PS3-Compatible Phone Coming In October

SpuriousLogic sends along this quote from CVG: 'You may remember reports of Sony's flashy Aino phone earlier this year which can, among other things, connect to a PS3 via Remote Play, giving you full access to your XMB through its tiny screen. Well, Sony's revealed that the Aino is now just weeks away from release in October, and spewed all the details prospective buyers need to know about the device. ... Remote Play with Aino lets you turn your PS3 on and off, browse and control the XMB and access the internet browser from anywhere in the world. Remote Play also lets you control and access the hard drive's media content on the PS3 using the built-in WiFi or 3G connections via Aino. You can also access the PlayStation Store via Remote Play or chat with friends via the PlayStation Network. It is also possible to buy and download a new game from the Store via Aino so it is ready and waiting for you when you get home.'

Comments

Headline could have been phrased better

[joeflies]

such as "Phone with PS3 Remote Control Coming in October". Saying it's PS3-compatible would lead one to think that it runs PS3 software.

Re:Headline could have been phrased better

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

"Compatible" arguably means different things by context.

As you say, "iPhone compatible headphones" does not imply "headphones that can run stuff from the app store". This is because headphones never run applications(pedants may argue that the DSP baked in to high end noise cancellation headphones counts; but not really) and nobody expects them to. By contrast "IBM compatible PC" is (when the vendor wasn't lying) precisely a statement about a device's ability to run a particular class of software; because the context, that of computers, implies that that is what "compatible" means.

Given that the use of phones to run applications enjoys a higher profile than the use of phones as remote controls(and, even in those cases where they are used as remotes, this is generally done through an application), it isn't wildly unreasonable to assume that "compatible" means "software compatible, at least in some sense".

Given history, I suspect that the headline could be more accurately rewritten to say "Sony-Ericcson releases high-end dumbphone defined by a couple of genuinely interesting features and a lot of mediocrity(just like all the other times they've done that), also functions as a bluetooth remote for one specific home theatre device".

Re:Headline could have been phrased better

[iknowcss]

Yes, but the ambiguity instils curiosity, and curiosity brings clicks.

Re:Headline could have been phrased better

[Dahamma]

Your post was WAAAY too intelligent and informative of a reply to the OP's idiotic comment... so I'll dumb down the thread with the same quote I always use when Sony comes up with something non-standardized/useless/absurd:

"Sony - some motherfuckers always trying to ice skate uphill..."

nice marketing

[schnikies79]

it's sounds a little.. whats the word... pointless!

Could be nice for the target audience

[Lorienthin]

Though I am not really one to be sitting on the couch texting/talking on the phone, I can see that the targeted audience would actually quite enjoy this. Personally, my coffee table is pretty pack as it is, and having one less remote/controller there could indeed be a boon. One feature I think would be nice, and maybe it is not too far off in the future, would be to have your send button on your cell phone tieable to the pause button on the remote. This way, if someone calls, you could just answer the phone, and your movie would pause.

I'd rather have...

[popo]

I'd rather have a phone that plays PS1 games than a phone that talks to my PS3.

You'd think someone would realize that there's an instant bestseller with any handheld version of a past (non-handheld) console ...

Re:I'd rather have...

[popo]

Heh... I'm glad you don't work in product development. If you call the PSP's "ability" to (sometimes) run games that have been ripped and converted, or run (at reduced framerate and with bugs) through an emulator a "feature", well then... your market would be very small...

Re:I'd rather have...

[Fallen Seraph]

Ummm, I hate to break it to you, but your derision of it for running through an emulator is kind of absurd, since there's no real alternative to that when you're moving to such massively different scales in size, and are using an entirely different media. you want the PSP to be CD player sized to accommodate your old discs so they won't be "ripped and converted"? That aside, the PS3's RemotePlay of PS1 games technically runs the original disc, on the original PS1 chip, and just streams it over the network to the PSP... So no ripping, conversion, or even emulation (well, depending on which PS3 you have. Some of them do have to emulate it, but I happen to have one of the models which doesn't). Though coming back to the ripped, converted, or emulated PS1 games, what are you expecting from backward compatibility? The 360 can't play the entire Xbox library either, and the Wii's virtual console is essentially nothing more than a bunch of licensed emulators and ROMs. So... what was your complaint again?

Does everything except what you want to do

[Kainaw]

Remote "play" is a misnomer. You cannot "play". The same thing already exists with the PSP. You can poke around your PS3 remotely, but can't play games (and you can't even watch a DVD or BluRay movie). If Sony wants to push this, they need to turn Remote Play into Remote PLAY, not Remote Browse. Then, they have a market. You still working on Ziamat on FFXII and need to take a bathroom break? Grab your phone (or PSP) and continue playing remotely. No problem.

Re:Does everything except what you want to do

[Fallen Seraph]

You CAN play PS1 games on the PS3 through the PSP. Additionally, you can in theory play PS3 games through the PSP too, but the issue is that the controls of the PSP are different than the PS3 controller, so you'd be missing 4 keys right off the bat (R2, R3, L2, ad L3), as well as the second analog stick. Most PS1 games are made for the original PS1 controller though, which didn't have any analogue sticks. As such, you can bind the D-Pad to the PSP's analog stick and use the D-Pad as R2 and L2, or keep the D-Pad and bind them to the Analog Stick itself. PS3 developers are, however, capable of making games interact with the PSP via Remote Play, and even playable entirely via RemotePlay. They just haven't taken advantage of it yet.

Slashvertisment

[kalayq]

Need I say more?

A better alternative

[StreetStealth]

This is a feature that could indeed be convenient, but will it sell a phone? There's a vast number of criteria on which to base a phone choice, and a nice-but-not-life-changing feature like this seems like an extremely tough sell by itself.

Here's what I think Sony should have done (and could still do): instead of building a phone with this feature, build a protocol with the feature. License it out to third parties, and watch as various ecosystems pick it up. Build, or license someone to build, something on Symbian, BREW, WinMo, or how about the obvious: an iPhone app?

A protocol would open the doors to a bona-fide advancement in Sony's gaming platform. A single phone is just an interesting sideshow.

Re:A better alternative

[Sockatume]

I think that's a worthy lesson to all mobile phone manufacturers, especially ones like Nokia and SE. There is no point adding Super Feature X to one handset when you release eight thousand handsets per year. Nobody is going to use the bloody feature because it's a complete dice-roll as to whether the handset is going to be a success.

Not for North America

[olsmeister]

This is for the UK only.

Sony with your Sony

[TheSpoom]

New Sony product enables additional functionality with other Sony products, and nothing else. News at eleven.

Re:Computers First Please.

[Anonymous Coward]

You clearly don't own a PS3 and have never used one, otherwise you'd know that copying stuff off it is as easy as plugging in a USB stick/HDD and selecting copy from the menu. This includes films and television programmes recorded from television with TVTime.

Re:Computers First Please.

[supernova_hq]

To what-ever moderator that modded me Troll, if you have read my post properly, you would have noticed the world "DOWNLOAD" as in "NETWORK DOWNLOAD"! I know how to transfer to a freaking USB drive, but that doesn't work very well when I have videos over 4.5 GB and my largest USB device is only 2 GB.

The PS3 supports DOWNLOADING from the network, why not the other way around?!?