Gizmondo

The Gizmondo was a handheld console made by the British company Tiger Telematics, which had a more powerful processor and various innovations (e.g. GPRS and GPS technology) compared to other handhelds of the era. About 10,000 Gizmondos were sold until production ceased in early 2006.

The design of the Gizmondo was created by Rick Dickinson, who was also responsible for the design of the ZX Spectrum. The Gizmondo uses an ARM9 processor clocked at 400 MHz and has a 2.8-inch TFT screen with a resolution of 320 × 240 pixels. The NVIDIA GeForce 3D 4500 graphics chip has a programmable pixel shader, a hardware transform engine and 1280 kB of memory.

The black case of the Gizmondo houses numerous multimedia functions that are new for game consoles. In addition to computer games, the device plays music and movies. Furthermore, it serves as storage for digital photos and can be used like a mobile phone to send text, multimedia and e-mail messages. Wireless gaming with other players is possible via GPRS and Bluetooth. Via GPS (Global Positioning System), the Gizmondo can also be used as a navigation system or to call up location-specific services.

The initial problem with the device was that no telecom provider wanted to offer the Gizmondo, as it didn't seem profitable enough. Finally, the provider Vodafone agreed and bundled the Gizmondo with a prepaid card.

On March 19, 2005, the Gizmondo was launched in the UK in two different versions: The normal version priced at £229 and the ad-supported version for £129. The ad-supported version (also called the "Smart Adds" version) includes all the features that the Gizmondo has in the normal version; however, the user agrees to receive an advertising message three times a day.

The Gizmondo appeared in three states until production ceased: England, Ireland, and the United States. By then, nearly 20 games had been produced for him, including The Great Escape and Conflict: Vietnam. Tiger's purchase of Warthog and a deal with SCi Entertainment were supposed to promise more games, but none were ever released.

The European offshoot of Tiger Telematics, Gizmondo Europe, filed for insolvency on 23 January 2006. Later, the parent company also went bankrupt.

At the beginning of 2008, the former CEO and founder of Tiger Telematics Carl Freer announced the successor Gizmondo 2. The company Media Power, led by Freer and his Swedish partner Mikael Ljungman, was behind the development. Originally, the device should have been released in May 2008. After several postponements, the expected release date was finally set for November 2009. In April 2009, Ljungman, involved in one of Denmark's most serious fraud cases, was arrested. The Media Power website was closed down. Since mid-2009, there has been a lack of up-to-date information about the project.

Technical data

• Windows CE .NET Game Console with Windows Media Player 9
• 400 MHz ARM processor and Nvidia GoForce 4500 graphics chipset
• 2.8″ TFT display with 240 × 320 pixels, backlit
• SD card/multimedia card, GSM tri-band, GPRS, Bluetooth 2.0 and USB interface for multiplayer games
• Send and receive e-mail/SMS/MMS, MPEG4, MP3, MIDI, WAV playback
• digital camera with 0,3 megapixel, resolution 640 × 480 pixels
• Battery life during games approx. 2 h, standby approx. 100 h
• integrated GPS receiver for position-based services