In the last decade or two I’ve gone through lots of different handheld gadgets, from beta and test versions of the Nintendo Gameboy to various Palm models, and more cellphones than I want to count. I own two iPods too, one for audio books and one for music, and have another wave of peripherals for those, including a bunch of crummy radio transmitter devices, none of which work worth a darn.
But a few weeks ago I bought a Sony Playstation Portable device, more commonly known as a PSP, and only today did I get a chance to see what an amazing device it really is…
I flew from Denver to San Francisco this afternoon, 2 hours, and rather than read a book or magazine, I thought it would be fun to put the PSP through its paces. Before I left, I downloaded an album’s worth of MP3s and a stack of about 15 JPEG photos. I also brought with a brand new movie, XXX and my one token PSP game, Ridge Racer.
Between playing the amazing driving game, listening to some music, and watching about half of the DVD-quality XXX, all without even draining the battery charge after two hours, I was thoroughly impressed.
Toss in the fact that it speaks Wifi and that the next upgrade to the firmware, due “any day now”, will include a quite capable Web browser, and you have the makings of a killer device.
And I’m not the only one who think so: Sony says that they’ve sold over five million of them to date.
The only missing capability? Cellphone connectivity. But I won’t be surprised if that can be somehow grafted onto this remarkably sophisticated device within the next six months, along with a rollout keyboard.
The greatest challenge facing the Sony PSP? That it’s from Sony, and Sony lost their edge of ‘cool’ years ago.
A Kewl dVice indeed. I had been curios of how the controls handle for gaming, Being a portable sometimes the controls on such devices are lacking. As long as they continue to add features and usability upgrades it will eventually appeal to everyone.
VICE
Very cool.
Now … can I get FreeBSD or Linux running on that thing? 🙂
Hey Dave this post caught my eye because I recently connected with a young enthusiast at the Pittsburgh, PA airport. As a speaker and trainer I travel a lot and like most travelers need to find an electrical outlet for my laptop while waiting to board my flight. Last week as I surfed the web at the airport an 11 year old boy named Mark asked if he could share the electrical outlet. In his hand was a Sony PSP, a device I knew little about.
I asked Mark what he thought of the device and couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiastic response. For the next ten minutes Mark demonstrated all of the reasons why this is the greatest device on the market. You can play games, watch movies, etc. He had just returned from vacation and had used the PSP during the long flight from Europe. Then he demonstrated where you install the disks (cautioning me about touching the exposed portion for fear of damaging the disk). He spoke about the movies he has watched and his favorite games.
As I looked to my left, his mother mouthed the words “I’m sorry” because Mark was on a roll and couldn’t stop sharing his love for this device. I assured her how much I was enjoying his viral marketing and his “Raving Fan” response.
All too soon we started boarding and I reluctantly told Mark goodbye. So Sony may have lost its edge of ‘cool’ but it still has Raving Fans in more than one generation.
p.s. I love your blog!
because of your advocacy for this product, I’m researching to purchase one for myself, as I hold your opinion high.
This is a prime example of ‘viral’ marketing and my lack of decision making/will/mind of my own.
Yeah, I purchased one not too long ago, it has to be the closest console to a laptop, and for $250 i’m amazed, plus if you’re really looking for some interesting stuff check out http://www.psp-hacks.com they have some very cool utilities for the psp
how do u get download games to he psp when it is finsh downloading
Please see the following:
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/about_sony_psp.html
for many, many articles on how to do specific tasks with the device.
i need new software for my psp i have got it since 2 days
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i need a psp
Ok so i had the PSP version 1, but after a long life of a few years, it stopped reading UMD’s. I talked with my friends and they have had similar problems. So a few days ago i purchased the new PSP Go, which doesn’t use the UMD’s at all as im sure you know. However, my only problem with the Go is that it doesn’t use the old memory card. they moved to something smaller and now i dont know how to get my old memory onto the new device. I think i could make it work if i could just get the old data onto a computer, but none of my computers support the old memory stick…
I agree with you dave that Sony PSP is the best…I’ve enjoyed its game mostly.
Dave, it is good to see someone blogging a natural no spin view of the Sony PSP.
I have to say that although Sony has lost some of it’s coolness over the years, guys like me from the 80s who used the Sony Walkman will never forget how revolutionary Sony was for them.
I traveled for 4hrs a day to school and back and having a Sony Walkman was my only saving grace from boredom and insanity.
The Sony PSP with web browsing capability is without a doubt on par with my wonder and expectations way back then.