Well I’m sure even the most hardened Gizmondo fan boy amongst us would admit, the comeback is getting more and more unlikely. There was plans of closing down the website this year. however in true streamy eyed fashion we’ve sidestepped a closure, to bring new life into the once dead Gizmondoforums.com.

We have decided as a community to keep the wealth of spam/goodness we have accumulated over the last 5 years into a general forums for all things handheld gadget wise. Ok there will be a few omissions from the immediate list you are all calculating in your heads, but we want to keep the Gizmondo information alive and free on the internet and at the same time move onto newer gadgets we have all drooled over since Gizmondo closed it’s doors.

Gizmondoforums will now be known as Gizmoforums.com!

Please welcome Gizmoforums.com into your hearts and please give us ideas on how you want the site to look and feel. also what sort of topics you wish talk about. there’s already a poll to sink your teeth into on the forums would be great if you can lend a hand and help us decide. Click here for more information.

Just a nag but if you have any spare cash lying around and you wish to help keep the website and forums alive and kicking please donate via PayPal admin (at) gizmondoforums.com.

Thanks to everyone, our great moderators over the years, friends family and Gizmondo and not forgetting our loyal members for all your support.

Cheers.

Trevor aka Trevsweb

After the nudge the other day i was finally treated to an opticians test today with the sneek peek of the new Gizmondo website! Unfortuntly the above joke was real the sneek peeks of the website are tiny so much so no real detail is given, appart from a general idea of what is to come.

As you can see fans of spiderman may think of venom on first look as Rich explains
“Center shape is an orb that changes and mutates as it spins…when each button is pressed, the assembly stretches, extends and rebuilds itself.. ENJOY!!!”

Granted a first look all be it a tad late as Gizmondo do but somewhat dissapointing “Sneek peek” as it doesnt show much detail just of their art style. No information is availible of who is producing the website or what is on there but i’m sure we will fill you in on the next update.

Will this be the art style Gizmondo chooses for their new shell/OS? looks good but we shall see in the future.

ENJOY!!!

Update: view larger screenshots in our forums Click Here

Welcome to the brand new look for Gizmondo Forums not only an atheistic brand spanking new look the changes go further.

New features

There are bag loads of new features coming from editorials to forum software here’s a little more information on the changes. Visit the Forums now and find out for yourself

New Design

Well well well 4 years of Gizmondo forums we just couldn’t leave the site design for another year and with the Invision board upgrade we had no choice but to upgrade to a new design. I really hope you like it. There’s more colour and spiffiness. Not just the forum but the whole site has changed! We now have a proper front page in the form of our new blog where we will post choice selections of news and site updates.

At the moment we will be keeping the old skin but it shall be phased out soon.

Update: Added two new articles. Check out the articles section above.

Read the rest of this entry »

Repost from articles section:

An Android article Written by Trevsweb

Android description brief

Based on Linux, Android is an exciting venture for Google,  it has pushed out of the safe and comfy arena of search engines and maps to bring a new mobile operating system that might make even the Apple Iphone fans prick up their ears.

Heralding an era in open source software, Android plans to turn the market on its head. Having a freely available software development kit and a lot of resources backing it up, Google hopes to make a significant impact when it is released.

Android features

You cannot have a new mobile operating system without boasting about what it can do and Google has gone to a lot of trouble to push the software out into the market, even before it has even been commercially available. Late last year was announced to create a storm with developers around the world. Entries have already been judged and winners announced, although a lot of map and internet reliant software shows that Google is looking for something remarkable for its software.

Progressively changing user interface has gone from a very simple design to an almighty beast, maybe enough to get a double take from passing Apple users. What is good in the eyes of Gizmondo users is that Android can function without a touch- screen, which is very good news to some of you touch-screen haters out there and our directional-padded Gizmondos.

Google promises all the support for the functions of what is expected of a mobile device these days: WIFI, Bluetooth, touch-screen, GPRS and 3G, the list goes on. You can read that list via the . Google being Google wants to plug every single section of their business. It looks like updated versions of Google maps with street view and their ever-popular search engine will, without a doubt, make an appearance. One thing unresolved is the browser. The current browser is based on the open source programme, WebKit, although we may wonder whether Google will be giving us their interpretation of WebKit with their Chrome browser ? I’m sure they’re keeping a few secrets for shock value when the full version is available.

Gizmondo relation

Well what does this mean for our little Gizmondo? Rumours close to the top have surfaced saying development for an android version of the Gizmondo may already be in the works. Android’s flexibility and future development make Gizmondo’s choice to develop an Android Gizmondo a very clever move to return to the public eye.

“We are excited about the potential of Android and have been working on an Android version of the Giz…Android would be a TERRIFIC addition to the Gizmondo and enable a TON of open source development.“ - Rich Jenkins CEO Media Power Inc.

The first commercial Android Smartphone will be available by the end of the year. The HTC Dream under the T-mobile brand is highly anticipated but if Gizmondo can ride the wave of other hardware manufacturers then its reliability and power could attract a lot of attention. Gizmondo might even achieve notoriety for being the first gaming Android device in the world, which could give back some credit to a broken brand.

The likelihood of the Gizmondo commercial success just relying on Window’s Mobile or Window’s CE is very improbable as the development community is probably not as focused as that found on portable devices, like the Iphone or even the PSP and DS, which create interesting home-brew applications. Gizmondo needs this gimmick to show it’s still innovative in the market.

The upgrade of older Gizmondos is a tricky predicament. We have the availability of all the possible future developments on the Android platform, but this means we will lose our back catalogue of games. Destroying a semi-decent game library would be counter-productive for Gizmondo and also likely to annoy early adopters from the first Gizmondo? Gizmondo sadly don’t have the resources to get content on their device let alone exclusive titles anymore, Porting old titles would be an option, but not this early on.

Gizmondo hopes to push its open source commitments and Google’s Android can help it there. Let’s hope this is more than a pipe dream and aspirations can be soon realised.

Check out the following sites for more information on Android

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/

We set our moderation and staff team loose on Carl to see what they could draw out of him this time.

The following are our questions and as usual Carl’s answers are quoted below.

Do you plan to harness or upgrade the GPS in current Gizmondo’s or new Gizmondo’s i.e.: Will you approach ALK again with CoPilot, look at other companies?

Yes, we want to upgrade the GPS in the new release. We are currently looking for a GPS partner.

Will we be seeing an improved GPS chip such as the SIRF 3 found in modern GPS units?

A new GPS chip will be included into the new version of the Giz Read the rest of this entry »