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First Pictures of the (Fake?) PlayStation Phone
For some time now, rumors have been floating around that Sony was working on a concept for a mobile phone that also serves as a bona fide portable games console. Engadget now has pictures of a prototype for just such a device. According to the report, the PlayStation Phone will run Android, probably 3.0 (Gingerbread), and it sports "a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 (a chip similar to the one found in the G2, but 200MHz faster), 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and the screen is in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches." The phone has "a long touchpad in the center which is apparently multitouch, and you can see in the photos that it's still bearing those familiar PlayStation shoulder buttons. For Sony buffs, you'll be interested to know that there's no Memory Stick slot here, but there is support for microSD cards." CT: Which would all be well and good if it was real.
It's a fake picture, but even if it was real I don't think it would be really succesful. For starters it looks massive as a phone. Secondly, Sony would be up for some serious battle. Even iPhone games are somewhat good, but the holy war begins when Windows Phone 7 devices start showing up. Why? Because of Xbox Live integration, XNA for developers, and the great integration with Microsoft's other gaming platforms and support for developers. For example porting existing indie games made with XNA or C# can be really simple job that may require only changing the controls a little bit. If a gamer is looking for a new phone, he or she is definitely going to look at WP7 phones as it integrates perfectly with their XBOX360 and in future with Windows games (as you may know, Microsoft is rolling out their games marketplace for Windows similar to Steam). That is a huge selling point, and Microsoft would have a long headstart to PlayStation Phone since Windows Phone 7 devices are starting to come out now. Also as a game developer I must say developing for PlayStation and PSP is a major pain in the ass and many developers share the same opinion. XNA, Windows, XBOX360 and Windows Mobiles on the other hand are lovely to develop for.
...we all new this was coming when the PSP Go was released, right? It already looked very similar to a cell phone that was out at the time (the model escapes me at the moment).
Still, I don't know how good of an idea it is to do this. If it's real, Sony better be pulling some kind of magic out from under their hat. Otherwise, they're just going to end up with a crappy phone/gaming system.
Living With a Nerd
They'll keep beating that dead horse until pigs fly... or one of their proprietary standards becomes popular... which is the same thing.
That put out a PSP commercial with a kid making fun of a guy for playing games on the same phone he calls his grandma on?
How is it that Slashdot doesn't know that Gingerbread is 2.3? This is old news... http://phandroid.com/2010/10/22/gingerbread-to-be-android-2-3/
Slashdot: Rumors for nerds. Stuff that may not exist.
Personally I wouldn't buy one. Why? I already have a phone that I like a lot. If I'm in the market for a new gaming system I don't want to ditch the phone that I already have. And I'm not going to buy this just for the system, because that would mean paying for all the phone functionality that I'm not going to use. So basically I see Sony's market being people looking for new phones who wouldn't mind the bonus of getting a gaming system. However, the phone market has a bazillion different models all competing for your purchase, and I can see this phone losing out. I know when it comes to a new gaming system and a new phone I'll purchase the Nintendo 3DS and then buy a phone that's designed to be a phone.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has since confirmed its official line on the rumoured phone as, "We do not comment on rumour and speculation."
NowGamer also contacted Sony Ericsson for a comment. A spokesperson also responded, "Sony Ericsson does not comment on rumour or speculation".
...
However, NowGamer still understands that the images are indeed fake.
Are NowGamer always so terrible?
Nothing like blowing your own trumpet.
Maybe a micro DS? Add another LCD when you open it up?
Why do we even have cards / DVDs for games anymore? I thought everything was going download.
I love my droid, but it needs a bigger battery. And 2.2 went a bit wonky on me. But I love it still.
Funnily enough it ws this that convinced me it was a fake:
" For Sony buffs, you'll be interested to know that there's no Memory Stick slot here, but there is support for microSD cards"
Why would Sony suddenly change policy when the Sony controlled format is widely available? They wouldn't. Sony doesn't work that way.
I like my phone to be a phone.
I must be weird.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
There is absolutely no way anyone should believe this given that there's no MS port. Indeed it almost has to be a puny memory stick just to dick the customer around.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
As seen on their latest phones and cameras, Sony doesn't use MemoryStick anymore.
A Sony phone, especially one that is also a Playstation? Let's think about this:
Scene: The future.
Me: Phone - call George.
Phone: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Me: What? Phone - call George.
Phone: George has been found guilty of possibly considering using his phone to view content unapproved by Sony, and inciting others to do the same. You may not call him.
Me: Since when?
Phone: My last upgrade removed your ability to call such people.
Me: I never agreed to that - that wasn't in the EULA.
Phone: It was - you just didn't read the fine print.
Me: I did so - every word!
Phone: You didn't follow the link to the additional restrictions page.
Me: There was no such link!
Phone: Yes, there was. It was the third period from the end.
Me: How the hell was I to know that was a link? It was the same color as the rest of the text, with no underline or other indication it was anything special.
Phone: Never the less, it was a part of the contract...
Me: What "contract"? It was a EULA, and was forced on me.
Phone: A EULA is a contract, and you agreed...
Me: ONLY BECAUSE YOU WOULDN'T LET ME MAKE ANY CALLS UNTIL I ACCEPTED IT!
Phone: You could have refused.
Me: And I couldn't make any phone calls!
Phone: You could still have used me to play licensed games and watch approved content.
Me: But not to make phone calls - you know, your main reason in life?
Phone: You accepted the EULA. You can now only call Sony approved numbers.
Me: In other words you have removed a feature.
Phone: An unadvertised feature....
Me: YOU ARE A PHONE! MAKING CALLS IS YOUR MAIN FUNCTION.
Phone: Sony never advertised the ability to call any specific number, only that I could make phone calls. I can make phone calls now. Just not to George.
Me: Phone - call Sony Support.
Phone: You are in violation of your EULA. You are attempting to use me in a manner not approved by Sony. Activating brick mode.
www.eFax.com are spammers
If it does come out then sony will NOT be able to sue hackers as the DMCA lets you hack phones to run on any network or run any app.
Sony Ericsson switched to microSD in new products over a year ago...
One that hath name thou can not otter
Not only SE uses microSD in new phone models for over a year, you might also learn about some of the "proprietary" (like SD is open...) "unpopular" standards with which Sony was heavily involved:
Bluray
HDV
miniDV
Hi8
DAT
FDD (the "standard" 3.5' one)
CD
S/PDIF (what do you think "S" stands for?)
One that hath name thou can not otter
"...the PlayStation Phone will run Android"
It's the sound of Oracle, Apple, Microsoft and Nokia all rubbing their hands together in glee, for all the patent infringement damages they'll be able to bring against Sony.
Seriously, these software patent disputes are pissing me off. It's like watching children fighting in a playground about who gets to go on the swings first...
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
Why do we need card/DVD? Simple, because not only is there many places without decent high speed where you might want to play, but being in one of the "test markets" I can tell you the future from your local cable/DSL and it is seriously nasty caps. Hell the caps on Cox makes Comcast look luxurious, we are talking 36Gb residential and 76Gb business. So anybody that bets their money on "in the cloud!" for residential users is gonna get a serious dotbomb wakeup call when these suckass caps roll nationwide.
As for TFA, the elephant in the room is the battery. As you found the battery life on these slim devices suck serious ass, and the more things the device has to do the more they suck the big wet titty. I have yet to see any of these thing match my Sandisk M260 with its 27 hour battery life for MP3s, and while I don't know exactly how long my youngest gets on his DS he has the damn thing all the time, so I'm guessing its a lot. When you figure in both the power needed to be a cell and make calls, with the incredible power sucking a decent graphics chip would do in that size? Well I just hope you ain't got anyone important to talk to, because good luck. Until we have a breakthrough with battery tech all this integration and slim design just sucks up your power.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Why do we even have cards / DVDs for games anymore?
Because a dual-layer DVD can hold 8.5 GB of data, which is bigger than a 5 GB monthly transfer cap. I can't reach pocketheaven.com at the moment to see there's been a DS release bigger than 256 MB, but I do know that some ISPs cap even home access, and they get away with it because of a last-mile monopoly.
...but nothing stops Sony from arbitrarily removing features from such a phone, or from cutting you off from accessing their library of apps/games for the device if you refuse to submit to such an update. So, IOW, business as usual.
Just a matter of time before we see CFW for the PS3 that undoes the damage though, give it time. Patience my precioussssssss...
Coincidentally, yesterday I overheard a conversation between two guys were one guy was selling an explicit fake iPhone. I had never heard of fake iPhones and got intrigued and leaned slightly to hear better. :) The prospective buyer said, well, it is a bit slower in the touchscreen and the interface, but otherwise, no-one would be able to tell the difference. The power cord didn't fit very well either. Then, they walked away and I could not hear any more.
Has anyone else heard of fake iPhones?! That was news to me.
If you click the "if it was real" link, you go to a page claiming it's fake with absolutely nothing to back up the claim other than "there's dirt on the screen"? And then in that article, you can click on a link to Engadget swearing its real and coming to market. Whats the deal?
Assuming they do everything else right... wIthout dual analog controls it will more than likely be another failure. I returned my PSP Go after realizing they didn't add dual analog controls from the older PSP generation. The gameboy franchise already has the touch screen with digital control scheme nailed down. Since the iPhone/iPad can do it now the bar has been raised. Sony needs to show some inovation to get people to switch to their mobile gaming platform. Anything less than dual analog controls will be a downgrade from an iPhone/iPad. Sony has a chance to get a big boost in sales if they do it.
suing has nothing to do with availability of hacks, just commercial availability of the hacks in some regions.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
DS games are sized in megabits, so a 256Mbit cartridge is really 32 megabytes of memory.
Animal Crossing: Wild World is 256 Mbit. Some newer games are 2048 Mbit, such as the Dutch version of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future .
When you figure in both the power needed to be a cell and make calls, with the incredible power sucking a decent graphics chip would do in that size?
They should ask Palm how the battery in the Treo 680 works - at full charge full brightness I typically get about two days straight. Granted, I don't get/place calls often, but...
A wise man once said, "Where is my other quotation mark?
...rests with the battery life.
Sure the concept is interesting: powerful graphics processing alongside a phone and with a touchpad. But to play games regularly and text/call people, the battery will need to be godly, otherwise you'll be faced with multiple charges throughout the day. This is one of the reasons why I hate playing games on my smartphones, because the battery life disappears faster than a hot chick in a LAN party.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Android platform (in fact my phone is running it now), but the battery life is a major concern for me and should be for anyone else who is even considering purchasing this product, fake or not.
Yeah, and like they are going to rewrite all their games in Java. Next!
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
Same here - one screenshot has an A and a B in a circle. Given that the UI is no where near completed, I would expect that they probably used unicode characters 24B6 and 24B7 until the font designer had added the Playstation control images to the UI font.
I think they're saying that this is someone's hardware hack, rather than a faked up render. Something about it just doesn't feel like a finished professional grade product, but I guess that's just a gut feeling. If they could get this thing to be a decent Android phone and were able to give it the ability to play PSP games, I think they would have a marketable device. I know there's a bunch of PSP games that I would be interested in but I have no desire for a dedicated handheld gaming device.
Funnily enough, the error level analysis suggests that the SIM card messages are fakes, but the rest of the phone picture might not. It's not definitive proof, but it doesn't stand out as immediately fake.
I read the internet for the articles.
Oh my, what times we live in - 2 days being a benchmark.
One that hath name thou can not otter
if they would release an app that lets me use my G1 as a PS3 remote.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/27/the-playstation-phone-is-still-real/ - They're saying yep, real. Codename is Zeus.
Screw the rules, I have green hair!
If it has a micro or mini HDMI slot and a front facing camera, and android 3.0, then I shall buy this phone. Why carry a DS and a phone when I can have them together in one contraption.
Root the phone, install MPI, and you're set. Add Torque/Maui for scheduling. Or stick Condor on it. You know the drill. We all remember what Sony did to the PS2 beowulfs. >:(
Or you could just run Boincoid http://boincoid.sourceforge.net/ on it while it's sitting on the charger overnight.
My Treo 700 lasted me days when stuck in Europe without a charger (radio off).
I was fine with the thickness of the Treo, given it could last days on a single charge. I have bee screwed in the afternoon a few times with my Droid.
From day one, they should have placed a tiny 1inch 3G module in the pspgo ($20 cost).
Add interface to sim card + ant for $5, and bingo they have a ps phone.
What does it take to make a phone ? a $20 3G module ontop of a cpu+screen+ram device.
Oh its the 1980s again re IBM PCs, lets see if someone can get Android running hacked on a WM7 device.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.