I had grand plans to do a review of the Nintendo DSi right after I bought it on release day back in April – I was going to take a quick look at the new cameras, SD slot, MP3 player, and the DSiWare store. But at the time I was in the middle of playing one of the better games the DS has seen – Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars, in my opinion the best game in the GTA series – and then I immediately started playing Broken Sword and Black Sigil and … well, time sort of got away, and by then many sites had given their balanced reviews so mine seemed superfluous. But there is still value in an ‘after a while’ look, as we have seen from many great articles at Gear Diary in the past! So instead of a simple ‘how well does it work’ review, I’ll look at how I’ve actually used the DSi over the last few months and what I think scores a hit, and what misses.

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The Gran Turismo series of racing games first arrived on the Sony Playstation in 1997, and have sold over 50 million copies over the last 12 years. The games focus on stunning graphics, tons of licensed vehicles, richness of driving simulation and ability to tune the vehicles. For PSP owners it feels like this new version has been in development for nearly that long! In reality the game has been in development since before the launch of the original PSP, leaving gamers to wonder – was it worth the wait? Read on and find out!

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Billed as the first high-precision positioning system for the Nintendo DS the Ranger GPS is now available from our overseas friends at DealExtreme. The maps are downloaded from Google Maps though it’s unclear from the site whether you’ll need to learn Mandarin or Cantonese if you want to receive optional voice prompts. Just think of how much fun the kids will have navigating. And when they get bored they can remove the cartridge and use the tiny patch cord to swing it over their head and menace other young back seat passengers.

Ranger GPS Navigation for NDS Lite – $59.22

The PSP Go! has officially launched in North America, and so to celebrate I’ve put together a quick unboxing video. I also include a PSP ‘Family Album’ of all four of my PSPs! Not much else to say for now … just take a look! And be sure to check back for more detailed impressions as I get the chance to play around more.

My PSP Go! isn’t even out of the box yet, and the firmware is already out of date! According to several sources including Yahoo! Tech News, PSP Firmware 6.10 has gone live and can be updated through the usual ‘network update’ option on the PSP XMB. New functionality is supposed to include bluetooth internet tethering and a music detection functionality called ‘SensMe Channels’.

According to the reports, the firmware update “which adds SensMe, a new application that automatically categorizes music that has been transferred from the PC to the PSP by way of its Media Go application. Sony’s SenseMe uses what it calls “Twelve Tone” analysis, that examines how the music plays, and not just its metadata. It then assigns it to a particular “mood,” such as “Lounge”.”

The update also has a feature that allows your PSP Go! to tether to your mobile phone via bluetooth and connect to the internet that way.

Just wondering how the Twelve Tone analysis will do with the twelve-tone music in my library …

Source: Engadget

Tomorrow is the day … I just got notice that my PSP Go! will be arriving in the morning, and since tomorrow sits right in between my wife’s and my older son’s birthday, it means I can play for a little a bit without being the worst husband/father in the world!

Yet I can’t say I’m overly excited – I have posted several times about the ways Sony have disincentivized buyers repeatedly: high price, no pack-ins, no UMD transfer, and so on. Worse yet, I’ve been playing the PSN download version Gran Turismo PSP, a game that was in development when the original PSP was launched (!), and comparing notes to someone playing the UMD version and there seems to be little boost moving away from the disc-based media in terms of load-speed. And, sadly, while I wasn’t enamored with the game, because I have the PSN version I’m stuck with it forever – a major downside of digital downloads is that they are yours forever!

So what about everyone else?

- Do you plan to buy a PSP Go! ?
- Do you currently own a PSP?
- Were you waiting for the PSP Go! and now decided to get a PSP-3000?

We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions!

And naturally I’ll be back with opinions on the PSP Go! and the new games and features at the PSN Store!

If you go back in history to just after Thanksgiving of 2004, the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP were just starting to creep into commercial availability, and the growing feeling among gaming media was that while you should never count Nintendo out … Sony had a device that could very well give them handheld gaming superiority. Even a year later, crossing into 2006 after the 2005 holidays, the PSP had the sales lead over the DS worldwide, and a tremendous advantage in the US. Yet within a year, many of those same pundits who proclaimed the PSP as Nintendo-beater were declaring the PSP dead. What happened, and what does it have to do with the upcoming release of the PSP Go or the title of this article? Read on and see!

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It is fairly amazing given the fairly thin release schedule for the PSP to think that there might have been two games released in the fighting genre in the last month … so it is simply stunning that we have gotten three! Alongside Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Soul Calibur PSP comes a fighting game from Capcom based on a Japanese adult graphic novel turned anime show called ‘Fate/Stay Night’. Each of these games provides fans of the genre with a satisfying array of the core elements required of any good fighting game, yet they are very different from one another. Matt and I will take a look at Dissidia in the coming weeks, but for now I take a look at Fate / Unlimited Codes. Continue Reading

Less than two weeks before I’ll get one in my sweaty hands, Sony has revealed to Yahoo! Technology News yet another reason why the PSP Go might just be the absolutely worst purchase idea for anyone to make this fall! Read on to see what they said! Continue Reading

As if the $250 price wasn’t reason enough, Sony has just announced yet another reason to puzzle over exactly why someone should buy their upcoming PSP Go: a special edition Gran Turismo PSP-3000 for $199! The package includes a Mystic Silver PSP, a UMD copy of the upcoming Gran Turismo game, a voucher to download a white Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, a 2GB Memory Stick, a PSN voucher to download a movie (title TBA), and yet another voucher to download 10 free songs from Sony Music Pass. If that sounds like a good deal, it is! Continue Reading

Technology enthusiasts and early-adopters know this already: you almost always pay a premium to get something when it is first released. This is done because there is demand for the device that allows manufacturers and retailers to offer them at full price, perhaps a bit above intended longer-term price to help recoup R&D efforts. As I said, we all know this, but manufacturers seldom admit to anything beyond a carefully calculated value proposition. Until now, when Sony talks about why the PSP Go is priced so shockingly high … Continue Reading

Are you eyeing a new gaming rig? Here’s a hot deal on a variety of popular consoles. These are rarely discounted items and if you spend over $129 most items ship free. There are deals on XBOX 360 Pro 60GB, XBOX 360 Elite 120GB, Playstation 3 80 GB, Playstation 3 160 GB, Nintendo Wii, Wii Fit, PSP 3000 Slim, Nintendo DS, Rock Band 2 Special Edition. Some of these bundles appear to be selling out quickly so if you’re interested don’t wait until the sale is over on 6/27/09.

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Yesterday Engadget and Joystiq reported on the possibility that Sony would reveal a PSP App Store at the upcoming GamesCon in Cologne in August. The thought is that in conjunction with the upcoming ‘download-only’ PSP Go, they would take advantage of owners being locked into the PSN Store by introducing small and cheap apps and games similar to what Apple has in the iTunes App Store.

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Sony apparently had big plans to launch the next iteration of the PSP at E3, which is running this week. This has been a poorly kept secret in general, with better and better rumors about their new disc-less system seemingly coming on a weekly basis in recent months. But the biggest leak of all came this weekend as the internet caught hold of an early release of the Sony-made Qore web show that was supposed to launch AFTER the big news. Instead we have confirmation of many rumors, squashing of others, and very little new info. First off, take a look at the image courtesy of Wired:

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Dell Home has the Sony PSP 2000 on special for only $119.99 after coupon code which is good for the first 1,000 deal seekers. This is a slightly older PSP and according to the site can be hacked while the newer PSP 3000. I’m admittedly not much of a gamer so I’ll have to refer you to this link for a rocking side by side comparison of the PSP 2000 vs 3000. Having a few pre-teens around the neighborhood addicted to this PSP makes me think that anytime you can grab one for $50 below what everyone else is asking that it’s a pretty good deal.

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