Gizmondo

The Tiger Telematic's Gizmondo

The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console with GPRS and GPS technology, produced by Tiger Telematics. Analysts are dubious about its ability to compete in the crowded portable videogames market due to the amount of handhelds that have failed in the past due to lack of 1st party support, which the Gizmondo supports.

Releases

Gizmondo was released in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2005, initially priced at £229. However, the price of the unit has since fallen to £129, if the user agrees to be sent a minimum of three 10 to 30 second advertisements per day through the Gizmondo Smart Ads service. These adverts will often include offers at the end of them, for example coupons, or free music downloads. The device was released in mainland Europe on May 19 2005, and is due to be released in North America on 11 August 2005, this date has now been pushed back to October 2005 due to Relocation issues. A catalogue of about 90 games is being prepared for the Gizmondo in 2005 alone, including The Great Escape, Mechassault, Age of Empires, Tron 2.0, Johnny Whatever, Richard Burns Rally and Conflict Vietnam. The games portfolio is being increased through Tiger's recent purchase of Warthog and a deal made with SCi.

The Gizmondo is currently available from the Gizmondo store on London's Regent Street, the Gizmondo webshop and other retail partners. The gizmondo's US release is October and will be available at many US retailers.

Functionality and specifications

The Gizmondo can play games, music tracks and movies, take and store digital photos and be used like a mobile phone to send text, multimedia and e-mail messages, but not voice messages. Tiger have recently begun demonstrating augmented reality-based games using the Gizmondo's digital camera.

In the UK, the phone service to enable people to send messages is being provided by pre-pay Vodafone accounts bundled in with the device. It can also access the Global Positioning System for use as a navigation aid. There are also plans to support a variety of location-based services, for example. GPRS and Bluetooth wireless connections are intended to provide multiplayer gaming.

The Gizmondo's Camera has an added Gyroscopic Function. It will be used in FPS, Action adventure, and Puzzle Games. In FPS games you will turn the gizmondo instead of using a Thumbstick.

The Gizmondo is powered by a 400 MHz ARM9 processor and has a 2.8 inch 320x240 pixels TFT screen and an NVIDIA GoForce 3D 4500 GPU featuring a programmable pixel shader, hardware transform engine and 1280KB of embedded memory. The GPU was added relatively late in the system's design, causing some delays for launch titles and the system as they were redesigned.

The system's appearance and ergonomics were created by industrial designer Rick Dickinson, who worked in a similar role on various Sinclair products such as the ZX Spectrum.

The gizmondo is thinner and sturdier than the DS and lighter than the PSP

Images of the gizmondo

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The Gizmondo Running the Microsoft game Mechassault.

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The Gizmondo Compared to the DS

The gizmondo comes in black and silver

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Competition

The Gizmondo is currently competing for marketshare with handheld consoles by Nintendo (the DS and Game Boy Advance) and Sony (the PlayStation Portable.)

Game Screenshot Gallery

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full list List_of_Gizmondo_games

Smart Ads FAQ

If you opt to pick up a Gizmondo at the lower price of $229 instead of the original $399 you will recieve what is called Smart ads

What are smart ads? Many ask they are Three 10 - 30 second advertisements that are sent to your gizmondo via GPRS at the advertisers cost saving you money and supplying you with great deals

Isnt that spyware? No the misinformed would think its the irritating mess we like to call Spyware but they would be wrong, spyware is software that is downloaded via the internet to your PC to track your visited websites and sent that info back to advertisers

Will they bother me while I am playing games, listening to music, using GPS to find maps, or watching movies? No these ads will only show up at the homescreen of your gizmondo and will not bother you while you are using your gizmondo's many features

Will I have 1500 ads backed up if I dont use my gizmondo for a week? No the ads are not sent while your gizmondo isnt on, so they will not back up, you may not even get more than on ad a day (depending on usage)

How will the gizmondo save me money? well becides the initial $170 shaved off the price you will also get coupons along with the Ads, The coupons will be scanable right off of the gizmondo's screen

What kind of ads will I get? The ads will be catered to your hobbies, tastes and interest you will fill out a form when you buy your Smart ads gizmondo

Some of the advertisers are

7-11

Sprite

Universal Music

Smart Cars

Warners Music

EMI

20th Century Fox

Warners Bros

Burger King

Many are still unknown and the information is still unreleased

Smart ads are still unavailable in the current Smart ads enabled gizmondo units, but the system will be up soon.

See also

• List of Gizmondo games
• Nintendo DS
• PlayStation Portable
• Nokia N-Gage

External links

• Gizmondo home page
• GamingMoz - Gizmondo games documentation.
• Gizmondo Gadget hits the shelves - BBC.co.uk on Gizmondo release
• Tiger Telematics
• Gizmondo Forums - Fansite
• GiZone - Fansite
• Gizmondo Central - fansite