TAPWAVE ZODIAC

TAPWAVE ZODIAC:
Could it corner the portable video market or the PDA Market? How about BOTH.
Reviewed by James DeRuvo

Directors in touch with their “inner Spielberg,” need more than just an PDA organizer to manage the creative side of their brains. Adn the TAPWAVE’s ZODIAC seeks to do that, with authority. This PDA/MP3 PLAYER/VIDEO PLAYER seeks to be the one stop shop for mobile entertainment, while, at the same time fulfilling the needs of the business crowd. It even functions as a high octane GAMESTATION as well. After all, “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

The first thing you notice when you hold the Zodiac is how thin it is, in comparison to a Palm Pilot. In addition, the Zodiac designed with a cool, nearly recessed “joystick” and function keys which can be used to navigate it's edgy OS interface. And, amazingly, it comes with stereo speakers built right in (though the true stereo quality is really only experienced with the stylish ear-bud headphones that are included).

Two Secure Digital (SD) card slots are included for additional storage space with SD cards acting as solid state hard drives. In additional, there is a button enable BLUETOOTH. The stylus is designed to fit on the back of the unit in an enclave clasp. The video screen is huge for its design, measuring 3” high x 4” wide. Right here, FilmGeek has one complaint. The only thing that is designed to protect the unit is the small screen cover which fits flush onto the screen itself. There is no slip cover or case to protect the entire unit. Probably more by design for selling anscillary products, than an oversight.

Turn on the unit, and you see a sideways mounted customized Palm OS 5.2T which can be switched to the vertical mode for traditional PDA functionality. The main screen shows the usual – games, organizer. But there’s also additional options along the right side including buttons representing any SD cards in the 2 SD card slots, a media section, etc. All the usual Palm utilities are here. Using Graffiti 2, the Organizer functions have the touchscreen function of a PDA you would expect, but also three sections for handwriting. Upper case, lower case, and numbers. It is software driven with the organizer and changes position as go from horizontal to the vertical and back. A quick pressing of the “Home” button takes you back to the main screen.

The Zodiac also comes with BLUETOOTH at the push of a button. IR for beaming and synching the PDA with computers or via the traditionally including hotsynch cable. A real annoyance, though, is that in IR mode, E-R tried to beam simple files from our old PDA to this one and could NEVER get the Zodiac to be recognized by our Visor and vice versa. And email tech support on this issue was slow and didn’t help much.



And this is where it gets fun for us film geeks. The MEDIA section comes with an MP3 player – which, plays either off the internal or SD memory card; an eBook reader; a photo viewing utility, and Kinoma Video Player which turns the Zodiac into one of the first personal video players. Using the Kinoma Producer Software ($29.95) which can encode in MPEG1, MPEG4, QuickTime and AVI formats and fit a feature film can fit on two 512MB SD cards. Unfortunately, the demo version of the software only encodes a few seconds, so E-R can’t comment on how good it is - only to say that the movie trailers loaded onto the SD card we reviewed (Shrek2 & King Arthur) were most impressive in both audio and video presentation when viewed on the Zodiac.

But there are some interesting choices which FilmGeek needs to address along with suggestions for the next generation Zodiac to really take it over the top. The first, which we’ve already addressed, is the issue of beaming not working. One of the hallmark functions of a Palm PDA is the ability to IR beam information from one PDA to another. As stated, we couldn’t take advantage of that function and are at a loss as to comment on why – only to conclude until otherwise convinced that it just doesn’t work. E-R can’t comment on the BLUETOOTH function – except to say that it has one and it seems to activate and deactivate with a touch of it’s convenient on button design.

A lack of concrete protection for the unit without having to purchase additional cases or covers is downright annoying considering the $300 pricetag. While the screen guard is a commendable effort (or maybe an afterthought?), it doesn’t do anything to protect the rest of the until and will simply flap away from the screen if the unit is dropped – and as such, doesn’t offer much screen protection unless the unit is simply lying flat.

FilmGeek is also mystified that, in this iPod dominated world where MP3 players have small 60 gig hard drives, why didn’t Tapwave offer this option in the level 2 players? Considering serious use for the unit is for mp3 and video playing – a hard drive to house the media would be a beneficial and natural feature. FilmGeek can only guess that price considerations led to relying on the SD card technology – which does the job but forces investment in several additional SD chips in order to have house the movies or songs which a mobile oriented professional needs for their entertainment needs. And FilmGeek has a hunch that if the target audience is willing to poney up the bling bling for an iPod, they’d pony it up for a hard drive feature on the Zodiac. Perhaps it’s fortuitous to wait on that option, since, with newer storage technologies leading to hard drives of several gigs ending up in cellphone designs within the next few years – it is certainly doable without sacrificing much in the way of form or function of the unit.

Some may cringe at the PocketPC style price tag when comparing conventional Palm based PDAs, but when taking a look at the value behind the it – that users can enjoy video gaming, mp3s in stunningly clear stereo sound, and yes, even a movie with descent framerates - users will see that the Tapwave Zodiac represents an exponential leap in what a PDA can actually do when it’s designers think outside the box.

Whether working OR playing, FilmGeek recommends taking a good hard look. If the target audience is anything like us, they’ll end up being hooked more on it’s features than it’s shortcomings.

List Price: $299 for Zodiac1 (32 MB of onboard memory)
$399 for Zodiac2 (128 MB of onboard memory)

System requirements can be found here.

http://www.tapewave.com