Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.dal.ca!silvert From: silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert) Newsgroups: comp.sys.laptops Subject: Re: Seiko RC1000 Wrist Terminal (+ watch) Summary: Ditto, to a degree Message-ID: <1990Mar28.182248.23185@cs.dal.ca> Date: 28 Mar 90 18:22:48 GMT References: <54152@bbn.COM> Sender: silvert@cs.dal.ca.UUCP (Bill Silvert) Reply-To: bill@biomel.UUCP Distribution: na Organization: Habitat Ecology Div., Bedford Inst. of Oceanography Lines: 52 In article <54152@bbn.COM> tluteran@spca.bbn.com (Thomas Luteran) writes: >>Fun Magazine, that Computer Shopper. Anyone out there own the bizarre >>"wrist PC"? Looks like fun for $30! > > YES, I've got one! It's pretty neat! I was thinking about getting >a Portfolio, Wizard or BOSS to help me keep track of alarms, but I saw >this for 1/10th the price and figured I'd give it a try first, for kicks. I bought and liked one too, but then I bought a Casio 7500 which I much prefer. It is however convenient to have the info on your wrist, the tradeoff is the greater functionality and clarity of the organizer vs. the small size and portability of the Seiko. > Once you 've set up your pages on the PC you download to the watch by >putting it into receive mode (TERMINAL, then LOCK buttons). I've had lots of trouble with the connector on mine and usually have to try the download about a dozen times. Keep in mind that you HAVE to use the PC to load the Seiko -- you cannot program it on the fly. With my Casio I can enter new telephone numbers at any time, but with the Seiko I have to use a PC and have the software and cable with me. There was another comment about the protocol in use -- the Seiko software is written in BASIC, so you have the source code. It runs fine with GWBASIC, but not with QuickBasic. > The watch is a little bigger than a simple Casio digital watch that >I've been wearing for the last five or so years. It has a light. It is >not as easy to read as the Casio, but it's display is made up of dots (pixels) I found mine very faint and hard to read, even with a new battery. It is worth the price, but I would now prefer an organizer. Lots more power in something that fits in a shirt pocket. Since the smaller Casio's now run about $125 in Canada and are presumably a lot less in the US, unless you really want the power on your wrist, the Seiko may prove more of a pain than it is worth. Still, having that kind of programmable alarm is nice -- however, my wrist watch, also a Casio, has three programmable alarms (with the feature that they can be set to go of daily or weekly), all that the Seiko adds to the alarms is: 1) You can program a single alarm up to a year in the future, which is great for remembering things like theatre dates... 2) You can read a short reminder of what the alarm is for... 3) You can have up to about 80 alarms. -- Bill Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS, Canada B2Y 4A2 UUCP: ...!{uunet,watmath}!dalcs!biomel!bill Internet: bill%biomel@cs.dal.CA BITNET: bill%biomel%dalcs@dalac