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The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

lunduke.substack.com

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Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#21

Post by LightG »

zwog wrote: post #13

I was still in school in the first half of the 2000s and spent a lot of my hard earned money on more or less useful and smart hardware, especially smartphones (mostly called PDA-phones in the pre-iPhone era) and with hardware keyboard. I think my first device was the HTC Blue Angel. I also had a Treo 600 and the Palm Abacus. Those were really nice devices, PalmOS was way better than Windows Mobile and worlds better t…

Right there with you.

Palm was fun to use. To be fair, by the time HTC started releasing cool looking PDA's, Microsoft did ok, just slow and buggy. Symbian was cobblers ... the worst.

I miss that primordial soup of those times.

Weird laptops, crazy PDA ideas, etc. Utterly boring now, despite being exponentially more useful.

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#22

Post by testmasterflex »

blenderdt wrote: post #14

When I read articles like this one I always have to think about companies like Apple and Tesla. Apple didn't invent smartphones or touchscreens but they started the revolution. Tesla didn't invent EVs but started the revolution. What they have in common is that they pick the best of existing technologies and combine that into a product that is ahead of the competition. They don't invent new things but invent better t…

Agree. I can’t wait to get a hold of the Soli radar chip from Google and put it inside of a Loodio.

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#23

Post by andreicap »

Ir0nMan wrote: post #2

Pebble shutdown almost 8 years ago now and there does still not to be a replacement or alternative that can: last up to a week of battery life, do basic things like allow you to get and read notifications, and be a watch.

The Fossil Hybrid[1] series with the E-ink screens is by far my favorite "smartwatch" right now, and has a ~10 days battery (claimed 2 weeks). Does basic sports, heart and sleep tracking, shows notifications, customisable watchfaces and a bunch of other stuff I don't really care about.

[1] https://www.fossil.com/en-ch/smartwatches/hybrid-smartwatche...

Edit: it shows the time using physical arrows, so you have it accessible 24/24 (they glow at night).

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#24

Post by LeoPanthera »

So I actually had one of these. I kept it for about a year.

The theory was good, but the screen was hard to read, required a stylus (a tiny one was hidden in the strap), and there's only so much you can do without a data connection. I used to HotSync news stories to it every morning but realistically a better source of up to date news was still a radio.

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#25

Post by mjhagen »

testmasterflex wrote: post #22
blenderdt wrote: post #14

When I read articles like this one I always have to think about companies like Apple and Tesla. Apple didn't invent smartphones or touchscreens but they started the revolution. Tesla didn't invent EVs but started the revolution. What they have in common is that they pick the best of existing technologies and combine that into a product that is ahead of the competition. They don't invent new things but invent better t…

Agree. I can’t wait to get a hold of the Soli radar chip from Google and put it inside of a Loodio.

After a web search I came to the conclusion those are actual things. I honestly thought you just made those words up.

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#26

Post by grapeskin »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #15
blenderdt wrote: post #14

When I read articles like this one I always have to think about companies like Apple and Tesla. Apple didn't invent smartphones or touchscreens but they started the revolution. Tesla didn't invent EVs but started the revolution. What they have in common is that they pick the best of existing technologies and combine that into a product that is ahead of the competition. They don't invent new things but invent better t…

IMO, the original Nintendo DS made the concept of touch truly mainstream, but wasn't multitouch.

Yeah, touch was a total joke when the DS came out. It was ridiculed as a useless concept.

Just a few years later and people are more confused when their device has buttons instead of a touch screen.

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#27

Post by colordrops »

hammyhavoc wrote: post #15
blenderdt wrote: post #14

When I read articles like this one I always have to think about companies like Apple and Tesla. Apple didn't invent smartphones or touchscreens but they started the revolution. Tesla didn't invent EVs but started the revolution. What they have in common is that they pick the best of existing technologies and combine that into a product that is ahead of the competition. They don't invent new things but invent better t…

IMO, the original Nintendo DS made the concept of touch truly mainstream, but wasn't multitouch.

It had a resistive touchscreen. What made you touchscreens truly mainstream were capacitive screens

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#28

Post by hackernewds »

Ir0nMan wrote: post #2

Pebble shutdown almost 8 years ago now and there does still not to be a replacement or alternative that can: last up to a week of battery life, do basic things like allow you to get and read notifications, and be a watch.

There are in fact a lot of watches that can do this. Fitbit Charge 5 for example

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#29

Post by jollybean »

blenderdt wrote: post #20
jollybean wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they didn't start anything, rather, they jumped in to create a tipping point.

I don't know if that is true. Tesla for example did become big because they had the best range. And they still have compared to most brands. If Tesla failed to create cars with a great range they didn't become as big as they are now.

Yes, but that's what I mean - that category had existed for a while, they did a few things to make it viable. Same with watches, smartphones and eventually 3D.

Re: The PalmOS powered wristwatch from Fossil

#30

Post by mateuszf »

Ir0nMan wrote: post #2

Pebble shutdown almost 8 years ago now and there does still not to be a replacement or alternative that can: last up to a week of battery life, do basic things like allow you to get and read notifications, and be a watch.

> last up to a week of battery life, do basic things like allow you to get and read notifications, and be a watch.

Actually there is something that does that, my favorite watch: https://www.withings.com/us/en/steel-hr

The battery lasts a month. The only thing which would improve it would be NFC payments, but one can't have it all.

Also looks good IMO.

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