returned the BlackBerry PlayBook & PS Vita non-excitement

Sigh... just got back from returning the 32GB Blackberry PlayBook. It's a great device, if only it played my videos better.... I was really on the fence about taking it back, part of me wanted to be past the 14 day return limit that Staples has.... but in the end, as much as I like the PlayBook, I'm not sure I *needed* it. Between my Toshiba NB205 netbook & HP Touchpad, those needs are fairly well met. Not to mention the browsers I have on my HTC Legend phone, PSP/PSPgo, and 3DS. None of those last 3 devices have particularly robust internet browsers-- certainly not as good as the PlayBooks-- but at least they have the basic functionality.

One thing that I really noticed about the PlayBook & the HP TouchPad is that flicking around a webpage is easier on the TouchPad. It scrolls more smoothly. When I'm websurfing with either device, I like to lightly "cast off" with my finger to move the page slowly down. If the screen was a lake, and the webpage a raft (my finger being a pole I guess) the HP Touchpad makes webpages glide along it. The PlayBook felt more resistive; I had to actually push the page a lot more to get it to move. It's a small thing but it is a big part of the overall experience. I also like how the TouchPad changes portrait/landscape orientation a little easier than the PlayBook-- but sometimes the TouchPad changes TOO easily, it's over-sensitive. So there are advantages & drawbacks to either styles.

My next big gadget purchase is going to be the PS Vita in mid-February.... and yeah, I'm "excited" for it, but I'm kinda not, y'know? I don't feel that frenzy that I felt in anticipation of past console launches or big game releases. I remember how I could not wait for the 3DS launch. This time around, I dunno. There aren't any huge PS Vita launch games that I'm super-excited for. the device itself looks nice, I know it has added touch functionality but... it looks pretty much exactly like a PSP-1000. An IGN writer wrote an article where he took his PS Vita out in public & nobody noticed. THAT'S BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE A FRIGGIN' PSP. Everybody has seen a PSP before, why would they care? You'd have to stare directly at it to notice the differences, and who does that when they're walking by? Even I would be hard-pressed to notice it... and I DO stare at people playing PSPs-- I always want to know what model it is & what they're playing.

So yeah, the Vita feels like it's 2005 all over again. That's not good for 2012.

When it gets closer to launch I'll probably be more jazzed. At this point in time, I'm just.... meh.



later
don

Playstation Vita Japan launch date announced

The Playstation Vita will be released in Japan on December 17, 2011. There will be 2 prepaid 3G plans available for it (in Japan of course) 980 yen ($13) for 20 hours, and 4,980 yen ($65) for 100 hours.

Also, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom will be a launch title.

Possibly big news regarding PSP UMD legacy support: according to Gamespot's Liveblog, they posted:

Says there will be as many as 600 PSP titles that will be available to play on the Vita.

The last point Kawano is going to talk about is PSP title support on the Vita.

He says the Vita has no UMD slot on the Vita but as long as users have the software for the UMD version...Sony is going to announce some official plans surrounding this in the near future.

Wow! some sort of transfer program to put UMD games onto our Vitas? That could be huge. Of course, we HAVE heard this kind of thing before, with the PSPgo debacle. Sony just plain lied about that. And even if there is some sort of UMD transfer deal... that might ONLY be in Japan. I dunno. This is one of those things that I'm going, "Yeah right, Sony. I'll believe it when I see it."

There are a few titles that piqued my interest: Ridge Racer, Wipeout... Katamari??? Oh yeah, NOW I'm paying attention. A few more like that and I'm fully onboard this hype train.


I'm starting to get excited about Vita.....



later
don

Playstation Vita coming in 2012

Ok, now THIS is the Sony I remember. Despite everyone assuming that the PS Vita will be out "here" (North America) in late October 2011, Sony's pushed back their date to 2012. I was skeptical of a release this year from the get-go. I can usually tell when Sony is BSing-- because most of what they say is BS-- and when they kinda mumbled that during E3, I filed that under the "yeah right" category. But I was still hopeful. Oh well.

This is kinda good for people who were on the fence about getting a 3DS. I think the threat of PS Vita's arrival in 2011 caused Nintendo to jump the gun a bit on that massive price drop. Now that Sony's backing away from their overly-aggressive launch window, Nintendo's probably a bit pissed.

If Sony & Nintendo's handhelds last another generation I think we'll see more staggered release dates. I think both companies would love to see new iterations in the middle of each others current handheld lifespans, rather than both starting at the same time.



later
don

Playstation Vita - do I want?

I've been fairly obsessed with the Nintendo 3DS lately, but the Playstation Vita is in the back of my mind... the PSP is my all-time fave gaming/multimedia handheld after all....

But I have to admit, I'm not super SUPER excited over it the way other bloggers & posters seem to be. Sony did say that it was coming this year, and according to 3rd party leaks it may have a UK release date of October 28, 2011?

I've been kind of skeptical that the PS Vita would be out in 2011, but maybe it could happen... so that's got me perked up, that it's within reach this year.

Another thing I can't understand the excitement over is that everyone assumes that it will be super powerful & do everything. These were the EXACT SAME assumptions fans made before the PSP came out, but 2005 was so 100 years ago (give or take 94) Nobody who was around back when the PSP launched is even ALIVE nowadays, right??

Ok, there will be a PS Vita SKU with 3G connectivity. I think they all have wireless B/G/N(?) and there's a capacitive touch screen-- good that it's capacitive-- and touch panel on the back, motion sensors (like the 3DS) and GPS(?)

But we don't know the media playback formats, nor do we know anything about what kind of "apps" there will be. This thing isn't running Android where you can mod it like crazy, nor is it an Apple iOS device with a huge selection already.

So why are people just assuming that it's going to be this multimedia monster when there's no solid official indication to back it up yet?

Then there's the game: well, everyone's excited for an Uncharted game, then there's that Little Deviants where you pinch the front/back touchpads & such, and a few other portable versions of third-party franchises vaguely announced (title only)

So why the excitement? Sure, if you're an Uncharted fan then I guess this is your portable year. But it's like Nintendo pinning all their hopes on Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS. It's ONE game, what ELSE is there?

I've made it no secret that I haven't been happy with Sony over the years. Sorry to come off as a hater... like I said, I *love* the PSP, and I'm really looking forward to its successor. I don't know, maybe it will blow away the 3DS. I can tell you I used my PSP(s) way more than my DS Lite (though I do love my DS Lite) because I value multimedia as much as portable gaming, and the PSP fit that niche very well. Maybe the PS Vita will.... but it's whole different ballgame now. This is the era of the Smartphones. They are for different customers but there's clearly a lot of overlap between the user base.

In 2005 the market was shocked to see Sony enter the handheld gaming field with a big splash. In 2011, we have 2 dinosaurs of the videogame industry pumping out slight iterations of past innovations, expecting to charge $40.00+ per cartridge game in a world where pocketable phones with huge processing power can load games on their internal storage that might cost from $0.00 to say, $8.00 or so per game. Aside from the quality and physical buttons argument, the portable gaming industry has changed.

Even though the PS Vita feels like a last kick at the can, I'm still anxious to learn more about it. I'm sure I can see it in my collection, but right now I can't see it being my go-to device the way the PSP was.



later
don

Playstation Vita memory cards

Engadget's posted a pic of the Playstation Vita memory cards.... apparently they come in various flavours from 4GB up to 32GB....

As expected, they are proprietary and not even a previous version of memory stick. How can they be sure you'll be forced to buy a new one if there was a chance you'd have one already? And it's not like they could use some other format--let's say SD-- that is fairly inexpensive & very common... oh wait. They could. they just choose NOT to.

Actually, I suspect this is more than just making us buy a new chip. Maybe there's some sort of hard-wired security measures in the memory cards to allow for purchased downloaded games, but more important to Sony-- anti-firmware modding measures? I may be way off on this, though. Just my guess.

The question for me is whether it's worth it to buy a big memory card. Does Sony expect it to be filled mostly with PSN purchased content? Or will PS Vita have robust media (video) support?



later
don

PSP2 is NGP

Engadget's got a rundown on the NGP here.


Oh man, a lot of news lately. I was glued to Engadget's liveblog at 10:00pm last night & would've posted about it but my netbook battery was low....

So the PSP2 has finally been revealed! And at first look it looks like.... the previous PSP. But a closer look reveals many small differences.

2 SKUs - one with WI-FI only, a 3G model available (All Japanese NGPs will be 3G) - I shudder to think of the 3G purchase price here in Canada.... I'm sure it will only be available with a 3 year contract through Rogers, Bell, or Telus...... *sigh*. So unless you want to pay $2000.00 over 3 years for a NGP, the WI-FI only version will probably be the only viable option (I hope I'm mistaken but I've recently learned too much about the awful cellphone companies here in Canada to be optimistic)



Games will run on "new media" a.k.a cartridges - though I'm sure there'll be download games too (At this time I haven't heard/seen what kinda flash storage NGP will use, memory stick or SD?)



Specs include a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 5-inch touchscreen OLED display with 960 x 544 resolution, dual analog sticks (not nubs as on the current generation), 3G, WiFi, GPS, a rear-mounted touchpad, the same accelerometer / gyroscope motion sensing as in the PlayStation Move, an electronic compass, and cameras on both the front and back.

rear touchpad:




Price hasn't been announced, but Sony says NGP will be available-- this year??? Awesome!


The bottom of NGP seems to show (yet another) proprietary USB/media port, a headphone jack & maybe a memory stick door?


The top of NGP shows power button & iPhone-style volume buttons. No hold switch??



I have to say, when you look at the comparison photo of the NGPs with the PSP-3000, the NGP looks huge. It's very chunky. I knew that Sony wanted to go bigger with the PSP 2, but it seems like portability is taking a back seat in design.... also the overall design looking exactly like the previous PSP. It just seems to me that Sony Computer Entertainment from the years 2007-present don't have any innovative design staff left. Whoever came up with the original PSP design deserves kudos; it was a slick little package that carried the Sony legacy of high-class electronic products. But since then, all we've seen are recycled designs from that era: the Sony Mylo design recycled as the PSPgo. And now the 2005 PSP design recycled in 2011. Some might see this as a case of "if it ain't broke..." and I might even agree with that to some extent. It's just very conservative.

But overall, the NGP is getting me very excited. We don't know much about it right now, hopefully we'll get a clearer picture of the overall video/media support & more specs soon.

GameSpot video comparing it to a PSPgo:





later
don