One year and—barely—nine months. That’s what it has taken Apple to invade 19 percent of the total US portable game market, while the PSP sunk from 20% to 11%, and the Nintendo dropped 5%. And that’s only revenue. More

One year and—barely—nine months. That’s what it has taken Apple to invade 19 percent of the total US portable game market, while the PSP sunk from 20% to 11%, and the Nintendo dropped 5%. And that’s only revenue. More

This mod turns the PSP into a pretty cool looking little VU Meter (that’s volume meter, to you non-audiophiles). So dust of that PSP kiddo, it’s time to breathe life into that fledgling portable once again! The hack is the work of “foo foo” and it works as advertised. Spin up an audio track, and watch the little lights pump up in down with the levels. It’s no Korg DS-10, but then again few things are. At the very least this hack would provide you with literally minutes of fun as you wait for Sony to get its act together and release the mythical PSPad , PSP Phone, or whatever it ends up being. [ Foo foo via Engadget ]

Sure, the PSP is still a mighty attractive piece of hardware. “Handsome,” you might say, but that heart-pounding allure is all but gone these days. While we wait a few more years for Sony to rectify that with a PSP 2, we can drool over another mod by ” f00 f00 .” This time he’s managed to squeeze a working VU Meter onto the back of the ever-moddable machine. Sure, it’s not a revolution in the world of PSP hacking, but it’s impressive and somehow comforting in its own we-guess-the-PSP-is-still-pretty-cool sort of way. Video is after the break. Continue reading VU Meter finagled into a PSP, reminds us of a time when the PSP was sexy VU Meter finagled into a PSP, reminds us of a time when the PSP was sexy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:38:00 EST.

We love Sony. We really do. And we want them to get back in the game, because competition makes everyone better. Here’s how they do it.

When one thinks of a PSP Phone , they usually imagine a handset with a number of cool, gamer-centric features, such as some sort of integration with the PlayStation network or — imagine! — the ability to actually play PSP games . What they don’t imagine — correct us if we’re wrong — is some sort of KIRFy cellphone shoved inside what is essentially the shell of a PSP. That said, we do have to give our friends in Shenzhen some props: not only have they beat Sony with this knock-off, but with the way things are going, they might have the PSP Phone market all to themselves in perpetuity. No specifics on this one yet — price, stats, or street date — but you probably weren’t going to buy one anyways. Get a closer look after the break. Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCLVIII: shanzhai PSP Phone dampens our excitement for an actual PSP Phone Keepin’ it real fake, part CCLVIII: shanzhai PSP Phone dampens our excitement for an actual PSP Phone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:41:00 EST

Sony’s already taken a pretty big shot at the used game market with the download-only PSP Go , and it looks like it might now be going some way towards taking physical media out of the equation as well. In what’s described as a “trial run,” Sony has added a new authentication measure to SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 for the PSP that will require gamers to first register their game on PSN before they play online. Once that’s done, you won’t be able to use the UMD on another PSN account, and anyone buying a used copy of the game will have to shell out $20 for an additional voucher to play online. According to Sony, that’s being done primarily to combat piracy, but there’s no getting around the fact that it also makes used copies of the game a whole lot less attractive to potential buyers. No word on any future games that will employ similar measures, though we wouldn’t count on Sony giving up on this one too quickly.

Well, this doesn’t seem quite right. Apparently, retail copies of SOCOM US Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo 3 come with a code that’s needed to unlock online play. Bought it used? A new code will be $20, please. It’s no secret that publishers absolutely loathe the used games market, as it takes money out of their pockets. The problem?

Though Sony’s overall bottom line is back in black , what held it back from an even bigger celebration cake was its core electronics brand, and no stranger to that sector is the PlayStation group. Both Joystiq and The Wall Street Journal took a more careful look at the numbers, and there’s a few points worth noting. PS2 sales took a year-over-year dip, down from 2.5 million to 2.1 million. PSP took a larger hit, down to 4.2 million from 5.1 million. The PS3 , however, is a mix of good and bad news.

A tiny but significant factoid in Sony’s earnings report from the WSJ : “Sony loses about six cents for every dollar of PS3 hardware sales.” Educated guesser of component prices iSuppli had deduced that Sony was finally eking out a little bit of profit on every PS3 Slim they sold, thanks to lower costs, but apparently, not the case! They’re hoping to cut production costs by 15 percent by March 2011. Hey, at least PS3 sales were up 44 percent. On the other hand, no one’s buying the PSP Go . Sony cut their sales estimates by third for the year. Sony did actually make money this quarter—the first time in a year—but it was by essentially ravaging the company to cut over $3 billion in costs: A fifth of its plants are gone, along with 20,000 jobs. [ WSJ ]