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Tiny batteries offered only tinypower until recently, so sophis-ticated electronics in the formof a wristwatch remained in therealm of science fiction. But to-day it’s possible to put a coupleof watthours in a space the size ofa postage stamp, enabling a newgeneration of wearable gadgets.

Here’s what I tried strappingon my wrist this past spring:a PDA, an MP3 player, and a512-megabyte data bank.

The Wrist PDA with PalmOS, from Fossil Inc., based inRichardson, Texas, is a beauty atUS $250. Its screen may measureonly 1.4 inches diagonally, butwith 160 by 160 pixels, its reso-lution is the same as that ofmany full-size PDA screens.With 8 MB of RAM and infraredand USB ports for syncing andcharging, this watch is approx-imately equivalent in capabilityto a full-size PDA, such as thePalm IIIxe.

Though bigger than the aver-age watch, it is remarkably slim,considering what’s inside. And,like most Fossil products, it’sstylish. With the PDA turnedoff, the display shows one of11 watch faces you select, withanalog or digital readout choices.

The PDA works just like anyPalm, right down to the touchscreen and handwriting recog-nition. But the small size re-quires some changes to theinterface, since there’s no roomfor the standard application but-tons or the touch points printedonto the liquid-crystal displayof full-size PDAs. The FossilPDA replaces these with a niftythree-way rocker switch andseveral other buttons to navi-gate through most tasks with-out need for the stylus. Theusual Palm OS address, calen-dar, notes, and to-do applica-tions are included, and I had notrouble transferring data from

my desktop computerinto the watch.

The tiny, fold-out stylus is hid-den so well in theband’s buckle thatI had to read themanual to find it.It’s not for beefyhands, either; imag-ine writing with a4-centimeter-longpencil. You have tobe careful to keep thewatch charged; the bat-tery lasts four days atmost, and if it goes dead,you lose any data that youhaven’t synced with your desk-top computer.

I have only one real issuewith this überwatch: a tiny

screen is a tiny screen, and evenwith larger-than-normal fonts,it’s pretty tough on middle-aged eyes. This product mightbe what finally spurs me to getthose darn reading glasses.

If you’d rather carry a fewhours of music instead of yourcontact list and schedule, checkout the MP3 watch from XonixElectronics Co., Zhu Hai City,China. Xonix makes versions inflash memory sizes from 128 MB($130) to a full gigabyte ($280)under its own label, as well asfor Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft,and others. The watch itselfhas a quartz-controlled analogmovement with no date oralarm function. There is nodigital display. Instead, tinylight-emitting diodes embed-ded in the face indicate thestatus of the digital musicplayer. A full-size USB connec-tor is hidden in the band; nodrivers or special software arerequired for modern PC andMac operating systems.

The watch plays MP3 andWMA files and provides fiveacoustic modes—plain or opti-mized for jazz, pop, rock, orclassical; small earbuds areincluded. Especially when youwork out, you just can’t beathaving skip-free music on yourwrist, with little to weigh youdown. You can use the watch’sflash RAM to store files as well.An optional AC adapter isavailable for charging, or (aswith all of these wrist gadg-ets) you can charge the watchby plugging it into your com-puter’s USB port. My fa-

vorite feature of the Xonix isthe built-in voice recorder thatstores hours of notes. Themicrophone is in the watch, soyou can easily capture your dic-tation as WAV files for playbackthrough the earbuds or transferto your computer.

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IT’S ALL ON THE WRISTToday’s Dick Tracy wannabes can strap on PDAs, MP3 players,

TVs, flash drives, and cellphones BY MICHAEL JAY GEIER

August 2005 | IEEE Spectrum | NA 57

WRIST

RECITAL: This

watch from Xonix

[above] doubles as

an MP3 player, while

Fossil’s watch [below]

is a full-fledged PDA.

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58 IEEE Spectrum | August 2005 | NA

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The 512-MB Migo watch,$160 from PowerHouse Tech-nologies Group Inc., in SanRamon, Calif., adds a usefulnew touch to the data storagecategory. To let you make anyWindows PC emulate yourown machine, the Migo storesyour e-mail, Internet favorites,desktop settings, and more inthe watch’s password-securedmemory. Connect the watch toa PC and the computer willinstantly be reconfigured toreplicate your desktop.

Instead of carrying a note-book, you can plug this watchinto a hotel’s PC, or even intoone in an Internet café, andhave it become your own.

When you disconnect thewatch, all traces of your per-sonal information and settingsdisappear from the PC. Youhave to install software on yourPC to set up the Migo’s repli-cation features—but not onthe destination computer. Sofar, the full Migo functionswork only with Windows, butyou can also use the watch forsimple data storage with aMac. It popped right up on thedesktop of my OS 9 Mac.

Other amazing wristwatchdevices coming soon, but notavailable at press time, include asmaller version of last year’s$200 color wristwatch TV fromNHJ Ltd., Tokyo, with the same1.5-inch diagonal screen and amuch longer battery life thanthe current model, and a two-way Family Radio Service (FRS)radio with an 8-kilometer range,promised soon from Xact Com-munication LLC, New York City.Samsung Electronics Co., inSuwon, Korea, has shown a cell-phone watch prototype for sev-eral years now, and I’m stilllooking forward to that one. �

ABOUT THE AUTHORMICHAEL JAY GEIER hasbeen writing for the tech-nology press for 25 years.From Mar Vista, Calif., hecontributes regularly toEE Times, 73 AmateurRadio Today, and

HANDY DATA: The Migo watch

lets PC users duplicate their own

computer’s setup and data on

other PCs.

HUMOR