Although we've only had it for a couple days, I am absolutely LOVING the new Sony PSP. If the Sony PSP was a 10/10, I'd have to say that the Nintendo DS is probably a 3/10, (4 tops). Everything seems to be good on the PSP. Of course, that isn't saying that it couldn't be better... I find that the console is a little bit awkward for some games. For example, if you're playing Wipeout Pure, and trying to use the top triggers and the thumbstick and the X and O buttons, the console feels like it could just pop out of your hands at any moment. There were a few times that I felt like I was almost going to drop the PSP on the floor by mistake. Personally, I prefer the Nintendo DS's sliding volume control rather than the up and down buttons. I'm sure most people don't care, or disagree with my slider preference, but sometimes it is just nice to see how high the volume is before you turn on the console, or want to quickly change the volume without having to move your hand over and press some buttons until you get the perfect volume. But apart from those minor things, I have to say I am extremely happy.
Currently we only have 3 games; Wipeout Pure, Spiderman 2, and Need For Speed Underground. I strongly feel that Sony's launch titles were years ahead of what is available for the Nintendo DS. I believe that the Sony PSP launched with about 13 games, whereas I doubt that the DS has many more than that. I also find the graphical abilities between the two recent handhelds to be worlds apart. Whereas the Nintendo has two pretty decent screens (one regular screen, one touch screen) the Sony has one VERY nice (and very large!) screen. I much prefer looking at the Sony screen over the Nintendo. The Sony definitely feels a lot bulkier in your hand and bag or whatever, whereas the DS probably travels a lot nicer (plus, it folds closed, so you don't have to worry as much about the screens getting damaged.
As for the games, we've only tried the 3 games we purchased so far, although the console DID come with a sampler disc and a copy of the Spiderman 2 movie (which we haven't bothered checking out yet). Out of the three games, I think I'd say that Wipeout is the best. It has beautiful graphics, and the sound is pretty addictive after a while (if techno doesn't make your ears bleed). I found Wipeout to be a game that you could pretty much just pick up and play, although I've logged MANY hours on Wipeout XL and previous versions on my old original Sony Playstation. Of course, being able to play and being GOOD are worlds apart in this game. Sure, your first time out you can probably rank 6th (of 8) or higher, but I find that getting in the top 2 or 3 is a lot more challenging. You have to learn to master drifting around the corners at just the right spot. I'd definitely give this game a 4.5 out of 5.
Next I'd have to say that Need For Speed (NFS) is the next best game. Again, I find that the graphics are outstanding, especially considering the size of the PSP. I think that the Nintendo DS graphics were fairly mediocre after playing with it for a bit. Most games we have or have tried at EB or Gamestop felt more like playing the Gameboy Advance, but with a larger screen. After playing with the PSP for a couple days, I have to say that the Nintendo's graphics are almost embarssingly bad. It's like comparing a Xbox to a NES. After a few hours at Need For Speed, I managed to finish a few races in top spot, unlock a few extras, and find a few "hidden" shortcuts on a few of the tracks. Much like Wipeout, the sound was very good (although a bit "club" like). This game seems to have a very large amount of unlockables. I'd say this game is probably a 4/5.
The last (and somewhat least) of the three games is Spiderman 2. I've played a few previous Spiderman games (mostly on PC or on the Xbox), so I somewhat knew what to expect when I bought the game. You have a fair bit of freedom to swing around a city, and the graphics are definitely impressive for a handheld gaming console (especially after a couple years playing with the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS). Ultimately though, the game felt a bit "gimmicky", and the controls were a bit sloppy. I'd say this game is probably a 3/5, and I'd definitely recommend renting the game before buying it.
The 13 games that Sony had at launch?:
And, according to EBGames.com, Sony has quite a few more top quality games supposedly coming out in the upcoming months. Games like Midnight Club 3, ATV Offroad Fury, NBA Street Showdown, and Grand Theft Auto.
I'd definitely give the Sony PSP at least 9.5 out of 10. On the other hand, I don't see much of a compelling reason to keep the Nintendo DS around, unless Nintendo starts getting some decent quality games for it sometime soon (which means graphics that are somewhat better than the Gameboy!). After browsing through EBGames.com, I managed to find about 18 Nintendo DS games, which doesn't sound TOO bad, until you realize that the console has been out for 4-5 months. That doesn't even take into account that a lot of the Nintendo DS games are just crappy. I honestly find a lot of my Gameboy games to be funner than the DS games (oddly enough).
Oh, one last thing. I was flipping through a Mac magazine the other day (MacAddict -- Apr 2005 issue) and they have a brief look at some software (iPSP) which allows you to use PSP with your Mac. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but apparently the software lets you play music and movies on the go. They claim you can make an iTunes playlist, copy photo albums from iPhoto, or dump all of your videos into iPSPs conversion queue. You can even use iPSP to back up your save'd games. I wonder if that means people can put their saved games online for other people to download. Instead of actually finishing Need For Speed, you could just download a finished game and play with all the fully loaded cars. Check out iPSP (free!) at http://www.kaisakura.com/.
Check out Sony's PSP mini-site at http://www.us.playstation.com/psp.aspx
Check out Nintendo's Offical site for Nintendo DS at http://www.nintendods.com/
Phillip Torrone has posted an excellent article over on Engadget on how to extract music from your iPod. If you've updated your iTunes to the latest version (4.7) you've probably noticed that iPodDownload no longer works, so Phillip offers some alternatives. On the PC they recommend ephPod, and for the Mac they suggest iLinkPod. If you have an iPod, go check it out.
HOW-TO: Get music OFF your iPod [via Engadget]
Although not very surprising, NewsFactor is reporting that PDA sales are continue to shrink. The main reason for the continued decline in sales is that more and more handheld vendors are dropping out of the scene (mainly Sony and Toshiba), and one of the major reasons for the increased pullout is the growing smartphone (such the recently released Treo 650) market.
Study: PDA Market in Decline [Via Yahoo]
OK, I'm sure this will result in a massive lawsuit, but then again, what doesn't these days?
I was reading on Boing Boing that somebody seemingly has successfully gotten UNIX to run on a Game Boy Advance. Not sure WHY they did it (apart from a cool "proof of concept" and giving me something to write about today) but I'm sure the features are somewhat limited as the hardware ain't really "top-shelf", as they say.
It will be interesting to see if they can do something similar with Nintendo's upcoming DS handheld which includes all sorts of crazy wireless connectivity, touch screen abilities and voice recognition.
[Link: Unix on the Gameboy from Boing Boing]
But what *IS* interesting, is that the gbaunix site lists all the specs for the handy Nintendo Game Boy Advance:
Important GBA hardware features include:
- 32-bit 16.78 MHz ARM (RISC) processor
- 8-bit Z80 (CISC) processor that runs at 4.2 MHz or 8.4 MHz (this provides compatibility with older Game Boys: the Game Boy Color, or CGB, and the monochrome Game Boy, or DMG)
- Four 16-bit timers
- Four DMA channels
- 240x160 TFT color LCD
- Stereo sound (through stereo headphones)
- Ten keypad inputs
- Serial port
- Game cartridge (GamePak) interface
The GBA includes several memories for different purposes:
- 16 KB BIOS ROM
- 256 KB external (to the ARM processor) work RAM (EWRAM)
- 32 KB internal (to the ARM processor, that is, on the same chip as the ARM core) work RAM (IWRAM)
- 1 KB Background and Sprite Palette RAM
- 96 KB Video RAM
- 1 KB Object Attribute RAM
- Up to 32 MB of GamePak ROM
- Up to 64 KB of GamePak SRAM (optional)
No word on whether the gbaunix will allow people to use such UNIX gems as pico, pine or vi.
Sean Combs (aka: Puff Daddy, Puffy, P-Diddy, "that guy who dated J-Lo") shows off his custom HP hPod/iPod with no less than 120 diamond encrusted all over it. No word on whether its a 20 gig or 40 gig, but since you can't have one, what does it matter.
You can check out Engadget's "exclusive" photos, or see them over at Gizmodo (apparently anybody who asks for the photos can get a copy, so they ain't very exclusive by any means).
For those of you unfamiliar with the hPod, HP basically releases Apple's iPod, but with a slightly different logo on the back (HP's logo as well as than Apple's).
Unfortunately the hPod doesn't come in any cool colors as previously thought. But, at least the one good thing is that now you can walk into a Costco and pick one up, although don't expect to get it at any great discounts (if any).
CNET is reporting that AT&T has selected Best Buy to sell its line of Voice Over IP (VoIP) service.
Here's a quote:
AT&T on Monday named Best Buy retail partner for its Internet telephony service.Best Buy will sell AT&T's residential voice over Internet protocol service through 628 stores nationwide as well as online, beginning this fall, the companies said. The two companies will jointly promote the CallVantage service through in-store marketing and advertising in print, broadcast and online media.
[via CNET]
In other news, the Ohio state attorney general is suing Best Buy for "a pattern of unfair and deceptive acts and practices". Basically, they're claiming that Best Buy has been repackaging used electronics as new and failing to honor rebates, refunds, and exchanges.
[via Engadget]
It seems that Engadget is flashing a bunch of photos of the new HP h6315 PDA/Phone that CompUSA seems to be selling a wee bit early. So head on over and check out their 10 or so photos.
[via Engadget]
It seems some clever chaps have come up with some signal blocking paint that blocks radio frequencies between the 100MHz and 2GHz range. This means you could now repaint your apartment and make it that much harder for your neighbors to try stealing your WiFi connection.
DefendAir™ Radio Shield [via Engadget]
A list of upcoming Nintendo DS games is at the following link:
Check it out. Now this is pretty impressive! The list includes 60 anticipated games from a variety of publishers, with titles such as Frogger 2005, Castlevania (ah, the memories), SpongeBob Squarepants and the one I really want to see/try - "Project Rub" from the boys at SEGA. One can only guess at this point, but this DS gadget seems like it'll probably be a must-have.
The upcoming Nintendo DS system (the dual screen gameboy with wireless) has a new design. Check it out here:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=56167.
Reportedly the "handheld console" will be out later this year, and there are a whole load of games in development.
... when this comes out.
Not exactly new news, but I didn't see a big, close up picture before. Check out the specs on this to-be-released iPAQ pocket PC:
Check out this newer article on the next series of iPAQs, and click on the nice pic of the 4705 near the bottom. Sweet.
Need digital pics or movies for your SWFs? Now's a good time to get a camera if you need it. No crap here, they're seriously selling $3 digital cameras on Buy.com. No more excuses about being a poor web designer eating Mac and cheese - this camera is cheaper than eating a meal at McDonalds.
Obviously, I have no commercial interest (wish I did, then I wouldn't be so poor), but I wish I didn't live in Canada and could take advantage of the coupon/rebate. Anyway, here's the link if you are interested:
Note again, the offer is only good in USA, so if yer a canuck like me it's a no go.