Tapwave Zodiac

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Tapwave Zodiac with pen

Tapwave Zodiac is a combination of a mobile game console ( handheld console ), an organizer and a media player , which was launched on the market by Tapwave in October 2003.

The US company Tapwave was founded in 2001 by Peng Lim and Byron Connell, two former Palm managers. Other palm specialists like Marian Cauwet and David Wenning joined Tapwave, whose first product was code-named Helix .

At the end of 2004 the Zodiac was also sold in England and a release in Germany was planned for 2005. Before that happened, Tapwave announced in late July 2005 that it would surrender to the competition. Meanwhile, the rights to the Zodiac have been sold to Motorola .

Technical specifications

  • CPU : i.MX1 ARM9 clocked at 200 MHz
  • GPU : ATI Imageon
  • RAM : Zodiac 1: 32 MB (20 MB usable) / Zodiac 2: 128 MB (116 MB usable)
  • Display: 3.8 "touchscreen with 480 × 320 pixels and 65,536 colors, can be used horizontally or vertically
  • Sound: Yamaha sound chip, stereo sound, 3.5 mm headphone output
  • Operating system : PalmOS 5.2T (modified)
  • Game engine: Fathammer X-Forge
  • Expansion options: 2 SD card slots, one of which is SDIO- compatible.
  • Communication: USB 2.0, Bluetooth 1.1
  • Controls: 1 joystick, 4 action buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, 4 system buttons ("Power", "Bluetooth", "Function", "Home"), pen
  • Other: vibration motor for games and other applications
  • Battery: 1540 mAh
  • Size: 143 × 79 × 14 mm
  • Weight: 170 g

Trivia

  • The SDIO slot not only supports Palm - Fi card, but also wireless cards from SanDisk .
  • In addition to applications that were generally written for PalmOS , there are also adapted versions that take advantage of the special properties (graphics accelerator) of the Zodiac. However, access to the Zodiac hardware is only possible for software signed by the manufacturer. However, since Tapwave stopped selling, a software tool has been circulating that also enables the execution of unsigned programs. However, the legal situation is not undisputed.
  • Freeware also supports the additional hardware of the Zodiac, such as B. the video player TCPMP .

Web links

Commons : Tapwave Zodiac  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files