PSP? Sure, why not

So I got myself a PSP. I didn't mean to, it just happened. I went out to lunch and the shop next door to where we were eating was my local GPStore. I'd seen PSPs the weekend before and had a 30 second play but I had no intention of actually getting one myself. I'm an impulsive kind of guy though and just before leaving the shop I snatched up a box and 2 games; Everybody's Golf & WipEout Pure (yes that's the capitalization that they use).

The basic bundle I purchased came with a massive 32MB memory stick. Gee, thanks Sony. I could load maybe 10 MP3s onto that. Of course then I would have no room for save game data or anything else. The same thing happened when I bought my digital video camera, also a Sony, except that time I only got an 8MB card. 8MB! On a digital video camera.

Since I have a crapload of digital devices, mostly mp3 players and cameras of various sorts, I did have a couple of 1GB Memory Stick DUO cards that I wasn't really using - The digital video camera doesn't need a big card since I don't use it for taking still shots and the MPEG format movies that can be saved to the card are mega crap when compared to the DV format recorded onto tape. The tiny MP3 player I have also uses Memory Stick DUO cards but it hasn't been used in months, so I stole the card out of that as well. 2GB of storage goodness sure beats a paltry 32MB.

I downloaded a couple of movies off the internet and even though they weighed in at only 250-400 megabytes each, the quality was really very good. The screen on these things is simply amazing. The earphones and remote control are very similar to those of the iPod. Well, they are both 2 piece and white with a similar connector anyway. I ended up watching all of Office Space even though I only intended to sample a couple of minute to see what the quality was like.

The PSP has got WiFi built in and an internet browser included. I got this connected onto my flaky wifi network at at home without any hassle and was up and browsing in no time at all. Entering web addresses was a real pain though. Without a keyboard or stylus to use for input, "typing" was an exceptionally slow affair. Once I did have a couple of bookmarks entered it was a snap to navigate around. The screen may be small but the sites I did check posed no problems, images were crystal clear and text was very readable.

I played the Everybody's Golf game when I went to bed last night. It was strangely addictive and before I knew it it was 2am. After I woke up I had to play a few more rounds before getting up. I guess the thing is made for smaller hands than mine though because although I can play XBox games for hours on end without complaint, I did start to get server Nintendo thumb after only 30 minutes or so. Not that it stopped me of course.

The file system layout could be a bit more forgiving. To load a movie so that it would be playable, the file had to be named with a specific cryptic convention, M4V10048.mp4 for example and be put in a specific directory that isn't automatically created for you. Ditto for music and pictures. Oh and it only plays MPEG4 formatted videos. I have to convert anything I want to watch into that format - Converter program available from Sony at an additional price. No surprise there. Perhaps I'll have a hunt about and try to find some freeware tools to do the job for me.

So, if you want to drop down about NZ$550 for a PSP and a couple of games, I wouldn't call you silly.

Did I mention how cool the screen is?