ON SONY PSP AS A WEB BROWSING PLATFORM

SO MUCH PROMISE...

Regular readers know of my never-ending quest for the perfect, on-the-go wireless web tablet/PDA, that can be used for regular internet activities anywhere in the house, and preferably on the go, using Wi-Fi, EV-DO and/or Cellular networks.  (For earlier posts, see here, here, and here).

So I've had my eye on Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) ever since reading mobile gizmo A-list blogger and Yahoo! wireless guru Russell Beattie's post on the device titled "The PSP Platform" back in July.  I even posted on the device back in July.

My interest was particularly whetted by the great pictures he put up in his posts, like this one here (picture on left with Yahoo! site is from Russell's site) on the latest 2.0 software upgrade that updates the internet browser on the PSP.

I've had a PSP in the closet for months now, but hadn't opened it since I was waiting for some new games, and the updated Internet browser to be released in the US (see picture on left).  Well the latter occurred a few days ago, so I eagerly cracked open the PSP.

The out of box experience of the PSP is pretty good and relatively straightforward.  Plug in the battery and the 32MB proprietary Sony memory card (more on this later), and the A/C adapter, turn the thing on, and you're ready to go.

The most seductive thing about the device in my view is when it recognized my home wireless (wi-fi) network pretty quickly and got connected.  I can imagine this is what may have gotten folks like Russell excited about the potential of the thing as a web tablet.  Also, it does have a killer, relatively big, vibrantly colorful, screen.  It is a Sony, after all.

But then things go downhill pretty quickly from there.  As I commented on Russell's above-mentioned post today:

"Just got my PSP updated with the official version 2.0, and the new browser.
Eagerly tried to enter my favorite sites.
Several problems:

1.  Interface sucks, mostly because I don't know how to use all the buttons and combinations yet, and don't have the time to do so.

2.  It gets really old typing in a letter, then scroll up to "enter", then the next letter, then "enter", etc.  This thing needs a keyboard so bad, it hurts...
of course, a keyboard accessory is coming "SOON"...it'll probably cost another $50-100...more moolah for Sony from the early adopters/suckers like moi.

3.  Typed in my Bloglines user name and password...eagerly await my list of blogs, so I can read them on the fly with this gizmo as Russell suggests...suddenly get message "out of memory"...no option to save the bloglines page with my user name and password that I spent 10 minutes typing in...just close the browser...AND I have a 256MB card!  What do I need? a gig, 2 gigs?  Given Sony's predilection for pricing their precious proprietary memory cards, that'll probably cost a couple of PSPs at least.

ANSWER:  just get a cheap laptop for $700 bucks to use as a "tablet" device around the house.  At least for now."

So the key problems:  no keyboard, cryptic interface, and memory hog.  Let me address each one separately.

1.  Keyboard:  I'm surprised Russell likes the PSP as much as he does given that he panned the upcoming Nokia 770 "Internet Tablet" (see my post on this here) in this post this past May, saying specifically:

"The most popular devices lately are those with little keyboards. Pens are so mid-90s. Dear Nokia: Welcome to the Read/Write Web, if I can’t post to my blog easily from a device, it’s useless."

The PSP also badly needs a keyboard, and the accessory providers have been slow to provide one...there is one coming any day now apparently, from Logic 3, pictured here, priced around $50 or so.

I'm sure when the ball gets rolling there'll be a bunch of these things out there, but it's surprising there isn't one out, even from Sony, given the obvious need for one. 

I mean there is a solar charger out for the PSP already!

Well, I guess it's useful for people who play, I don't know, games on the device...

...for a long time.

2.  User Interface:  Maybe I'm just lazy, but I really don't want to learn another interface to surf the Internet.  Or maybe I'm just fed up having had to learn several for my Blackberry phone, my Motorola Razr phone, and any other new cell phone I end up getting.  The Sony's interface commands to use the browser are especially cryptic, and not noted anywhere in the instructions that I could see.

Fortunately, another one of Russell's PSP posts came in handy, but I had to get my eye/hand coordination just right...you'll see what I mean:

"The browser seems very okay from my few minutes of testing it, actually! The pages load relatively fast, the fonts are anti-aliased and look good, and the controls are reasonable - even URL entry (the secret is the shoulder buttons!).

Holding down the square key allows for fast controlled scrolling with the arrow keys or analog stick, otherwise the analog stick moves a cursor like a mouse and the arrow keys jump from link to link.

There are several view options (which took me a minute to find) which allow for “Normal”, “Just-Fit” or “Smart-Fit” views, as well as the ability to change font size. Definitely not bad for what I paid for it! :-)"

It took me a while to find all the buttons on the diagram and then practice for a bit to get the hang of it...it does work, but so does an abacus for calculations.

3. Memory:  I think 2 Gigabyte is the maximum size (for now) for Sony's proprietary, and thus very expensive Memory Stick Duo...and I wasn't far off in my comment above on the price...it seems to be priced around $400 as you see here...but wait, it likely DOES NOT WORK with the PSP as noted at the PSPUpdates site:

"That 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo (High-Speed) has been released today. We’re serious this time — apparently we weren’t earlier. It will set you back 50,000 yen (some $461), but imagine all the Emulator ROMs you could put on your PSP pictures you could take with your digital camera! Unfortunately, “High” speed (80Mbps, actually) is only supported in certain devices, and the PSP is not one such device."

Maybe you're paying all that extra dough for sophisticated Sony technology, like this bit of "MemoryGate" software architecture that puts different types of digital files into specific folders for pictures, video, etc.

Well, there's always the Sandisk 2GB card that's out at under $200, but no guarantees that it'll work with the PSP.

Final point on the memory front. 

Russell, in his above-mentioned post, also mentioned the possibility of using the PSP for video off and on the internet:

"Wow. Think about that for a second! This could *easily* become the video equivalent of the iPod, and thus could make Video Blogging the Next Big Thing after Podcasting… PSPCasting anyone?"

The PSP is fine for playing videos off the built-in mini-cd drive (Sony calls it the UMD disc), but playing videos off the internet may be a bit taxing on the device...who knows, we may need at least 4 Gigabytes of onboard RAM memory to do it in even a tolerable fashion.

The lesson in all this?  Well it takes more than a village to have a a hip, buzzing metropolis...it's called a CITY.

It takes a lot of add-ons to make the PSP a viable internet browsing device, and by the time you do so, you've got something like the Pepperpad, I talked about recently, that's to be priced around $850 (with a much bigger, comfortable screen for web browsing).  So you might as well get an inexpensive laptop and be done with it.

Or you could buy the PSP for $230, add a keyboard when it's out for $50, then add 2GB of memory, assuming it works, for another $200, and you've got a barely passable internet surfing device for around $500.

What else to do with the PSP?  Well, lemme see...maybe I could watch some expensively priced movies on it on the Sony proprietary UMD mini-disc (see my post here), which of course I can't play on any of my DVD players.

Or maybe we can just play games...which is where all this started anyway.

But as an internet tablet?  Not yet.

Comments

[Roger Sperberg]

There's an "ersatz blog" at Internet Tablet Talk, which, because it's really a forum, doesn't do trackbacks. Anyway, your post is discussed at

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=319#post319

-- Roger