The PSP originally came with a 32MB Memory Stick Duo card, but you’ll need a much larger one for music and movies.
What about music? Well, the good news is the PSP plays many types of audio files without your having to convert them to Sony’s proprietary ATRAC format first–a common problem with the company’s earlier MP3 devices. You simply drag your audio files into the music folder on your Memory Stick Duo card, and they’ll show up on the PSP. Firmware-updated PSPs can play MP3s, ATRACs, WMAs, WAVs, and AAC-encoded song files, though not the copy-protected versions from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. The device supports M3U playlists, but if you have your playlists in another format, you’ll need to find and download a converter. http://reviews.cnet.com/consoles/sony-psp/4505-10109_7-30895581.html However, as basic as the PSP’s music player is (read: iPod Shuffle with a screen and no autosyncing capabilities), it will be adequate for many people.
Those interested in replacing their iPod with the PSP will have to deal with the lack of on-the-go playlist functionality and, most important, the DIY storage. You can get a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card for about $50, while double the capacity will cost you about three times as much. Sony announced 4GB and 8GB Memory Sticks at E3 2006 but no pricing. Player controls can be initially tricky—the in-line remote is handy—but we like the speedy precision of the fast-forward/rewind functions as well as the undulating background graphics. The PSP can also display album art when it’s available. http://p2p-online.com/content/blogsection/0/9/10/10/
The image viewer is also basic, with simple slide-show functionality. But again, it’s easy to drag JPEG files—or TIFFs, PNGs, GIFs, and BMPs, if you have version 2.0—onto a memory card, rotate them (if needed), and show off your shots to anybody who might want to see them. In addition, you can set a photo as your PSP’s background wallpaper, replacing the colorful splash screen behind the home menu. Unfortunately, you cannot view photos and listen to music simultaneously.
Last but not least, the PSP has built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. Getting our handheld up and running on even a WEP-encrypted home wireless network was a breeze, and the PSP lets you save multiple wireless configurations so that you can connect from multiple locations without repeating the setup procedure each time. Though PSPs purchased before September 2005 were previously limited to WEP encryption, upgrading to v2.0 firmware adds support for the more secure WPA-PSK standard. http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP Once you’re Wi-Fi enabled—and you’ve installed the latest firmware—you can access the Web using the PSP’s onboard browser. This slick, nearly full-featured app supports tabbed browsing, Javascript, and CSS, though Flash support is still lacking (read more about the PSP’s Web browser).
The browser looks great, displaying crisp images and reproducing colors very accurately. Typing isn’t quite the pain it could have been; Sony has augmented its standard cell phone-style input system with a few shortcuts, giving common strings such as http:// and .com their own keys on the virtual keyboard. Furthermore, the PSP remembers every address you type, so you’ll never have to tap in a long, complicated URL more than once.
You’re given the option to reshape the browser’s display window, in much the same way that you can resize video clips during playback. This helps avoid the dreaded left-to-right scroll-back while reading articles, though it usually garbles the page’s layout in the process. You can easily save images from the Web to your Memory Stick Duo and subsequently use them as wallpaper on the PSP’s main menu; customizable wallpaper is another perk of the 2.0 firmware. http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP
JavaScript works like a charm, cooperating with several JavaScript toolkit utilities, but the Flash player included in the latest update is version 6—the current standard is 8—which makes viewable content hit or miss. http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP
The PSP’s strong slate of features—as well as the many bells and whistles that Sony has added via its first major firmware update—proves that the handheld is still under development and hints at even greater things to come. Some of those future upgrades are more fully developed than others. Sony highlighted a few of the more noteworthy forthcoming PSP features in the pipeline at a business conference in March 2006. In terms of gaming, an emulator is being developed that will allow the PSP to play digitally distributed (that is, pay-per-download) PlayStation 1 titles. http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP
Later in the year, Sony is pledging to add Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) support to the PSP, with an EyeToy-styled Webcam peripheral to complement it. A GPS-locator accessory is also in the works, with compatible games slated to support it. Finally, Sony is said to be preparing a major upgrade to its Connect online service that will create a more iTunes-like music and movie download service, but details remain scarce. http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP In fact, since these new features were announced, Sony’s been mum about new details–the camera was shown off at E3 2006, but no new information has been revealed about any of the other new PSP concepts. It’s more than likely that Sony is waiting until the November release of the PlayStation 3 nears to comment on most of them, as it’s likely that numerous features of the next console—accessories and downloads, among them—will be shared between the two. http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP
The Sony PSP runs on a proprietary 333MHz processor and comes with 32MB of built-in memory, some of it reserved for the PSP’s operating system and applications, and 4MB of embedded DRAM. While we would have preferred more built-in memory, game developers we spoke to were happy it has what it has, given that early rumors suggested Sony would include only 16MB of RAM. http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP
With all the advancements in video games, and companies always trying to top the other guy. Your latest version of the PSPe may not be sony’s most current version released. We can help, selling your old psp to The Old School Game Vault, then we pay you cash so you can have money to buy the latest version of the PSP.
June 9, 2009 at 3:16 am
Microsoft has been secretly developing technology that lets people play videogames using natural body movements instead of handheld controllers.
The US software giant behind Xbox 360 videogame consoles revealed a prototype of a project codenamed ”Natal,” a system that combines cameras and voice and face recognition software to recognize people and their actions.
”The gamer in me went out of my mind when I got to be interactive with this,” director Steven Spielberg said during a Microsoft press conference on the eve of a major E3 videogame industry show in Los Angeles.
”I got a feeling I was in a historic moment. What Microsoft is doing isn’t reinventing the wheel; this is about no wheel at all.”
Natal lets people play driving games by simply moving hands as if turning a car steering wheel. In-game characters in boxing, skateboard, football and other sports titles mimic the body movements of real players.
The system scans faces and voices to determine who is playing.
Xbox 360 consoles equipped with Natal will be able to respond to spoken commands for actions such as playing movies or connecting online with friends for video chats.
An expected completion date was not disclosed, but Microsoft yesterday released a software kit for videogame makers interested in designing titles to take advantage of Natal’s capabilities.
”This is a landmark in computer entertainment. This is true technology that science fiction has not even written about and this works today,” said British videogame icon Peter Molyneux, chief of Lionhead Studios.
香港仔時昌迷你倉