Comments on: More On the Tapwave Zodiac

It's a bit expensive when compared to the GameBoy SP though... and the GameBoy Advance 2 is not far away... so it's going to be tough for Tapwave, but the very best of luck to them.

One Palm to rule them all!

-Sniffer

Yes, but as I said, for that $100 price difference you could have a 32MB device + 256MB storage card and still have money left over.

Scott

http://goodthatway.com
- featuring PDA/smartphone news and FREE MONEY!!! -

1.) There is no such thing as too much RAM.

2.) While it does have dual SDIO slots, it sounds like most games will be on SD cards, and if you want to play on a network, you may want a 802.11 card in the other slot. In this scenario, both slots would be used up already.

3.) It is faster to access applications in internal memory than on the card, and apps accessed from the card still need to be loaded into RAM. In any of these scenarios, more RAM is a good idea, especially with apps and games growing in size lately.

4.) Did I mention that there's no such thing as too much RAM?

_________________
Sean

"They're smoking crack."
-Linus Torvalds on SCO group's copyright claims against Linux-

Dynamic Heap Allocation.

I assume OS 6 has a 'real' file system, although I think the Run in Place OS5 model works well - when apps support SD cards .... and many still fail to check the SD card for Data files meaning PowerRun is required. If OS 6 needs it then dynamic Ramdisk (like the UX but userdefinable) would be neat.

Something like the Zodiac 128 I would like to Have 16Mb heap for Netfront, 32Mb for Apps / runspace and the rest for MP3's and MPEG 4 video.

I wonder if one of our resident developers can tell us if the OS could be hacked in 5 to do this sort of thing? One of the reasons I havent grabbed a TT2 is that I would like to run a Netfront browser which requires at least 5Mb, ideally more, or Heap Ram.

Edward Green
--
http://www.khite.co.uk

You hurt Bluetoothless' feelings.

Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™

Bluetooth is very good for making copies of my 8-tracks onto my Digital Compact Cassettes. Studies by Dr. Rube Goldberg of MIT in the mid-1990s also showed Bluetooth has enormous potential as a method of controlling home entertainment devices like televisions. Unfoutunately, until the price of Bluetooth PDA + Bluetooth card + Bluetooth receiver = the $10 price of a universal remote it was concluded that the devices would never achieve market acceptance.

Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™

I suspect they already have plans for a future device with built-in WiFi, though...everyone knows it will be everywhere in the future (not just Starbucks, Airports, and McD's)

You do realize that this is coming out within about a month, right? The only other Palm OS devices that are out (or coming soon) that have similar specs are the much higher priced Sony UX40/UX50 and the palmOne TT3. The Sonys have some nice advantages such as a camera (though not great quality), the thumbboard, and built-in Wi-Fi (on the UX50) but, as I said, is a lot more expensive and doesn't support portrait mode. The TT3 is very nice as well, but looks like it will probably offer a bit less than the Zodiac at a somewhat higher price. Its main advantage is the more compact size.

Scott

http://goodthatway.com
- featuring PDA/smartphone news and FREE MONEY!!! -

But if they spent the $$$ needed to build it well, Tapwave will probably end up selling a lot of these PDAs to power users that are tired of waiting for a dual slot, 320 x 480 device with reasonable memory from
Palm/Sony.

No Palm should be selling with less than 32 MB RAM these days. Pocket PC is just going to keep chipping away at Palm's lead and failing to keep up with the PPC hardware specs doesn't help Palm's cause.

It's unfortunate that HandEra couldn't have contracted out to Sony to build a high quality, compact, 320 x 480, CF/SD PDA with 64 - 128 MB RAM in an IBM black metal case for business and power users. It's hard to imagine a simple configuration like that not doing well. But then again, Palm spent several years engineering their brilliant Claudia Schiffer Palms and those tanked, so maybe consumers are just not very intelligent.

Sometimes the truth just isn't pretty™

They can use it because both products are in two very different markets, so confusion would be very unlikely. This is the same reason that Life cereal and Life magazine can co-exist, along with the GMC Sonoma and Sonoma jeans.

"if you can't beat 'em join 'em!"

what was it supposed to run? pleae don't tell me you are not aware of the fact that zodiac will have 25+ titles specifically designed for it when it's launched(like tony hawk's pro skater, neverwinter nights etc., by activision, midway and infogrames, games that use the graphics processor and sound chip to the fullest extent).

1. It's FUGLY! IMHO atleast ;)

2. The screen res is pathetic, The zodiacs is what, over double the screen res? And tapwave has several major game companies ready too.

3. It's ugly

4. You have to take the batt out ot put a card in :)

5. It's really ugly

6. For a phone, its horribly laid out.

7. Tons of people here,in the USA, won't switch from their current cdma carriers to ones that use gsm/gprs

And last, but not least;

8. It's Ugly :)