Tapwave Zodiac

Tapwave, founded in Mountain View, California in May 2001, introduced the Zodiac mobile entertainment console in October 2003. The product was designed to be a "high performance mobile entertainment system” centered on games, music, pictures, and video for 18 to 34 year old gamers and technology enthusiasts. By running an enhanced version of the Palm Operating System (5.2T), Zodiac also provided access to Palm’s personal information management software and many other applications from the Palm developer community.

The Zodiac console was initially availa


ble in two models, Zodiac 1 (32MB) for $299 US, and Zodiac 2 (128MB) for $399 US. Some of the more noteworthy game titles for the product included: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4; Mototrax; Spyhunter; Madden NFL 2005; DOOM II; Warfare Incorporated; and Duke Nukem Mobile. Due to strong competitive pressures from the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) and lack of funding to drive premier game development and compete effectively in the market, Tapwave discontinued the sale of the console on July 25 2005 and sold substantially all of its assets to an undisclosed multi-billion dollar corporation in Asia.

While Zodiac sold less than 200,000 units, the console garnered strong product reviews and received many industry awards. A few examples include: Popular Science’s 2003 Best of What’s New (BOWN) Award; Stuff Magazine’s Top 10 Gadgets of the Year for 2004; Wired Magazine’s Fetish Award; CNET’s Editor's Choice Award; PC World’s 2004 Next Gear Innovations Award; PC Magazine’s 1st Place Last Gadget Standing at CES; Handheld Computing Magazines’s Most Innovative PDA of 2003; Time Magazine’s Best Gear of 2003, and Business Week’s Best Products of 2003.

More rugged than most contemporary PDAs

Strength
The Zodiac is more rugged than most contemporary PDAs because of its metal construction, although on some batches the adhesive on the shoulder buttons was known to fail, and the standard flip-top screen protector could do more harm than good if grit became trapped between it and the screen surface - various alternative cases made the ineffective default protector unnecessary. Presumably to save internal space, the stylus is clipped laterally into a recess in the rear of the device rather than locked into a slot as in most PDAs. This sometimes causes the stylus to get knocked loose when the handheld is kept inside a tight pocket or carry bag space, or when the handheld gets thrown around. Modified styli were produced which were attached to the lashing point on the rear of the case via a cord, so that they would not become lost or separated from the unit if they were shaken loose. Some of the third party alternative cases also served to hold the stylus in place while closed.


Compatibility
Most PalmOS 5-compatible games play on the Zodiac, as well as games designed specifically for the Zodiac's hardware. A great deal of freeware and shareware games and emulators are therefore available. For example, there are versions of Doom, Quake, Hexen, Hexen II, and Heretic as well as versions of emulators such as UAE, ScummVM, and LJZ/LJP, a multi-system emulator. There have also been attempts to emulate PlayStation games onto the Zodiac, the most successful emulator being PPSX. It is, however, nowhere near completion and many games are not playable as of yet.


Unreleased Games
A number of games were announced for the platform, but never released due to the Zodiac's discontinuation in July 2005. These games include: MTX Mototrax, a dirtbike racing game; Streethoops, a basketball game; Hockey Rage 2005; the Terminator 3 FPS;[10] Tomb Raider; and Neverwinter Nights. However, some test builds of some games were leaked.


Battery
The device has a total battery life of about 3 hours when using audio, backlight+screen and CPU-intensive tasks, and while running as a dedicated audio player it is closer to 6 hours. The original battery was a 1500mAh Li-Ion; third party replacements with 2000mAh capacity are still available from some manufacturers.

Unlike the mainstream Palm PDAs like the Tungsten series and the Sony

Alarms
Unlike the mainstream Palm PDAs like the Tungsten series and the Sony Clie series, the Zodiac had some unique features out of the box. Its alarms were polyphonic quality, sounding even richer and more realistic than current PDAs. The Zodiac can even play MP3's for alarms (a ROM update fixed the limit of being able to play only the first minute of an MP3 track).


Music
MP3's can be played off either of its 2 SD cards or internal memory (being the Zodiac 2 was the first PDA then and still one of the few Palm PDAs now to have over 100MB of user available RAM, this was quite feasible and convenient). While other Palm devices can also do this, they require 3rd party software like RAMdisk to enable MP3 playback off internal memory and Pocket Tunes to associate MP3s with alarms. The Zodiac uses the music player that's preloaded in ROM for normal use playback.


Input
The system includes a standard touch screen (at 480x320, one of the highest resolutions available at the time) but has additional inputs designed for gaming. Held in a landscape configuration, there is an analog thumbstick and a function button on the left of the screen, four digital buttons on the right, and two shoulder buttons (triggers) on the top of the device. The unit accepts SD format cards as removable storage. The Zodiac's implementation of Palm OS 5 has a radial menu (the analog stick is pushed in one of eight directions to select menu options) with a side list for use without the stylus.

Gaming
While PDAs like the Tungsten T3 and certain Sony Clies also have alarm vibration, the Zodiac is the only Palm PDA to use this feature for PDA games as well. Many of these games were Zodiac exclusive titles (in other words, not available for standard Palm OS handhelds), but some titles also available for standard Palm OS handhelds also had vibration feature added in. These were added via a separate install file for Zodiac handhelds or a global file with an option to turn this on if the game detected you were playing on a Zodiac. There is multiplayer mode which uses bluetooth, 8 players max. for most games.

Tapwave Zodiac Timeline

May 2001: Tapwave was founded in May 2001 by former Palm executives
May 2002: Tapwave closed initial Series-A funding
May 2002: Tapwave signed Palm OS licensing agreement with PalmSource
May 2003: Company was formally launched at Palm Developers Conference & E3
September 2003: Zodiac entertainment console launched at DEMO conference
October 2003: Zodiac console began shipping to customers directly from livescribe.com
November 2003: Tapwave announced that “over 1200 game developers” signed up for the Tapwave developer program
February 2004: PalmGear & Tapwave announced partnership to launch an online store to feature the best applications, game titles and ebooks available on the Palm OS platform
April 2004: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 available for Zodiac
April 2004: Synchronization between Zodiac & Mac OS X desktops enabled by MarkSpace
June 2004: Zodiac launched into U.S. retail distribution with CompUSA
October 2004: Zodiac launched in United Kingdom and sold through PC World, Dixons, Dixons Tax Free Stores, and Currys.
October 2004: Zodiac launched in Singapore and distributed by ECS
November 2004: Zodiac launched in South Korea and co-branded with Sonokong (OEM)
November 2004: Madden NFL 2005 available for Zodiac
December 2004: Audible announces audio book support for Zodiac
December 2004: Tapwave announce Wi-Fi SD card for the Zodiac with “enhanced mail application and web browser”.
January 2005: Tapwave and Virgin Digital announced strategic alliance for audio download and subscription services.
July 2005: Due to strong competitive pressures from the Sony PSP, Tapwave discontinued the sale of the Zodiac mobile entertainment console and sold substantially all of its assets to an undisclosed multi-billion dollar corporation in Asia and wound down operations.

Gadget's Go Coaster

Gadget's Go Coaster is a roller coaster at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California and Tokyo Disneyland theme park, located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, near Tokyo. The ride is based on the work of the popular character Gadget Hackwrench from the 1989 Walt Disney Television Animation cartoon, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. Gadget herself can be seen on top of a small weathervane on a building towards Chip and Dale's Tree House.

Both versions of the attraction are located in Mickey's Toontown, and the Disneyland version opened January 23, 1993, along with the Mickey's Toontown area. The Tokyo Disneyland version opened on April 15, 1996.

The Go Coaster is primarily for children and therefore has very small cars. While two children can easily fit into a single car, most adults would have to travel alone (or with a small child). Guests board a train fashioned from acorns and scavenged parts. Once on board, guests are treated to a safety spiel audio recording by Gadget herself (voiced by Tress MacNeille). Guests travel through Gadget's salvaged old comb, soup can and thread spool, and over a small lake.

Consumer electronics

Consumer electronics include electronic equipment intended for everyday use. Consumer electronics are most often used in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Some products classed as consumer electronics include personal computers, telephones, MP3 players, audio equipment, televisions, calculators, GPS automotive navigation systems and playback and recording of video media such as DVDs, VHSs or camcorders. The global consumer electronics industry is dominated by American, Japanese and Korean companies.

The CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) estimates 2007 Consumer Electronics sales at 150 billion dollars.

Consumer electronics are manufactured throughout the world, although there is a particularly high concentration of manufacturing activity in Japan and South Korea. The latest consumer electronics are previewed yearly at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, at which many industry pioneers speak.

One overriding characteristic of all consumer electronic products is the trend of ever-falling prices. This is driven by gains in manufacturing efficiency and automation, lower labor costs as manufacturing has moved to lower-wage countries, and improvements in semiconductor design. Semiconductor components benefit from Moore's Law, an observed principle which states that, for a given price, semiconductor functionality doubles every 18 months.

While consumer electronics continues in its trend of convergence, combining elements of many consumer electronic items, the consumer faces different decisions when purchasing their items. There is an ever increasing need to keep the product information updated and most comparable, for the consumer to be able to make an informed buying decision. The variables are becoming more about 'style and price' rather than 'specification and performance'. This convergence of technologies promises a shrinking of choice of retailer to the consumer and the rise of manufacturer status within the home. There is a gradual shift towards e-commerce web-storefronts

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htGadget and the Gadgetinis is a spinoff of the classic series Inspector Gadget developed by DiC in cooperation with SIP Animation produced from 2001-2003. There are 52 episodes.

Gadget is now a lieutenant, and a member of an organization called "WOMP" (World Organization of Mega Powers). He is aided in his work by Penny (who is now twelve years old), as well as the new robot characters Digit and Fidget, the titular Gadgetinis invented by Penny, who essentially replace Brain the dog in this series (who is supposedly retired from active duty) and Chief Quimby (who now works as an informant for the head of WOMP) has been replaced with Col. Nozzaire, a former member of the French Foreign Legion.

The original creators returned for this series - Andy Heyward was one of the executive producers, Jean Chalopin co-created the show and wrote 49 of the episodes, while Bruno Bianchi directed. It essentially follows the same plot as the original series, with the clumsy Gadget attempting to fight crime on his own, while Penny and her helpers did all the work. Doctor Claw, who in some stories was replaced by other villains - in a few cases aliens or dictators - had relatives in a few of the episodes, a move which has been criticized by some as detracting from his mystery.

While Brain and Chief Quimby are mostly absent from the show, they do appear in pictures in Gadget's house. Each also appears as a special guest, and only in one episode each. Brain appears in episode 36, No Brainer which reveals that, having been traumatized after years of pain while saving Gadget, he retired from crime-fighting to live in a riverside house. The mere mention of the word "gadget" is enough to drive him frantic. Chief Quimby appears on episode 45. Super Boss Gadget.

The end-credits showed sketches of Penny on her bicycle visiting Brain at his riverside home. The pair enjoy an emotional reunion.

Maurice LaMarche continued as Gadget's voice, reprising his role from the "Sunday Movie Toon", "Inspector Gadget's Last Case". The main title song was written and performed by Mike Piccirillo. The musical underscore composers were Mike Piccirillo and Jean-Michel Guirao

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www.linkque.comThough Dr. Claw's metallic hands and arms are often seen, his face is always just out of shot in the series. The device frequently used to block his face was the back of a chair with the M.A.D. logo on it. This spoofs the cat-stroking James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who was initially only portrayed as forearms and hands, with the rest of the body obscured. (M.A.D. is also a play upon Blofeld's SPECTRE.)


"Dr Claw' face, in an action figure"Dr. Claw's face was ultimately revealed in sources outside the cartoon series such as licensed action figures and a video game for Super NES, which depicted him as resembling a deranged European nobleman. In the 1999 live-action movie remake, Dr. Claw was fully visible with the appearance of a middle-aged businessman, and portrayed by Rupert Everett, although for a significant portion of the film's opening scenes his face is out of shot in a reference to the cartoon series. He gets his nickname after he lost his left hand and rebuilt it as a mechanical claw. In a magazine at Scolex Industries, he was shown to be originally fat. The direct-to-video sequel released in 2003 portrayed Dr. Claw with a few traits more like his cartoon counterpart: His face was never shown (still, it was obvious that he made no attempt in the film to hide it from anybody), and he escaped in the end of the movie with the words "I'll get you next time, Gadget!" (flying off in a rocket not too dissimilar from his first transport vehicle in the original cartoon series' pilot episode, "Gadget in Winterland"). In the 2003 movie he was played by Tony Martin.

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