Slashdot Mirror
Sony PSP Defects Reported
Among many to report on this issue, OneHungLo writes "GamesAreFun.com is reporting that several defective PSP units have been shipped, suffering from problems such as dead pixels, broken UMD drives, air bubbles in the screens, dust in the screens, and the analog "nubs" not working, or actually falling off. They also have a video of a UMD popping out of the PSP as it's running, due to the unit being twisted/turned. I wonder how long it will be until Sony issues an official statement about this?"
Didn't the new Playstation 2 also have defects?
..."and the analog "nubs" not working"...
Hate it when that happens.
is never, this kinda stuff is par for course as far as sony is concerned.
That slashdot gets a psp icon? Kind of strange having the ps2 controller and the gameboy represent the psp....
Monstar L
Best to get the first generation of a console anyway, before any holes in the firmware are patched.
This is why quality-assurance departments exist. Where was QA on this one?
Sony use to be known for the quality of their products. With mistakes like this and running to save costs will hurt them in the long run. After a while I will rather get my Sorney or a Genuine Penophonix version which has better quality.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I hate when that happens. So much for the nipple being the only natural interface.
Actually, the walkman review was just someone's opinion whereas this article points out the FACTS that the PSPs are breaking.
Version 1.0 of product xxx has problems!
Sony has always stood for quality. I wonder if this will start to hurt their reputation a bit.
Isn't buying a 1st gen. protable electronics device just begging for this kind of trouble?
Why poeple buy bleeding edge products is beyond me.
(2) Flying Disk System (design error and/or manufacturing defect)a vi a vi
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cf6y-oot/umd/fly_004.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cf6y-oot/umd/fly_005.
If you choose to buy the first release of any consumer electronic, you are playing Russian roulette, especially with portable electronics such as (game handhelds and mp3 players). Not that a stern warning will deter the mindless herds from waiting outside of electronic retail conglomerates in the cold, in order to buy a product at the highest possible retail price.
Invoicing, Time Tracking, Reporting
links to videos on /. are always a great idea.
For a company who also owns MP/RIAA media labels, most of the money was spent to make foolproof DRM (which only works against fools), leaving zero on quality control department.
Because Japan now offshores their stuff to China.
This is China's revenge for WWII...
Some of them have already been debunked as fakes. Others are real enough, including the flying UMDs and dead pixels (though that seems to be an issue on just about any similar device - DS suffered from these as well, for example).
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
The playstation 2 costed, originally, what? $250, $300 dollars?
It was a piece of shit. They died on their owners left and right.
And now you expect that, a portable console, that costs just $200 dollars, be a reliable piece of hardware?
Sony is just reducing costs as much as posible. Idiots will stil buy the things, so who cares.
That Sony will issue a statement and or a recall. Sony has loyal followers and deep pockets. It's not at all impractical for Sony to do drop/cross ship replacement of defective units to keep it's loyal followers. It happens, big deal.
I am invisble, and you can't see me.
I've seen the video... and read the articles... but I still don't believe it that much. Dead Pixels I believe. Even the DS has this problem(as did the GBA and GBASP). But I have yet to see anyone report problems of the nubs not working or their psp not turning on except on this one small site linking to another small site.
If this is an issue, I put it in the barrel of consumers causing the problem, or just being a very small number of people, below 1%.
The UMD popping out, seems a little odd. Twisting the unit, I can understand, I mean, it's a small portable device, I could do the same with my old walkman. But during normal play? I doubt it.
Sony used to have a good reputation in the electronics business. They built their business on quality.
Now, like many businesses, they are in it for the short term profits. They build for the latest fads, with the latest dumbass useless 'features' the 'bling bling' crowd is looking for. They now build hardware aiming for people who are attracted to flashy shiny things rather than people who want qualty.
Mod me down, but for their consumer grade stuff, it's true.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Reports are coming in that the initial shipment of PSP units is seeing some defective units getting to the public.
These defects include:
Dead pixels, as many as 3 per screen with the problem.
Broken UMD drives.
Analog nubs not working. Sony has yet to make any official announcement about any of these issues, and about how users with any of these problems can recitfy them.
Be sure to check back for Sony's response to these issues. UPDATE: More problems ahoy!
Analog nubs not just not working, but actually falling off.
PSP is turned on, but does not start up.
Screen has air bubbles. Screen has dust on the inside.
Also, as for the UMD drive problems, some have reported the drive not closing completely, and the UMD, when the PSP is twisted, actually flies out!
Most retailers are stressing the fact that these problems don't occur in the majority of PSPs, but take caution in importing until Sony gives an official announcement.
Mirror of the Video
--
Check out more deals that you can shake a stick at!
and whoever linked to a video on the main page should be shot
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Company B releases a sweet little handheld gaming system in time for Christmas. The system isn't particularly revolutionary; its biggest selling point is that it features very powerful components for a handheld system. The system has a variety of issues, several of which should have been caught in the design/development phase.
Which of these systems would you rather own?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Well, all other reasons aside, looks like Nintendo may rake in the market share just by having better initial quality.
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
no better way to slashdot a website than to link directly to a video.
Let's micromanage Sony. Yeah. Got nothing to do? Let's find out why Dick got a PSP with a dead pixel. Or why Ed got one with a scratch.
Seriously... who wastes their time with this stuff?
Here's some screenshots from the video, in case it gets slashdotted:
|O|
|O|
(1) Square button's problema nbotsu_001.jpg a nbotsu_genin_002.jpg
_ 001.mpg
It makes a creaking noise and stucks
because there is a gap between the button and its rubber (and, of course, the board)
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cf6y-oot/controller/k
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cf6y-oot/controller/k
(3) Power failure and/or Chip defect
Power indicator light illuminates, but...
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cf6y-oot/system/power
The new, thinner PS2 shipped with flaws such as: it won't use memory cards until they're reformatted (thus causing any saved games to be lost); it won't accept the PS2 hard drive, so Final Fantasy XI players are SOL; it won't accept the network adapters that the old PS2 system used; it breaks easily (judging by some of the reviews on Amazon.com); it overheats easily due to the absence of a cooling fan; and so forth. Now I see that these same (lack of) quality standards are going to be utilized in the PSP design.
Looks like a Nintendo DS in the stocking for me this Solstice. :)
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
am i the only one not able to access the article / movie?
Made in china, by children, for children.
;)
With the savings put into quality control
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
Have you actually owned any Sony equipment for any real period of time? Everything I have ever had that was stamped with a Sony logo on it has died an early death. Receiver: acquired a constant low buzzing sound. Phone (T68i): the "Yes" button no longer works even remotely reliably, making it very difficult to use. TV remote: buttons no longer work even remotely reliably. Also my Mom has a Sony TV that has a terrible high-pitched squeal. Fortunately for her she can't hear it! Sony quality? Needless to say, I won't be buying any more Sony equipment.
--- What?
Isn't this basically what many Japanese companies do? They get the product to beta quality, then do a limited release in the Japanese market. They work out the bugs there, then have a much better quality product for the international release.
The only difference here is that the PSP is so well known that they can't keep the status quiet. People here find out about it, and write comments as if the PSP was a product they could go purchase at Best Buy. It's not... and by the time it is, the PSP will be very high quality.
This really scares me, I am to spend 200 dollars on a unit of this magnitude, I wish for it to at least take some wear and tear. My DS so far, has taken a careful beating, and I was hoping that when the PSP releases, it can take the same. The one thing I do like about Nintendo is that they are like Fisher-Price in product design. But with reports like this, I don't know if I should invest in a product that when bought requires replacement. I have been there already with Sony, which not to go there again. (Playstation 2 Game Reading Errors **Oh the Frustration**)
I'm amazed anyone actually has a Q/A dept anymore. Back in 2000, when axes started to fall, suits developed a new philosophy, around the world: Q/A Is Expendable -- let the customer test it and we'll just write off the bad units and dodge blame for any damage done.
Heck, we can _all_ think of one very large and successful company which does this.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This is further proof that corporations like Sony and Microsoft do not belong in the console industry. Nintendo is the only console company that I can respect (Being a die-never PC gamer, I still have to play all the Resident Evils or Zeldas). More or less, I'm just not a big fan of the titles. Sony makes everything...
that reminds me of a quote:
"jack of all traits, master of none."
1001100 1100101 1100001 1110110 1100101 1001101 1111001 1000010 1101001 1110100 1110011 1000001 1101100 1101111 110111
Games are fun... but being slashdotted must suck!
Life is a journey. . . enjoy it!
I honestly thought it said a WMD had popped out while playing. Something like that could really hurt Sony's bottom line. "I've heard of violent video games, but this is rediculous!"
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
My GBA SP hasn't had any problems, is inexpensive, gets great battery life, is very small and portable, and has a huge library of fun games. Meanwhile the two new kids on the block (DS and PSP) have problems, are expensive, get crappy battery life, are large and don't easily fit in your pocket, and don't have very many games for them.
Especially when you consider a GBA SP plus a flash cart for storing multiple games, the portability of the GBA SP is above and beyond anything that the two new kids on the block can pretend to be.
In how many languages can we say "rushed out the door just in time for Xmas" ???
The heat from below can burn your eyes out
Dust... Screen... Dude.
Errr.
Dust... Screen... RMA.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Ah, Akio Morita, we miss you so ... the barbarians who run your company now are more concerned with profits, they're happy to let their products be made out of crappy parts, in crappy ways, by crappily trained (if at all) workers, so long as the failure rate doesn't get too high.
I don't buy Sony stuff anymore, I avoid it. Problem is, there's getting to be few manufacturers of consumer electronics, let along computer bits, which don't suck. It's cheaper to fill third world landfills with 15% failure rate than spend the bucks to get it right the first time.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Dust in the screen.
Some PSPs have dust in the screeeeeeen.
OOoooOOOoh. oooooUUUH!
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
... maybe they'll offer something of better value as a replacement, like with the recent defective demo discs being replaced with real games.
If these "mindless herds" did buy them some of these problems would never come out. Whatever happend to quality control and testing.
Just as soon as they release the information surrounding the Disk Read errors on the Original Playstation 2 which was a result of a calibration issue with the laser on DVD / Blue disks.
So THAT'S where Saddam hid those UMDs.
Actually, I was trying to be Insightful, not Funny.
Guess what, every run of mass produced items will always have some items that are defective, it's a fact of life! Rather than a few complaints, show me that there's a greater than 10% failure rate, and I'll listen.
Every product has defective units. It's nice the internet exists so people can hear about every single one of them and blow the whole thing out of proportion.
Nintendo mentioned once that it has taken on many competitors in the handheld market and have always won. Let's see why... Nintendo vs. Sega: The gamegear was neat, but it ate batteries faster than a sumo wreastler eats buffalo wings. Nintendo vs. Atari: The lynx was so hard to find that nobody who was interested could even try it. Nintendo vs. Nintendo: The virtualboy was a great concept, but who wants to look at 4 shades of red with no 3rd party support? Nintendo vs. Tiger: When you lie to the public about your product, it won't sell...period. Anybody ever try playing Sonic Jam on the game.com? It sure doesn't look like the game on the box or TV ads. Nintendo vs. Cybiko: Who (besides me) actually has a Cybiko anyway? And those who do: how do you get it to work again if you try updating it at the wrong time? Nintendo vs. Sony: Who wants a game console that doesn't do anything the PS2 can't do already? Nintendo vs. Sega...again: Why Sega!? Stop the embarassment!
"We pass the slavings on to you!" -Krusty
Fetch Text URL - Firefox Extension
Seriously -- let's assume that this "toy" will win customers that will be at least "this short" to play -- 14 years and younger. 15 years and older have boobies and ding dongs to occupy them, along with weed, crack, and whatever else gets past government school teachers.
So -- we've narrowed the user base down to kids who may or may not lose interest in the PSP after about 2-3 weeks. Kids who might not necessarily know what a pixel is, let alone if it's dead. Kids who will toss it aside if it breaks, piss of their parents by wasting a Christmas gift, and go back to playing the full-size XBox or PS2 they already own.
Parents will give a crap, only because they'll be compelled to go back to Best Buyfriggin' go BACK 2-3 days AFTER Christmas, stand in line behind the smelly holiday drunk who's going to punch a customer service lackey in the face, and wait 1 hour for the mess to be cleaned up before they're informed of customer damage vs. manufacturer defect policies and 15% restocking fees by said customer service lackey's un-punched replacement.
My 2 cents. And neither of them would ever be spent on buying one of these for my kid. Build 'em a PC and teach 'em how to infect your home network with a Paris Hilton video worm or a backdoor hard-drive erasing trojan with a pop-up Pokemon mooning the screen, I say! That's certainly guaranteed to spur more conversation between a parent and child than a PSP beeping and blooping away in the backseat of the family minivan.
IronChefMorimoto
Come by sometime and I'll show you my first day PS2 still working great.
DVD drives die sometimes. Cheaper drives like in the PS2 die a little more often.
It's far from an epidemic. If you sell 16 million of something, you'll have a large number die. That doesn't mean it is junk.
Thank you, thank you! I'll be here all week. Be sure to try the jugged borcsht, it has less dioxin in it!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The person who noticed the problems had highly sensitive headphones. When using regular ones, he didn't notice it. The others who claimed his unit must be defective also didn't have those headphones.
It is unclear whether the Walkman in question was defective or whether any MW3 with those headphones would sound poor.
Honestly, I lean toward the latter, since each unit should be tested on an Audio Precision before leaving the factory (iPods are). None should have significantly higher noise levels than the others.
I lean toward it being the design of the unit, and all would do it with those headphones. iPods might too.
My massively paint-chipping / overheating / constantly crashing / screen-striping / poor wireless / one hour battery life / generally glitching Apple Titanium Powerbook had WAY more stuff wrong than this. Sony people should just suck it up and grow a set.
The first playstation had issues (ever met anyone who had to turn their unit upsidedown?), the playstation 2 had issues, the NEW playstation 2 has issues...
Do not buy new sony products! By the second/third gen! They're usually cheaper, too. (for the record: My PS2 has been operating on its side for 2-3 years with no problem; I heard that running then sideways was the kiss-of-death for the first ones)
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Is it me , or is this like reading 3rd grade homework papers? This has got to be the least literate thread I have ever seen on slashdot...
You have one, you insensitive cold. Now quit yer bitching.
omg! mom? is that you? =3
of course.
good ideas rushed and botched by holiday consumerism. i understand the accounting, but i wish some company would step up and release a quality product when its finished. (iD almost got it right, i dont think it was /finished/)
department in the unemployement line! It appears that Apple has fired their Q&A guys. We just bought 24 17" PowerBooks, and every single damn one of them has had one sort of problem or another. Most of them have trouble with the keyboards, and Apple won't send-out replacement keyboards under warranty and they won't sell them as a repair part. If you don't believe me, call Apple at (800) 275-2273 and ask! We spent over $71,000 with them after shipping and buying a few extra power supplies and small things, so it seems like we should be able to get them to fix them. Their support just doesn't care. Also, I've probably talked to two dozen of their support people, and not a one spoke English well. I feel more like I'm dealing with Dell than Apple now. Thanks for screwing us Apple!
I have yet to hear anything about the memory card issue, and I purchased a new slim PS2 in november. My old cards worked fine. As for the rest of it, yes the hard drive issue is vaguely annoying, but I think that's basically sony admitting the that not many people want the hard drive. As other people have said, it doesn't need a network adaptor, it's preinstalled. The overheating is not an issue that I've seen. I've run mine for a good 20 hours straight without any issues.
low battery life, limited quantities, priced fairly higher (compared to DS) and now possibly loads of defects?
anyone sniff a Game Gear successor here?
Would be a real shame seeing what the PSP could do.
Defects or not, games or not, it will sell. The PlayStation has so infiltrated gaming culture that it's almost a certainty that the PSP will do well here. It's a given that Sony is adreessing the issues that have popped up with the first launch in Japan, and they know that the gamers here will not be as accepting of flaws and manufacturing defects. Not to say that Japanese gamers are easier to please, but I think a lot of the buyers over there were sold on the name alone. Me personally? I have a GBA (Yes, the original) and a Worm Light, as I can't seem to find an Afterburner kit to install. I play my PS2 quite a bit, polishing up my skills for GT4 and recently my wife has booted me off to play FFX. When the PSP gets here, I won't be first in line to get one, simply because I'll be a father, and may not have the time to invest in a $200 system.
"What I cary in this box is your utter subjugation."
Someone has to be the first adopter so I can go buy it a few months/years later, pay less, and get a better product!
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
Just a few days ago there was a thread lamenting how the Japanese market gets all the futuristic, gee-whiz electronic gadgets first.
Perhaps this is because, given the consumer's ridiculously-weak position vis-a-vis the big corporations here in Japan, companies know they can get away with releasing buggy products, and not worrying about anything beyond a few mealy-mouthed apologies to customers who who'll have to jump through hoops to return their products. (Sony actually issued LOANER Playstations in the US!?) Customers = free beta testers.
I live in Japan and avoid new-release, x.0-generation cell phones, computers, etc. like the plague.
Hi, I'm one of Japanese sony-heckler. Among all trouble reports, what most frightened (er, in reality, amused) us is that the "strange offset" discovered between "square" button and its switch pattern below the button. Obviously it connotes some unusual things had happen in their development or production process. For instance, see pics below:
0 04 1213143737.jpgi phop/youhama/up/ source/yaguyasu0427.jpg
http://sylphys.ddo.jp/upld2nd/game/img-box/img2
http://cgi.members.interq.or.jp/h
Many users already report that square button doesn't be pushed and returned as smoothly as other buttons do (that's natural cuz the button doesn't placed in the right position which the membrane switch pattern), and often make a creaking noise.
My PS2 is dying after 2 years, alot of other people have found this too. Who thought the PSP wouldn't do the same?
:)
Sony have the biggest electronic shares they possiblely can, it could fall apart upon touch and people would still buy it, because it's "Sony".
Because remember, Sony is a brand-name, everyone know sit so surely it must be good no?
I like muppets.
Why would not being able to use the old NA be a "flaw"??? It's integrated in the unit!
Do you own one of these, you seem to be awfully uninformed.
- sigs are for wimps.
Tie Fighter!?! Who knew?
This rating is Unfair ( ) ( ) Fair (*) Funny
Sigh... If only. Modding would be so much more fun.
While it is easy to write this off as a typical Sony product launch - the PS 1 and PS 2 both had horrible problems with drive motors and lasers - I also wonder, could this be a sign that Sony is very scared of the Nintendo DS stomping the PSP into obscurity? Is Sony trying to get these things on the street so fast that the units are packed and shipped without any testing at the factory?
I'm voting for a little of both - rushed to market, bad design, crummy components, crappy factories, and no testing.
the source is ONEHUNGLO. But on a serious note. I feel for the Japanese because they are usually the guinea pigs for Nintendo and Sony.
Man, the /. editors must all be getting XBoxen for Christmas. I'm detecting an editorial slant here (like that's a suprise.)
BC
The current handheld debate is moronic at its best. I'll wait for a month or two until things have settled down and RELIABLE reports from CREDIBLE sources have started popping up.
The Sony timer is breaking down, just as the maker term's of a guarantee goes out.
In PSP, the Sony timer is set up as it is one day.
PSP is inferior goods to which the Sony timer is not set correctly.
For Quality.
Walmart culture of Americans have forced manufacturing companies to cut costs in order to please US consumers. Would you be willing to pay twice as much for a nice defect free screen that will last 10 years. Probably not. They are listening to the consumers.
Sony repairs PS2 units that have the dirty disc error problem for free (whether your unit is under warranty or not) due to a class-action lawsuit. There's an entire FAQ dedicated to initiating the process which can be read here: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/playstatio n2_sony_repair.txt
That video was debunked on GAMEFAQS for crying out loud. The guy hit eject in the video. And some of the pictures have PHOTOSHOP in the bloody header
Chill out motherfucker.
Dead pixels will be present in ANY display. My 2,000 dollar monitor has 3. The disk error may be somthing. Sounds like Nintendo Fanboy trickery to me.
Sony needs to buy Toyota.
Hitachi bought IBM, and they're making good drives again. But Sony has been putting out stuff like ATRAC3 (or whatever the acronym is).
At least they've got Blu-Ray working for them. As long as they don't blow the marketing of it (read: faulty optical drives and Windows-only firmware update executables), they'll likely pull out of this hole. And as soon as they do, I'm telling you, they need to outright buy Toyota. Tear out a check, throw away the carbon copy, and tell Toyota to think of the biggest number they can and then add 10%.
I haven't had a single problem with my Nintendo DS. I got it on the night of the launch. The only issue I had was the first model I got had a single dead pixel on the top screen. Dead pixels are reasonably common for LCD screens (even my laptop has one), and I promptly exchanged it for a model that didn't have any screen defects free of charge. No problems since.
Nintendo's long been known for the durability of their handhelds. The original Gameboy was extremely durable under ordinary, and some extraordinary, conditions. They probably make the most durable portable consumer electronics of anyone. On the other hand, I've had opportunity to use a Sony Network Walkman. I was constantly worried about dropping it on a hard tile floor. I don't think the little hatch that holds the battery in can withstand even moderate shock. I have a HPC that fell out of my backpack once onto concrete, and while it'll still able to power up, it's just not useable now; a hinge snapped out of place, and it's seems nigh-impossible to snap it back. I've also seen a Palm device with a power button that broke off, requiring that one press the bubble switch inside with a stylus to turn it on and off. More portable manufacturers should take lessons from Nintendo's construction.
Unlike consoles, portables have to be able to take this kind of abuse. It's not always possible to make sure they won't get subject to these kinds of stresses, you can only take so many precautions before you're effectively treating your portable like a console. While it's probably only a matter of time before an enterprising 3rd party manufacturer comes up with some kind of protective frame for the PSP, that just adds even more to the price, while making the unit bulkier in the process.
Word is, from BoingBoing a few months ago, that a recent round of Apple laptops suffered from screen issues that sound similar to these that are being experienced in PSPs, and denied there was a problem for a while. Not sure how Sony will handle the situation, but I suspect they'll be better at it than Apple was in replacing C. Doctorow's iBook.
... you'll probably find some young teenage geek fishes it out of your bins, drags it home, unsticks the loading motor, and uses it for another good few years.
As for being inovative. Well nintendo took the safe rout. Rather then investing in real development to finally create a powerfull handheld capable of playing game less then a decade old they added a gimick. No expensive LCD's for them, just two very cheap ones. No super expensive cpu for them. Just a slight increase.
LCD death pixels are a headache. I have in front of me a very nice LCD screen with zero defects (pets monitor and says good boy) but it came as a replacement for the original wich after a few days developed 1 dead sub pixel. Lucky I had asked the sales clerk multiple times what they meant with their death pixel policy.
Dead pixels can't be fixed and can't be prevented. You can test the screen over and over and 1 second after the user switches it on a pixel can die.
The other problems sound more serious but I have heard to many horror stories from tiny sites.
Basically both companies have taken a gamble. Nintendo has to keep its crown and sony wants to take it. Sony can afford to loose more. For nintendo the gameboy is the money maker they will need to offset the gamecube.
The DS has a nice gimmick but a small screen and nintendo's game catalog has a lot of childish platformers. It is a nice robuust system but perhaps you pay a lot for old tech.
Sony has a more sleek design but is ultimately just a handheld PS2. On the other hand you get a decent amount of hardware for your money.
We will see wich one wins.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's like eBay feedback, internet & television news, and consumer review websites. No matter how much is positive about any given thing, people will gloss over it all like it's not there and go straight to the limited incidents of negativity and take the exception for the rule.
That this is exactly the thing I've been worrying about. I almost gavy Sony props when the batter life was better than they'd predicted, but I still said I was worried about the screen and the UMD. Well, here we are...
There are many other numbers being posted on the web about the battery life. 90 seems too low, even IGN had it at higher than 2 hours, and others have it from 4-6. The key seems to be the brightness setting, and setting it to 100% is not a fair comparision as it's brighter than the other portables.
- sigs are for wimps.
Is it me or is there a fanboy religious war going on here? You have Nintendo Zealots versus Sony Fanatics. It is kind of cute and sad at the same time.
If you choose to buy the first release of any consumer electronic, you are playing Russian roulette
Pray tell me, if nobody buys the first release of a product, then how exactly is the manufacturer to make money to develop and produce any future versions? If nobody is first then the product dies--period.
Buying ANY new product should NOT be "Russian roulette", whether it is a spatula or a car or an electronic gaget. If it does prove to be a risky buy then the manufacturer deserves a sound throttling by consumers and the competition. If the PS3 is released in this kind of condition and it drives Sony into bankruptcy then they deserve it.
Software and electronics seem to be given way more latitude than other products, and as time goes on the gap widens. Complexity is no excuse--automobiles are very complex and getting moreso every year and their initial quality is getting better (the build quality of cars in the 80s--even Toyotas and Hondas--would be intolerable today). If the PSP was a car then these defective ones would have dents and scratches right out of the assembly line, steering wheels falling off and would have to be pushed off the lot.
When Hyundai came to North America it had horrible quality issues and barely survived on this continent--and even they didn't sell cars that refused to run right on the dealer lot and had major controls fall off the car. Hyundais' current models match Toyota and Honda in build quality, but even now their resale value suffers because of the first impressions it made 20 years ago. Sony has enjoyed a reputation of quality which is already tarnished. If there are any more high-profile problems like this then the general public will (and should) percieve Sony as a "junk" brand.
Selling a new product that works is not an insurmountable task. There is something called testing--it appears to be lacking here. Why does something like the sticky square-button get overlooked on production prototypes? Aren't there QC people who bother to turn on the machines and make sure they boot up and the screens don't have at least obvious defects? What about limited-market consumer testing--giving out or selling early units, clearly indicating that it is a product TEST? The kind of things reported about the PSP suggest that Sony decided to leave the testing to early buyers (ironically, the ones who pay the most for the product).
There is nothing made by Sony in my home at all, and reports like this make me think that there never will be.
Ok, its a first release.
Does that mean a company can sell me a defective unit?
Does that mean quality has to suck?
No, and it just means the company is not very responsibly or professional.
You guys can play your Gameboy SP's and nindendo 64's
Who cares. I mean really! The thing just came out, so its still under warranty. Just return it to the place of purchase and swap it with another one. Its not like its been on the street for 30-60 days and you can get a replacement from the store it was bought at.
I've gone to a few PSP message boards to find out more info about the handheld and they're flooded with DS "fans" bad mouthing Sony's PSP. None of these people have even seen one of these machines in person btw. There are even fake photos and videos of defects!!!
While I'm sure there are true defects, the amount of misinformation out there by users it's incredible. I expect companies to lie about their and the competitors products, but not consumers!!! It's pretty sad when consumers have to do free advertising for multinational corporations.
- sigs are for wimps.
Sounds to me like people just need not twist/turn their PSPs like they are trying to wring the crunk juice out of them. Why would you do that anyway?
over the Sorny...
Im sure some of these reported malfunctions could be untrue, but even if some of them are true, Im sure Sony would fix these manufacturing problems (if thats what they are) soon enough, and probably work out most of those bugs before they ship in the United States. Any device can have that happen to it, its just a matter of fixing it.
Mess with the Best, Die Like the Rest
Why am I supposed to care how cool the backlight is on my keyboard when it doesn't work! Screw Apple. They screwed me out of $2,500 (education discount) on a new PowerBook that they refuse to fix.
I can't wait until Dec 23, because I'm going out of town for Christmas, and there's an Apple Store less than a mile from where I'm staying. I'm planning on taking my laptop and causing a scene. I won't leave until they call the cops to make me leave, because I'm that mad about their rip-off.
PS: Hire some support employees that speak English!
You know what you are talking about.
Jeez. Internet lore is scary as heck.
Just because it has been repeated a lot doesn't make it true.
The problem with the Xbox DVD drives reading CD-Rs wasn't that that the laser was turned down too low. And the problem with the PS2 almost certainly wasn't due to blue discs. I can buy blue CD-Rs at the store, and they don't require special calibration.
As an additional note, my first day PS2 is still going strong.
compared to my company. Instead of a bonus this fall, we got new 17" PowerBooks. It was nice until I, the only Apple support guy in the company, ended-up with tons of work trying to coordinate repairs with Apple. Having laptops gone for 21-30 days minimum doesn't many anyone happy. I'd also have to backup each system before sending them in for repair. I don't have time to do my job, because I'm wasting all of my time on those laptops. Several people are mad at me for not doing my job since I don't have time when I suddenly had 300 new Apple users to support and about half that many that laptops I've either repaired or am still attempting to get repaired. I'm working about 10-12 hours a day six days a week, and I still might lose my job. After dealing with Apple lately, I think I would be better off losing my job and finding a new one where I don't have to deal with them.
I've been working on a CCIE for about three years. I guess it's time to accelerate that. Cisco support is a pleasure to work with compared to Apple.
Slashdot links to article from GamesAreFun. Who took the article from: Joystiq.com who says
"Unconfirmed reports are already bombarding the airwaves! It seems that the 'Dead Pixel Syndrome' that has plagued the DS launch is also ruffling Sony consumers' feathers. Some reports cite as many as three dead pixels on a single LCD. Other malfunctions include: broken UMD mechanisms, loose analogue controls & stuck buttons. We'll be sure to update you with Sony's response..."
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000210023539/
Now, joystiq.com got this from another newsblog called Spong where they said this:
"As with the launch of any new console (particularly from Sony, a company which has seen its credibility as a manufacturer take some serious knocks in recent times) early adopters have been quick to lodge build-quality complaints with the media.
Of these, the PSP has been on the receiving end of a considerable number of dead pixel moans, akin to those accompanying the Nintendo DS. The worst complaints are of three pixel outs on a single unit, though most report solo duds.
Other complaints stem from basic build-quality issues that inevitably impact on small lead-time new technology releases. Of these, stuck buttons, fragile analogue controllers and faulty UMD mechanisms have flared up most often, though in the main - and compared to the launches of the PlayStation and Xbox - the PSP seems to have been put together rather well. If SCEI reacts to the dead pixel issue, we'll let you know."
http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=8101
Now they link back to slashdot. Unknowingly that they started the whole mess(I'm sure they recieved this article from rumors being spread around on a forum somewhere god knows).
So far, people have already become aware that yes, an lcd can have dead pixels, almost every mass produced lcd does get these.
The umd shooting, has already been proven false. As well as the nubs that fell off. How these were believed in the first place I have no idea. The videos looked neat, but have been proven to be trickery. I hope this doesn't happen again.
No, no, no! There's a good reason why these units are failing... you're not supposed to USE the thing! You may only buy one off ebay for $800, take it apart to put pictures of its guts up on the web, or post bogus mods to LiveJournal and wait for gullable Slashdot editors to stumble across it.
Typically in (Australia) retail appliance sales there is the concept of DOA, and device which is brought back faulty within 14 days of initial purchase is exchanged for a new item -> assuming there is stock available and there is no obvious sign of abuse.
I had a customer once who would kill electronic devices without fail within 3 days of taking them home. He would write all over the manuals and the cartons, tear pieces out of the manual covers, break the packing materials when jamming the item back in the box. I actually told the boss at one point to give him every cent he had ever paid to the store back and tell him never to come back ever again - it would be cheaper in the long run that have to continue giving him new items and take back the old stock which was not in a condition to return to the manufacturer or be cleaned up, repaired and be put back on sale as is.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Nintendo has made crap in the past. GBA with no light. GBA SP with no headphone jack. Design decisions or just being stupid?
Blatant decisions to get the early adopters to buy the next generation GBA and an overpriced adaptor (or a built-in excuse to buy the *next* GBA) respectively.
Nintendo *knew* that the lack of a light in the GBA would be an issue. There is *no* way on this earth they couldn't have, given how ubiquitous clip-on lights were for the original GameBoy. This was a blatant and cynical marketing decision, and although I'm less convinced of the evil genius of the GBA-SP's stupid headphone socket, I have to conclude that it follows the same logic.
Nintendo are *not* that damn stupid.
Though it can be bad advertizing when these things go wack while the lots of them are not yet bought,
Its common for companys to 'give' hardware a shorter lifetime to ensure they buy a new one afterwards.
Philips the great dutch lightbulb maker, almost went down because one specific lamp that they produced only malfunctioned once per hunderd years.
It took a while before they changed the pricing to ' absurd high'.
Hivemind harvest in progress..
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...since 100% testing is rare these days.
Final testing is done by the "consumer".
I find the PSP to be the perfect candidate for my girlfriend. Ever since I got a laptop (and later a PDA), she's been dying to waste money on getting one for herself. What for? To play games and watch movies on it.
Now the PSP comes out, which has most of her favourite PS2 games ported, and it plays movies from the memory stick, and is half the price of a decent PDA.
Seems like a saviour for many.
- shazow
Actually Sony doesn't even recognize these problems yet. Any kind of announcement regarding a product this big (I've seen news reports calling it the "Gameboy-killer") would've been reported by someone pretty damned quickly.
In a standard case of Japanese 'beta testing', chances are people outside Japan wouldn't hear of this, you would KNOW its a sorry piece of crap that needs testing and you would probably get stopped by customs if you took it outside the country (odd looking electronic device, with a unique ID code, from a company which has not yet -officially- released anything of the like : probably stolen with no further information). In the case of the PSP however, you have people outside Japanese screaming for it, you EXPECT it to be tested and prepared for your hands and you would expect importers to be stocking the stuff, not reporting problems with it.
- disc drives (PS1 CD-Rom, PS2 DVD drive, boombox audio CD)
- fans (PS2 again)
- control widgets (PS2 controller, component UI)
On the other hand they seem to make / use good:- headphones (MDR, HDR series)
- speakers / amps (boomboxes and components)
- camcorders
So IMO their stuff is not universally crap across the board, but you should be wary of anything they produce that uses optical media and / or microswitches.Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
Prince of Persia is pretty famous for its gore, actually. I know I found it pretty shocking back when the first two each came out. Quest for Glory definitely had some good amounts of gore, too.
So does Metroid Prime, I believe. (I haven't played it much. But don't some aliens bleed all over the place when you kill them?)
All this is ignoring what the original Coward wrote. Mature games have nothing necessarily to do with gore, sex, or nudity, and they didn't suggest that they do. The Mario series still doesn't qualify as mature.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
Back when their products were still made in Japan instead of Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Korea, Singapore...
The PSP is currently selling only in Japan. It's probably not relevent to 95% of readership, so why is this news? Is this a kind of "The Fox and the Grapes" thing?
I've been a loyal electronics consumer since I was about 14, but fuck, can't they get their shit together? Lately, my new Sony products have ALL been falling apart. My new Sony DVD drive no longer wants to read ANY of my DVDs and lets me know that by hanging my system. Just a few weeks before that, another one of my USB Microvault drives died a most horrible painless death. All my data was lost for no reason, irrecoverable; even with THEIR support tools, got fucked. Creative did the same bullshit to me with their drivers. I bought a new Live-series sound card, the applications worked great with Windows 2000, but when I moved to WinXP, nope, sorry, *crash*. I no longer purchase Creative products and also go out of my way to spend a few bucks more to ensure I don't buy Creative products. I only need one good reason not to continue buying your product, whether its bad software or bad hardware. *hint, hint* Sony...
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!