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Day One Impressions Of The Zodiac 1
He likes it! He likes it!
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by Scott Raulinaitis, Editor - 11/18/2003 - 10:32am EST
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There are enough reviews and end-user reviews posted on the forums, that I see no reason to rush my review, so I'm going to allow myself a few days so that I can offer something well-written and hopefully cover some facets that no one else has.
So, at the risk of leaving me with nothing interesting to say for my "real" review, here are numerous initial impressions off the top of my head (and in no particular order) from having only received my Zodiac 1 just yesterday...
Outside The Box
The box it came in was smaller than I expected. I had seen photos of the packaging already, but the photos had no commonly known object in them so as to properly judge the scale of it. I'm actually a bit surprised that Tapwave chose to create two separate boxes for the Zodiac 1 and 2, rather than just slap a sticker on the side, as the only differences between the two models are the color and RAM size.
I like the lighter "slate gray" color of the Zodiac 1. I was afraid I wouldn't, but I like it a lot. I seem to recall the online photos on Tapwave's site depicting it such that the darker color of the analog controller and lighter color of the action buttons all seemed to contrast with one another too much. But they don't. All of the shades blend together nicely. And, I'll say it again...this will look perfectly fine in a business environment.
I like the flip cover, but do wish that it had an extra piece of plastic that wrapped around the back and snapped onto something. The important thing is that Tapwave designed the hardware with the necessary holes to allow for a flip-cover, so aftermarket covers should be easy for manufacturers to develop.
I now fully understand what Brian D. Crecente meant when he talked about the uncomfortable manner of gripping the Zodiac. This is only a problem if you need to use the shoulder buttons. As such, I might be so bold as to suggest that game developers not make use of the shoulder buttons. In my opinion, the clickable analog controller and four action buttons are plenty of buttons anyway. I have some ideas for an alternate Zodiac design that could fix this, which I'll discuss in a future article. To me, this is the probably the biggest hardware design flaw of the Zodiac, but it in no way would prevent me from recommending it. The gaming ergonomics are still light years ahead of any other PDA, and game-only consoles can't match up to the Zodiac's other advanced capabilities.
The screen is gorgeous, of course, but it does have a slightly bluish tint and is not as bright as my recently acquired HP iPaq h4155. However, my new iPaq suffers from the infamous "yellow tint" problem (which, if you're not familiar with it, means that when angled even slightly, whites turn yellowish), and that problem annoys me greatly. Between this and the higher resolution of the Zodiac, the Zodiac's screen is the clear winner.
I am definitely saddened that the serial connector is not compatible with palmOne's Universal Connector, though I'm not sure if early rumors that it would ever had any truth to them. I was really hoping that I could make use of my serial-mouse GPS to the Zodiac, which may still be possible if I can convince a company that makes adaptor cables for my GPS to create one for the Zodiac. The palmOne UC could have also made the Zodiac a great fit for palmOne's old foldable keyboard, which has some advantages over their newer IR version (e.g. - it can be "locked" open so that you can use it on your lap).
Inside The Box
I was pleasantly surprised to see that even my lowly 32MB Zodiac 1 seems to have the "Internal RAM-based Virtual Card" which should allow me to store MP3s, JPEGs, and other non-Palm-specific files in internal memory. On the other hand, my Zodiac 1 shows 16.2MB free of about 20MB available. Where'd my other 12MB go?
The controller and button audible feedback sounds are great, and really add to the user experience, IMO. The sounds are different, but the effect reminds me of navigating the menus on my TiVo. The one downside is that these sound effects could be mistaken for game playing in a meeting. As such, I'd probably turn off the sounds before going into a meeting. Which brings me to...
The sound can be turned off via an easily accessible speaker icon on the screen. I had read that Tapwave implemented this such that it doesn't mute it "forever" but only for a set duration. At first this seemed odd, but I now see how ingenious this was as you typically only need to mute the audio for a meeting, anyway, and I have such an awful memory that I'd forget to un-mute it afterwards. This is a perfect example of the old Palm zen-like thinking: Simple usability improvements which aren't going to make headlines, but make the overall experience much more satisfying than alternative Pocket-sized operating systems that I won't mention.
I like the joystick-based launcher better than I thought I would. Clicking on the joystick will return you to the last menu, which is great. But one thing that the Zodiac really needs is a hardware "Back" button that could return me to the last launcher screen that I was on once I actually launch an application.
Graffiti 2 is the spawn of satan. There, I've said it. I've been wanting to write an article discussing the whole Graffiti vs. Graffiti 2 issue on goodthatway for a long time, and will eventually get around to doing that. Having to use Graffiti 2 isn't really Tapwave's fault. Fortunately, there are some solutions for getting the old zentastic Graffiti working (somewhat), as well as some alternative input solutions that may satisfy others. I was a bit surprised to see that the on-screen keyboard used up useful screen space, rather than being implemented into the virtual input area. I don't forsee using the onscreen keyboard often, so it's a minor issue for me.
Upside Down
Contrary to the confusing photo on Tapwave's site (but perfectly in line with how I was sure it would work), the Zodiac cannot be used in portrait mode with the action buttons on the bottom. In portrait mode, the analog controller is always on the bottom, regardless of how you've set the right/left hand preferences. I mention this not because I dislike the way it works, but simply because there was some contention about this a while back as we all awaited the release of the Zodiac and had nothing better to argue about. On a related note...while the home launcher always reverts back to landscape mode, most/all of the standard applications will remember the last state that you left them in, including whether or not the input panel was shown or hidden.
So, that's it for now. Expect more details as the days progress and a more full-featured review, chock full of photos and other useful info within a week. If there's something in particular you'd like me to photograph, measure, or talk about, just let me know.
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