Think of it as an extender for your BlackBerry, or a wrist-mounted dashboard. It won't place calls or compose texts; it's really just there to give you a heads-up and preview whenever your BlackBerry mothership gets a call, receives a message, or has some other, being-a-BlackBerry-related news to share with you. Also, yes, it's a watch, for telling time. It may not do a whole lot, but the hardware sounds nice:

* 1.3" full colour organic light-emitting-diode (OLED) display
* Bluetooth® v2.0+EDR
* 150 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery
* Glass lens and full metal body
* 22mm interchangeable wrist band
* Vibrating motor
* Micro-USB port (for charging)
* Over-the-air firmware updates
* Dimensions: 51mm height x 38mm width x 12mm depth

Allerta, which totally sounds like a prescription mood drug, says the watch'll last for four days on a single charge, which is respectable considering that it doesn't look too hideously large. The InPulse will communicate with any BlackBerry running OS 4.3 or above by means of a free companion app. The watch, though, isn't quite as cheap: It'll ship for $150 in February, though it's available for preorder now.

One thing though: This is a nice render and all and the product doesn't smell like vapor, but why can't we see a picture of this thing?

UPDATE: About that! Eric from Allerta shot me an email:

Ah, it's your right to talk vapour because we don't have tech demos ready yet...I'm actually quite sorry about that. We're a new CE startup, so it's tough going from the get go. We actually have near-complete prototypes, but they're made out of brass right now (easier to CNC mill). We're currently in the month-long process of making molds for casting stainless steel. We didn't want to publish too many pictures of the brass watches, in case it confused people.

Which is fair enough. They've posted a few of the early prototype pictures here, in case you're curious. This is what they look like now—just keep in mind, these aren't meant to look nice, yet:
[InPulse via CrackBerry]

According to CrackBerry:

• It was designed "specifically for BlackBerry from the ground up," by a "new BlackBerry-dedicated accessory company," and could be branded as the "inPulse." This sounds suspiciously like BlackBerry wanting a watchphone, and outsourcing the design and manufacturing expertise.

• It's got a large (but hopefully not too large) OLED screen, with a high enough resolution to display text clearly

• Its primary purpose is to display messages from a paired BlackBerry, meaning it's strictly an accessory device like Sony Ericsson's pieces, not a standalone watchphone like the LG GD910.

This is an early glimpse in all senses—Crackberry describes the shots rather wonderfully as "actual renderings of the real deal"—meaning that there's no info on tech specs, nor indication as to how much this thing might cost, whether it'll carry BlackBerry branding, or when we could expect it to actually ship. The announcement, though, is expected "soon," whatever that means. [Crackberry]

What global means exactly is uncertain, as there's no mention of the US anywhere. But if given the opportunity to combine this beast with the Matsuhashi B-400, you better believe I won't hesitate to do so. Also, you're only allowed to hang out in my blanket fort if you have a Watchphone too. [Akihabara News]

A £1,000 pricetag would seem to make sense, since it this is a boutique item and it was announced last week that Orange would be the official carrier, but source attribution in the article is close to nonexistent, so it's tough to say where this originated from. If this price rumor is indeed true one has to wonder if $1500 is worth living out childhood retro-futuristic dreams. [Mobile Today via CrunchGear]

The first thing to notice is the specs: unlike last time around, they're actually pretty solid. The GD910, as it's called, will support 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth, text-to-speech and speech-to-text, and finally, videoconferencing via a front-mounted camera.

These capabilities, far from being the useless feature bloat that we see on gimmicky hardware like this, seem to be geared toward making this wrist piece bearable. Don't want to fiddle with little watch buttons to make a call? Use the touchscreen. Don't want to type on a tiny on-screen keypad? Talk to your phone. Don't want to walk around with a watch to your face like some kind of portly, neckbearded, wolfshirted FBI agent? Hook up a Bluetooth headset and you'll just look like a nerdy soccer dad. And videoconferencing, mercifully built in, is probably the most important feature to have on a quasi-spy gadget like this.

That said, there are still a few problems that will be unavoidable in this form-factor, the largest of which LG has implicitly acknowledged with their product photos: unless you are a young child with young child fingers, don't plan on having an easy go of it. [UnwiredView]

Sadly, watch phones still aren't cool, but Dick Tracy called the weekend news desk and approved the heck out of these his and her models from Chinavision. Sporting dual SIM cards, these black and pink pieces of geek arm candy do video and music, take pictures, and feature a touchscreen (complete with mini stylus). They just don't do cool. Unless, of course, you happen to look great in yellow and have penchant for battling wildly exaggerated baddies whose names reflect their physical appearances. Bluetooth headset included for about $148 (discount for buying in pairs—how cute).

[Chinavision]

If you'd feel like a bit of an idiot talking into your watch while making calls, Bluetooth functionality will allow you to hook up a headset to ease the embarrassment, (a little.) The cellphone itself is GSM quadband capable, has a built in media player and supports a media card so you can load up your tunes and snaps on removable media. Alternatively, you could purchase, oh, you know, a cellphone and watch as two independent items. Hey, we're just putting the idea out there. [Slashphone]