Tapwave Zodiac

An oldie but a goodie for all your PSP fans out there. Check out this R-Type clone that was released for the PSP. Looks pretty good and it's up and running on the latest firmware as well.

Tags: portable gaming:R-Type:PSP

Cool accessories are starting to appear for the PSP, like this microphone called the Talkman. Talkman comes bundled with translation software that will convert between English, Japanese, Chinese and Hangul (which I've never heard of, perhaps it is a slang the Nazgul use?) You can pre-order Talkman now on Lik-Sang.

Yes... it is time to say goodbye to our little PDA that almost could. The Tapwave Zodiac, a very solid product in itself, and recieved very good reviews, simply never caught on. Tapewave issued a statement a couple days ago. From just reading it you can feel how somber they must all be over at the company:

"We are sorry to inform you that the Zodiac business was discontinued and service and support are no longer available as of July 25th 2005… We thank you for your past interest and support and apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused."

It's sad to see it go, but leave us a comment and tell us if you will miss tha Zodiac, or if it doesn't even really matter.

The worse epidemic of portable gadgets of all shapes and sizes is the tangled mess they leave in your bag. Sure, portable typically means sans wires, but they all have them. Thingamajigs don't just charge wirelessly. Well, I guess they can, but do yours? No! Most likely you, like all other geeks, learned to wrap and tie a long cable faster and easier than tying your own shoes. But even with wrapping skills in hand most of us are too lazy to mess with it each time we use a device. Well in that regard, Cableyoyo comes to your rescue. This device is thin enough it can be pocketed and not show a geekyline (That's the pantyline created in your pants pockets by all your gadgets.) You can easily throw multiples of the Cableyoyo in your tech bag and not worry about untangling whenever you need gadget juice. And, it works with ALL the handhelds we cover here on Portagame.

[Cableyoyo via GadgetMadness]

PSP Takeover has started a competition in which they are giving away a PSP Value pack and game of the winners choice in celebration of launching the New Takeover Forums.
All you have to do to enter is post 25 decent posts on the forums and tell them just why you deserve to win.
SonyBoy(Me) will be judging entries.
Only one entry per household.

So if you feel you deserve one of those little bastards check
http://takeover.cjb.net

for more information on the competition go to PSP Takeover and scroll down past the artical
http://sonypsp.tblog.com

Ends 25th June

I don't want to get all you Zod-heads bummed out, but don't be looking for any Tapwave Zodiac news during E3. According to the official E3 exhibitor list, Tapwave is MIA.

This just further supports their shift in business model from the Zodiac being a Gaming Unit to it just being a Multimedia Unit (which it still does mighty nicely, might I add). With the recent release of Palm's LifeDrive, I may just rename the Tapwave section to Palm or PDA and cover the other PDA. Then again, I like Tapwave, I might just let 'em be.

(And for those wondering about OQO and Flipstart, hang tight. I'll be reorganizing those sections soon).

Hey All,
I found some great E3 Coverage about new games coming out for the GBA and DS this year at E3. Here is a screenshot from the new Splinter Cell DS game.

And here are some links to even more Videos and Screenshots

http://djcostello.free.fr/e3/GBA/

http://djcostello.free.fr/e3/DS/

I really don't know how geeks and/or bloggers are going to survive this week with the Launch of Star Wars Episode III on Thursday at Midnight. If you, the innocent public, have never heard a geek orgasm (and it's not pretty), you will by the end of this week. Perhaps multiple geekgasms. Starting today, E3 is taking on L.A. and the internet, and all its kinds of bloggers, by storm. If you happen to have a Willy Wonka golden ticket and are inside the E3 doors, you'll most likely notice hundreds of teenage-to-twenty-something video game geeks walking around with a digital camera and 50 memory cards on a giant keychain and a laptop, most likely light--but any will do, permanently open with one hand strapped to it. This known as an E3 blogger (and yes, they are half-droid for you curious Star Wars fans). The E3 bloggers Laptop serves two purposes. With a camera fed directly into the laptop, it serves as navigation so the blogger can avoid eye contact and immediately take a picture of any game and/or "booth babe" that gets within range. The second purpose is to blog the picture they had just taken.

And sadly, this year, I will not be one of the E3 blogger half-droids. No, sadly I'm missing this show due to a recent "incident" involving myself, my car, some dude, and his car. No one was injured, it's just the traffic lawyers that like to charge more than typical bloggers make. So I'll be armchair quarterbacking E3 this year with most the other Portagame editors. I do know of one editor that was able to make it and we look forward to his updates. But in the meantime we'll keep you updated on all the other news we find about E3 that you might have interest in (99% will be portable gaming, but we'll probably make the obvious PS3 and Nintendo Revolution announcements). And since there ARE so many bloggers at E3 this year, it will be easy for us to datamine the important stuff and spit it all out here. So, sit back, relax, it's E3!

(PS: We did create a series of other sites that will track the most prominent RSS feeds of all the the systems that will be displayed at E3 (and beyond) , but due to another agreement we have, we can't publicly share them just yet. You'll need to wait until we make a formal announcement, which will be this week or next week).

Let's face it - you spent at least $250 on your PSP. The PSP is not a toy, it's the most high-tech piece of electronic entertainment you've ever owned, and you want to make sure it stays in the same condition as it was the day you bought it. So why would you carry it about in a piece of crap case designed by companies who make carrying cases for toys? You shouldn't of course, but that's what all of the PSP-branded cases out there are. That's why this reviewer looked in the most unlikely place for a PSP case - the digital camera store. The case I found is nothing short of perfection: the Quantaray Small Aluminium Case.

Read More...

Tapwave is getting all up in your serious with accessories. Take the pictured Zodiac case above:

Example A: It is metal. Stiff aluminum. Pocket protector for the militant geek.
Example B: It flips open. It stays open. Tapwave Zodiac does not fall out, but stays put. You can play in the case. Enthusiasm. Joy, even.
Example C: Padded like a mail-order bride. Protects your toy. No scratches or dings while encased. Has cut-outs for knobs and dials.

Conclusion: It's Serious!

[As Seen on PalmAddicts]

BIG PS: I originally saw this case on Tapland some month ago or so and thought "Wow cool, I should post this for Portagame readers!" Then my mind went back to dreaming about a web broswer for the Nintendo DS and promptly lost the previous train of thought. Sorry dear readers. Sorry Tapland. Sorry Nintendo DS (would you just release a browser already!?)