- Computers / Gizmondo -
Intro
(Note: My Gizmondo help blog has now moved to http://www.escapism.co.uk/giz-ard/sprt/.)
The Gizmondo™ is a lovely little device that sadly died well before it's time. Actually it was, for all intents and purposes, stillborn. More information on that can be found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gizmondo including the gory details of it's death... apparently involving Swedish hoodlums and stolen cars. The old story... Very sad.
Anyway. Thanks to the mysterious Otaku and his patched version of "Service Pack b" the Gizmondo can now run unsigned code and since it's essentially running on Windows CE that means it can now theoretically run anything than's been released for windows CE. While this opens up a whole world of applications for me and most other users it primarily means running emulators. and yes, I have since played Treasure Island dizzy on the toilet. My list of goals in life is one line shorter.
The Giz, as it has become known, has some nice specifications. They have been listed elsewhere but I will relist them here because it's fashionable to do so:
Hardware:
Processor: ARM 400mhz Processor
Video hardware: Nvidia Goforce 3D 4500
Screen: 2.8" TFT colour. Set resolution of 320x240@16bit.
Digital Camera: 3.6mm lens. 640x480 images.
Disk Drive SD card slot. Taking up to a theoretical limit of 4 gig.
GPS: Yes... it has such a device.
NIC: Well it's got GSM and GPRS via a supplied Vodafone PAYT SIM card. Providing you have the cash. It can also be accessed via MS Activsync. Future homebrew service packs may add the ability to use Wi-Fi SD cards.
USB: usb1.1. Slave mode only it seems :(
Listed software is what is on use on my own personal Gizmondo. The software running on the devices of others and those few still commercially available may vary. This list merely exhibits what is it is possible to run on the unit.
Software:
Operating system: Microsoft Windows CE 4.2
Media Player: The Core Media Player
Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer
Networking: PocketPuTTY
Book Reader: Gowersoft µBook