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Gizmondo, a subsidiary of Global Positioning System (GPS) specialist Tiger Telematics, has signed a contract with Microsoft Game Studios to bring new titles to its eponymous handheld: The software giant will initially port 'Age of Empires', 'MechAssault', and 'It's Mr Pants' to the mobile gaming console.

Gizmondo Managing Director Carl Freer enthused, "We welcome their (Microsoft's) enthusiasm and look forward to carrying the titles on our pocket-sized console. Our collaboration puts both Gizmondo and Microsoft Game Studios in a great position to meet all challengers in the handheld gaming market."

The Gizmondo device, launched in the U.K. on October 29th with North American availability to follow next year, won the Design Solution of the Year Award at The Electronics Industry Design Awards in England earlier this Fall.

It is part of what Jupiter Research defines as "hybrid" devices. Other handhelds in this category include TapWave's Zodiac and Nokia's N-Gage.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Gizmondo is, not surprisingly, the integrated GPS chip that provides location-based services. As a result, some Gizmondo games will incorporate a player's physical location into the game itself—blurring the line between play and real life. It doesn't appear that Microsoft's games will be among these titles, at least initially.

Gizmondo runs on Microsoft Windows CE.NET and is powered by a Samsung ARM9 400MHz processor that incorporates a 64-bit graphics accelerator. It boasts a smallish 2.8-inch color screen.

The handheld can also serve as a MP3 music player, MPEG4 movie player, and a digital camera. Users can send multimedia messages over a GPRS connection that also allows for wide area network gaming. This lets you play games against other Gizmondo owners worldwide.

Integrated Bluetooth lets you play games wirelessly too, except in this case the players are in the same room. 64MB of on-board storage comes courtesy of M-Systems' mDiskOnChip solution. And a Secure Digital slot delivers memory and peripheral expansion.

When Gizmondo ships in the U.S. it should go for between $300 and $400.