Tracy’s famous “TV wrist” device seemed more like a cell phone with video capabilities, but this Zypad is a wireless computer worn on your arm. You stay in touch with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (class 2), and GPS.

Do your work looking at a 240 x 320 pixels touchscreen (and included stylus), with an 11-key backlit keypad and be assured the battery will last about eight hours. That’s because this smart device goes into standby mode when you simply let hang your arm down. It comes with 64MB each of flash RAM and 64MB of flash ROM, which doesn’t sound like alot but you can expand the memory via a Mini SD card slot. Included in this device is a USB 1.1 host and device ports. For listening to audio or video you can listen to the speakers or plug into the stereo headphone jack.

What I like about this portable computer is that it uses linux as it’s OS – although it can also run Windows CE. The device comes with a software development kit (SDK), for those ambitious enough to write software.

What peaked my interest is this Integrated tilt and dead reckoning system which keeps track of the wearers’ motion. Say this unit is used by a police officer and he/she finds themselves “down”. The device transmits a locator beacon after a determined length of time in which the person is motionless. Help is On The Way! Now, That is very like a Dick Tracy story!

Parvus Corporation sells this device.

Calling Dick Tracy

Best sound under $1000: Shure SE530PTH review