Showing posts with label playstation. Show all posts

Sunday, February 13, 2011

PlayStation Phone spotted in the Wild in Greece

The Sony Playstation Phone dubbed “Zeus” has been spotted in Greece (how appropriate) according to Engadget who have a spy video of the mythical phone in action on their site.

“What we have here is the apparent full motion debut of Sony Ericsson’s big crossover device, the PlayStation Phone, one half portable gaming console, one half Android smartphone” wrote Engadget.

We’ve been hearing rumours about a Playstation phone for long enough now so it’s about time we had something more concrete to go on.

The phone apparently features the Gingerbread version of Android, has a 4 inch touchscreen, and comes with retina display.

Other details winging their way round the web is that the Playstation phone is going to cost around $500 unsubsidized, will come with around 5 free games and could be ready as early as February, no doubt just in time for the Mobile World Congress.

According to MobileCrunch, a tipster rang them up after having seen the phone at a private event and confirmed that the phone is absolutely real.

They described the screen as “mind-blowing” and on a par with the iPhone 4’s retina display. There was also mention that the phone featured Sony’s Bravia Technology.

Apparently games won’t be pricey like they are for the PSP and will fall more into the price category of mobile games which is good news for gamers.

The Tipster also told MobileCrunch that Google was working closely with Sony to bring all the games into a section of the Android market exclusive to these devices.

As for the gaming experience, the tipster said it was the “best they’ve ever had on a mobile device”. It’s starting to get exciting.

We may not have too long to wait to have confirmation of the Sony PlayStation Phone as an image of an invitation by Pierre Perron (DG Sony Ericsson France) to a presentation on the 9th December is also currently circulating in the blogosphere.

The document, written in French, clearly displays the PlayStation controller icons, has an icon of a phone and roughly translated states that it’s “the most anticipated presentation of the past 10 years”.

Who knows if it’s real or not but it’s starting to look increasingly like it. We’ll know one way or another in just a week or so.

Sony Release PlayStation Move Motion Controllers

Sony have just released their PlayStation Move motion control system, in an attempt to compete with the Nintendo Wii. There is a growing market for motion video game control around the world, and Sony say their system is more accurate and versatile than the one featured on the Wii.The Sony PlayStation Move controllers launched yesterday, a couple of days earlier than expected. It is very rare for technology releases of this type to be early, which is probably a sign of just how anxious and excited Sony are about this release. In initial test reviews, most people are finding the PlayStation Move to be more accurate than the Wii.
There are three unique parts making up the Move system – the PlayStation Eye camera (available for some time), the Move motion controller, and the Move navigation controller. The PlayStation Eye works hand-in-hand with the Move motion controller, to provide precise movement detection via a three-axis accelerometer.
Other features include a built-in microphone with voice detection and a number of new game titles including “Sports Champions”, “Eye Pet”, and “King Fu Rider”. There are also a few different pricing bundles out there to consider, depending on whether you already own a PlayStation system or the already available Eye camera.
Sports Champion Move Bundle – $399.99
This is the all-inclusive bundle, with a 320GB PS3 system, PlayStation Move motion controller, PlayStation Eye camera, and copy of “Sports Champions.”
Movie Bundle -$99.99
This includes one PlayStation Move controller, a PlayStation Eye camera, and a copy of “Sports Champions.”
PlayStation Move motion controller – $49.99
PlayStation Move navigation controller – $29.99
This is an extra controller that does not sense motion and is not essential to any of the new PlayStation Move games. However, it does add on-screen navigation, and in many ways takes the place of the left hand side of a regular PlayStation controller.

News on the Sony PlayStation Portable 2 “Next Generation Portable”

Sony have revealed some more details about their up and coming PlayStation Portable 2, which has been nicknamed an NGP or “Next Generation Portable”. With a powerful new chip, dual cameras, and rear-mounted touch-surface, this device looks like a great alternative to the new Nintendo 3DS.

The details about the Portable 2 emerged at a press conference in Tokyo, as did information about different versions of the device and some vague information about release dates “around the end of the year”. It looks like there will be a few variations of the NPG on offer, all of which have WiFi but one which comes with 3G.

The NGP is based on a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 processor, together with a SGX543MP4+ graphics processing unit. Sony’s LiveArea will act as the main interface, which is different from the XrossMediaBar GUI which is used in the original PSP and PlayStation 3.

The front screen is 5 inches with a resolution of 960 x 544 pixels, and will render about 16 million colours. That’s not all though, it’s also a capacitive multitouch display, and will allow users to articulate multiple finger input by touching, grabbing, pushing, or pulling the screen. Also, the rear of the device is a capacitive multi-touch surface that is also touch sensitive, so it will be possible to control games with two touch surfaces simultaneously – wow.

Other features include a six-axis motion sensing system that consists of a three-axis gyroscope and a three-axis accelerometer, a three-axis electronic compass and a built-in GPS. Games will be delivered on proprietary Flash cards.

The NGP doesn’t feature 3D, however Sony think they have good reasons for staying away from the troublesome third dimension. “The opportunity of 3D is there, but it might be too early, and I think Sony will look at what the – Nintendo – 3DS does and, if it radically exceeds expectations, you might see a change in the next version of the NGP,” said Louis Ward, a research manager at IDC.

“You can’t do touchscreen with 3D and that’s why the top screen of the 3DS is not touch-sensitive but the lower screen is,” Ward explained. “Tapping on a 3D screen will damage it.” However, despite no 3D, the rear mounted touch surface looks very cool indeed. As long as it functions half as good as it looks, Sony look like they are on to a winner.