With its new 2.53 System Update, Sony has finally enabled full-screen Flash video playback through the browser.  You can now fullscreen your Youtube, Hulu, Dailymotion or whatever else you might use for your streamed content, but it’s not quite what you’d expect of an expensive machine with multiple processing cores… the video is downright choppy.  

Even with lower quality Youtube videos, you’ll find they play more smoothly on just about everything else, including Sony’s own simple CPU-possessing PSP with PSPtube.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Youtube videos probably look smoothest on the PSP with PSPtube and the iPhone/iPod Touch twins, but that’s another story.  

The PS3 displays out of memory errors with HD Hulu, and often fails to play audio or video with higher quality Youtube videos, and both the browser and system itself crashed a couple of times.  I’d have thought that at this point in development, we wouldn’t have such issues, but clearly, I’m wrong.  Like I accuse Nokia of doing, Sony seems to have given up development on their browser.  Instead of pushing software development and getting their marketing department to promote the PS3 as an internet hub as well, Sony seems to be resting on their laurels.  The PS3’s browser is now terribly out of date, and its about time that they either update it, or make apps for net-based video streaming.

Sony is set to release the PSP-3000, the third version of its Playstation Portable.  It brings with it incremental improvements that do actually add value.  A much improved screen heads the list of features, with twice the colour gamut, five times the contrast ratio and most important for gamers, a faster response time.  I noticed the slow response time the first day I got my PSP, way back in 2005.  I remember being surprised that a game system could have this amount of lag, but I let it go because of the otherwise vibrant colours and not-bad colour shift.  

The PSP-3000 also has a built-in microphone, something it should have had from the start, and something that Sony has no excuses for not including in the PSP-2000. I’m not sure what Sony and Skype were thinking introducing Skype on the PSP-2000, but without a microphone, it’s pretty useless.  

What Sony should have included with the PSP-3000 was a built-in webcam, and perhaps even GPS.  That would really have driven sales up, and from what I can see, the price is going to increase anyway, so at least they would have been able to offer more highly-desired features at the higher price point.  Perhaps Sony is saving these types of features for the PSP2, but I don’t think that will be released for some time yet, because the current platform can still be milked further.  What do you think?

Via PSPFanBoy and Engadget Japan

Not that it wasn’t available in Asia before, but GPS will soon be available for the PSP.  I question how essential this product will be, but hey.  I just don’t see kids attaching PSPs with addon GPS units to their bikes and zooming around, or gamer adults who have a dash-mounted PSP showing them the directions to the neighbourhood Irish pub.  John Koller, PSP brand manager says the PSP is part of a “broader cultural trend for content on the go”  but I don’t see how GPS will deliver content on the go.  That sounds like the job of something that is net-connected, and when last we checked, the PSP wasn’t 3G or WiMAX capable.  

I also don’t see why he’s comparing the iPhone to the PSP.  The iPhone is not a gaming device, and definitely doesn’t hit the same target market as the PSP, with its enterprise features, pricetag, and $100/mo bills.

Via PSPFanBoy Via PocketGamer

Microsoft unveiled Netflix rental streaming at E3 as part of their new dashboard interface.  According to them, more than 10,000 movies are available, and the instant watch queue that you’d update on the web is available on the 360.  Sharing your instant queue with friends is also an added feature.  We think this is an excellent feature and adds tremendous value to the 360, which was already quite decent in that department. It looks like both Microsoft and Sony are trying to position their gaming product as a complete home entertainment solution, and where Sony had decided this out of the gate, Microsoft is coming back with a very competitive offering.  For now, it looks like Netflix’ rentals are standard definition, so it comes down to quality vs. convenience, but introducing HD movies might just be game-changing.