My friend Ronbo alerted me to the demise of Tapwave, makers of the killer Zodiac PalmOS PDA [zodiacend, zodiacreset]. This was not unexpected (see Last Sign of the Zodiac), but is still sad. I wonder what will happen to all of the Zodiac-accelerated apps? Will Novarra still make the nweb [nwebreview, nweb, nwebcache] browser available to current Zodiac owners?
The Zodiac was originally marketed as a game machine, but never had a meaningful game library available. Instead, the combination of PalmOS 5.2 along with gaming features such as the horizontal form factor, the incredible Sony LCD screen, and ATI graphics acceleration turned out to make the Zodiac the best, and most well-rounded multimedia PDA available.
I have yet to buy a Treo because my combination of Zodiac + Cel Phone works so well. With Tapwave out of business, now I just hope my Zodiac doesn't break!
Eerily, just after I heard the news about Tapwave, my Zodiac crashed and did a hard reset. Fortunately, it still works fine.
