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Considering I grew up with Inspector Gadget, Knight Rider and Warren Beatty's portrayal of Dick Tracy, it's unsurprising that I've always craved a watch that doubles up as a phone. A 'photch' perhaps? Fortunately, my wishes are no longer a pipe-dream, as watchphones have been on the market for years. Chinese manufacturer Burg …

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  1. My Opinion
    Facepalm

    Exactly how disorganised are you?

    "makes an ideal backup phone for those inevitable moments when your regular handset dies"...."it has come to my rescue numerous times over the last week".

    My own phone gets regular use every day, yet I could not even begin to remember the last time, if ever, it ran out of battery on me. However, you seem to manage it with yours numerous times per week?

    Don't you ever think of charging it?

    PS: Despite your own apparent ineptitude I am still sorely temped by this "sick" device!

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    1. Leona A
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      Happy

      also

      if you forget to charge your phone, how are you going to remember to charge your watch-phone?

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      1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
        Reply Icon

        You can set an alarm..

        .. which may not work when the battery is down already :-)

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  2. Leona A
    Happy

    and sure impresses the ladies.

    and its available in pink = result! ;)

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    1. Steen Hive
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      I agree

      The missus can't get enough big, pink clock!

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  3. Jemma

    ...um....

    ...I already have a talking car...

    Tried out one of these watch phones, it was pretty good apart from the bit where it fell apart. Ran MTK OS and even took MicroSD cards and ran 3GP video files..

    I do like the integration of the numbers and call end/call keys - but this would be so much better using the numbers to do sms and have the inner of the watch as a hidden screen. I suspect though the second battery takes a little too much room in this example.

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  4. Eponymous Cowherd
    Unhappy

    Used to have a 1980's talking car....

    It was an '86 Renault 11 TXE "Electronic".

    Let me down badly one day. No, it didn't break down. I was pulled over by plod....

    Plod: "Are you aware you have a defective brake light"

    Me: "No officer"

    Car "Bong! Left brake light failed"

    Doh!

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  5. Trollslayer
    Thumb Up

    Nice vulture!

    And yes, very Dick Tracy.

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  6. Eugene Crosser
    Thumb Up

    The pet vulture FTW!

    that's all

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    1. eurobloke
      Reply Icon

      Stuffed bird

      If you subscribe to El Reg's twitter feed, the vulture is the picture.

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  7. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
    Thumb Down

    Don't agree on the recommendation

    Sorry, mate, that thing just looks fugly and impractical.

    Can't see why they could not give it a digital face.

    But thanks for reviewing it all the same.

    The vulture, however, hmm.. where'd you get it?

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  8. Sadako
    Thumb Up

    watchphone

    I think these watch phones need to either be a frontend for your phone so you can read texts and dial without having to get your phone out, or to at the very least be able to dial, read and compose texts, and have access to a memory. I don't think they need to be fancy touch screens and this watch has the right idea with the circle of buttons. This makes it much much easier to use than most of the touch screen ones i've seen while making it much more affordable.

    Perhaps there should be something like this watch phone, but with a dot matrix display instead of an analogue one to let you show texts and caller ID. At the end of the day I don't make calls that much any more and could go to using a basic phone that can text, and a tablet rather than using a smartphone. This might be the way things are going to go in the future as voice calls matter less and less to people.

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    1. sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD
      Reply Icon
      Stop

      voice calls...

      I don't know. I place a very high value on voice calls.

      For the moment, anyways, they are very difficult to fake and because of interactivity, if there is any suspicion, the appropriate queries can be made verbally in real time.

      I received one of those 'Beware of XXX chain emails' if you like. I hate these things. Thanks very much whomever sent it to me, I deleted it on sight but after just a very cursory skim, it actually carried a message of some value.

      Went something like this: some fella got pickpocketted, ATM card, mobile phone and all and the clever perp actually text-ed his wife with the mobile pretending to be him stating he'd forgotten some code - I believe it was the ATM pin from memory and apparently the wife texted it back and because of that he lost whatever the daily withdrawal limit was.

      And just remember what happened to HBGarry.

      "Never underestimate the stupidity of the end user" Isn't that one of those engineering maxims? I would add an "and yourself" to the end of it, lord knows, I've done some stupid things in the past, and who here hasn't?

      So, I guess I'm saying a voice call is just a little bit more difficult to social engineer, if the person you're calling recognizes your voice.

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  9. Some Beggar
    Thumb Down

    Does it work outside Hoxton?

    [this message deliberately left blank]

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  10. Filippo Silver badge

    got another idea

    There's no way this is replacing a full-fledged phone. You're still going to carry a phone around. So how about this - instead of making the wristwatch a phone, make it a Bluetooth thingy that connects to the phone in your pocket. This would retain the cool factor, enhance battery life, and not require me to own and manage two SIMs (with all the mess this entails).

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    1. Lottie
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      Sony Ericsson

      already do this. It's a little pants though.

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  11. Christian Berger

    video phones

    Actually there are also videophones availiable in that form factor.

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  12. Arctic fox
    Thumb Down

    A style statement for 10 year olds

    That's all.

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