Comment by orionblastar
9 years ago
I worked at a law firm from 1997 to 2001. I was a person who liked gizmos and wrote programs for them as a programmer analyst. Whenever someone got a Gizmo like a Royal PDA with Datalink abilities to sync with Outlook they sent me to help. I even bought a Timex Datalink watch. There was Windows CE devices, and PalmPilots too. I had worked on a web based docket calendar and some of these devices had a calendar that synced with Outlook.
Apple had the Newton but poor handwriting recognition. Palmpilots had something like shorthand, but also a pop-up keyboard or an external keyboard as well.
I remember working with the Davinci devices as well.
It is good to see the start of the market, before Palm.
The Timex Datalink was the original smart watch and they even had apps for it, but it didn't have much in the way of memory and synced with Outlook using a program that only worked in Windows 95 unless you had the notebook adapter.
I lusted after a Timex Datalink so hard in the late '90s. Still being a teenager, I didn't have any data worthy of actually walking around like that (nor the money to buy one), but I was the kid who loved gadgets and that was the gadget in my mind. I'd all but forgot about it until you mentioned it, despite walking around with an Apple Watch every day for the last year.
I had different alarms set on it for waking up, to getting to work on time, when work was over, and getting home, and going to bed. I never figured out how to make an app for it but it didn't have much memory on it and only so many buttons.
These days I am sick and disabled and cannot afford an Apple Watch and don't have an iPhone to work with it.
I remember stores didn't carry the Timex Datalink anymore, I had to find it at Walmart Jewelry sections and have them call different stores to see who had it in stock.