If it only made coffee, too

I had an old Palm V for a couple of years that I used almost exclusively for reading books. In the spring of 2005, my husband suggested that I should look around for something with more features since there were so many new models to choose from. He suggested the Zodiac 1, but I looked at several others before making my final decision. I thought I might like another Palm, since my old Palm had held up for so long. The Zodiac was slightly cheaper than the Tungsten, plus had a larger viewable area. It also had options for playing games so I decided on a Zodiac. In the end,I went for the Zodiac 2 instead of the Zodiac 1. I figured why skimp on memory (the Zodiac 2 has 128 MB compared with the Zodiac 1's 32 MB)> I also liked the Zodiac because it used the same Palm OS I was already accustomed to using.

The Zodiac impressed me from the start. The display is beautiful and the controls are easy to use. They do take a little getting used to - there is an obvious power button, a mysterious little silver button (used for resetting when something crashes), button with a little house on it (to take you "home" quickly or in case you get lost, literally!), a kind of a thumb joystick, and four colored buttons. There are additional rubber controls on the top of the unit, along the side. These have caused me a lot of grief so I tend to avoid them. They vibrate during a racing game and seem to serve a scrolling function in eReader. I have not used them extensively.

I had a setup nightmare when I first got the unit. When you first turn it on, you must go through a callibration sequence, pointing the stylus here and there on the screen when prompted. However, the thing raced through the first couple of screens while I was trying to remove it from the charging cable. When I finally noticed something was happening on the screen, the settings were so far off that I could do nothing with the Zodiac. If this happens to you, check out the PDF that ships with the unit for the sequence of buttons to push to reset it to the factory defaults. It's easy but definitely not obvious. In fact, familiarize the two main ways to reset your Zodiac BEFORE you have a problem.

The interface is a little tricky to use at first. The programs are arranged in a wheel, with extras listed in order out to the right. The hub of the wheel takes you up a level (usually back to the main home page). You can organize your stuff anyway you like with the predefined categories or make your own. If you end up on an unfamiliar page, you can always press that button with the house on it I mentioned earlier. That takes you back to the main page.

Getting stuff from your computer to your Zodiac is a simple process. The Zodiac uses the same Palm desktop that other Palm devices use. There is a sync button, again, just like other Palm devices have.

The unit did strike me as a bit fragile, and I quickly got tired of the little leather flap that protects the screen, so I ordered a metal case for it almost immediately. I am only clumsy when it comes to very expensive small things, so for me the price of the metal case (about $30) was definitely worth it. As soon as I got the case, I permanently removed that annoying little flap. With the metal case, I feel I could drop it about four feet without damaging the Zodiac.

I am not much of a gamer, but I did buy just about every game available for the Zodiac. Since the Zodiac runs the PalmOS, it's easy to find software that runs on it. I'm currently addicted to Plant Tycoon and Fish Tycoon, and break out Legacy (an adventure game) whenever I am stuck waiting somewhere. My Zodiac 2 shipped with Stuntcar, which I am lousy at but love to play anyhow. Some day I'll get around to Doom, Duke Nukem, Spyhunter, and all the rest I have in my software library. The Zodiac display is 480x320, giving you a decent viewable area for games.

The Zodiac 2 has Bluetooth support built in. I have no use for this at the moment, but a coworker proved it worked by connecting to it with his Bluetooth phone. It would be a simple process to move a contact list stored in a Bluetooth-enabled phone and save it on the Zodiac.

All this is great, but there's more! There are two slots in the Zodiac, one for an SD card and the other for a Compact Flash card or SD card. I have a 1 Gig card in mine stocked full of MP3s, because the Zodiac is also a decent MP3 player. You can listen through the built in speaker, but it's very quiet even at maximum volume. Instead, I plug in headphones or computer speakers. If you opt for the metal case, you also get a belt clip which is very handy if you decide to listen to music while exercising. The Zodiac 2 ships with a wrist strap, but that struck me as so flimsy I never used it.

There are some nice little features that it comes with, too - the built-in alarm clock has saved me on more than one occasion when there has been a power outage, and the large viewable area is also terrific for showing pictures around. You can also watch movies on it - the player it comes with (Kinoma)is a limited version, so either register it (and Kinoma Producer, which helps you create movies that are the correct dimensions), or look around from some of the open source movie players.

Probably the coolest thing I've done with my Zodiac so far is use it as a universal remote. There are several programs that do this (I'm using Novii) and it is amazingly simple to set up. I set it up to control my VCR, TV, DVD player, receiver and TiVo in less than an hour.

Of course, the Zodiac does all of the other stuff a PDA generally does, too, like keeping track of your schedule. It also has a tiny little wordprocessing program which is handy for jotting down notes.

There are a few negatives about the Zodiac: it doesn't come with a cradle, it is hard to seat the unit correctly onto the sync cable (making recharging and syncing a little dicey), and the company that makes it (Tapwave) has gone out of business. It also seems to need charging frequently, but as you can tell from this review I use it quite a bit. It only takes 2 hours to charge, which isn't so bad. It's still a great little device for the cost (I paid $300, including shipping).

I've had mine for 6 months and I keep finding new uses for it. I can only guess that Tapwave tried too hard to market the Zodiac to the gaming crowd instead of the PDA crowd. It's not bad as a mobile gaming device, but it really shines as a PDA that also lets you play games. Competition is pretty fierce amongst the well-established gaming corporations for that market.

**** Update ****

I've had my Zodiac for over a year and I love it. I haven't needed support from any company - I use it all the time and it's essentially troublefree. When I'm working on stuff around the house, I clip it to my waistband and listen to radio shows. I use it daily to read ebooks, and I also use it a lot for games when waiting in airports or being bored on planes. There is a thriving community of programmers who adore the Zodiac. I can't foresee a time where you won't be able to get software for it. In fact, my husband has been jealous of mine from day 1, and I'm buying him a used one.

The only problem I've had is with some games and applications. A few of them just lock up the system. But the worst thing that's happened is a reboot, which only takes a few seconds. I just take off the game or whatever and try something else that does the same thing. It's not as if there are only 5 applications that will work on the Zodiac - there are probably thousands of applications you can install. Anything compatible with PalmOS, plus lots of open source software developed specifically for the Zodiac (it's free!). Most applicatons do work flawlessly, and I'm sure a few I've had problems with don't work on some PDAs made by Palm, either. Oh, I also keep photos on mine, which is nice while traveling. Great as an organizer, emergency alarm clock during traveling or power outages, media system, and game unit. Even though Tapwave is no longer with us to support the Zodiac, I still highly recommend it. I can't wait to see if the new 4 Gig flash cards work with it! I could fit a lot of MP3s on one of those.