10. Running Ruputer Programs on the onHand PC

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1999 Nov 30 Update:  Aside from applications that are preinstalled on the onHand PC, you should check out the onHand SDK on the CDROM that came with the onHand.  There are pre-compiled applications that you can actually upload to the watch and use!  For your convenience, I have them on the following pages for you to try out without having to install the SDK.

A month ago, immediately after ordering the onHand PC, I went on a massive campaign of seeking out each and every Ruputer program that are freely downloadable over the Internet.  It was a rather painful process, because 99% of these programs are authored by Japanese developers and reside on Japanese sites.  The question is, how many of these programs will actually work on the onHand PC?

The issue is, the onHand PC has a CPU that runs twice as fast as the Ruputer, and data communications transfer at double the Ruputer speed.  On top of that, the onHand PC has an English ROM, while the Ruputer's is Japanese.

The onHand is a watch after all.  So the first applications I uploaded are the cool watch programs, ranging from 3D screen saver-like ones to swatch beat utilities.  The first one I tried is the 3D watch by S.Iwaki.  I had to reset the watch almost immediately (first time in my life due to a misbehaved onHand app!) because it hung the watch with a corrupted display.  I tried running it again after the reset.  This time, it did start up properly, but the cube is simply rotating a bit too quickly than I believe it was designed for.  Clicking on its menu revealed a bunch of invalid characters, the result of the English ROM being unable to translate the Kranji characters.  The options are still selectable, but now, even a Japanese-reading user would not understand the gibberish on the screen!  I deleted the program from the onHand.

Hmm, things aren't looking too good.  I tried the other watch apps.  None of them caused a reset, but most with menus end up with garbage characters.  I ended up deleting all the ones that have menus, leaving behind QDQ.EXF, TATEQ.EXF (cool designer-like digital watches), ROSEWCH.EXF (kind of girly watch with a frame of roses, to impress my wife that I have a sensitive side :-)), UBEAT.EXF (Swatch beat watch by Bernard SERRES), and the English version of DAWATCHE.EXF (all-in-1 calendar cum analog/digital watch by Shinichiro Furuya).


Program Ratings

So far I've only managed to try out a fraction of the Ruputer applications that I have, but I'll continue to do so and update this page with my findings when I have the time.  I will also appreciate any help from current users who have tried out some Ruputer apps and want to help other users along the way.  Some of these programs have actually been reviewed by helpful users such as Dave Bunnell, and I only provided links to the said programs for easy downloading.

I've classified as "workable" any Ruputer application that appear to work without causing problems with the onHand.  These may still contain uninterpreted Kranji menus, but are still usable as the main application usage is not affected.  Of course, by this logic, Ruputer applications that do not use any menu would be most compatible with the onHand.

Acronyms:
FEM = Press the File/Time, Execute and Menu buttons to reset the watch.  Equivalent to PC's Ctrl-Alt-Del.
CKM = Corrupted Kranji Menus.  Happens when Ruputer programs using Kranji menus are run on onHands.


REVIEWED PROGRAMS

Audio/Music...
Calculators...
Databases...
Filers/Explorers/Launchers...
Games...
Graphics/Movies...
Miscellaneous...
PIMs...
Text Viewers/Editors...
Watch Apps...


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