Edited by author 11-18-2003 06:47 AM
They can forget it as far as I'm concerned. If all the thing does is display data, my cellphone can do that. All the thing needs to do, is talk to my phone by Bluetooth. If my lifestyle means I sometimes don't carry my phone but I still want to receive data on my watch - during a squash game, say - that's pretty sad, isn't it?

A useable data /input/ device on my wrist, and now we're talking. Even without radio. Unfortunately, as you said, the Fossil/Abacus PalmOS wristwatch is postponed, and I gather the current release date - did you say this is Q1-2004 as well? - isn't a promise.

FrogPad looks interesting... a (not necessarily so designed) wearable Bluetooth mini-keyboard. Not yet, though, and if it's taken them this long to implement USB, and a partner is helping them Bluetooth-ize it, and if the Bluetooth Tax /plus/ the Disability Funky Keyboard Captive Market Tax both apply - and remember, these metaphorical surcharges are multiplicative - ouch.

OTOH, somewhere I was reading about someone selling a box that converts USB to wireless, not necessarily Bluetooth - I forget - the idea is, box A plugs into USB on the PC or whatever, and box B plugs to your USB peripheral, such as Frogpad... we're there. 'Course, box B you have to tuck under your arm while you walk around typing. ;-)

They think FrogPad is a cute accessory to Tablet PC. I'm not sure, particularly with the cable. I'd rather have software; I'm still writing this on a Tablet using the solution from <http://www.fitaly.com/>; - creatively (two instances, separate clicker instead of pen point). This product is useful and good, on Palm /and/ Tablet (and Pocket PC, etc.), but the implementation is jammed in beta development hell (100,000 Tablets sold worldwide appears to be the whole potential market, so it's on the back burner to say the least) and is too darned small, to which I have no solution yet: if anyone knows of magnifier software which lets you click on the magnified image through to the application being magnified, tell robert.carnegie@seemis.com . Please. Please please.

Of cours, Disability Captive Tax also applies to software. Typists with one working hand can buy a product that flips half the standard keyboard onto the other half, with spacebar as shift key. Price last seen, $400, although I think it's implemented in Linux for free - don't tell SCO, 'cause it's surely patented.

Conversely, when I bought Fitaly for PalmPilot, I benefitted from the PDA Application Price Ceiling, where the price tag of consumer software (1) may not exceed the price of the hardware it runs on and (2) is proportional to device size... something else that I see biting Microsoft over SPOT. $10 may not be much any more, but I still think you'd be crazy to pay even that as a monthly fee on a wristwatch. I predict wearable sundials making a comeback, sunlight is free :-)
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