No New Zodiac Until 2006

The Tapwave Zodiac came out well over a year ago, and some have been hoping that an updated version of this gaming-oriented handheld would be released in the near future.

This group is in for a disappointment, as a Tapwave executive recently told PC Magazine that a New Zodiac model won't be released for at least another year, and the wait might possibly even be two years.

Although the new device is still well in the future, Byron Connell, one of Tapwave's co-founders, was willing to talk a bit about it. He said it will definitely include built-in Wi-Fi, a faster processor, and a more powerful graphics chip. In addition, it will probably have a built-in miniature hard drive.

Still Improving the Original

Just because a new model won't hit the market soon doesn't mean that Tapwave is standing idle. It is continuing to improve the current Zodiac models' software.

One obvious way is the release of new games. A Zodiac-specific version of Madden NFL 2005 was released a couple of months ago, and Tomb Raider for the Zodiac will be out this spring. Of course, these are just the high-profile games; plenty of other smaller-name titles are coming out all the time.

In addition, Tapwave recently released software to allow the Zodiac handhelds to use a Wi-Fi SD card. It is also giving away a free email application for the series.

In the future, Tapwave is going to put greater emphasis on the Zodiac's multimedia capabilities. A new audio player is in the works, and it will soon be bundled with Kinoma Player 3, which can play video stored in MPEG-4 format.

The company may be emphasizing multimedia as the market for handheld gaming platforms is becoming very crowded. Both Sony's Playstation Portable and the Nintendo DS have attracted a lot of attention.

More about the Zodiac Series

Both versions of Tapwave Zodiac run Palm OS 5.2 on a 200 MHz Motorola .MX1 ARM-based processor.

The Zodiac series' 320-by-480 pixel screen offers both portrait and landscape modes. This transflective display is 3.8 inches when measured diagonally and offers 16-bit color. Both models have an ATI Imageon graphics accelerator and use the the Fathammer X-Forge 3D Game Engine.

As the main focus of these handhelds is playing games, they come bundled with two: Stunt Car Extreme and Acid Solitaire.

To allow users to play games head-to-head, the Zodiac series includes Bluetooth short-range wireless networking. Bluetooth can also be used to wirelessly connect these handhelds to a mobile phone for Internet access.

The Zodiac series sports two SD slots, one of which supports SDIO.

Thanks to halcyon for the tip.

Related Links

• Brighthand Reviews the Tapwave Zodiac
• Tapwave Releases Wi-Fi SD Card Driver, Email App for the Zodiac Series
• Tapwave Drops Zodiac Prices