Zodiac 2 vs. Lifedrive

[Anthony1]

I am going to get a new pda soon, and I'm not sure which would be better. So far I can't find any real reason why the Lifedrive is better, besides the hard drive(which some might say is bad) any reasons why one is better than the other? so far all I can think of is these
Zodiac 2
more built in ram
gaming capabilities
Interface, etc
much cheaper price

Lifedrive
Hard drive
Wifi

[jstimson]

Zodiac also has stereo speakers and 2 SD slots.

Zodiac cons are fidgity connection for hotsync cable (no cradle supplied in box) and only really useful in landscape mode.

That last one I got used to very quickly. Button layout is not good for portrait layout.

Zodiac may have an advantage with having a vibrating alarm as well. Specs for Lifedrive don't mention it.

Missing from the Zodiac and not know for the Lifedrive would be voice recording.

[xMist]

I would definitely go with the Zodiac. As well as all the points stated by jstimson above, the LifeDrive looks huge compared to the Zodiac and also is guaranteed to weigh more due to its HDD - if you want space, SD cards suck less power and are MUCH lighter. :D

[Ezikial Anta]

Life Drive supposedly has Voice recorder built in, unconfirmed though.
Life Drive also has WiFi built in, and a faster processor. I dont know which weighs more, and im not sure which is bigger (As the stats we have now are not final)

[Anthony1]

Since I use games and multimedia a lot, i'm almost definately getting a Zodiac. The only real advantages of the lifedrive is wifi and the hard drive, and so far I'm doing fine with a 1gb sd card, and last I checked, Sandisk wifi+256mb cards are $50 on ebay. Since I'm getting a Zodiac, does anyone know how mmplayer works on the Zodiac? On my zire 72, it runs smoothly, with no problems with sound sync(at least no problems that can't be traced to the video encoding) but with the bigger screen and the slightly slower processor, it might work less well. Also, how well does that new free video player work? I would prefer to go with MMplayer, since it looks nicer and I already bought it, but if the other player works better, I will use it.

[Anthony1]

also, the dimensions for the lifedrive are 6.50 inches x 6.50 inches x 4.00 inches according to amazon

[jjesusfreak01]

also, the dimensions for the lifedrive are 6.50 inches x 6.50 inches x 4.00 inches according to amazon
The BOX, its the BOX. No PDA is 4 inches thick. Or square for that matter.

[kennyd]

Since I use games and multimedia a lot, i'm almost definately getting a Zodiac. The only real advantages of the lifedrive is wifi and the hard drive, and so far I'm doing fine with a 1gb sd card, and last I checked, Sandisk wifi+256mb cards are $50 on ebay. Since I'm getting a Zodiac, does anyone know how mmplayer works on the Zodiac? On my zire 72, it runs smoothly, with no problems with sound sync(at least no problems that can't be traced to the video encoding) but with the bigger screen and the slightly slower processor, it might work less well. Also, how well does that new free video player work? I would prefer to go with MMplayer, since it looks nicer and I already bought it, but if the other player works better, I will use it.

MMPlayer executes good video on the Zod, but requires much more encoding specs than running the new TCPMP (or whatever it's name is? :) With the new player I don't even worry about encoding specs, just pick your file size and rip, seamless video output. The Zod's a good machine for DVD's. Great battery life, landscape is not just a good mode for movies it'll be your mode of choice (at least it is for me).

[ackmondual]

I am going to get a new pda soon, and I'm not sure which would be better. So far I can't find any real reason why the Lifedrive is better, besides the Hard drive(which some might say is bad) any reasons why one is better than the other? so far all I can think of is these Zodiac 2 more built in ram gaming capabilities Interface, etc much cheaper price Lifedrive Hard drive Wifi

There is more than meets the eye

Zodiac 2 hardware pros:
128MB CONTIGUOUS internal RAM
Yamaha chipset
Stereo Speakers
custom 8MB ATI Radeon vid card
game controllers (analog + shoulder buttons)

Lifedrive hardware pros:
416Mhz Xscale processor
4GB microdrive
VR
wifi
hardware screen rotation button
lock button

Comments
If you're into gaming and/or multimedia, then zod2 is for you. Otherwise get a LD for multimedia, productivitiy, and/or wireless. Since I'm not only a gamer, but a cheap gamer, I'd shoot for a zod2. I don't need THAT much capcity, and while the zod2's gaming specs aren't used alot due to the zods poor gaming scene, it's still worth it for me.

zod2 Software and other pros
-Comes with its own mp3 player that fully utlizes the enhanced sound hardware and speakers
-neat default picture viewer
-Wordsmith. A nice working Word compatible app i hear. Some claim this is even better than Docs To Go, Word to Go component.
-Comes with Stuntcar Extreme and Acid Solitaire.
-half the price of the LD
-cradle option available

LD software and other pros
-comes with Documents To Go 7.x Pro edition so u also get Excel and Powerpoint compatibility
-comes with the updated PIMs (Calendar, Tasks, Memos, Contacts+assigning pics to entries)
-comes with NotePad (do the zods really NOT have freesketch software!?! :eek: :confused: )
-Palm Media which handles all photos, pics, and video media.
-several other productivity apps (web browser, etc.)

Comments
Again, if you're into gaming, get the zod2. Else get a LD. You may not hear it here, but there are ppl who will constantly tirade the old PIMs (Datebook's lack of color coding, MemoPad's 4K rather than Memos 32K limit, and addresses one address only per person and other lack of fields). For datebook i use datebook5 anyways so that solves most problems relating to cosmetic look. For Memopad, I make it a point to keep my memos short below 4K so that I wouldn't have any problems switching to a T3 to zod2 if needed. I don't have 4K+ memos anywyas, and if i did, I'd use Docs To Go to display long text. I don't use Tasks nor ToDo. For Contacts, I still do redundancy and for example, put a person's AIM contact in the Contacts special IM fields AND in notes so that it'll be there if stripped away upon going back to a zod2.

DTG is really nice, but only if u really make good use of it. Lack of NotePad on the Zod (if true) sucks. I had NoteBook for os3 (Visor Neo) which i had to give up since the dev won't upgrade it for os5 compatilibity when i switched to be T3, and now i'd be switching to another freesketch utility. I might go for a 3rd party os5 one for good this time. At least with a desktop component, I can take screen shots of my most useful/important sketches and import them in my next app.

And again, i'd lean towards the zod2. Better games, emus, compatibility with games AND software since the zod has had time to work those kinks out. I still have no use for wifi.

[ackmondual]

BTW, where and how much did you get a zod2 for?

The BOX, its the BOX. No PDA is 4 inches thick. Or square for that matter.

Well, there were PDAs like that. Alpha Smart and maybe other brands as well, but those didn't last a long time for obvious reasons.

I hear the LD is no thicker/bulkier than a Handspring Visor Prism, so it ain't that bad at all from those terms

[Cyker]

The Zod2 is very very cheap these days, and is the only PalmOS device with 128MB of RAM.
I'm in the process of getting one at the moment (I'm trying to source that damned Sandisk WiFi+256MB SD card - It costs almost the same as what I'm getting the Zod2 for!).

The support from Tapwave seems to be better than Palm's, which is a plus.

Really, it comes down to whether you need/want that 4GB drive or not. Oh, and the dual wireless (The other feature of the LD is it can do BT and WiFi at the same time; No other Palm can do this. IMHO this is a bigger selling point than the 4GB drive ;))


I still think my TH55 is a much better PDA, but with the recent price drop on the Zodiac 2 (£99!!) it's a fragging bargain! I'm buying it purely for games (Which is one area the TH55 is complete crap at ;)), so I must admit I'm not paying much (or in fact, any) attention to the other apps that come with it. I suspect the LD is a bit better for PIM stuff than the Z2 'tho.
I was originally going to get a PSP or DS instead, but they and their games are far too expensive to my eye. That and most of the games are rubbish (Esp. on the PSP - The only game I've played on it that I liked is Lumines!).

The only sticking point I have is how to get my TH and the Z2's HotSync drivers to coexist on my compy :(


Ack: Ahh them AlphaSmarts! The Dana would be a crap PDA, but if you want a lightweight and awesome typing machine then it kicks ***. I have several journalist-type friends who love theirs to bits ;)

[archangel]

I have gone back and forth with this recently. I spent about an hour checking out the Lifedrive (even put my SD card in to run some of my own programs on it) and I really like it, but I am stuck on the question of it being an upgrade for my Zod 2.

I have the Zod2, Wi-Fi card, and a 1GB SD card. So all I'm really adding hardware wise is voice recorder which I never used on my Clie, faster processor and the 4GB of storage. I am really looking at it based on the major things I use the Zod for now.

The 4GB is tempting, but the more I look at it the more I realize it is not going to be a replacement for my 30GB Zen because it is way to small to hold even a fraction of my music. 4GB can hold more multimedia than my Zod, but on my Zod I really never fill the 1GB card I have now.

Another feature I use a lot is ebook reading and listening. Zod has a big advantage here. The Zod is much more comfortable to hold landscape and there are more buttons to change pages with. Audible player also supports type 4 audio on the Zod, but not the Lifedrive.

Video playback is where the LD has an advantage, however, that may not last if the new MPEG4 player is released soon that will tap into the power of the ATI card on the Zod. For the time being though I give the LD the big advantage there.

Gaming is also something I use. There is just no way the LD can compete with the Zod for running emulators or most games that use the control pad of the Zod. Those buttons come in handy on many games.

Lifedrive has an advantage with web surfing however, I can equal that out by buying the Nweb browser so that is not a big issue.

After spending some time going back and forth on it I have decided that though I like the Lifedrive it is not an immediate replacement for the Zod. It has some advantages, but it also has its share of disadvantages. If it had come with Cobalt I might think differently, but spending another $500 on yet another Garnet device just doesn't make sense to me. If I owned a Tungsten or Zire I might think differently, but the Zod is a pretty special PDA that will probably never be duplicated again and I think I will stick with it for awhile longer.

[ackmondual]

care to share where to get a zodiac for $180 USD? BTW, have you guys heard of aNything about zod2s gradually going out of production? I'm happy with my T3 now, but if zod2s will become unavailable (short of ebay which i prefer not to resort to) and are available cheap ($250 USD will be my target max), i may crack down and get one just like i did with myh T3 before it.

[kennyd]

care to share where to get a zodiac for $180 USD? BTW, have you guys heard of aNything about zod2s gradually going out of production? I'm happy with my T3 now, but if zod2s will become unavailable (short of ebay which i prefer not to resort to) and are available cheap ($250 USD will be my target max), i may crack down and get one just like i did with myh T3 before it.

I do not have any links for purchasing a Zod2 but I would like to share some of my reflections on upgrading from a T3 to a Zod2. My T3 got left on the shelf after I purchased the Zod2. I know that other users liked the T3 more than their Zod's, but my experience with the Zod has been much better than my experience with a T3.

Landscape: I have become a landscape addict. I didn't know that this would happen, but I have completely lost my appetite for portrait. Writing is more natural for me in landscape with a text box to the right. With the T3 this was lame, but the T3 is not built well for landscape. In my opinion, landscape is not nice if you do not have hardware that is designed for it. The additional hardware on the ends of the Zod where the joystick and quad buttons are, these are actually critical handles for landscape use. Even the concave curve at the bottom of the device. The hardware design on the Zod is phenominal. I've gone from Visor Neo, to T610, to SJ30, to SJ33, to TT, to T3, to Zod. I have never had another device with as much functional attention on the handling of a device.

Video: I never had any losses to begin with switching from a T3 to Zod. I guess this must have had more to do with my encoding due to the fact that the t3 has a larger processor, but I never knew the difference. Video on the Zod has always been great for me and now it is even better, since half of the encoding concerns that I was doing for both T3 and Zod don't apply now that I'm using TCMP or whatever it's called.

Battery: I hated my T3. I love my Zod. I could not make it through a work day with my T3. Hello Zod, thanks for great battery life. I've never lost power in a day.

Networking: I'm constantly using BT between my PC and phone. Since wifi has surfaced I've gotten rid of my cable and use wifi to hotsync and transfer files. Love it. The new web browser nWeb is the best browser I've ever used. I liked WebPro but nWeb is much nicer. WebPro Free with T3, nWeb not free for Zod's but better. I would have bought nWeb for my T3 if it would have worked but there was only a Zire version available.

[archangel]

The point about landscape is excellent. Once you use a landscape device whether it be a Zod or UX50 Clie, etc it is really hard to switch back to a portrait device. Granted the Lifedrive can be used landscape, but it is designed to be a portrait PDA. Landscape is just so much better for reading text, writting, using the web, etc. I would have a hard time using my device in anything but landscape mode for almost every app.

[Cyker]

Tapwave have yet to release the SDK for the ATI chip I believe, but when they do it will be one kickass videoplayer!

picard's already managed to add basic scaling and translation support for the Zod, similar to the HHE Clies (Which gives a hefty boost to the playback - A blessing since my TH has a relatively slow CPU ;))

This is onething about Tapwave - They seem a lot more open withtheir custom stuff. Coming from a Clie user, this is a huge breath of fresh air!
(Even with Sony killing off the Clie line they still won't release all their SDK's!)

[CliePet]

> Tapwave have yet to release the SDK for the ATI chip
I don't believe they will. AFAIK: the official ATI SDK is licensed only to big companies and under a relatively heavy NDA.
Tapwave has a abstracted API for getting to the screen, which is part of the NDA restricted Tapwave SDK (TwScreen etc). This is a new invention (but some parts are adapted from PalmSource undocumented APIs)

> They seem a lot more open withtheir custom stuff.
Yes and no. They have a totally custom API, but it is still an abstraction on top the hardware. Also restrictions on how you can use it. Most of the interesting features require an app "signed" by Tapwave.

> (Even with Sony killing off the Clie line they still won't release all their SDK's!)
Even if they wanted to, the core information that the system is built on is licensed from another company that has much more stringent licensing terms.
(eg: ATI in the case of Tapwave, or PalmSource in the case of both Tapwave and CLIE)
Take a look at the palmOne SDKs - lots of stuff there - but only for 68K programming, not for ARM programming.

Now if you want to dream -- ask PalmSource to release all their SDKs (including ones that only big company licencees get) -- we wouldn't have to reverse engineer as much.

[archangel]

A new Zodiac API is back under development for hardware MPEG4 decode (to help developers take better advantage of the ATI chip for improved video performance).

Not sure exactly what that means technically. Maybe the workaround Cliepet was mentioning. They have come through on the promises about the 256MB Wi-Fi card support and Nweb so hopefully this will get done as well.

[sdfhsdfghgh]

I don't believe they will. AFAIK: the official ATI SDK is licensed only to big companies and under a relatively heavy NDA.
Tapwave has a abstracted API for getting to the screen, which is part of the NDA restricted Tapwave SDK (TwScreen etc). This is a new invention (but some parts are adapted from PalmSource undocumented APIs)
You probably know that Tapwave Gfx API is actually non-standard HAL functions and built on top of well-known "ATI Handheld Interface" (ace_ddi.dll as found on many PocketPCs - Toshiba e800, iPAQ hx4700, Docomo Sigmarion III etc) which have methods to use Imageon's MPEG4 acceleration. I am not sure, if the ahi core present in the Zodiac DAL actually has these methods (and they are certainly not exported), but Tapwave can release an update (ROM or whatever) that will implement additional set of Tapwave-designed wrappers for MPEG4 AHI interface.

Also restrictions on how you can use it. Most of the interesting features require an app "signed" by Tapwave.
In fact, most of the "restricted" API could be easily used without signing. I am not a cracker (I am on the opposite side really), but I really wonder why the Tapwave's DRM system has not yet been cracked.

[Cyker]

Probably not enough interest - You have to remember that the Zodiac is a niche in a niche.

That said, I'm sure there must be CliePet/dmitry-type people who own Zodiacs out there...

Thinking about it actually, didn't someone find a way to access a lot (all) of the Zodiac special functions without needing an app to be signed? I coulda sworn I read about that somewhere in a thread about ScummVM before Chrilith persuaded Tapwave to sign ScummVM...

[ackmondual]

In fact, most of the "restricted" API could be easily used without signing. I am not a cracker (I am on the opposite side really), but I really wonder why the Tapwave's DRM system has not yet been cracked.

As far as I can tell, hackers/crackers do what the do for 2 reasons: $$ and/or fame. Unfortunately, the Zodiac isn't a popular enough system to attract that interest. Sure, it's popular within the pOS/PDA community, but that's not enough. Just look at the PSP. It comes out and ppl are already trying to hack into it: creating ways to use it as a web browser and even rumors of tweaking it so it runs emulators.

[jjesusfreak01]

As far as I can tell, hackers/crackers do what the do for 2 reasons: $$ and/or fame. Unfortunately, the Zodiac isn't a popular enough system to attract that interest. Sure, it's popular within the pOS/PDA community, but that's not enough. Just look at the PSP. It comes out and ppl are already trying to hack into it: creating ways to use it as a web browser and even rumors of tweaking it so it runs emulators.
Maybe they wont crack it because its not all that illegal. The DRM system would be illegal, but the signing procedure? Who are they to tell YOU, the paying owner, what you can use on YOUR handheld?

[sdfgsdfgsdfg]

Thinking about it actually, didn't someone find a way to access a lot (all) of the Zodiac special functions without needing an app to be signed?
Yes.
There _is_ a working way to use the "restricting" API without signing.

[ackmondual]

They do it all the time. Ipod users who buy from iTunes can only copy music 3 times and other such restrictions. Truly, nobody cares if there's a way around it. There were plenty of issues with using G1 on G2 devices but ppl went ahead and did it anyways.

[LSAlford]

I've kept my Zod2 longer than any other PDA I've ever owned. Previously, I usually felt the urge to "upgrade" my older PDA after about 6 months or so, or as soon as the next best thing came out. Thus, I went from PalmIIIxe to PalmIIIc to Clie NR70V to NX70V to NR80 in a relatively short period of time.

Since I got my Zod2 more than a year ago, I have yet to find a new PalmOS device that tempted me to sell the Zod and upgrade. The only thing that has come close is the Zaurus, but I'm sticking with my Zod for now.

[kennyd]

I've kept my Zod2 longer than any other PDA I've ever owned. Previously, I usually felt the urge to "upgrade" my older PDA after about 6 months or so, or as soon as the next best thing came out. Thus, I went from PalmIIIxe to PalmIIIc to Clie NR70V to NX70V to NR80 in a relatively short period of time.

Since I got my Zod2 more than a year ago, I have yet to find a new PalmOS device that tempted me to sell the Zod and upgrade. The only thing that has come close is the Zaurus, but I'm sticking with my Zod for now.

I agree. If there were something better I'd be open to upgrading, but there is nothing that available at the moment. I considered the euro TH55 before I bought the Zod2 but if someone would have given me a month with each device I would have walked away with my Zod and saved a couple hundred bucks. The only thing right now that would launch me into a new device would be a Zod with cell phone built in, camera, and voice record. At the moment I am using two devices, which to be honest given battery life available for most devices I'm better off with a seperate cell phone with camera and voice record. My phone is equiped with Symbian os so I get all of the voice record goodies that I would use with my palm anyway.

[ackmondual]

Any1 comment on how do the best VR on Clie stack up? My T3 VR gets the job done for the most part. It has some distortions which im OK with, but in "noisy" environments, the VR won't pick up what your ears hear. I've seen Clie's with many VR options: adjust sensitivity, adjust quality of VR for quality and conserving memory, filtering... in the end, does it stack up to stand alone VR's in the high range, or at least mid range?

[JohnKes]

I loved my Z2, however it got stolen last month :( Now I have to find a replacement. I'm not much of a gamer, however, I really enjoyed Stunt Car Extreme. I would like to get more into WiFi at hotspots, etc.

Z2 Pros:
- equally fast in landscape and portrait due to hardware video chip.
- 128 MB real RAM
- good battery life, 6-8 hours of ON time.
- dual SD slots (major convenience)
- thinner than LD

Z2 cons:
- few accessories e.g no car charger
- can't get to 4 apps with one button press
- LauncherX doesn't respond to up/down, left/right buttons
- Web app was lame
- web surfing is cobbled together: WiFi SD, nWeb browser

LD pros:
- built-in WiFi and Blazer 4
- shorter than Z2 (4.8" vs 5.6" long)
- built-in massive storage (I won't have to buy a large SD to replace the 1GB that was stolen along with my first Z2)
- more accessories likely

LD cons:
- heat! and possibly shorter battery life.
- slower access to apps.

I really feel that I am going from the sports car of PDAs to the minivan of PDAs by going LD, but seems more practical to my needs.

[ackmondual]

- can't get to 4 apps with one button press

I didn't get this one. Do u mean that freeware launcher app that lets u map 4 apps to a button doesn't work on the zod2?

[JohnKes]

No, on Palms, you press one of the four hardware buttons and an app starts up. On a Zod, you have to turn it on or press Home before one of the four hardware buttons will start an app.

[kennyd]

No, on Palms, you press one of the four hardware buttons and an app starts up. On a Zod, you have to turn it on or press Home before one of the four hardware buttons will start an app.

This is kind of a catch 22. There have been issues with battery drainage and death due to accidental power on's. PalmOne started adding the keylock option in system preferences or you could purchase some different keylock features. TW resessed the power and home button limiting powering up to the press of these recessed buttons. You can simply power up with the power button or you can open directly to the launcher by pressing the home button.

Another issue that TW implemented was how to handle the four hardware buttons to the right hand side of the device. Do you limit these buttons to opening applications or limit them for navigational use. TW opened up function for both. Pressing these buttons by themselves they will function for navigation i.e. page up/page down etc. In order to open up an application assigned to one of these buttons you simply press the home button and one of the four hardware buttons.

When handling the Zod I think that you'll find that the power and home buttons have been placed on the device in an extremely functional location. If your holding the Zod your thumb is always right on top of these resessed buttons. I find powering up and app navigation with the hardware buttons very fast and natural. The power button is actually visible to the eye when the device is in viewing position which is nice. The added navigation buttons in apps is nice. The trade off of added navigation in most apps and having a simple combination press I think is worth it.

[ackmondual]

^^

huh... interesting.

[archangel]

No, on Palms, you press one of the four hardware buttons and an app starts up. On a Zod, you have to turn it on or press Home before one of the four hardware buttons will start an app.

Hmm, I actually look at this as a plus since it is really hard to turn the thing on by accident. The Tapwave is really set up to be a two handed device.

[JohnKes]

The day before my Z2 got stolen, it was sitting kind of tight in my backpack. An alarm went off, and the pressure was enough to keep the "red" button pressed. 5 1/2 hours later the battery was drained. The good thing about a Z is that the system cuts off long before battery power gets too low to refresh the RAM. I charged it up and all my data was still intact.

I am wavering. Now I am leaning towards another Z2, since it is hundreds of dollars less than an LD yet has similar functionality.

[Cyker]

Thats the thing... the Zodiac2 is so darn cheap now they're practically giving it away! It costs less than a Zire31!!

And for the price you get a piece of kit that's an okay PalmOS PDA, and a totally ninja PalmOS games device!

The price alone is what prompted me to get one (And it can be a backup incase my TH ever goes funny again... Be interesting to compare the two when it arrives!)

[kennyd]

Hmm, I actually look at this as a plus since it is really hard to turn the thing on by accident. The Tapwave is really set up to be a two handed device.

I agree that TW's button config is a plus. IMHO they have the best hardware layout ever developed. It kind of took me a while to really figure out how well the layout was thought out and engineered.

[Kitten]

Where are you finding Zod2's cheap? I can seem to find them for less than $300

[ackmondual]

.........
Another issue that TW implemented was how to handle the four hardware buttons to the right hand side of the device. Do you limit these buttons to opening applications or limit them for navigational use. TW opened up function for both. Pressing these buttons by themselves they will function for navigation i.e. page up/page down etc. In order to open up an application assigned to one of these buttons you simply press the home button and one of the four hardware buttons.

..............

Can't you leave the buttons mapped to PIMs while use the analog as the Palm os5 5-way nav?

[kennyd]

Can't you leave the buttons mapped to PIMs while use the analog as the Palm os5 5-way nav?
These buttons are always mapped to applications, but only with a press of the home button. If you want to map these buttons to applications without pressing the home button also then you would have to use an app like SharkButton to remap the buttons to execute without the use of the home button.

Analog. Most apps do map the analog as the five way, but some utilize both. An example. In DTG the analog controler "tabs" left and right between cells, but with the four buttons to the right DTG "pages" left and right. With a Word document the analog "pages" up and down the up/down of the four buttons "double pages". With WordSmith, the analog up/down moves the cursor up/down. The analog left/right executes line begining/end. The right buttons up/down pages up/down. The right button left/right moves the cursor left/right. Some apps simply mimic the same action on both controlers and some apps do not support any function with the right buttons.

[Unregistared]

Where are you finding Zod2's cheap? I can seem to find them for less than $300

Well in the UK, Morgan Computers is selling them for £99 each at the moment

[picard]

You probably know that Tapwave Gfx API is actually non-standard HAL functions and built on top of well-known "ATI Handheld Interface" (ace_ddi.dll as found on many PocketPCs - Toshiba e800, iPAQ hx4700, Docomo Sigmarion III etc) which have methods to use Imageon's MPEG4 acceleration. I am not sure, if the ahi core present in the Zodiac DAL actually has these methods (and they are certainly not exported), but Tapwave can release an update (ROM or whatever) that will implement additional set of Tapwave-designed wrappers for MPEG4 AHI interface.

I added support for Imageon's MPEG4 decoding in TCPMP on Zodiac using low level ATI register programmig. Probably it's faster as an official ATI (AHI) driver would be (comparing 200Mhz Zodiac and 400Mhz Sigmarion results with same video). Once you figure out how the ATI command ring buffer works, it's quite easy to find out and reproduce what the PocketPC driver does.

[Cyker]

WHAT?!?!?!? :eek:

OH MY GOD!!!!! :eek: :eek:

*runs like hell to http://picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/test/*

[Cyker]

OH MY GOD!!!!!

It just did a quick benchmark of this new Zodiac MPEG4 hardware accelerated version:

Average Speed: 359.71% :eek: :eek:

Benchmark FPS: 107.80 :eek: :eek:

I think I may openly weep tears of joy...!

If this forum had a shameless worship smiley it would be right here.

Major Kudos picard! You ROCK!!!! :D

[Cyker]

Full benchmark this time, no sound.

File was Call for Help episode 17 from http://cfhtracker.info/

Average speed: 363.29%

Benchmark FPS: 108.88
Benchmark time: 17:38.729

Original FPS: 29.97
Original time: 1:04:06.280

Not to shabby...! :eek: :D

[ackmondual]

Well in the UK, Morgan Computers is selling them for £99 each at the moment

Damn. Missed another opportunity! .... assuming they shipped to US.

[kennyd]

This is a post that I made in the LD forum shortly after returning my LD.

I hope that I don't get mistaken as talking about a person as I share my "personal" reflections about my experience with the LD : ) I really do like people, but I really didn't like the LD : (

I had to give the LD a whirl. I had to take it back. I had more resets, defuncked alarms, and incompatibility issues than I've had since beta testing some of the primitive VFS software on my Visor Neo in 2001. I think that the huge on board storage is a great step up in features on Palms, BT and Wifi is awesome, everything else just came down to daily function. There wasn't near enough good to replace my Zod. I would have given the LD a longer run if not for the loss of practical function that I experienced due to (of course, I hardly even want to say it, I know everyone has already said it) lack of speed, but come on, it's a Palm handheld, Palm means speed, speed to the next task, speed executing the task, speed...at least in my little bubble of a Palm world that is not and never will be an item up for bid.

Speed is here to stay with me. Even apps that are slow on a palm seem to drag a good functional device into a minor form of depression. Even before a single app was loaded on the LD, I could not believe the drag. I read reviews and articles that claimed that this is an exagerated complaint. Uhhhh maybe I should've tried out another one on the shelf but it's hard not to compare the speed of a current device with that of an existing one. I know that palm is attempting to pioneer a whole new world of memory space and usage and I really appreciate that, but I found myself unwilling to beta test a device that I paid $500 for.

I'm all for the future development of better features on devices and hope to see bigger and better on board storage but I think that public opinion well tell the story of a very hopeful device that should have been tested and challenged more realisticly in development before it hit the streets only to come back as a loss with frustrated cunsumers (not that everyone is frustrated). The customer service clerk at CompUSA in OKC asked another employee what the problem with the LifeDrive was. She said that they have been getting an excessive amount of returns on that device.

[JohnKes]

I was playing with an LD at Fry's the other day. There were long pauses just getting around the apps that were on the device. It's similar to the pauses on my Visor Prism* when I run large apps from the MemPlug. I wouldn't call it unusable, but I would not pay $500 for it.

* I have been using my old Prism lately, so I have a good reference on speed issues. I ordered a Zodiac2 for $299 last week from J&R. Should arrive in a few days.

[tungsten t5]

I also ordered my Z2 last week for 299.99, should arive tomarrow. You can also get the z1 for $224. But order fast because their going fast!

[ackmondual]

I'm guessing u didn't try the demo for SharkCache to eliminate the lagging between apps? At any rate, P1 is pulling another Tungsten T here. Going by that schema, LD2 will be everything the LD should've been, and perhaps a LD3 will be the ultimate device. It's a shame P1 has to release devices to test the waters. But it seems w/o doing that, they won't make enough revenue. (undermined by all the T5 and LD returns)

This is a post that I made in the LD forum shortly after returning my LD.

.......

Speed is here to stay with me. Even apps that are slow on a palm seem to drag a good functional device into a minor form of depression. Even before a single app was loaded on the LD, I could not believe the drag. I read reviews and articles that claimed that this is an exagerated complaint. Uhhhh maybe I should've tried out another one on the shelf but it's hard not to compare the speed of a current device with that of an existing one. I know that palm is attempting to pioneer a whole new world of memory space and usage and I really appreciate that, but I found myself unwilling to beta test a device that I paid $500 for.

I'm all for the future development of better features on devices and hope to see bigger and better on board storage but I think that public opinion well tell the story of a very hopeful device that should have been tested and challenged more realisticly in development before it hit the streets only to come back as a loss with frustrated cunsumers (not that everyone is frustrated). The customer service clerk at CompUSA in OKC asked another employee what the problem with the LifeDrive was. She said that they have been getting an excessive amount of returns on that device.

[kennyd]

I'm guessing u didn't try the demo for SharkCache to eliminate the lagging between apps? At any rate, P1 is pulling another Tungsten T here. Going by that schema, LD2 will be everything the LD should've been, and perhaps a LD3 will be the ultimate device. It's a shame P1 has to release devices to test the waters. But it seems w/o doing that, they won't make enough revenue. (undermined by all the T5 and LD returns)

Ya, I was aware of SharkCache but decided that universal speed on a device needed to be within reason. Another thing, my Zod2 has 128mb of ram even with SharkCache I would only get, what, 6mb or so. Even the largest app that I launch from the SD on my Zod loads just as fast as the normal operation of the LD, normal operation being the contacts app for example, even it dragged. I'm excited to see further development of large storage devices.

[trickypuss]

I've owned 2 Zodiac 2's. Both were stolen. That aside, there was much to like, even though I now own a LifeDrive. The biggest convenience I had with the Z2 was restoring from backup. With everything but the kitchen sink stored in the 128MB of actual memory hotsync creates backups of *everything*. No databases missing, no fiddling with Powerrun, none of that. I had a hard reset and lost all my stuff. Synced and got it all back. No configuring, no fiddling. Nada. Smooth and easy. I owned clies before the zod and had to do all kinds of crazy sh*t to get what I wanted to fit and run on them. And after a hard reset I had to do it all over again. Restoring a zod is very refreshing after that experience.