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* Great media player capabilities: Though it won't play DRMed content, it plays standard Divx and MP3s with free software from the Web. (The video player software that came with it was some annoying proprietary thing. The MP3 player was fine, but the free media player I got plays OGGs too.) Battery life can be a problem with long movies, but not for episodes of The Venture Brothers, well if only there were some way to get episodes of that show in DiVX format, I mean. (Oh, The Simpsons, The Tick, GitS: SAC , Paranoia Agent Futurama whatever turns you on... live action TV too, an hour is no problem.)

* Great gaming capabilities: I mean it has a touch screen and an analogue stick... but unfortunately not so much commercial software. Stuntcar Extreme which came with it, is great for showing off it's 3D graphics, rumble feature, and smooth controls using the analogue stick and buttons. For a game that uses the touch screen, the Warfare Inc. demo is kind of fun, and it comes with a version of Solitaire. Homebrew has been sort of hit or miss for me. I like Beats of Rage, but most of the other stuff I tried to install required a memory wipe.

* All the note taking, life organizing, alarm clock type features you would want. Oh, and I downloaded a Tone Dialer for it that works but you have to get the speaker of the Zodiac really close to the reciever.

Annoyingly, the Tapwave Zodiac failed marketwise, I'm not sure why. I'm guessing they had too much debt and needed to hit it big right away. Or perhaps it was simply to beautiful for this world.

Anyway, buy a Tapwave Zodiac! It will make your life better! Chicks dig them... well, ok not all... maybe not even most, but I'm sure some do. Besides it's cheaper than a porsche!

Its just a pity that the UK & Europe are stuck with v1.52 PSPs that cant run all the Brilliant Homebrew and Emulators for the PSP including tonight the release of an Atari ST Emulator for the PSP, theres also discussion today that certain Firmware versions of the PSP Can Play UMD Films from all Regions. One final thing the PSP is being sold in the UK for £179 (if you can get one) but Success HK are selling it for $239 or £125. Why is the UK still being ripped off :(

I've just finished reading David Allen's "Getting Things Done" http://www.davidco.com/ and it's remarkably tech-agnostic. You can achieve all of your requirements with paper and pen. I'd recommend getting a good solid view of WHAT you want to record, and how to arrange it before deciding on any kind of tech solution.

(Then jump straight to ShadowPlan... heh heh..)

Unfortunately, no killer app has been invented for the PDA that can make use of its power. The main reason for this, IMHO, is the inefficient input methods available at the moment: Either an external keyboard, or very unreliable handwriting recognition.

My Tungsten C has a built-in keyboard. And believe me, I use that sucker constantly.

(Killer app? I recommend Agendus and Shadow Plan -- that's 90% of my work/task/project management needs right there.)

The big problem with the GameGear is that it used a small flouresent tube a backlight without a on/off switch. I play old GameGear ROMs on my Tapwave Zodiac using emulator called GuineaPig from - .

I wonder how long it be before the PSP can be programmed for EMUs like a few other consoles?

I've been looking at the Tapwave Zodiac for some time, but the current development environment is fairly hostile to hobby developers which is where most emulation dev work occurs... Before I get flamed by the Tapwave faithful let me explain: 1) although it is possible to use an open source tool chain, it is pretty difficult to get everything working together (Tapwave targeted Code Warrior because at the time that was what Palm was targeting), 2) they want their machine to be a gameing console so they incorporated digital rights management that limits what you can distribute (you have to get your app signed before you can distribute it) and 3) until recently they refused to sign apps that were GPL for fear they would have to open their proprietary source. You can run straight up Palm OS programs on the Zod, but they can't use the stick, accelerated graphics, etc.

On top of that many users have reported dissatisfaction with the analog stick. Aside from possible calibration problems, it would seem the consensus seems to be that it is great for 3D games, but not so great for emulated games that originally ran on digital pads.

Any way, I've been searching for an alternative... seems to me there should be a gamepad of some sort that works well with the Pocket PC. Now that Dell has gotten into the game there are some good prices on pretty fast PPCs...

Just curious if anyone knows of anything or is working on anything...

Having knocked the Zod I feel compelled to mention the Little John Z which by all accounts is an excellent emulator for the Zod.

http://john.redmood.com/organizers.html
http://www.ypsolog.com/docs/comp/other/pim.html
http://www.ms.lt/ms/projects/toolkinds/organize.ht ml

The odds are good that you'll find something that works.

I personally use Ecco Pro, Shadow Palm and DateBk5.

But then again, I'm a zealot.

While there's no MAME for PalmOS, there is XCade, which runs Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Phoenix, Star Castle and a few others. Support for more games is on the way, though Galaga is fairly low down on the list.

Here are some screenshots.

While there's no MAME for PalmOS, there is XCade, which runs Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Phoenix, Star Castle and a few others. Support for more games is on the way, though Galaga is fairly low down on the list.

Here are some screenshots.

If you're interested in emulation on Palm OS-based handhelds, you should learn the name Jeff Mitchell. He's the programmer behind XCade (an arcade emulator) and CaSTaway (an Atari ST emulator). Nifty stuff. Check them out.

If you're interested in emulation on Palm OS-based handhelds, you should learn the name Jeff Mitchell. He's the programmer behind XCade (an arcade emulator) and CaSTaway (an Atari ST emulator). Nifty stuff. Check them out.

You can find a great free Atari ST emulator for Palm at http://www.codejedi.com/shadowplan/castaway.html

It works really well for the devices that it support, such as Sony NX, NZ, UX, TG series, Palm Tungsten T3 and Tapwave Zodiac :)

IMHO, this is even cooler than having a C64 emu on Palm :)