Something About Bananas

At Sony's E3 press conference on June 2nd they will be unveiling their next version of the PSP. It has been leaked that it will be called the PSP GO! Just days before the unveiling leaked images of the new portable console where released and I discovered them on Engadget. Here are a few.






What we know about the system and possible features:

I have been looking forward to this for some time as It has been said that it will come with built in memory in 8GB and 16GB versions and that it will be a sliding device. This made it sound likely that it would be a more all-round media device like the iPod Touch, than being mainly a gaming device. The extra memory to store music and video and the slider so that it can be a touch screen media player when not gaming. It has yet to be announced if the devices screen has any touch capabilities however and from some of the images it doesn't look like it unfortunately. The reason their is so much built in memory is probably just because Sony is removing the UMD slot and making all the game content DLC requiring more memory to store games, rather than to cater for our music and video needs. Also confirmed is bluetooth and tethering to your mobile phone for PSP web on the go.
Against everybody's wishes Sony have decided to stick with the current control scheme and not add and extra analogue nub even thought there is an obvious space right where "select" and "start" are located. Damn you Sony!

What I would like to see:

The current PSP plays music, video, pictures and has web browsing but all of these feel diluted. The browser is incapable of loading many sites and the music player has no organized library, just a folder structure with no option to even shuffle through your entire collection. My hopes for the next PSP would be that it does in fact have a full touch screen, a more powerful web browser (which seems likely with the mobile phone tethering) and better music and video organisation and features like that on the iPod Touch. This would make it a big competitor against more devices out there than just the Nintendo DS in the handheld gaming market. Just as the iPod Touch and iPhone are now established gaming platforms, the new PSP needs to be a bigger competitor in the portable media player market. Sony will need something more than built in memory and a hideous slider re-design. Basically I want PSP 2 not PSP 3000 cross-dressing with the Sony Mylo with an added slider feature.