Update: Gizmondo - GPS based gaming

Update: Tiger telematics announced that the Gizmondo GPS equipped handheld gaming console will be released in the US on October 22. They have been on sale in the UK for a while now, and are going to be priced from $239.

From September 3, 2005: Gizmondo is rolling out a new handheld player that uses GPS (SiRF Xtrac) to provide location based gaming. GPS is not the only feature of this gaming platform, as the list is long and looks pretty good. It's got a camera, a Music Player, a Movie Player, Messaging, a GPS, GPRS connections for head to head playing, and Bluetooth. Whew! That's a lot of stuff. The Sony PSP looks like it is in the sights of the Gizmondo, as the Sony comes closest to the feature set of the Gizmondo, but the PSP does not have a GPS receiver. Hang on, because with the advent of low cost, small and highly accurate GPS components like SiRF is rolling out, is there any end to where the GPS location based activities will end? It's not just for geocaching anymore folks...

The Gizmondo is as much a personal information assistant as it is a gaming device. The GPS functionality and the mobile network capability allows you to find points of interest pretty quickly, like ATM's and food.

On top of this, they have just announced that they are rolling out new mapping functionality with the CoPilot software. ALK technologies will be rolling out the satellite navigation application called the Gizmondo Navigator. It will have its maps delivered by region on SD cards that will provide the users turn-by-turn navigation and the added ability to navigate to addresses, re-routing you if you miss turns. The Gizmondo navigator will be available for the UK for Â£99, with the whole of Europe available for Â£199. word has it that the device and software will be in the US by Christmas.

Michael Kornhauser, Managing Director, ALK Technologies Ltd, says: "ALK's navigation and routing technology has been developed, enhanced, and refined over the past 25 years, and our CoPilot software is recognized worldwide as one of the most advanced and user-friendly satellite navigation packages available. Coupling our software expertise with this exciting piece of entertainment technology provides the end user with the best of both worlds an advanced satellite navigation application, and entertainment wherever the road takes you."

As far as the existing GPS functionality goes, the Gizmondo site says, "For instance, the technology blurs the line between physical and virtual for Gizmondo's debut title, Colors. In Colors, you and your friends can form gangs to wage war for control of the streets. However, because the game utilises GPS technology, the virtual rumbles can take place on the streets
of the very village, town or city in which you live. When you've kicked sufficient butt, you and your mates can go elsewhere to challenge Colors gangs in another part of town or even in an entirely different city."

In the fun but potentially not very useful camp: You can log into the internet and find where on the map your Gizmondo is, or if it leaves a specific radius around a spot on the map. So, if you buy this thing and have it with you all the time, why do you need this? I know, I know, there may be some uses for this, but this isn't the killer app for the GPS receiver.

Some basic specs are:
TFT screen ~ 240 x 320 pixels
400 Mhz ARM9 from Samsung
128-bit 3D Graphics accelerator from Nvidia
GPS tracking application
GPS mapping application
MP3 playback
MIDI/WAV formats
SMS
Speaker
Windows Media Player 9
MPEG 4 video playback
JPEG camera
SD flash card reader
Mini-USB client
Bluetooth class 2 for multiplayer gaming
Temperature range 0Â°C to 55Â°C
Removable SIM card
Removable battery
Polyphonic ring tones
Stereo headset socket for MP3 and games
Flight Mode
GSM tri-band
GPRS Class 10
WAP 2.0
MMS receive and send

October 6, 2005

Update: Gizmondo - GPS based gaming