.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Computing Unplugged reviews the Tapwave Zodiac
.AUTHOR James Booth
.SUMMARY Although Tapwave likes to think of the Zodiac as a mobile entertainment system, we think that’s selling it short. It’s so much more. Not only is the Zodiac a portable game machine, a portable video and MP3 player, it’s also a powerful Palm-based handheld computer. With the appropriate exposure and marketing, the Zodiac could really make a name for itself.
.FEATURE
The Zodiac from Tapwave. Is it a mobile entertainment device with an organizer? Or is it a serious PDA that plays games?
In truth, it’s both.
.H1 The signs of the Zodiac
The Zodiac from Tapwave, shown in Figure A, is the first Palm-powered handheld device that has been optimized for entertainment.
.FIGPAIR A The Zodiac from Tapwave is a Palm OS-based entertainment console.
When it comes to handhelds, the Zodiac offers a basketful of firsts, the most noticeable of which is the analog joystick. It also sports a 480×320 16-bit (half VGA) color TFT screen, a 200 Mhz Motorola ARM9 processor, two (count ’em two) SD slots, IR and Bluetooth, and is available in two models, which I’ll describe a bit later.
Surprisingly, for all it packs into its frame, the device is quite svelt. Figure B shows a comparison of the Zodiac and Palm Tungsten T2.
.FIGPAIR B The Zodiac’s screen is slightly larger than that of the T2, including the input area.
The Zodiac 1, light gray in color, comes with 32MB of RAM. The charcoal-colored Zodiac 2 has a monster 128MB, and at $399 is only $100 more than the Zodiac 1.
Another first on the Zodiac is the ATI Imageon video processor with 8 MB of SDRAM and the FatHammer X-Forge 3D graphics engine. In essence, what this amounts to is an 8 MB 3D video card. At this time, no other handheld I know of incorporates a dedicated video processor.
.BREAK_EMAIL There’s a lot going on in this review. Tap here to read the rest.
The Zodiac’s control configuration belies its gaming intentions. Looking more like an Xbox or PlayStation controller with a screen than a handheld, the Zodiac has four Action buttons on the right, the analog joystick, Function/Select button on the left, and trigger buttons on the left and right shoulders. Also on the left of the unit, and flush with the surface, are the Power and Home buttons, the only two buttons that will activate the unit.
For sound, the Zodiac features a Yamaha audio processor with dual speakers for stereo sound, a headphone jack, and a vibrate option for silent alarm that doubles as force-feedback in games.
For power, the Zodiac relies on an internal 1540-mAh rechargeable lithium battery for extended use.
.H1 In the stars
The Zodiac runs an optimized version of Palm OS 5.2 that has been specifically tailored for it. Rather than the traditional list or grid of categories and apps, the Zodiac uses a customizable eight-point radial menu shown in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C The Zodiac uses a radial menu interface.
Alternatively, you can display all apps in a list format, like in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D If you don’t like the radial menu, use a list.
For text input, the Zodiac uses Graffiti 2 with a Dynamic Input Area (DIA), similar to the Palm Tungsten T3, that can be expanded and collapsed. A status bar is visible down the side of the screen (which side depends on how you orient the Zodiac’s screen), provides icons for the Home screen, Find, Menu, the Power and Sound settings, screen orientation (Portrait or Landscape), and the DIA control.
Oddly, although the Status bar showed up in my screen captures, the icons didn’t.
The Zodiac comes bundled with a very nice set of software. In addition to the standard Palm PIM apps, Tapwave has included their own MP3 player, alarm clock/stop watch with music alarm, and photo viewer.
For third-party applications, the Zodiac comes with Inkstorm Bluetooth chat, PalmReader for e-books, Kinoma video player and producer, and WordSmith for word processing.
Gamewise, Tapwave has included Acid Solitaire and Stunt Car Extreme.
It should be noted that all of the software that comes with the Zodiac is a complete and registered version. Many times, companies include demo or limited feature versions in their bundled software. Not so with Tapwave.
.H1 Prognostications
The Zodiac is quite ergonomic and fits the hands very well. Your thumbs are in just the right position for the joystick and Action buttons, and your index fingers rest on the shoulder triggers quite naturally. It’s obvious the design of the Zodiac was well thought out.
The 480×320 16-bit color screen is simply beautiful. All the apps look so much better on the larger screen. The landscape display makes word processing so much easier, as in Figure E, not to mention the games and video.
.FIGPAIR E Word processing is much better on a full screen.
Something I noticed about the screen on the Zodiac is that it’s actually brighter in direct sunlight, whereas the screen on the T2 got darker outside. I did experience a similar effect with the Zodiac in shade and overcast days, where a glare effect seemed to be created.
I really love the radial menu interface of the Zodiac. Navigating it with the joystick is so easy that it’s like second nature. By means of the Function button and joystick, your interaction with the Zodiac can be essentially stylus-free. See what I mean by checking out Figure F.
.FIGPAIR F You can navigate the menu with just the joystick and Function button.
The Zodiac’s launcher can be customized by changing the color theme or loading your own background images, like the one in Figure G. For the record, that’s a picture of kitchen spices, so get your mind out of the gutter.
.FIGPAIR G Customize the theme of the Zodiac to suit your tastes.
I’ve been able to check out quite a few of the Zodiac-specific software, including titles such as SpyHunter, shown in Figure H, Stunt Car Extreme, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Duke Nukem, and many more titles, as well as quite a bit of video playback.
.FIGPAIR H The Imageon processor does a good job with the 3D effects in SpyHunter.
For the most part, everything looked really good. There were a few titles that didn’t impress me much, but they were ports of some retro games. Figure I shows some video playback on the Zodiac.
.FIGPAIR I The Zodiac’s video processor gives smooth, clear video playback.
Because the Zodiac runs the Palm OS, there are literally tens of thousands of applications already available, and I’ve only found a couple that have given me any trouble. Unfortunately, most of the standard Palm apps aren’t able to take complete advantage of the larger screen and will only display in 320×320 rather than the Zodiac’s full 480×320.
The Yamaha audio processor and dual speakers do a great job with the Zodiac’s sound. It seems to be tuned to provide the best results when about a foot and a half from the user, which is just about right for gaming and video. You have to be careful about cranking it up too loud though and causing distortion, as those little speakers can likely only take so much. You wouldn’t want to blow them. We haven’t heard any specific incidences of speaker damage, but I’d recommend judicious caution.
The included MP3 player does an adequate job. It’s OK if you don’t have anything better, but there are several third-party MP3 players with amplifier/equalizers that will do a much better job with the Zodiac’s audio processor.
The controls on the Zodiac really are unique when it comes to handhelds. The device’s architecture fits very well not only with gaming, but is very ergonomic for general use as well.
The dual SD slots are very nice. They allow me to have a lot of extra data and apps available without having to change cards. Since one of the slots is SDIO optimized, peripherals such as GPS, digital cameras, and WiFi can be added.
I’ve been able to check out just about every aspect of the Zodiac, including the Bluetooth. What can I say about that? Either it works or it doesn’t. It does. And I got just as much range from the Zodiac as I did with my T2.
By means of a loan-out from David, our Editor-in-Chief, I was able to check how the Zodiac works with the Palm/Think Outside wireless keyboard. I did find one Zodiac-specific glitch, and there are some general keyboard driver issues with WordSmith.
I’ve managed to find workarounds and keyboard shortcuts for most of the keyboard issues I encountered, and Think Outside tells me that a Zodiac-tuned driver is in the works. Hopefully they’ll address the WordSmith issues as well.
After an initial couple of days to adjust, I can now say that I’m as comfortable with the Zodiac as I was with my Tungsten T2.
.H1 Omens
I must confess, I really don’t care for the manner in which Tapwave chose to mount the stylus. It’s held in a groove on the back of the machine by two rubber clips. Already, after only two weeks, one of them seems to have loosened up a bit.
In my routine usage, I typically remove and replace my stylus quite a bit, and I predict that within about six months it will probably no longer stay in the clips.
I would much prefer a stylus well and spring-loaded stylus like on the Palm Tungsten line, even if it meant an increase in the profile of the unit.
I also liked the Palm photo viewer that came with my T2 better than Tapwave’s. You see, although it displays the photos perfectly fine, it doesn’t support albums or categories. As a photographer, I like to separate my photos by category, and I can’t with the Tapwave photo application, shown in Figure J.
.FIGPAIR J The Zodiac’s photo program doesn’t support categories.
I also didn’t care for the leather flip-cover that comes with the Zodiac either. It just barely covers the screen and seems a bit cheesy to me compared to the rest of the unit. I guess I just prefer a solid, snap-on cover to protect my device.
Another shortcoming is the cradle. The Zodiac doesn’t come with one; it has to be purchased separately. Every handheld should come with a cradle; a cable just isn’t enough. Also, for a mobile system, the Zodiac, as yet, is lacking a car charger.
In my capacity as a journalist, I’ve dealt with some of the people in Tapwave’s corporate office, and they’re just great. I also had occasion to deal with the support services as a customer, and that experience was a bit different.
Due to some unexplained problem or another, the shipping of my order was delayed by 24 hours, despite meeting the criteria for same-day shipping. In trying to determine if delivery would be made by a Friday, like I planned, I contacted Tapwave’s email support, but the auto-reply estimated a two-business day response.
Tapwave has a Live Chat support option, something I’ve never encountered before, so I decided to give that a try. Unfortunately, the Live Chat rep didn’t have any more information than what I could get online, and this was almost two days later.
Later that day, the day my unit should have arrived, I got a response from email support and the shipping information became available in my online customer account.
Due to the delay in processing my order, I had to wait nearly a week for my unit when I chose 2nd Day shipping in order to receive the unit before the weekend. In Tapwave’s favor, they did refund half of my shipping fee without me complaining.
I don’t know if my case was an isolated incident or not. It’s not likely that it is, but I think the ordering system needs an update to provide the support staff with real-time information access rather than periodic updates. The support department really isn’t much help if they can’t provide any more information than what’s available online.
.H1 Predictions
Byron Connell, Tapwave co-founder and Senior VP of Marketing, tells me that Tapwave sees the Zodiac more as a mobile entertainment platform, similar to the upcoming PSP (PlayStation Portable) shown in Figure K, rather than a traditional handheld.
.FIGPAIR K The PSP, or PlayStation Portable, is to be Sony’s portable entertainment console.
In comparing the Zodiac with the current information on the PSP, I think the Zodiac has it beat by a mile. The Zodiac runs an established and marketable OS. The PSP will run its own, proprietary OS. The Zodiac uses SD flash memory, an industry-standard format. The PSP will use Sony’s own Memory Stick, which as far as I’ve been able to tell, is only used by Sony products.
In addition, Sony is introducing a new media format with the PSP, the UMD (Universal Media Disc). What this means for the consumer is yet another rights-protected, proprietary format in which users will be forced to buy content.
As far as the graphic quality, the PSP is supposed to fall somewhere between the PS1 and PS2, but not able to use content from either.
The body and screen size seem to be pretty comparable between the PSP and Zodiac. Prices on the PSP are as yet unavailable, but I’ve heard unsubstantiated rumors in the neighborhood of $500. I think this would be a bit much for a completely proprietary system that is essentially a fancy Game Boy entering a market dominated by $150 devices like the GBA (Game Boy Advance).
I just don’t see the PSP being much of a threat to the Zodiac, particularly since the Zodiac will have a market foothold of around a year and a half before the PSP even goes public.
I really like my Zodiac 2 and am quite pleased with my purchase. Frankly, I wish I had bought one back in December when I bought the T2.
Although Tapwave likes to think of the Zodiac as a mobile entertainment system, I think that’s selling it short. It’s so much more. Not only is the Zodiac a portable game machine, a portable video and MP3 player, it’s also a powerful Palm-based handheld computer. With the appropriate exposure and marketing, the Zodiac could really make a name for itself.
I rate the Zodiac from Tapwave at 4 out of 5. It almost makes a 5, but a couple of things fell just a little short, namely, the flimsy stylus holder, the rudimentary photo application, lack of a cradle, inconsequential flip cover, and as I mentioned, the unresponsive order system.
All shortcomings aside, most of which are rather minor and just personal taste, the Zodiac is a great entertainment machine and a great handheld. All together, it’s a very well rounded machine that serves equally well in multiple capacities. You’ll definitely see more Zodiac-related material from me in the future.
.RATING 4
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on the Zodiac, visit http://www.tapwave.com.
For more information on the palmOne Tungsten T2, visit http://www.palmone.com.
For more information on the PSP, visit http://www.us.playstation.com/news.aspx?id=328.
For more information on the GameBoy Advance, visit http://www.gameboy.com/sp/home.jsp.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
