Six weeks with a WristPDA

Filed under: Business, Games, Internet, Text, Utilities, Palm, Office, Productivity, PalmSource, Shareware, Freeware

How does a Palm work on the wrist? I spent nearly two months wearing an Abacus (a Fossil sub-brand) WristPDA to see how useful all those Palm apps could function strapped to my arm all day. Here I'll give you a list of the software I used, and some tips on getting the most out of such a device. I picked up my WristPDA online for under $70 after reading MAKE's write up on the subject. The OS is just 4.0, but enough to handle some of the better old apps out there, and the device has more RAM than my Palm V (best form factor ever) or Handspring Visor.

So this was intended to be a data entry device for my wrist. The form factor is a bit small, but tolerable. What really killed me was Jot. Fossil/Abacus has included Jot because there's no silk screen text entry area on the watch- the entire face is a data entry screen. Problem is Jot just didn't "do it" for me. Switching to Graffiti2 didn't work so well either. Guess I'm just stuck in my OS 3.5 days. Besides, using Jot happens to interfere with some apps. This was probably the biggest problem with the WristPDA. Many apps are not designed to use it's one screen area, and almost none are configured for the change in buttons (you have a rocker switch on the side, and no application buttons). Turning Jot on and off takes several steps, so I wish there was a macro feature on the Palm OS in general.

See the apps I used after the jump.

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Six weeks with a WristPDA originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:00:08 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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