - It would be relatively easy though to install another Scribble Note App I think - Later I will have to setup 2 Profiles on my PC which will mean re-installing pdf reader, palmreader and Docs2go though. As copying over the Palm User Directory only seems to not install these apps properly. It may be possible though to beam them from my Palm I think.

You don't need special Watch Apps as almost any Palm Apps will work as long as it doesn't require use of the keys - some games which need the Memo etc Button won't work. These Watch does have some notable bad points:

* Battery Life (with normal use of PDA etc) only around 1-2 days

* Screen too dim

* Handwriting Recog s/w doesn't seems as good/accurate as my Palm Handheld

* Not all Standard Palm Buttons are supported which meant I was unable to play my GameBoy Emulator Games *:-(

* A tad to big to wear for everyday use.

* No Scribble Note Taking Feature or ability to View Others

* Would have liked a Memory Slot SD Card? - as 8MB will soon get used up I imagine - but imagine it would make the watch too big

Overall though at this price I'd recommend it - Its a handy backup for your Palm and wearable when you don't want to carry a Palm with you - good in the Summer. Seen it cheaper in the USA but by the time you've paid postage its only a tad more expensive on Amazon.

I bought this to replace my ageing matsucom onhand PDA watch as it is a bit expensive on batteries it not being rechargable and only runs for 3 months on a pair of lithium cells.
My primary use is to sync with outlook for alarm reminders.
The syncing part it will do great, but the alarm is pathetic, almost inaudible, in fact the button press beep is louder and there is no way to change the tone of the sound (unlike the onhand)
A real shame as other than that its quite nice (especialy for 38quid)
one other little niggle is the sylus which is held in the strap is hidden when the strap is done up and the excess held down by the loop so you have to fiddle a little to get it out.

Ive had a few lockups and reports from the pc that the usb device has malfunctioned but a soft reset sorted it out and no data was lost

I also wanted to try and use one of the palm remote programs, but as yet have not managet to get them to work with the built in IR of the abacus