Blog

So much for getting in the habit of writing more frequently. :) Still playing Call Of Duty 4 on the 360, finally made it to Commander. Such a good game even with the minor irritants. I hope the next patch makes it easier to get into public games with friends! My 360 seems to be a bit grumpy as of late, I suspect a failing DVD drive.....

-joe-

Thoughts on the "perfect" mobile companion

I wish I had a boatload of cash, then I could create my own perfect
PDA instead of waiting for Palm to do it. We were so close, we almost
had Nirvana but they went by the wayside. I am referring of course to
the Tapwave Zodiac which still has a fond place in my heart. It just
did so many things *right* and unfortunately lacked a few things I
wanted. For example:

1. It was the perfect ebook reader, I could comfortably hold the unit
in my hand, turning the pages with my thumb which rested right on the
left shoulder button. Nothing else comes close in my opinion, not
even the Kindle.

2. It had the Palm interface, with none of the NVFS crap that we now
have to put up with. So what if memory is erased when losing all
power, you had two sd cards to backup to! The wheel interface blended
in perfectly with Palm's Zen.

3. It had a separate processor for graphics, nice sounding speakers
with good audio, speedy processor and two sd slots.

4. When I wanted to play games, the form factor was actually more
comfortable than my PS or DS.

5. I had the Zodiac 2 with 128 megs internal memory, just the right
amount for usability.

The reasons I had for moving to the TX?

1. Extremely poor choice of HotSync connectors, syncing had become a
chore trying to get the connection to stick. Fix: Make it a mini-usb!

2. No built-in WiFi! This seems picky but it really expands the
usefulness of the device. Fix: Add Wifi (exactly like the Palm TX)
with the Enterprise stuff standard.

3. Flaky Digitizer. Ok, so the TX suffers from this too, who knew?
Fix: Give me a GLASS digitizer that works accurately with Graffiti!
Please?!?!?

One feature that the PSP did get right over the TX/Zod is the
*removable* battery, hey what a novel idea! If the Zod would have had
a removable battery, I might have kept it, just for reading.

If I ever get rich, who knows, maybe you will get a chance to buy your
very own Zodiac 3...

* CPU: Motorola i.MX1 ARM9 processor (200 MHz)
* Memory: 128 MB. 10 MB Dedicated to the System Dynamic RAM
* Graphic Accelerator: ATI Imageon W4200 2D graphics accelerator
(with 8 MB dedicated SDRAM)
* Display: 3.8 inch transflective 480 x 320 (half VGA), 16-bit
color backlit display (65,536 colors)
* Sound: Yamaha sound and stereo speakers, 3.5 mm earphone plug
* External Connectors: 2 expansion slots (both are MMC / SD
capable, one is also SDIO capable)
Mini-USB Connector, 3.5 mm headphone jack, mic
* Wireless: Infrared, Bluetooth, WifFi Enterprise
* Battery: Removable Lithium Rechargable
* Size & Weight: 5.6" x 3.1" x 0.55" (142x79x14 mm), 6.3 ounces (180 g)
* Colors: Charcoal Gray
* Casing: Synthetic rubber, anodized aluminum, plastic
* Palm OS 5.4T
* Built-In Applications - WiFi, Spoke Launcher, Background Music
Player, MP3 Alarm, BT Stereo Support,
Docs2Go, Datebk 6, Contacts, Resco Suite, CardReader, CardText,
eReader Pro, GoogleMaps, HotSync,
ListPro, IM, NotePad, MemoPad, PalmPDF, PalmPrint, UnitConverter
Pro, SnapperMail, TCPMP, NetFront

Hey, it's my dream, remember? :)