Playstation Phone "Zeus" Revealed

tekgoblin writes with this excerpt from Tekgoblin: "A video has surfaced on YouTube which shows the new Playstation Phone now called the Zeus. Rumors had surfaced that the phone would be announced on December 9th but with this leak the rumors have now been made fact. The phone is called the Sony Ericsson ZEUS (Playstation Phone). The demo video shows the phone running Android 2.3 codename Gingerbread. The video also shows the phone with the standard Playstation buttons along with a touch pad in the center. The controller for the phone is placed normally where a physical keyboard would be."

Comments

Prices and locked down?

[iamhassi]

All I want to know is how much the games will be, and since it's running Android will everyone be able to make games for this or will it be locked down in some manner?

Re:Prices and locked down?

[larry bagina]

looks like it's an android phone with a psp emulator app. No doubt it will be locked down and you'll need to buy psp games through a Sony psp app store.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[headhot]

Andriod will probably only be the boot OS. The games will run on the custom hardware. Sort of like the Sega Dreamcast, running on WindowsCE. The games were not windows games.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Dreamcast didn't use Windows CE as its boot OS. A handful of games were ported using a version of WinCE, but its boot OS and the vast majority of its catalogue used Sega's own libraries. The couple of dozen or so that did use it were mostly shovelware or ports of games from the previous generation of consoles.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Anonymous Coward]

All I want to know is how much the games will be, and since it's running Android will everyone be able to make games for this or will it be locked down in some manner?

It's pretty basic, really. It runs Android. You'll be able to put Android apps on it. It also has a PlayStation app which will in almost all certainty turn it into something very similar to a PSP Go, complete with PSN game downloads.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[TrancePhreak]

Actually, I believe the main interface was written in Windows CE, but you are right.. That was just running on top of the hardware (not a main part of the system), like most games. Worms Armageddon actually used WinCE, but it suffered because of it.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[hairyfeet]

Question: Why exactly would you WANT this? I mean really? All the OEMs have been "pulling an Apple" and trying to make the thinnest sliver of a battery known to man, and if this thing has even halfway decent graphics it WILL pull the juice, so why in the name of all that is good would you want the ability to make a call tied to whether or not you had been gaming?

I can just imagine the kinds of conversation owners that would have this will be having, stuff like "Sorry dear I didn't get that call about your mom being rushed to the hospital, but I was playing "Super Crash Bandicoot Bust a Nut 4" and totally ran the battery dead, sorry". I mean it isn't the smartest idea to tie a device you need and use every. single. day. and have its functionality depend on whether or not you played some shooter on lunch break.

So I'm sorry but I just don't get it. It would be different if they would put a big beefy battery on the thing so you could get a solid 12 hours of use out of it whether you gamed or not, but we all know that wouldn't make it sleek and sexy, so instead they'll put a little sliver battery that will be lucky to get 4 hours, and that is only if your game isn't any more graphic intensive than Tetris. Any heavier on the GPU and this thing will go through power like shit through a goose and who wants to spend their day either looking for a plug in or carrying a charger in your pocket just so you can make and receive phone calls? While this whole "convergence" thing is cool in theory, until we get some better battery tech or the OEMs admit that devices with a lot of functions need real batteries instead of iSlivers I just don't see the usefulness in it. Maybe you can enlighten me?

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Yvan256]

The worst part is, I bet that even if someone managed to make a safe, portable nuclear reactor the size of an AA battery, companies wouldn't use it because it's not thin enough.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sega Rally 2 was hardly shovelware.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Anonymous Coward]

Smartphones already last less than a day under any kind of usage. This means that people who use them have learned to adapt. Most people can find a way to charge there phone at work. I keep a USB cable for my phone at work and that works perfectly. So when i return from playing on my lunchbreak i plug in and if my wife calls to say her mother is being rushed to the hospital that is fine because when i answer i am fully charged. To many people on slashdot keep talking this nonsense about "a phone that is just good at making calls". Guess what most of the population dont want that. I spend at most 10minutes a month actually speaking on my cellphone. Everything else is text or chat.

So yes i want convergence. I want my phone to do absolutely anything and everything that any peice of portable electronics can do. I want this because im not batman and i dont wear a utility belt in order to hold a cellphone, gps, mp3 player, portable video player, camera, psp, eReader, graphing calculator,flashlight, laptop and wireless card for it. Hell i want to be able to hook up electrodes to my phone and have it act as a digital multimeter and a portable oscilloscope as well as an EMF meter, digital thermometer, Sound level meter, light meter and spectroscope.

I also want this megaphone to be as thin as possible. I want this so i dont have a huge, non phallus shaped bulge in my pocket or massive thing on my belt messing up my silhouette and decreasing the likelihood of females wanting to have sex with me. I know this concept in particular is difficult for the slashdot horde to grasp.

It is considerably less cumbersome and less expensive to carry 1 smartphone and if you are really worried about battery life an extra battery or usb cable.

The cellphone that just makes calls died with saved by the bell.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[bemymonkey]

I've gotten rid of most of my separate devices (DAP, nav unit and so on) and now only carry an Android smartphone and a battery pack (About 20Wh)... gives me about 3 full phone charges). It's much less to carry, and having one device that does it all just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside ;)

It's doable. :)

Re:Prices and locked down?

[walshy007]

I want this because im not batman

decreasing the likelihood of females wanting to have sex with me.

Something tells me, both of these problems could be solved by simply becoming batman.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Bitmanhome]

There can only be one Batman. And you have to kill all the other Batmans to become The One Batman.

Although, I might be thinking of some other movie.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[MorpheousMarty]

I'll ignore all your condescension and answer simply:

You value call time/quality highly, which obviously won't be the strong suit of this phone. I'm interested because I value gaming highly, and nothing can replace a full gamepad for that. I don't make a lot of calls, if I miss a call they can leave a voicemail, even if I am playing a game.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[DrXym]

I agree it would be nice if smart phones lasted longer before charges but the way they are now is still useful. A single device that does music, vids, phone, internet, games, PIM, apps etc. on a charge that lasts a day or two is still better than carrying around a whole bunch of different devices.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, the power supply cable is actually quite portable, so is an extra battery.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[B1oodAnge1]

But if you *really* valued gaming highly wouldn't you want to use a device that was designed for gaming without having a phone tacked on as a clunky extra feature?

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Narishma]

The main interface doesn't use Windows CE, only a few games used it. Read the last paragraph in the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast#History
I would quote the relevant part but Chrome doesn't seem to like pasting in Slashdot's comment box.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[teh kurisu]

You're using the word 'would' a lot, as if people weren't already playing games on their smartphones. The largest single category in the iOS app store is the gaming section. I think we're past the point where we're asking, do people want to play games on their smartphones? Yes. Yes they do.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[MorpheousMarty]

But if you *really* valued gaming highly wouldn't you want to use a device that was designed for gaming without having a phone tacked on as a clunky extra feature?

Android is not a clunky extra feature. The phone is clearly designed for gaming, for starters, it has a dedicated gamepad. I *really* do value gaming highly, which is why I don't want to have to pick between spending money on a smart phone or a portable console.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Anonymous Coward]

...if this thing has even halfway decent graphics it WILL pull the juice, so why in the name of all that is good would you want the ability to make a call tied to whether or not you had been gaming?

People are currently playing demanding games on their iPhones, and it's not the end of the world.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Steve Max]

Smartphones already last less than a day under any kind of usage.

You mean "iOS and Android-based smartphones already last less than a day under any kind of usage", right? Because I rarely see Blackberry and Symbian users complaining about their battery life, and when they do it's something like "I need to top off the battery on this phone every night, because if I don't I'll have to control my usage on the second day". My Symbian smartphone gets five days out of its battery under regular usage, maybe three if I go wild with the radios and games. A phone whose battery doesn't last through the day has a clear design flaw, and should be kicked out of the market ASAP.

The way I see it, 12 hours of battery on your phone is as ridiculous as 30 minutes of battery on your laptop. The whole idea of a cell phone is to keep you available all day long, just like the idea of a laptop is to have computing power on the go. If you have to top off your phone after a few hours, it's doing something wrong, just like it's just plain wrong if you can't even read your emails on your laptop without being plugged.

It's completely possible to have a phone that can do everything* you said and still have a battery that won't let you down, while keeping a thin profile (the Nokia N8 is a great example). The manufacturer just needs to understand that a 1GHz CPU is overkill for our current battery technology, and that an OS should save the battery as much as possible. That's it. Some manufacturers get that (Nokia, RIM), while others don't (Samsung, HTC, Apple).

*=excluding the parts that no phone does yet, obviously.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, because all companies turn to you to decide what products to make. Obviously you represent the pulse of the entire mobile phone market. If you don't get it then it seems like Sony didn't do their market research properly and called you directly to get your blessing to make a product. I think if you had your way, we would all be carrying shoebox phones circa 1988 because they would last months on a single charge.

BTW, if you think people buy Smartphones to make phone calls these days you are woefully out of touch with reality man which is why Apple and Sony are billion dollar companies and you are not.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[qortra]

Excellent, succinct assessment. I truly wish I had mod points for you. This needs to be said. In fact, because Luddites like the grandparent keep posting and getting modded up, this apparently needs to be said over and over again. A few additional points:

• *Of course* there is a market for this. Why would people want to carry multiple tools around with them when one will do, especially when those tools share almost all the same components?
• If you are playing games so much that you can't make a 911 call for your mom, maybe you should learn some self control and not play until your battery is dead every time.
• You can get bigger (both in size and capacity) batteries for almost every interesting smartphone. I'm sure this will be no exception.
• The current market has shown that games don't have to have "even halfway decent graphics" to be fun or popular. I'll bet strongly that Sony tries to push into the casual game market with this device.
• Battery technology is getting better little by little. At some point, the size of phones will stabilize (if it hasn't already), and the improvement in battery technology will seen directly in our phone's uptime.
• It is possible to play games on a phone while it is connected to power (though perhaps inadvisable since batteries are more likely to explode while charging).

Re:Prices and locked down?

[ukemike]

did you see how fat the keyboard section of the phone was!!?? There was plenty of room for a big fat battery.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[GameboyRMH]

Because I rarely see Blackberry and Symbian users complaining about their battery life

That's because they're running previous-gen OSes on previous-gen hardware, not in the same league with iOS or Android and the hardware they run on. It's like comparing a gaming laptop running Win7 with an Atom netbook running DSL, if they both had similar batteries. Of course one is going to run down the battery faster.

I don't think Blackberries will be in the same league until some breakthrough in battery technology, because they need the long battery life of the previous-gen devices.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Steve Max]

But what is more important? A device that does everything you could possibly think of for 6 hours, using up power faster than it would have to? Or a device that uses power efficiently, does everything you want it to do, and that won't let you down when you need it?

"Previous-gen OS", you said? Compare the power and resource management capabilities of Symbian and Android. Which one is more modern?

Again, some manufacturers don't get it. If a phone's battery will last for six hours of usage when you put every single resource you can think of on it, the device has been badly designed. A phone should, at the very least, last for the whole day under the heaviest usage pattern. If the one you designed doesn't, you should remove features, add battery or improve the power management system. This is the main feature of Symbian: you can drive your system with a less powerful CPU while having the same level of responsiveness, even if you keep the CPU clocked way down for most of the time. This is a point where the EPOC kernel is leagues ahead of Linux or Mach.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[farble1670]

what if it was like this,

... "Sorry dear I didn't get that call about your mom being rushed to the hospital, but I was listening to Aerosmith and totally ran the battery dead, sorry". I mean it isn't the smartest idea to tie a device you need and use every. single. day. and have its functionality depend on whether or not you listened to music on lunch break.

or maybe this,

... "Sorry dear I didn't get that call about your mom being rushed to the hospital, but I was using Google navigator and totally ran the battery dead, sorry". I mean it isn't the smartest idea to tie a device you need and use every. single. day. and have its functionality depend on whether or not you needed your GPS on lunch break.

the popularity of smartphones is at least partly in that they are multifunction devices. i was very happy on the day i could stop carrying around a dedicated mp3 player. i was even happier when i could put my old dedicated GPS in the drawer. i think a lot of folks feel the same way.

Question: Why exactly would you WANT this?

the game market for iphone is huge, and the lack of games on android is the main differentiator between it and iOS devices nowadays. will this be any harder on your battery than current smartphone games? if you game on you iphone or android device battery life goes down the tubes. yet, somehow people are clambering for more and better games.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Anonymous Coward]

SONY would never do such a thing.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[robthebloke]

the same people who bought the N-Gage I imagine.....

Re:Prices and locked down?

[strstr]

hardly any software on the DC used WinCE, right. that article doesn't explain it very well, but most games/software titles run "on the metal" - ie they have their own engines and control/run on the hardware directly, no OS is loaded at all. WinCE was ported to the Dreamcast and capable of running on its' hardware, and only a few titles ever used it, all of which I believe were ports of Windows applications like Sega Swirl and the like (which was also available on the PC/Win32 platform).

Re:Prices and locked down?

[GameboyRMH]

But what is more important? A device that does everything you could possibly think of for 6 hours, using up power faster than it would have to? Or a device that uses power efficiently, does everything you want it to do, and that won't let you down when you need it?

Depends. I made the tradeoff when I upgraded from a Treo 650 to an N900. I do miss the Treo's battery life but the N900's far greater hardware and software capabilities make it more useful to me overall.

The N900's battery generally lasts from morning to night if you use it like a normal phone. If you use it like a laptop - browsing constantly while playing music etc - it'll last around 4 hours. Most current-gen phones are similar, but mobile CPUs are in the "P4 Prescott" age right now - an age of vastly improved performance, but accompanied by horrendous inefficiency.

In next few years there will be more efficient multi-core CPUs running at 1-2Ghz, so you can expect both battery life and performance to improve from here.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[DrSkwid]

blah blah blah
Just add one of these solar chrged battery packs to your possessions.

Mine sits in an outside pocket on my rucksack sucking up the murky light.

The power on my G1 sucks like a porn star, I already upgraded it to 2Ah. Because of the very problem you mentioned.

Now I can wake up anywhere and know I've got phone juice.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[iamhassi]

"I would quote the relevant part but Chrome doesn't seem to like pasting in Slashdot's comment box."

I've noticed that too! It's been like that for a good 6 months now. I don't know what /. did to make the change but I haven't been able to paste into slashdot using chrome except in the polls, for whatever reason it works there.

I've been wanting to report it but slashdot doesn't really have an obvious place to report website bugs. Real shame because it's annoying, I've been having to type everything into notepad and copy-paste it over into the comment box because it'll take a copy-paste but only if you paste everything in.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[MasterGwaha]

amen.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[iamhassi]

"Question: Why exactly would you WANT this?"

Seriously? I guess you're serious, but this comes from the "why do I want a color screen/camera/internet/touchscreen on my phone" crowd.

Here's a shocker: people play games on their phones. Angry Birds has been purchased by 6.5 million people. That's a lot, and that's not even a good game. EA makes iPhone games like SimCity, Need for Speed, Spore and Command and Conquer Red Alert. Square Enix makes a little game called Final Fantasy. Yes, that Final Fantasy. the real final fantasy. Even small developers are making a million dollars a month off iPhone games.

Sony has no choice: iPhone had 19% of the portable software revenue in 2009 compared to the PSP's 11%. That's amazing for a device that was only 2 years old at the time, that's triple the 5% the iPhone had in 2008.

As for batteries running dead... well, that happens. You can run down your battery watching Youtube videos or constantly checking Facebook. The "think about the battery!" excuse is played out, people said the same thing when they added color screens to phones and again when cameras were added and again when giant LCD touchscreens were added. If you don't like it, don't buy a smartphone or buy a case that charges the phone.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[lymond01]

I'm all for games on the phone. I just HOPE TO GOD they never combine one with a music player...

Re:Prices and locked down?

[acohen1]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I have an iPhone and I travel a lot. I spend lots of time playing games on my psp and ds which I carry around because I'm terrified of killing the meager battery on my iPhone by screwing around on it when I may need to respond to a call, email, txt, or IM. For that reason I've never spend a nickle on a game in the app store, but am perfectly willing to plop down $20-$40 for new DS and PSP games that I want. Also they don't suck and run like junk because I have a 3G, but really thats a different issue.

Re:Prices and locked down?

[Vastad]

Kurgan-Batman. The very thought of it...

This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[AdmiralXyz]

Based on App Store and Marketpace sales, I think people are itching to have a phone that doubles as a gaming device, but there's nothing that scratches that itch perfectly yet. The iPhone doesn't do the trick because it has no physical controls (touch- and accelerometer-based games are great for some genres, but lousy for many others), and Android's game library is still pretty lame.

Of course, if anyone can screw this up, it's Sony. Their recent track record with both phones (Ericsson, ick) and portable gaming (PSPGo, double ick) is not great, so trying to do both at once could be a big bag of fail.

Still, I'll be paying close attention.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[larry bagina]

counterpoint: n-gage.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know, the Xperia X10 Mini and Mini Pro are pretty nice little phones.

Whatever the case, I still want this PSP phone. I don't care about any of that social media crap or gang of useless apps on the other phones. I just want a phone that will talk, play music and play real games.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[auLucifer]

Good point. Nokia screwed it up too

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[EdIII]

Of course, if anyone can screw this up, it's Sony.

True Dat.

What I am wondering is if Sony picked the name Zeus. That would be particularly funny to me since Pandora was a punishment against all men for stealing fire (technology) from Zeus via Prometheus. So will we be forced to use a Pandora battery to "steal" our technology from Zeus yet again?

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[black3d]

I hope that they're using the name Ericsson simply due to the fact it's Sony's own phone brand, rather than this device being comparative to any previous Ericsson devices. I have always found them lacking. :( However, like a sucker, I frequently end up with them due to the Sony association. Certainly - this will be no different. I MUST HAVE ONE!

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[lennier1]

Exactly.
A console is a product that's supposed to stay on the market for several years. OTOH most people don't want to buy a cell phone whose technology is a year older than what the competition offers.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[JavaBear]

N-Gage never did have the number of titles available to it that the PSP already have.

The question then becomes, are titles purchased on the PSN store transferable to another "PSP" unit, be it the dedicated ones, or next years PSPhone?

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course, if anyone can screw this up, it's Sony.

I still remember, just over two years ago, Sony pushed out a PlayStation Store update and raised the prices of PSP downloaded titles to above the price of the physical retail copies. It's within Sony to fail.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[DrXym]

Of course, if anyone can screw this up, it's Sony. Their recent track record with both phones (Ericsson, ick) and portable gaming (PSPGo, double ick) is not great, so trying to do both at once could be a big bag of fail.

Sony can screw this up simply by not licensing the PSP brand to other handset manufacturers. A single handset model from a single manufacturer which may end up on a limited number of networks / payplans is never, ever in a million years going to compete with gaming options available for iPhone, Windows Phone or even Android. I realise Android has crappy gaming support (no cloud services for gaming), but I don't believe that Google don't have plans to rectify this.

Sony have a very limited window to convince a other handset manufacturers, and Google that Playstation is the best way to extend the Android platform with gaming functionality. If they don't do that then this thing is a deadend. It might sell well as a handset but it isn't an industry changer.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

The Nokia N-gage screwed up because Nokia tried to make a phone "that can game" not the other way around.

I'm actually fairly confident that Nintendo could make a better "game device that is also a phone" seeing as it pretty much does that already short of an actual UMTS radio.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

They are probably using the Ericsson brand because Sony Ericsson is a 50% Ericsson, 50% Sony owned company.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

"This company keeps screwing up. Of course, I still keep buying their stuff. When will they learn!" - Answer: when you stop buying their stuff.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[Tharsman]

I used to think this way, about touch, until I played games on an iPhone. Side scrollers, top down, and even shooters play great with on-screen touch gamepads. Heck, off late I play more on my iPod than I do on the xbox.

I can't wait until Epic Games releases their engine for iOS development.

I don't think a ps phone will work well, specially if it's running android. Not because quality issues, but because Sony will be not just fighting against the iPhone, but also against every other android phone out there.

Re:This could actually be surprisingly awesome

[robthebloke]

I dunno. The way in which you were forced to hold the N-Gage makes me think the phone part was added as an after-thought.....

Awesome games!

[Chelmet]

That game looks awesome! Did you see the open/close manoeuver? I can just imagine the *snick* as it hits full extension.

Finally, a game I can play on my N900

Heard it before.

[Pyrus.mg]

Sure it can run Linux... for now.

Re:Heard it before.

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd have to be outta your gourd to buy anything from SONY at this point in the game. I'm firmly focused on the alternatives from companies looking to participate in a competitive market, and SONY can go straight to hell.

Re:Heard it before.

[anomaly256]

I think I figured out Sony's problem and the reason for their persistent shooting-in-the-foot: They keep telling their marketing department that their job is to pull production studios. If you consider for a moment the possibility that their marketing department *aren't even aware* that they have these things called consumers, then everything suddenly makes *perfect* sense.

Nice video. Silent, but (mostly) clear and sharp..

[denzacar]

Now show me one where this smug bastard eats crow. Preferably a live crow.
CmdrTaco can join him.

I can see the legislation now...

[AllWorkAndNoPlay]

We are going to need to outlaw playing GT5 while driving. Word has it, playing video games while behind the wheel may distract some drivers.

Re:I can see the legislation now...

[zach_the_lizard]

Why invent all these special-case laws? Jjust charge them with negligence or something. Maybe invent a distracted driving law?

Re:I can see the legislation now...

[Anonymous Coward]

That makes too much sense. You'd get nowhere in politics.

You'd have my vote though.

Re:I can see the legislation now...

[Sethumme]

Exactly. If there is no issue that some bank-rolled special interest group can get behind, then the law has to be about blaming some specific action or product -- not making citizens responsible for their own behavior. The voting masses don't like being told to use common sense.

Re:I can see the legislation now...

[neoprint]

Yo dawg...

carrier locked? forced data plan? GSM? CDM?

[Joe The Dragon]

carrier locked? forced data plan? GSM? CDM?

Re:carrier locked? forced data plan? GSM? CDM?

[Shikaku]

In this day and age, of course to the first 2.

Re:carrier locked? forced data plan? GSM? CDM?

[Xugumad]

I'm sure you'll be able to buy an unlocked version of the phone, but don't expect too much change from $1k from it (any more than you would from buying an unlocked iPhone 4 - I'm aware they're not available in the US, but the UK edition is £500/$800 or more inc tax).

Re:carrier locked? forced data plan? GSM? CDM?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony-Ericsson, therefore, GSM/HSPA.

Direct Youtube Links

[pavon]

Tekgoblin was very slow to load for me, so here are some direct links to the YouTube Videos in case the site gets slashdoted.
Video 1
Video 2

Re:Direct Youtube Links

[Anonymous Coward]

Naturally. "tekgoblin writes with this excerpt from Tekgoblin" -- cool $7/m Bluehost site, bro. Why oh why do the editors allow self-promotion, blog links, and indirect sources?

Re:Direct Youtube Links

[tekgoblin]

The site is not hosted at Bluehost only the DNS records are :)

Re:Direct Youtube Links

[symbolset]

Actually if you have a lot of domains on Bluehost, it's more like $10/yr each. Very affordable, and great service.

Re:Direct Youtube Links

[pinkushun]

OT Rant: Days like these I wish that work did not block youtube. All from those damn implementers who abused it all day long. Grrrr :/

Same name as a botnet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, the first thing that came through my mind when I read the name was the Zeus botnet. Is the PS phone (oh god, it also abbreviates as PSP) going to be a botnet client by default?

Re:Same name as a botnet?

[anomaly256]

Sony rootkit pre-installed and EULA OK'd to avoid any legal fidgy-widgyness

Sony simply MUST hire SLJ to promote this...

[denzacar]

And I simply can't see anyone having any problem with that.

Well... Except maybe Rupert Murdoch.

Re:doudoune moncler

[MrTheBunny]

Moderators: Bury parent post. SPAM.

N-Gage, anyone?

[rekenner]

We clearly didn't want a gaming phone then, but do we want it now?
Will digital distribution and the increased processing power available make the difference?
I'll admit. Part of me wants to see Sony fall on its ass - But I also want to see Android succeed.

Re:N-Gage, anyone?

[Xugumad]

The N-Gage was a badly designed device that was neither a good phone, or gaming device. Side-talking was absurd looking, and put many people off the phone. The needs to remove the battery to switch games also did not help it.

The Zeus may not be perfect (especially as the PSP is exactly new, any more), but at least should launch as a phone that looks like a phone, with a good sized game catalogue.

Re:N-Gage, anyone?

[aztracker1]

Honestly, I'd be as happy with a dpad on the left and a qwerty keypad to the right... Though with swype, a physical keypad is less important... the trouble is, I don't trust Sony, and haven't spent a dime on them in nearly a decade...

Re:N-Gage, anyone?

[DrXym]

The Zeus seems to have a fairly unconventional form factor except that instead of having a slide out keyboard it has a slide out game pad. It makes the device a little chunky but otherwise nothing extradordinary.

The biggest issues I see it facing is how much the games cost for it. And how the PSP brand can survive if it is tied to a single android phone model from a single manufacturer. The PSP 1 platform asted 5 years (and is still limping along). Phones don't last a year before something better comes along, so what are Sony's long term plans here? What happens if Google launches a gaming platform for example.

Re:N-Gage, anyone?

[farble1670]

We clearly didn't want a gaming phone then, but do we want it now?

clearly we do. take a look at the game section on the appstore. the caveat is that it has to be a decent phone as well. if it just runs android and can tap into an existing library of quality games, it at least has a good chance of being a success.

Re:N-Gage, anyone?

[farble1670]

What happens if Google launches a gaming platform for example.

folks seem to think that google is some magical entity that can dominate any sector they wish. remember that the only really widely successful (in terms of profit) thing google has done is search. other successful projects like gmail or android aren't money makers in themselves but are just a tie in to search. even android is just the realization that an every-increasing number of searches will be coming from smartphones, and a way to not be under control of the folks at microsoft and apple when it comes to smartphone searches.

Re:N-Gage, anyone?

[slyrat]

The biggest issues I see it facing is how much the games cost for it. And how the PSP brand can survive if it is tied to a single android phone model from a single manufacturer. The PSP 1 platform asted 5 years (and is still limping along). Phones don't last a year before something better comes along, so what are Sony's long term plans here? What happens if Google launches a gaming platform for example.

Well One would hope that they developed the engine for the games in a way so that when OS updates are done the sony game engine for it will also be updated. That way you still get better phone features while keeping the ability to use it for the psphone games.

Re:N-Gage, anyone?

[DrXym]

No, it's just recognition that if Google make Google Games (or whatever they wished to call their service) that most if not all phone mobos will pick it up or would be powerless to stop it.

Even if it were an "optional" install, chances are that more and more games would appear that required it because it would offer services they need such as cloud sync, achievements, high scores and whatnot. Much the way that Steam has taken off.

So here's Sony in one corner with one phone which does PSP games up against everyone else in Android land, plus Windows Phone 7 licensees, plus Apple. They're going to get slaughtered.

I think Sony's best chance of getting PSP to live on as a brand would have been to licence the tech to other manufacturers. The more phones that buy into the brand the more powerful the brand becomes. Maybe Google would even see merit in it. Conversely if they try to stick it alone they're going to crash and burn.

Again?

[Scrapz]

I remember reading articles about this a couple of months ago, complete with pictures. It was soon told to be fake, and the pictures were photoshopped. Is this the same thing but with an elaborate video-shop?

Re:Again?

[tekgoblin]

How the hell do you video-shop this?

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well it looks incredibly like the SE Vivaz Pro. There are only a couple of differences (four buttons on the front instead of three and camera position on the back), so it's conceivable that this is just a new (i.e. as yet unreleased) SE Android phone and someone replaced the slide out keyboard with the game pad. That would be relatively trivial and, until we can see some games on there, there's nothing here to definitely prove one way or the other what this is. I'm not ruling it out, and if it's a hoax someone went to a lot of trouble one way or another, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's genuine.

Re:doudoune moncler

[Dr Herbert West]

you mean... "le spam"

Video on Youtube

[metrix007]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfypiLFvMyY

Looks interesting

Phones and consoles?

[Windwraith]

Anyone remembers the Nokia N-gage? 'nuff said.

Re:Phones and consoles?

[RazorSharp]

Anyone remembers the Nokia N-gage? 'nuff said.

The tech just wasn't there with the N-gage. It was a neat idea, but it came out at the wrong time. I don't see this Playstation phone becoming the next big thing with sales rivaling the iPhone, but I don't see any reason why it won't be able to find its niche, especially amongst teenagers.

Re:Phones and consoles?

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember it? It still exists! But it's an old platform and the technology has matured. It seems more that it was you who has lost sight of what was going on there.

Re:Phones and consoles?

[Windwraith]

Stop derailing my attempts at discussion you internet person!

Youtube link in summary

[DuranDuran]

Perhaps one day the technology will be invented to link the words "A video has surfaced on YouTube" to the actual video on Youtube. In the meantime, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6cxaVRs60w

There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[Kenja]

Cant find it off hand now, but there was a PSP (original playstation 1) emulator for the Android phones floating around a while ago. This makes me wonder if it was an internal app leaked from sony. Regardless, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it wont be too long for the official PSP app to make it out into the wild.

Re:There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[rekenner]

The correct initializations for the first playstation are: PS1, PSX. PSP = Playstation Portable.

Re:There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[wintermute000]

Exactly, if sony had ANY brains at all they would make it 100% PSX compatible and provide some sort of dual thumbstick or equivalent button controls.
Even easier with PSP re: control layout, but needs better hardware I'm guessing + more work has been done re: emulating PSX as opposed to PSP.
Still being the manufacturer there is no reason why they can't create some sort of shrunken clone for the original PSX for 100% compatibility. Surely the tech is there.

From what I've seen on my now pitiful Nexus 1 the gpu is well above that of PSX and yes there are emulators, I think the latest droids can run a lot of PSX games emulated no worries.

Instant massive game library for relatively low cost. Heck make is super attractive by bundling games or say DL coupons good for 6 titles or whatever. I know I'd rather take the entire PSX/PSP back library over the current iOS offerings

Re:There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[nschubach]

provide some sort of dual thumbstick

I think that's what those two dots are... optical "mice"?

Re:There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[MrDoh!]

Makes total sense, all it needs is the dual shock controllers (and it looks like there could be space for it).
Sony probably won't do the sensible thing here alas.

Re:There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[wintermute000]

yeah not totally sold on that but I guess you'd have to try it for yourself to make an accurate judgement.

Might be a physical limitation, can't think of how you'd fit a physical joystick into a slider, and most people wouldn't want an exposed joystick setup on their phone, also the size increase too.

Re:There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[wintermute000]

yeah maybe even make the dualshock a separate accessory. Heck you can pair a PS3 dualshock with droids already, why not make a variant with a phone mount, and make the connectivity 100% perfect / seamless.

I wouldn't mind having to carry around a separate pad if it means its a fullsized grip

Re:There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[Atomic Fro]

I don't think PSX means what you think it means.

Re:There was a PSP emulator for Android...

[Tukz]

It means exactly what he thinks it does (unofficially)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSX

The PlayStation 1 is very often referred to as PSX, so in this context, PSX means PS1.

Re:HOW TO FUCK A TEEN BITCH

[Anonymous Coward]

how would she cum back on you?

Pandora gaming PDA

[tepples]

So will we be forced to use a Pandora battery to "steal" our technology from Zeus yet again?

No, we will be forced to use a Pandora gaming PDA, provided they can make them fast enough (not likely).

Wonder how locked down this device will be

[mlts]

I wonder how locked down this device will be. Will it deny sideloading like Android devices on AT&T, or will it completely deny access via the ADB mechanism?

I'd consider buying it if it was easily rooted (Android's antipiracy mechanism is completely separate from the presence/absence of root, unlike iOS.) However, if it was so locked down that an adb shell command was an impossibility, I'd just mark the phone as unsuitable for human consumption and continue on.

Re:HOW TO FUCK A TEEN BITCH

[Anonymous Coward]

The kind of chicks he talks about have dicks?

Re:Nice video. Silent, but (mostly) clear and shar

[BRock97]

Except that it showed nothing. All I saw was a slider running Android with a d-pad and buttons where the keyboard should be. There wasn't even an analog pad.

Listen, I don't want to be a pessimist but until video footage surfaces that had some form of gaming content, I wouldn't get too excited yet. The really pessimistic side of me wonders if someone didn't dummy up an Android app and called it "Playstation". I'll ignore that little voice for the time being though.

The nerd in me would like you to keep that plate of crow warm. The concept looks cool (except they better have some form of analog control) so now show me the substance to seal the deal.

Now...

[inglishmayjer]

if only I had friends to call.

Re:Now...

[Yvan256]

That's the beauty of this phone! If you don't have anyone to call you can play game online with your friends!

Oh, never mind.

Re:Nice video. Silent, but (mostly) clear and shar

[Facegarden]

Except that it showed nothing. All I saw was a slider running Android with a d-pad and buttons where the keyboard should be. There wasn't even an analog pad.

Listen, I don't want to be a pessimist but until video footage surfaces that had some form of gaming content, I wouldn't get too excited yet. The really pessimistic side of me wonders if someone didn't dummy up an Android app and called it "Playstation". I'll ignore that little voice for the time being though.

The nerd in me would like you to keep that plate of crow warm. The concept looks cool (except they better have some form of analog control) so now show me the substance to seal the deal.

The analog control is in the form of the multi-touch thumb bar, which appears to have two nubs to help position your thumbs. Might work alright (i hope).
This device would be hard to fake. That's a lot of components to fabricate even to make the outside. And it does appear to be the unreleased Android 2.3, so really only a manufacturer would be able to have that yet.
So I guess some *other* company could be making a phone that looks like this and someone could pretend it's a Sony device, but that seems unlikely.

What??

[c0lo]

a leak not related with Wikileaks and not hunted down by the State Dept? Must be a fake or somethin'!

TFS: ... but with this leak the rumors have now been made fact

Obvious reason

[The_mad_linguist]

It isn't actually called Zeus. That's just the codename for the Prototype.

Z???

[Anonymous Coward]

Zeus? It's like my Zune, right?

Why can't my Zune work with this?

It hasn't worked since the leap year bug.

Re:Z???

[delinear]

You didn't squirt anything at it, did you?

So which platform gets abandoned?

[grapeape]

My guess is the original PSP will stay zombified as it has been since a year or so after launch. The go is still fairly new but I cant see Sony maintaining 2 different handheld non-compatable systems, but you know that Sony isn't going to put out an android device that isn't locked down and wouldn't go through them for content...greed is too strong with that one.

Re:So which platform gets abandoned?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is just a side project, it's primarily a phone. Sony gaming is not the same as Ericsson, one doesn't know/care what the other is doing.

Re:Nice video. Silent, but (mostly) clear and shar

[93 Escort Wagon]

Except that it showed nothing. All I saw was a slider running Android with a d-pad and buttons where the keyboard should be. There wasn't even an analog pad.

Seriously, what a waste of time that video was! Open the phone to show the D-pads. Close it, show the Android home screen. Flip it over to show the Sony Ericcson brand. rinse, repeat 4-5 times. Based on that video, we have no clue whether it can run any game at all - heck, can it even launch a game? Can it even launch an Android app, since we didn't see that either? For all I could tell, that "Android" homescreen could've just been a jpeg screenshot from some other, real, Android phone.

Game prices?

[anethema]

iOS is a huge booming platform for games, which dwarfs pretty much everything.

The main reason is obviously some decent games, ability to have games RFN, and of course, the 1-5$ pricing.

I could see the Playstation phone having the first two,but the last? Not sure how well it will compete if it can't live up to the iPhone/Android pricing model. I certainly wouldn't move from paying $1-5 for some suprisingly good games, to $30.

Re:Game prices?

[delinear]

Especially considering you're then likely to have to dump your games catalogue in 12/18/24 months with a phone upgrade (unless they let you carry the library over, but that would mean you're tied to their phones from now on). I think most people don't mind paying a few pounds for a game, playing it until they're bored and then losing it when they upgrade, but if I pay £25-30 I want a) longevity and b) something I can come back and play in the future (I guess I can always keep the phone around - assuming it's still getting updates and can connect to the games library in the future - but I've had several phones just plain die after a couple of years forcing an upgrade, so for them that wouldn't be an option).

Re:Game prices?

[anethema]

True, and with iPhone though as you said if you stick with iPhone, any game I originally bought for my 3G is wokring just find on my 3GS and now iPhone 4.

Not the best evidence.

[tycoex]

Honestly this is just a video of an Android phone with a typical d-pad and 4 face buttons instead of a keyboard slide-out. Every single game company (more or less) has used the 4 button scheme since the snes. Even the computer gamepads you can buy from logitech look exactly like a dualshock controller. There's no reason to believe this isn't just an Android phone with a playstation emulator on it. That would be good enough for me anyways. The only thing that keeps my using my psp instead of a smartphone is that my phone doesn't have real buttons. This would be perfect to load all my emulators on.

Re:HOW TO FUCK A TEEN BITCH

[Anonymous Coward]

That's it, no more KFC for me!

Where is the

[nikanth]

analog stick?

No XMB?!

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

XMB is one of the best device interfaces I've used second to iOS and they're not skinning 2.3 to use XMB?

Fuck them.

Re:No XMB?!

[lidocaineus]

Ugh, XMB is the WORST UI ever. Like all Sony interfaces, the UI is pretty but ultimately terrible.

Re:No XMB?!

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

Ever use it on a long term basis? Compare it to the Xbox Dashboard and let's talk.

Re:No XMB?!

[lidocaineus]

Yes, I've owned a PS3 for about 3 years now, and have used the XMB in different iterations on different equipment where it's been implemented. The XBL interface is no better. Just off the top of my head, the general criticisms which have been leveled at it which I agree with:

- The system menu is way to crowded and has a number of different settings which can't be discerned without first going into them to see what the options are, usually resulting in a lot of back and forth.

  - Using left and right to navigate the main bar AND using right to enter submenus is unintuitive for people not used to the xmb.

  - The modality of moving into certain menu items differs; sometimes you get a submenu, sometimes you get a wizard-like string of options, sometimes you get a submenu that doesn't use the xmb.

Basically the xmb would be excellent for FLAT spaces. Hierarchical menu structures make it unwieldy.

Android on PS3?

[Doc Ruby]

Now that the PS3 has been jailbroken, both restoring OtherOS to any PS3 and cracking the Hypervisor for OtherOS app access to RSX, VRAM and all 7 Cell SPUs, I wonder whether Android would be a better OS than Linux for the PS3. Even with the jailbreak, the PS3 has only 256MB RAM ( + 256MB VRAM) for apps, which makes it a lot more like a mobile phone than a PC - despite all its other differences. If Android is going to run apps developed for a "Playstation Phone", maybe those apps would be a better library for PS3 than the Linux apps that largely will not run in the small RAM available on PS3. And since now the only basic OS component missing on PS3 is an RSX video driver that will have to be written, maybe it would be better to write the driver for Android than for Linux.

Re:Android on PS3?

[calagan800xl]

Ok, this post clearly looks like a flamebait, so I guess I'm falling into it... Please get you facts straight: 1. Linux is not an OS but a kernel 2. Android uses a Linux kernel (2.6.35.7 in the case of Gingerbread) => debating whether the driver should be written for Linux or Android seems pretty moronic... I strongly believe that the Linux distros that were already installable on OtherOS before the "update 3.21 fiasco" would perform very comfortably if they could benefit from GPU hardware acceleration.A more serious issue would be the absence of a Linux PowerPC version of Adobe Flash as gnash is still behind in terms of performance and compatibility.

Re:Android on PS3?

[Doc Ruby]

OK, your post does indeed clearly look like a flamebait, what with your arguing that "Linux is not an OS but a kernel" when I am clearly talking about replacing the entire GNU/Linux userland/OS with Android. But especially because you both don't actually know (just "strongly believe") what you're talking about, while calling the question "moronic". So congratulations, your flamebait got you flamed!

Get back to me when you're not an asshole.

Re:Android on PS3?

[calagan800xl]

Do you think usurping the title "Doc" and slapping as many fancy terms in one sentence as humanly possible will make your post less moronic? Well I don't think so, especially if you clearly have no clue what you're talking about. An RSX driver would run in kernel space so replacing the entire GNU/Linux userland which runs in user space is just plain irrelevant. The strong belief referred above is based on experience as my PS3 has seen a wide range of Linux distros in its OtherOS partition, such as Ubuntu, xUbuntu (IMHO best choice, with its very lightweight UI) Fedora, Gentoo and YDL. I can also state that I've installed and used linux distributions on older PCs with less than 512MB RAM and obviously a far inferior CPU than the Cell.

Re:Nice video. Silent, but (mostly) clear and shar

[91degrees]

The analog control is in the form of the multi-touch thumb bar, which appears to have two nubs to help position your thumbs. Might work alright (i hope).

Not a sort of control I'd like. This sort of thing detects movement adequately but not brilliantly and is no good for precision control. The position is the centre of your thumb. That's a large area so very coarse.

Re:Nice video. Silent, but (mostly) clear and shar

[Facegarden]

The analog control is in the form of the multi-touch thumb bar, which appears to have two nubs to help position your thumbs. Might work alright (i hope).

Not a sort of control I'd like. This sort of thing detects movement adequately but not brilliantly and is no good for precision control. The position is the centre of your thumb. That's a large area so very coarse.

Yeah, it's certainly a compromise. Likely a big one. But I never did like even the low profile analog sticks on the PSP, so I'm not sure what they'd be able to do that was much better without it being enormous.

Hopefully the rest of it is good and they don't screw it all up like they usually do. If anything I'm just excited for the prospect of improved interest in android gaming.
-Taylor

It crashed

[AC-x]

I like how, in the youtube video, the phone crashes as soon as the keypad is slid out. Reminds me of the Windows 98 demo printer bsod.

Enough with the PSPGo bashing!

[calagan800xl]

I get really irritated with all this PSPGo bashing. Although unpopular, getting rid of the UMD, was an ambitious statement, setting the mark for next generations and hardware-wise, making a PSP that's actually pocketable (at least for a guy) is real progress. This is a with no noubt a market failure, mainly due to the rather high price and also probably the fact that you still can't play pirated games on it, but it would really be stupid to discard all the improvements that this device brought and come up with somethig radically different. Android is definitely a cool thing, but IMHO, adding plain simple telephony to the PSPGo would have been a wiser choice (after all, it already does Skype pretty well) and result in a less resource/battery-hungry phone

Re:Enough with the PSPGo bashing!

[Gizzmonic]

The PSPGo failed because:

1)Consumers want the price of games to go down over time.

2)Consumers want to buy/sell used games.

Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo would much prefer the iPhone approach where they can ignore pricing pressures and keep game prices higher for longer, and prevent people from buying/selling used games. You also won't be able to take games to a friend's house and play. Unfortunately, this is probably the way all of the next-generation consoles will be.

Re:Enough with the PSPGo bashing!

[meerling]

Exactly. Part of the PSPGo's failure with existing customers is when Sony spit in their face by telling them they can't use any of their existing games on the go.
Also, for far too long, a large chunk of the stuff you could buy online required you have a PS3 to download and transfer it to your PSP (all models), but they finally fixed that.

Sony got egotistical and stupid. They lost first place in the gamers heart and can't seem to stop being so full of themselves that they actually listen and help their customers and the few fans they have left. If they don't get a clue soon, it's going to be really ugly for them.

Last thing, I promise. I'm betting the zeus will be a failure with a lot of people declaring it a PSPGo (failed product) with a phone slapped on.

Think Japan

[DavMz]

Charge your phone at night, play one hour in the train on your way to work, maybe charge your phone at work, play one hour on your way home. Rinse and repeat.
In this case I see the point of having two device in one.

Of course, if you *drive* on your way to work, then that's a different story...

Re:It is SONY

[GameboyRMH]

Mod parent Informative.

Don't buy one !!!

[Anonymous Coward]

If you do, and they become popular, and somebody jail breaks it, Sony will disable the other functions, and you'll just have another paper weight ;-(

How about a game controller pad + dock in one?

[aztracker1]

I think a $800-120 control pad, that docks an iPhone/G2, or other handheld phone, with supplemental (AA Batteries) power would be a nicer buy... with most of the newer 4G phones running android being in the 1-1.2Ghz range it could be a better seller than a multifunction phone. having a Hand-held Controller/Dock could be a better win. The issue is being able to act as a dock, for additional power, and as an input device... would it have to be bluetooth, or can the USB port act as a host in these devices, or will it need a special (HTC Headphone route) port? Even requiring a modified USB host port, having such an input available would be nice... keyboards etc... having a semi-standard "docking" port on the side, or bottom would go a long way.

All the features today, most gone tomorrow.

[Anonymous Coward]

Phone and gaming device today, gaming device only tomorrow.

doudoune moncler

[keyli96]

Nous vous présentons une large gamme de vestes et doudoune moncler, des collections de vêtements tant pour l’hiver que pour l’été http://www.doudounemonclerm.com/

I can already play PS games on my Droid.

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this a big deal other than having a controller?