digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gaming_news/Sony_prepping_new_line_of_handhelds_including_PSP_phone’;
You know who knows everything? People familiar with the matter. In particular, they know everything when “the matter” happens to be Sony’s handheld strategy for 2010, which is said to finally include an honest-to-goodness PSP with phone capabilities — something the world’s been demanding for as long as they’ve wanted a Zunephone. According to the WSJ, the device is apparently part of a larger push by Sony to create an iTunes-like Utopian ecosystem of products this year that connect to Sony Online Service, an ecosystem that would also include a hybrid portable of some sort that “blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable.” Details aren’t offered on this particular monster — but turning our attention back to the phone for a second, it’s claimed that Sony’s working with it in conjunction with the folks at Sony Ericsson under the direction of Kunimasa Suzuki, an exec largely responsible for the VAIO line who’s also involved with the PlayStation team. Of course, SE’s already taken some baby steps toward corporate harmony by bundling Remote Play support with the Aino, but everyone knows that PSP compatibility is the panacea; Microsoft finally buckled on the Zunephone thing with the introduction of Windows Phone 7 Series, and there’s no reason why Sony shouldn’t follow suit.
Sony prepping new line of handhelds, including PSP phone? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dreamcast? GameCube? Xbox? They’re cute and endearing to look back on now, because they really never stood a chance. Sony practically redefined what it meant to be dominant in a console generation with the PlayStation 2, which was launched on March 4, 2000 in Japan (the US got it that October), went on to sell over 140 million units, and is still going strong. It’s strange to think that for what many people was their first DVD player turned out to be powerful enough to bring us the cinematic experiences of Shadow of the Colossus, God of War II and Final Fantasy XII, and enough of a kicker to make it into the latest round of Madden releases. Of course, its foray into online gaming took a second fiddle to Microsoft’s Xbox, and many of Sony’s high-minded, living room-invasion promises of the console (remember that FireWire port? The hard drive slot?) never really panned out. Still, we’d say it’s been a pretty good 10 years for this thing. Feeling extra-nostalgic? Check out Sony’s own timeline of PlayStation it pumped out for the 15 year anniversary of the brand last year. Brings a tear to our eye every time.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Sony’s PlayStation 2 celebrates 10 years as a fallen, bygone generation of consoles looks on in envy originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, what do we have here? It’s the Sony Vaio M series netbook, as yet unannounced but sitting here getting detailed all the same. The 10.1-inch netbook, which looks, well, pretty much identical to the Sony Vaio W series, is apparently going to boast a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU, 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM, a 250GB hard drive, plus 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, and a built-in webcam. There’s no pricing information or dates of availability for these bad boys yet, but there’s one more shot after the break to gander at — if you’re so inclined.
Continue reading Sony Vaio M surfaces… unofficially
Sony Vaio M surfaces… unofficially originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The early belief that the PSN was spreading a brickitis infection to PS3s around the world has turned out to be not quite accurate. Yes, PSN was inaccessible over that extremely stressful day (for PS3 owners, the rest of us have been quite fine, thank you), but we’re hearing from Eurogamer that the villain in this story was an ARM chip inside the console — the very same one, in fact, that led to a few Zunes losing their minds back in 2008. The big problem here was simply a bit of hardware that couldn’t get its bearings straight after expecting 2010 to be a leap year, and the arrival of March 1 “fixed” everything for all eight affected PS3 SKUs (of a total of eleven). That leaves Sony with four years to make sure this problem isn’t heard from again, and if it doesn’t, we’ll be placing blame for the real 2012 apocalypse firmly on Howard Stringer’s shoulders.
The apocalyPS3 ends in global resurrection, ARM chip at fault originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For all the fuss made at its launch back in August, Sony’s Reader Daily Edition has all but dropped off the map in terms of interest. Remember, Sony’s response to the Kindle gave us a 7-inch touchscreen device with free AT&T 3G data for a street price of $399. Now we’ve got a proper in-depth review of the thing. On the plus side, the interface is simple and easy to understand right out of the box with nice, oversized icons suitable for your meat digit manipulation. Unfortunately, the Daily Reader was also sluggish. According to Laptop, it was common to suffer a delay of a few seconds after tapping an icon or other interface item. Worse yet, about a third of the time the Daily Reader’s touchscreen display wouldn’t respond to taps or swipes at all. Conversely, page turns responded with a relatively snappy (for E-Ink) one second delay — faster than both the Nook or the Kindle. The EPD display was also a bit “dull” compared to non-touchscreen e-readers like the Kindle and Nook thanks to the additional screen layer that enables touch — a common issue that affects all touch-enabled e-readers, we might add. This resulted in some eye strain in medium to low light. Connectivity also proved a sore spot. AT&T’s network would inexplicably drop out during testing. It was plenty fast, however, when available, capable of delivering new books to the device in just seconds. Performance still lagged both the Kindle and Nook during comparison testing though. Laptop’s verdict isn’t surprising then, finding the $140 premium you’ll pay for the Daily Reader difficult to justify compared to the EPUB supporting Nook or Kindle 2 with its better design and superior content selection.
It’s worth noting that Laptop did not test the Daily Reader’s library finder services that lets you check out e-books from the local branch for free for a period of up to a month. A shame; as library nerds we think that’s one of the killer features compared to the competition.
Sony Reader Daily Edition reviewed: unworthy of cost premium or love originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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When one thinks of a
PSP Phone, they usually imagine a handset with a number of cool, gamer-centric features, such as some sort of integration with the PlayStation network or — imagine! — the ability to actually
play PSP games. What they don’t imagine — correct us if we’re wrong — is some sort of KIRFy cellphone shoved inside what is essentially the shell of a PSP. That said, we do have to give our friends in Shenzhen some props: not only have they beat Sony with this knock-off, but with the way things are going, they might have the PSP Phone market all to themselves in perpetuity. No specifics on this one yet — price, stats, or street date — but you probably weren’t going to buy one anyways. Get a closer look after the break.
Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCLVIII: shanzhai PSP Phone dampens our excitement for an actual PSP Phone
Keepin’ it real fake, part CCLVIII: shanzhai PSP Phone dampens our excitement for an actual PSP Phone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sony’s PlayStation Motion Controller has gone through a few different names during its development, but “Arc” has cropped up far more than any other over the past few months, and it’s now looking increasingly like a sure thing. While any official announcement will likely have to wait until GDC next week, the folks at Siliconera have discovered that Sony recently filed to trademark the name “PlayStation Arc” in Japan, which is just the latest form of confirmation of the name following a domain registration, and some noticeable name-dropping from gaming CEOs seemingly in-the-know. Of course, Sony could always pull a surprise out of its hat, and we’ll be there live at GDC to report on whatever happens.
Sony files for ‘PlayStation Arc’ trademark in Japan — all but a done deal? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sony’s
Dash “personal internet viewer” may have prompted some slight confusion and eventual disappointment when it was
introduced among all the tablet madness at CES, but it’s since turned into a decidedly
more interesting (if slightly less portable) device, and it’s now finally available for pre-order directly from Sony. As expected, it runs $199, and Sony promises to start shipping them out “on or about” April 15th — just in time for that credit charge to get lost among the small fortune you owe in taxes.
Sony now accepting Dash pre-orders, shipping April 15th originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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PC gaming
headsets aren’t really something you think of when the word ’stylish’ comes up — in fact, you can usually file them somewhere after fanny packs and parachute pants for style points.
Sony’s aiming to change that a bit with a new series of ‘phones, and we have to say, they may have just pulled it off. The DR-350USB, DR-320DPV and DR-310DPV headsets feature updated stylings, but other than that, they’re pretty standard headsets, with features like volume controls and voice muting. Unfortunately for most of us, these headsets will only be available in Asia when they arrive in March. There’s one more shot after the break.
Continue reading Sony outs good looking PC gaming headsets
Sony outs good looking PC gaming headsets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Rejoice: PS3s across the land are now once again playable. That’s the word according to our friends at Joystiq, who say that the clock issue affecting “fat” PS3s has been somehow resolved and games are once again working correctly. We’re not sure if this means Sony’s fixed something on the network side or if the internal clock just ran past a certain time, but at least our long nightmare is seemingly over. Hit up Joy for a quick Q/A on the whole situation, including a way to potentially save lost trophy data.
PS3 issues apparently resolved, game on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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