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PalmSource may have made the most recent version of the Palm operating system, Cobalt, available to device manufacturers at the end of last year, but no devices with the new OS are expected till at least the middle of this year. In fact, no handhelds based on the platform have been announced yet.

But what about those with current Palm-based handhelds, will they be able to upgrade to Cobalt? The answer to this question is up to the particular hardware vendor, such as palmOne and Sony, as PDA operating systems are often tweaked by the device manufacturer, making a universal upgrade, such as there is with desktop PCs, no possible. The same holds true, for instance, for the Pocket PC platform.

TapWave made a huge splash over the past year and half with the first Palm-based device, the Zodiac, designed for gamers. Tapland, an enthusiast site devoted to the Zodiac wrote in a report from the Games Developer Conference last week that a Cobalt upgrade for the Zodiac 1 and Zodiac 2 handhelds won't be made available.

While this may be a disappointment to Zodiac owners, a spokesperson from TapWave did tell Tapland that a ROM update, version 1.1, and new desktop software would be released shortly. The ROM update will allow, among other things, Zodiac owners to play music while running other applications

As for whether there will be a Cobalt version of the Zodiac available this year. The last time PDAStreet spoke with TapWave, we were told that the company planned to focus on rolling out the Zodiac in retail this year, instead of the gaming device just being available directly from the company’s website.

Zodiac

Zodiac comes in two models, Zodiac 1 for $299 (32MB of internal RAM) and the Zodiac 2 for $399 (128MB of internal RAM). The handheld is designed for high-performance mobile entertainment centered on games, music, pictures and video. It runs a Tapwave enhanced version of the Palm Operating System (5.2T) and is compatible to the more than 19,000 existing applications in the Palm marketplace.

In terms of controls, the 6.3 ounce, anodized-aluminum Zodiac features a full analog controller (or joystick) with 360 degrees of motion, built-in triggers and action button array for a console-quality gaming experience. For sound, it has built-in stereo speakers and a headphone jack let users listen to MP3s and gaming soundtracks.

Other features include dual expansion slots to add additional memory with Secure Digital flash cards. Zodiac also supports multimedia game cards and SDIO peripherals such as the Veo Digital Camera. It supports two forms of local wireless connectivity, IrDA for short-range beaming and Bluetooth for multiplayer wireless gaming within a 30-foot range.

The Zodiac has a high-resolution (480 x 320), backlit color display. This Half VGA display is twice the resolution of today's Pocket PCs and four times the resolution of Nokia N-Gage and GameBoy Advance. Zodiac uses two processors, a Motorola i.MX ARM9 processor and the ATI Imageon W4200 graphics accelerator with 8MB of dedicated memory.

It also has a radial navigation system that enables users to launch up to 64 titles or applications with two simple movements of the analog controller. Users can also use the touch-screen to drag and drop applications and customize their view. It comes bundled with two games, Stuntcar Extreme by Vasara Games and AcidSolitaire by Red Mercury.

The handheld also has an MP3 player and includes Kinoma Producer, which allows users to convert and load videos to your Zodiac (MPEG1, MPEG4, QuickTime, AVI and DIVX videos). With the Kinoma Player you can watch full motion videos on a Zodiac. As for photos, users can share photos, create slide shows. JPEG images can be transferred from your PC (using the Palm Desktop Software) and can also be loaded via SD cards.