Palm OS Wristwatch Runs Latemaybe Microsoft beat them to it? Fossil delays its plans to put a PDA on your wrist--again.
Tom Krazit, IDG News Service
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
Plans for Fossil's Palm OS-based smart wristwatch are back to square one. The version that was expected to be out in the middle of last year has been shelved in favor of a less expensive and more powerful version of the watch, now scheduled for release in the middle of this year, Fossil says.
Fossil has experienced a number of problems over the past year regarding the 1-inch display of the Wrist PDA with Palm OS (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,107006,00.asp) , according to a company spokesperson. The LCD partner that Fossil and manufacturing partner Flextronics International chose for the Wrist PDA was unable to deliver a display that met minimum quality standards, he says.
Complete Redesign?
"We've had to make the hard decision over the past month to basically redesign the product," the spokesperson says. "We're using this timeframe to further reduce costs and raise performance specifications so we can launch a more competitive product by the summer of 2004," he says.
Fossil declined to release the name of the LCD manufacturer. The Wrist PDA was supposed to ship last year, but several delays related to the display plagued the product's introduction, the spokesperson says. An inferior touchscreen material was chosen for the display, and the backlight could have failed over the long term, the spokesperson says.
The problems with the display have been responsible for the delays last year and this quarter, the spokesperson says. A representative from Flextronics did not immediately return an e-mail message and phone call seeking comment.
Full Featured PDA
The Wrist PDA with Palm OS allows users to do just about everything they could do with a Palm OS-based PDA. Fossil, which makes watches of the more normal variety, garnered rave reviews for its Wrist PDA when the product was introduced (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,107043,00.asp) at Comdex in 2002, where it won a Best of Comdex award.
The company lists two types of smart watches on its Web site, the MSN Wrist Net and the Wrist PDA. Fossil is taking orders for several versions of the MSN Wrist Net with an expected ship date of next Wednesday, after that product was also delayed in November (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113497,00.asp) .
The MSN Wrist Net is powered by Microsoft's Smart Personal Objects Technology (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113897,00.asp) , and was featured in Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. It uses a different display supplier, the spokesperson says.
The new version of the Wrist PDA with Palm OS will ship with higher performing components in order to be more competitive with regular PDAs currently available, the spokesperson says. It will cost less than the $275 list price of the Fossil Sport, or the $295 list price of the Fossil Casual and Fossil Dress Wrist PDAs that had been available for preorder on Fossil's site and through Amazon.com, he says.
Fossil is working with Amazon to "take care of" any customers that preordered the watches, the spokesperson says. He declines to comment on whether any refunds had been made.
Latest Trojan 'Phishes' For Personal DataNews from: CRNA new trojan thats an offshoot of a recently discovered Internet worm is attempting to empty PC users bank accounts by duping them into disclosing personal information, an anti-virus company said Friday. Mmdload-A was distributed apparently through a mass mailing in an attempt to trick people into downloading the recently discovered Mimail-N worm, Sophos said. The trojan is the latest looking to gather PC users personal financial data, so that "the bad guys can completely drain their bank accounts," Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst at the Lynnfield, Mass.-based company, said.
AOL to offer movie downloadsFrom Cnet News.com
America Online will launch a promotion Wednesday that lets its members download full-feature films through Movielink for 99 cents a title.
America Online will launch a promotion Wednesday that lets its members download full-feature films through Movielink for 99 cents a title, company representatives said Tuesday.
Sun plans Linux software pushNews from Cnet News.comThe company plans to expand its Linux software portfolio substantially over the coming year, including a version of its Java server software suite.
IBM wants to move you from WindowsBig Blue will offer free classes on migrating from Windows NT.
IBM is readying a program to push its enterprise software running on Linux as an alternative to Microsoft software running on that company's soon-to-be discontinued Windows NT operating system.
The program, announced ahead of this week's LinuxWorld show in New York, offers business partners free migration classes, and some discounts on software and services for users moving to IBM software running on Linux.
Microsoft is discontinuing support and security patches for Windows NT (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110054,00.asp) at the end of this year, requiring nearly two million customers to develop a migration strategy, IBM says.
Classes and Costs
Big Blue's classes will be offered worldwide, and will cover migration to IBM hardware and software for needs such as database management, collaboration, security, systems and network management, Web and application serving, and file and print serving.
The Armonk, New York, company is also offering discounts on Lotus Domino running on Linux for any IBM eServer, including its zSeries mainframe, to customers moving from Windows programs like Microsoft Exchange.
Special programs are also being offered for migration from Microsoft SQL Server to DB2 Universal Database on Linux and for security and network management migrations.
Microsoft first announced that it was retiring Windows NT (http://www.pcworld.com/resource/browse/0,cat,1219,sortIdx,1,00.asp) in September 2001, in an effort to get users to adopt its Windows 2000 family of products. Support and security fixes are due to be discontinued on January 1, 2005, and online support will cease December 31, 2004, according to the company's Web site.
Perfect Timing?
IBM's timing is good, says James Governor, principal analyst with RedMonk in London.
"Users are definitely looking at Linux to reduce their total cost of ownership around Windows (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114100,00.asp) and at the same time IBM is savvy to the fact that it can make extra money on pieces of software and services," Governor says.
Linux has proven itself stable and less expensive (http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,107517,00.asp) than Windows on the server side, and there is already great momentum for customers to move to the platform, he adds.
"Linux is not hard to sell at the moment, and IBM has done a great job at associating itself with Linux," Governor says.
However, Jean van Laarhoven, systems manager for part of Amsterdam's city government and a Windows NT user, says that despite Linux's purported benefits, he's sticking with Microsoft.
"I don't trust the evolvement of Linux. It depends too much on hobbyism," Van Laarhoven says. Besides, no one in his three-person department knows about Unix or Linux systems.
"We would have to go back to school," Van Laarhoven says. Even though IBM is offering classes to help users migrate, for the time being Van Laarhoven isn't interested.
While Van Laarhoven is reluctant to migrate to Linux, IBM will likely get some takers, according to Governor.
"Linux on the server has really proved itself and most ISVs [independent software vendors] are supporting Linux," he says. "This is going to be a very challenging year for Microsoft," he adds.
Microsoft representatives in the U.K. weren't immediately available to comment on IBM's migration offer Tuesday.
This just looks like fun to play withNew Yorkers Can Fight Parking Tickets By Phone
NY1.comThere's a new way to fight a parking ticket the minute you get it.
An Internet service that has been challenging citations for two years, parkingticket.com, has expanded to include a toll-free telephone number, 1-888-NYC-PARK.
“When they dial the phone number, they'll be able to input information from the ticket and we will actually guarantee that their ticket will be dismissed or reduced,” said Glen Bolofsky, President of 1-888-NYC-PARK.
The company was started by a group of former judges and police officers who guarantee they can beat or reduce your ticket, or you don't have to pay them a fee. If they're successful, though, the company charges half the price of the ticket.
The company currently fights tickets in New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco
Get your resumes readyIBM to add 15,000 new jobs
ReutersBig Blue will hire 15,000 new employees--50 percent more than originally planned--in areas such as software and services because of a rebound in the economy, a top executive says.
