Unboxing and First Impressions by Bruce Pechman, The Muscleman of Technology (www.mrbicep.com)
Neutrano’s WristFone
I spoke to Gary from Neutrano about 3 weeks ago and begged him to get me the first working piece of the Neutrano WristFone for my TV segment on Good Morning San Diego to run on 7/30/09 (www.mrbicep.com/Videos/KUSI_7_30_2009_web.wmv).
Gary said, “You know what Mr. Bicep, I just may be able to do that for you,” and the precious piece showed up a few days ago right before my segment!
Neutrano’s WristFone can really be categorized as a robust multimedia phone as it combines phone, 1.3 MP camera, music player and a wrist watch inside a surprisingly easy-to-use and appealing wrist watch. Like any new interface, it does take some time to get used to the user interface, but the good news is the Touch-Screen LCD is easy to manipulate and the small but extremely useful telescoping stylus collapses and stores in the watch’s band quite nicely.
The feature set is robust and includes Bluetooth, speakerphone, color LCD touch-screen display, phonebook, scheduler, MMS, and WAP browsing! It supports GSM networks—you can use it right now with SIM cards from a GSM phone/carrier such as T-Mobile or AT&T (sorry, iDEN SIM cards will not work at this time, i.e Sprint, Boost Mobile).
This is the closest thing to a true working Dick Tracy watch at this point in time. I thought the packaging was well thought out and impressive. An extra battery, along with 2 extra styluses is a nice touch. The watch itself is cool and hip—a trendy oversized fashionable watch that will definitely turn heads. Speaking of oversized, my arms are so massive…I had to let some links out to fit my huge size wrist—but don’t worry, this watch should fit you puny geeks’ wrists perfectly!
The retail price range according to Gary will be $200 to $300 depending on carrier / plan or retailer marketing plans. Toll free tech support will be offered. The plan is to launch it in about 6 weeks—visit www.neutrano.com and click ‘I WANT ONE’ and you will be notified where it’s available in your area. Now go pump some iron you frail girly men!
