Review of the Abacus Wrist PDA (AU5005)

The first time I calibrated by Wrist PDA,I was too hasty, and I didn't tap close enough to the center of the targets whichmade the watch pretty frustrating to use since the ensuing configurationscreens have you tapping tiny arrows which are very difficult to hit if the screenhas not been calibrated properly. Don't worry, though -- if you screw up your firstattempt, you can always go back and recalibrate anytime you need to (go to "Prefs"and select "Digitizer" from the menu). Once the touch screen has been accuratelycalibrated, I found the watch to be surprisingly easy to navigate.The next thing you're going to want to do is set up the desktop software. Thereare two parts: the Palm Desktop (which you can replace with Outlook, if you want),and the HotSync Manager (the software that manages the process of synching thewatch with either Outlook or the Palm Desktop). There are a lot of different possibleconfigurations: Windows, Mac, Palm Desktop, Outlook. It might even be possible to get the watch to sync with Apple iCal and Address Book using iSync,though I didn't try it. In fact, I only tested the plain vanilla installation ofthe Palm Desktop on Windows XP Professional, and everything worked just as expected.4 MB flash ROM memory + 8MB RAM memory (7.7MB RAM available for use).Touch screen LCD with 160x160 resolution and 16-level grayscale display.Lithium-ion rechargeable battery.ApplicationsThe Wrist PDA comes with the following 12 applications installed:Address. Manage contact information. Calc. Why buy a calculator watch when you can have an entire PDA on your wrist? DateBook. Manage appointments. HotSync. Initiates the synchronizing operation with your PC. Jot. Configure Jot preferences, tune Jot for improved handwriting recognition,and practice with the Jot tutorial. MemoPad. Manage *** memos. Prefs. Configure and customize your Wrist PDA.Security. Lock your Wrist PDA, and assign a password. Skills. General tutorial on the Wrist PDA and the Palm OS. ToDoList. Manage lists of to do items. Watch. Puts the watch into watch mode (details below). Welcome. Go through the initial setup routine.Getting Started with the Abacus Wrist PDAOne of the nice things about the Wrist PDA (over, say, an MSN Direct watch) isthat you don't have to wait for it to fully charge before you can start playingwith it since it can easily be operated while charging. When you first plug thewatch in, after a couple of Palm and Fossil branding screens, you are asked tocalibrate the touch screen by tapping in the center of three little targets. Takethis step very seriously and tap as accurately as you possibly can. On full sizedPalms, it's not such a big deal, but with the Wrist PDA, you are working at sucha small scale that every pixel counts.