1SRC Podcast FortyEight

[Alan G]

This week we cover Ed Hardy's 1SRC editorials, the EDGE Palm OS role-playing game, increases in handheld shipments, and will Motorola acquire the assets of Tapwave? [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=1301)]

[Legodude522]

Tapwave Zodiac user here! EDGE is optimized for the Zodiac. :-P

[JAmerican]

Tapwave Zodiac user here! EDGE is optimized for the Zodiac. :-P

Agreed. I don't think regular palms have DSPs or Graphics Accelerators yet! Sad.

Tried EDGE on my UX and its not that great of an experience. At least for me. I don't like those kind of games. Warfare is better.

JAmerican

[LupeValenz]

We all know other palm users are jealous of us clie users so we get used to be picked on ;). I have to say EDGE is great game and I'm havin fun as a mage :D. Its great to be runnin for your life! LOL.

[Alan G]

Ok, just so we're all clear, I'm a Clie owner as well. I wanted to be a Zodiac 2 owner also, but the inventory at CompUSA ran out before I got my hands one. Either way, I'm really impressed with EDGE!

Alan G

[Dick Tracy]

Not a gamer, but I could hear your enthusiasm for EDGE in the podcast. Good job Alan.

[Drunkard]

Alan, you need a better microphone, anything that doesn't produce rumble and pops in the sound is good. What kind of mic are you using right now? Is it a headset microphone? If so, you need to move it be out of the way, perhaps an inch below your lips, and you need to not touch it at all to avoid pops and rumbling sound. I am an audio engineer, so I offer this as advice to you. Otherwise, great podcast, the topics were very good. I feel, as some do that Palm needs to compete directly with other VGA handhelds and should produce a 640x480 LifeDrive to keep Palm from being a one-trick pony with their Treo line outpacing their handheld sales, though not by too much, 400000+ handhelds is still quite a few I might add.

Edge is great if you like role-playing and magic, elves, dwarves, all that crap, but I don't. I never have like these type of games, even Diablo and DIablo 2 weren't very fun in my opinion, but that's just me. I am having much more fun playing Panzer Assault. And I am in no way jealous of you Clie owners, as far as I can tell your all up a creek without a paddle now that Sony has stopped making them. Who cares that they have tons of features andf built-in apps, their not a Palm in my mind, their a Sony, and I never really liked the way Sony makes things. Being limited to MemorySticks alone would be too much of a drawback.

[mdstudio]

Hey Alan,
I'm a fairly new listener and have enjoyed the past six podcasts. I listen to them on my Tungsten C while at the gym and exercising. I use Quick news to download them directly. I've had a problem listening to them though since #47. The rate seems to have changed to 24kHz which the Tungsten C can't handle (I get a message in Pocket Tunes that my machine can only handle 22 or 44kHz. Don't know if others have the same problem but I'd appreciate a return to the old rate.
Thanks!
Trevor

[Alan G]

Chirs,

I tend to pace around while I'm doing my podcast so I suspect that the noise you hear is coming from that. I'll try to sit still for next week's podcast.

Trevor,

I thought I was recording at 44KHz, but I'll double-check. Jeff and I are probably using different software settings.

Alan G

[Alan G]

Dick Tracy wrote:
Not a gamer, but I could hear your enthusiasm for EDGE in the podcast.

I still can't get over how rich this game feels. I'll get back to the regular stuff next week.

Alan G

[Jimmie Geddes]

Alan, glad to hear your thoughts on the Symbian Treo. I got emailed a story about the Symbian Treo, I wrote an article a few weeks ago, engadget also put it up on their site.
http://www.gadgetsonthego.net/2005/11/is-palm-just-adding-fuel-to-fire_02.html
The fact that Ed Colligan is talking about it only adds fuel to the fire.
Great podcast!

[Jimmie Geddes]

I didn't hear rumble and pops on my iPod, thought you sounded good.

[PDAJah]

Alan, thanks for another interesting podcast.

[Alan G]

I'm going to try and record a few sample files this weekend and see if I can get to the bottom of this. At least the kHz issue anyway. I'll break out the Clie, the Tungsten C, and my old iPaq. Then I'll load up SharkAudio (Clie), Pocket Tunes/AeroPlayer on the C, and on the iPaq I'll use Windows Media Player.

Alan G

[quasar]

Regarding Motorola buying Tapwave: Tapland got a personal letter, different from the press releases, from Tapwave's senior VP of marketing. In this letter (http://tapland.com/news_arc/?id=642) he says "...but there is still another chapter to the story that I hope to share with you soon. A lot of company's have been impressed with the team's accomplishments and the IP that was created along the way..."

So not only is it possible, but it's probable.

Regarding Zodiac optimization for Edge: I haven't played on any other device, but I know that the analog controller functions as an 8-way nav. in EDGE. Also, there are more buttons to use for the actions. I'm sure you don't need the Z to play EDGE, or any other game, but it makes the experience better.

-Brian

[ptc]

Nice coverage of Edge. I share your opinion. Truly superb game. It sets a new standard for Palm games... I just hope Zane makes more of 'em!!

[Alan G]

Regarding Motorola buying Tapwave: Tapland got a personal letter, different from the press releases, from Tapwave's senior VP of marketing. In this letter (http://tapland.com/news_arc/?id=642) he says "...but there is still another chapter to the story that I hope to share with you soon. A lot of company's have been impressed with the team's accomplishments and the IP that was created along the way..."

Very interesting. And as for the actual Zodiac hardware, I was impressed with it's design. I'm not a big gamer, but I did like the idea of dual SD slots (only one was SD/IO). I wanted it for the ability to copy things from card to card. I wonder if Palm makes a mini-tablet sized LifeDrive if they will add a second SD slot. Then again, if you have a 4GB+ hard drive in your device and built-in Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, do you really need two card slots? Guess not.

Alan G

[ballistic]

Regarding Motorola buying Tapwave:

A former Tapwave employee reported to Scott at Tapland (as mentioned in this thread (http://tapland.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6322)) that Motorola hired a number of Tapwave engineers:

Many of the employees were hired by Motorola. I've actually
decided to join them as well. The products are not at all
Zodiac-like, but should be pretty cool.

The rumor of Motorola buying Tapwave's IP has also been floating around the Zodiac community for some time. Tapland member Barksfan has been having communication with a person who was "intimately involved with Tapwave" (http://tapland.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6675). No specifics about hardware were given, and this information is still unconfirmed, but combined with the news of Motorola's interest in acquiring PalmSource I agree with Alan that Motorola's motivation might include gaining a license for Palm OS to use in future entertainment and data-centric devices.

You can also add Tapwave's customization of the Palm OS including the Zodiac's custom launcher as well as their experience in creating multimedia applications and custom device drivers.

Brian