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Top Ten Things About the Sony PSP
Hector Martinez writes "A very nice read on some of the features of Sony's portable device." From the article: "Simply put, the character models don't need to be as detailed, because you won't notice the difference anyway. That said, we need to keep in mind that these are first-generation PSP titles. Just look at how the PS2 games have evolved since its launch. If handheld games are looking this good at launch, imagine what a couple years of development time will do. You can expect the same leaps, similar to those found with home based consoles, as developers become more familiar with it. "
I am definitely going to spend a lot of time deciding where to plop my $150. It takes about six months to see where the best games are coming out for a system. The PSP looks to be more hackable than the DS - AVI playback built in? MP3? Gorgeous screen? Nice. Now, what about the games?
10 Great Things About the N-Gage (not the N-Gage QD)
1. Plays MP3s.
2. Runs the popular Series 60 OS, for which many non-N-Gage-specific apps are already available.
3. Synchronizes built-in PIM software with Mac OS X (iSync) and Windows (Intellisync).
4. Built-in FM radio.
5. Supports on-line play with built-in GPRS radio.
6. Available used for about the same price as a Game Boy Advance SP.
7. Memory expansion with widely-available albeit slow MultiMedia Cards.
8. Includes software that lets me surf the web and check e-mail using the built-in modem.
9. Supports Bluetooth, letting me use a cordless headset instead of Sidetalkin'.
10. Has a built in Media Player, which supports not only MP3s (#1) but also video clips and streaming media.
There, that wasn't too hard. Maybe I should put it on a web page myself and submit it as an article!
For more information, click here.
I just got my Dell Axim x50v. It's a Pocket PC.
It was $375 - quite a bit more than the PSP. Keep in mind, however, that Dell is making a profit on the unit while Sony is selling the PSP for a loss.
It's clearly not optimized for gaming. But, here's the lowdown.
The screen is VGA (640x480) with a 3:4 aspect ratio. It's quite a bit higher in res than the PSP screen.
The unit has WiFi, like the PSP, but it also has bluetooth for connecting to a mobile phone.
It doesn't need expensive memory sticks. You can use either CF-based (up to 8GB flash, or use a microdrive like the iPod Mini) or SD-based (up to 2GB flash) media. You can use both slots at once.
The unit has a faster processor than the PSP (Intel PXA270 @ 612MHz) and it has a good 3D accelerator (Intel 2700G - based on the PowerVR core used in the Dreamcast, with 16MB of memory - 4 times more than the PSP).
Battery life is only around 2.5 hours, but that's with wireless on, the processor set to full speed, and the brightness set to the maximum.
The unit has 64MB of main memory - 8 times more than the PSP. It's an ARM core, like the DS, GBA, Pocket PCs, Palm OS devices, and 100s of other products.
Thanks to the PXA270 and the 2700G, the unit has no problem playing back DIVX/XVID movies at VGA resolution. You can download the trailers off of the Divx website and play them right on the unit without conversion - and they look great.
The Axim isn't really a Dell product at all - it's produced by a company called HTC. HTC also produces many of the iPaqs.
Microsoft could absolutely own the mobile market. Here's how:
1: Call up HTC and ask for a unit with these specs
- VGA touchscreen
- Intel PXA270 + Intel 2700G platform
- 64MB SDRAM, 64MB flash, 16MB VRAM
- 2 SD slots
- WiFi
- A game optimized case & buttons
Since the device is based on existing hardware and could simply be a modification of an existing Pocket PC, design time would be short and the unit could be on store shelves in quantity by next Christmas.
2: Develop an OS to run on the system based on Windows CE. Since similar hardware platforms already run Windows CE, there isn't a lot of work to be done there. Microsoft already has a compact DirectX framework that works with the Intel 2700G, they already have the OS, they already have a media player. All they need is a nice UI to tie everything together and a SDK to make development easy.
3: Ship the SDK. Get game development going. The SDK should make it easy to port XBox games - not a huge problem given the fact that WinCE has a similar API to Windows and the fact that the unit runs a variant of DirectX.
4: Launch. If Dell can make a profit at $375, Microsoft loses only about $110 on each unit at $200 (assuming that Dell's profit is $10, that Microsoft is charging $20 for the WinCE license, that the cradle costs $10, that the Bluetooth chip costs $10, and that Dell's "free" shipping costs $5.)
Regardless, here's what we see:
- Microsoft launches a product that is largely compatible with the XBox. Call it the XBox pocket.
- The unit has comparable graphics to the PSP, plus a better screen, enhanced video/audio playback, a touchscreen, and better battery life.
- Microsoft ships the unit with IE for Windows CE, plus an organizer that syncronizes with Outlook.
- Microsoft ships the unit with Windows Media Player 10. The unit plays Windows Media files, MP3s, and even WMA-DRM files purchased online.
- Microsoft ships a cable that allows the unit to link to the XBox. The device already has a USB client port (for connection to a PC) and the XBox controller ports are USB.
- Users can download games from XBox Live or purchase them at a place in a retail store. Games have DRM (of course) and are loaded onto SD cards. A 1GB SD card holds 16 games (at 64MB each - plenty of space with careful programming) and is only around $80.
Any thoughts?