You will be forgiven if the only thing you can think of when you here the name “Gizmondo” is company exec Stefan Eriksson smashing a Ferrari Enzo into a pole on California’s famed Pacific Coast Highway in 2006. Though it had sold poorly in the UK for a few months, Tiger Telematic’s brought the Gizmondo to the US, where it continued to languish, eventually driving the company into bankruptcy. Of course, Stefan Eriksson being involved with organized crime didn’t help much either. Well, one of the primary founders, Carl Freer of Gizmondo has come back, said he apologizes for allowing everything to fall apart, that he believes in the product, and that he’s getting it all going again. Apparently, he feels bad about what happened and wants to make it up to the investors.

So, what is the Gizmondo, aside from another taco looking game console (see: Nokia N-Gage)? First of all, its based on Windows CE and is designed from the ground up to be a converged device. I won’t dive into the details willy-nilly, but it did have a nice display, a fast CPU, a goodly amount of RAM, GSM/GPRS radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS capabilities. Its biggest problems at the initial launch were high price and lack of games. Carl says now that it will be around US$99 and, if he can manage it, possibly free with carrier contracts. He also says that now have over 20 games with another 8 in production. They also have a company called Plextek who will build the units on spec, and a design for a widescreen model in the works. This might work out, after all!

written by Tyler Regas