Casio PC-UNITE Watch

The full name for this product is Casio PC-UNITE (Module No 1510)ores important information. Watch, but the sexiness of the product and its ease of use do not really deserve such a cumbersome name.

The PC-UNITE comes with the hardware and software that will allow you to store all of your most important contacts, schedules and other pieces of information inside the watch. And if you are thinking here about those dinky little watches with miniature keyboards, then you can think again.

Unlike the Microsoft/ Timex Datalink, which uses optical scanning as the process for transferring data between the PC and the watch, the Casio uses an infra-red link. An external infra-red connector is provided with the watch, for those of you who don't already have one on your PC. The data can also be input in the cumbersome and traditional way, by choosing every single character from a list when constructing entries. However, we wouldn't recommend this method over the infra-red link, as it is so time-consuming.

The additional data functions included with the PC-UNITE provide everything you would expect: contact database, scheduler and things to do list. There is also an option for world time.

The watch has 9.7KB of memory and can hold up to 340 records in each one of its functions. The software provided with the watch allows you to fill in the appropriate slots on the computer and then download them from the machine.

The infra-red link works at 9,600bps, which is not that fast, but matches the average speed of other infra-red links in the marketplace. The watch has to be less than 12 n away from the link when this is done and it also needs to be held relatively still. One other interesting possibility is if you meet someone with a similar watch. It is possible to transfer data from your watch to theirs, simply by beaming it over.

It takes some time to dig out all of the hidden functions of this watch but it is definitely worth it. Not only does it hold a surprising amount of data but it also looks good.

PRODUCT INFO

Casio PC-UNITE Watch

In Brief: Despite the cumbersome name, the Casio PC-UNITE is a sexy and feature-rich watch which allows you to remotely enter data into a PC.

Availability: www.casio.com

Price: $199

Installation: ****

Ease of use: ****

Documentation: *****

Features: ****

Performance: *****

Overall: ****