Monday, June 30, 2008

Sony Patent Handheld with "Digital Tactile Pixels"

- From Joystiq:

"Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) was granted a patent on Friday for a "hand-held [sic] device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels." It'd be a stretch to say any of this is explicitly indicative of a PSP 2.0 or PSP phone, but it is interesting to note that "game device" is listed as one of the potential applications, alongside a plethora of other sony handhelds: phone, portable media player, email device, web browser device or navigation device.

As for defining "digital tactile pixels," claims 19 through 30 of the patent suggest that vibration acts as the "tactile" response. As our friends at PSP Fanboy point out, it could be a long time before we see anything to do with this patent (assuming we ever do).

Fun fact: The patent lists former Sony executive Phil Harrison as the inventor. Harrison, now the Directeur Général Délégué at Infogrames, was with the company when the patent was originally filed in January 2008."

Friday, June 27, 2008

Go! Series is Lifestyle Software for PSP

- Sony have announced their lifestyle app lineup for the PSP:

  • Go!Messenger: Uses the PSP camera add-on for VoIP video chat.

  • Go!Explore: gPs mapping software using the PSP GPS addon.

  • Go!Cam: Turns the PSP into a digital camera

  • Go!View, which uses the PSP antenna peripheral to turn the handheld into a wireless video-on-demand receiver. Sony is partnering with Sky in the UK for Go!View content.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

PSP Firmware v4.01

- Sony have had to fix firmware v4.00 already:

"Hey everyone, here’s a quick heads up that a new PSP system software update, v4.01, will be released soon. This minor update includes the following:

* Display of search results under Internet Search has been improved for certain languages.
* Playback of video content under Video has been improved for certain file types.

Look for this update to become available during the next few hours."

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

PSP Firmware v4.00

- PSP Fanboy has the v4.00 firmware update.
- Google searching from the XMB and variable video speed playback have been added.