Tikkabik

... at least as we know it.

Tapwave came out with this Palm OS-based PDA-cum-game system a while ago called the Zodiac. It's essentially a Palm OS 5.x-based PDA with a wide screen, stereo speakers and a built-in thumbpad that vibrates. It's a lot smaller than a Sony PSP and a lot more functional than the Game Boy DS. I have one (two, actually, don't ask) and I love it. I don't really use it a lot, but I do dig it.

What makes it better than your run-of-the-mill PalmOne PDA is that it uses an ATI graphics processor for some limited graphics acceleration. That makes the Zodiac more capable of running truly 3D games, and also makes it a fantastic little system from which to view movies. It also features built-in Bluetooth, support for expansion through two SDIO slots, a built-in MP3 player and other amenities that not only make the Zodiac a good game system, but a good all around organizer and palm computing system.

Anyway, this Zodiac news resource called Tapland recently posted comments from Tapwave marketing executive Byron Connell, who basically said the Zodiac is on its way out, while Tapwave is refocusing its efforts on other opportunities for the intellectual property it's developed.

It's not exactly a huge surprise. Tapwave wasn't really able to corral Palm developers to use their APIs and technology in any great numbers. There certainly have been a few games developed for Zodiac, but not an enormous amount, and some Palm games and other applications get really weird when they run on the Zodiac, for some reason.

What Connell said specifically, putting as positive a spin on it as possible, was the Tapwave was focusing its efforts on developing "new co-branded products from OEM partners." What that means is that the Zodiac, as we know it, is going away. Hopefully to be replaced by new hardware from other manufacturers that will run software optimized for Tapwave Zodiac systems.

Connell suggested that the company is close to closing other partnership deals and said that it's back on track developing new software and APIs to see it forward into the future, so these are positive developments. But it looks like I'll be able to add my Zodiac next to my wife's Handspring Visor and my own MessagePad and eMate 300 in the growing menagerie of portable computing devices I've acquired that haven't proven to be viable for their manufacturers.