Download music anywhere, any time with Tapwave Zodiac and Virgin Digital

Tapwave and Virgin Digital announced that they formed a strategic alliance to make the Tapwave Zodiac multimedia handheld work seamlessly with Virgin Digital's audio download and subscription services. The Virgin Digital service offers a comprehensive digital music library with over one million tracks. The song tracks are available for download at US$0.99 each, with licenses for playing, burning to CDs, and downloading to portable devices. For consumers who prefer a greater level of music-access, the Virgin Digital Music Club is a subscription-based service for US$7.99 per month and enables users unlimited access to over 100,000 albums of CD-quality music on-demand.

With stereo speakers, Yamaha audio technology, and the ability to hold more than 2GB of music (with expansion memory cards), the 6.3-ounce Zodiac Palm Powered multimedia handheld can now take advantage of Virgin Digital's service offerings including the digital music store, music club subscription service, radio, and portable device management tools.

The Zodiac also includes all the known features for the Palm OS, including the built-in PIM (Address book, Calendar), plus synchronisation with desktop and Microsoft Outlook.

Starting at US$269, there are two Zodiac models. Both the Zodiac 1 and Zodiac 2 handhelds feature a Freescale ARM9 processor and an integrated ATI graphics accelerator. The Zodiac 1 comes with 32MB of memory and the Zodiac 2 comes with 128MB of memory. Each can be expanded by adding in SD cards in the handhelds two expansion slots, offering up to 2GB of additional storage.