Tapwave Zodiac
The Zodiac, in aluminum case
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| Manufacturer | Tapwave |
|---|---|
| Type | Handheld game console/PDA |
| Release date | 2003 |
| Discontinued | July 2005 |
| Operating system | Palm OS |
| CPU | 200 MHz Motorola i.MX1 ARM9 processor |
| Memory | 10 MB dedicated to the System Dynamic RAM |
| Storage | 32 MB (Zodiac 1) 128 MB (Zodiac 2) |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi, Infrared, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 |
| Best-selling game | Warfare Incorporated |
The Tapwave Zodiac is a former mobile entertainment console. Tapwave announced the system in May 2003 and began shipping in October of that same year. The Zodiac was designed to be a high-performance mobile entertainment system centered on games, music, photos, and video for 18- to 34-year-old gamers and technology enthusiasts. By running an enhanced version of the Palm Operating System (5.2T), Zodiac also provided access to Palm’s personal information management software and many other applications from the Palm developer community. The company was based in Mountain View, California.
The Zodiac console was initially available in two models, Zodiac 1 (32MB) for $299 US, and Zodiac 2 (128MB) for $399 US and some of the noteworthy game titles for the product included: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 (Activision); Mototrax (Activision); Spyhunter (Midway); Madden NFL 2005 – (EA/MDM); DOOM II (id Software); Golden Axe 3 and Altered Beast (Sega); Warfare Incorporated (Handmark); and Duke Nukem Mobile (3D Realms/MachineWorks).
Due to insufficient funding and strong competitive pressure from the PlayStation Portable (PSP) from Sony, (which was pre-announced at E3 on May 16, 2003 and shipped in North American on March 24, 2005), and the DS from Nintendo (released on November 21, 2004), Tapwave sold the company to an undisclosed multibillion-dollar corporation in Asia in July 2005.
The Zodiac console garnered strong product reviews and received many industry awards. A few interesting example include: Popular Science’s Best of What’s New (BOWN) Award; Stuff Magazine’s Top 10 Gadgets of the Year; Wired Magazine’s Fetish Award, CNET’s Editor's Choice Award; PC World’s 2004 Next Gear Innovations Award; PC Magazine’s 1st Place Last Gadget Standing at CES; Handheld Computing Magazine’s Most Innovative PDA of 2003; Time Magazine's Best Gear of 2003; and the Business Week Best Products of 2003.
An MP3 music player is included in the system's applications, and allows the creation of custom playlists using drag-and-dropping of files. MP3 music files can be played from either SD slot, or the internal memory of the device. MP3 files can also be used as alarms, along with conventional Palm OS alarms.
Photos (JPEG or PNG format) could be downloaded to the device using the Palm Desktop software or loaded onto SD cards, and could be shared and made into a slideshow (with background music) on the device.
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Wikipedia