Come on RC, enlighten us about how this guy is wrong... I know you can't resist being a prick.

Sony and Apple insist on closed proprietary DRMs that they won't license. Closed systems limit user choice. MS is licensing its WMA to everyone and is becoming the standard. MS will win the format war. ATRAC3plus and Fairplay are the new Betamax. Gates is going to outsmart Jobs again.

Way to prove the first poster's point RC. Freak'n idiot.

Ya know, you ought not hope Apple is doomed. With no Apple your life would be completely devoid of any meaning whatsoever. What would you do with all that free time in your mom's basement instead of setting all us delusional people on the right course? I've compiled a few ideas for you to ponder in what you believe to be the inevitable post-Apple era.

Other ideas for you to explore:
The oil industry is doomed because they will all run out of oil someday.
The travel industry is doomed once all the beaches of the world wash away.
KFC is doomed for not licensing their famous recipe.

Just a few ideas to get you started. Anyone else feel free to add to the list. RC will need a new group of people to enlighten.

Damn! As I was reading RC's latest enlightment, I thought it was by one of those guys that make fun of him such as Rea1ityCheck. This latest post looked to lame even for RC. But then I actually saw that it is the Real RC. Damn dude! You outgayed yourself this time. It seemed so lame that it was from someone making fun of you.... AHAHAHAHAHA. Everyone's doomed now. Even Sony. All except MS. HAHAHAHAHA. RC, you da man.

Quote

RealityCheck wrote:
MS is licensing its WMA to everyone and is becoming the standard

thanks everyone. I got up from my desk belting out laughing! Man, this is some relly funny stuff.

"Gates is going to outsmart Jobs again"

I never saw this side of RC. I mean I knew he worships windows os, but he also is enamored by Bill Gates! This guy really thinks it's a heaven and hell battle between Jobs and Billy! I bet this guy spends his free time drawing comics depicting Billy as a super hero and Jobs as a greedy mind manipulating villian who wan'ts the world to bow down to him and exhorts billions of dollars from people and businesses al over the globe! Wait! that just describes Billy!!!!...................

I get such a kick outta this troll! Probably dosn't even exist, just someone made up by TMO to draw us to the forums to see if he's gonna say something really stupid. I really enjoy the fact that he trys to post just once as RC, possibly twice if he's in a weakened condition and wants to defend himself, but then he comes back as a Guest to defend himself. Man, if he exists or not, I hope he dosen't go away. Just too funny!

>Mr. Taylor said, "Even then, music can only be transferred to a special type of Memory Stick that includes Sony's 'MagicGate' copy protection."

Yes and no. Yes, the sticks do have 'MagicGate' availability. But, when you copy music to a stick, it is NOT protected if it is already an unprotected MP3. It's freely moveable from place to place and fully playable. The ATRAC3 format, on the other hand, is like iTunes' AAC format that offers limited copying. Simply because you put something on a MagicGate card doesn't make it automatically protected. MagicGate technology enables manufacturers to protect content on cards if they choose, but only if they choose to turn the protection on.

>"The PSP is riddled with Sony proprietary technology", Mr. Taylor wrote.

Agreed. This will be a problem that will plague the PSP for some time to come. Especially the UMDs. It really needed a more standard format or a hard drive. But, in that small size without a hard drive, the only standard formats are compact flash, SD or Pro Duo. Obviously, Sony chose the Pro Duo format for the stick.. although, it would have been nice to have an SD slot or compatibility for SD.

>"music can only be imported from CDs you own or from Sony's own Sony Connect online music store".. once again according to Mr Taylor.

Again, yes and no. If you have an MP3, you can simply put it on a Pro Duo stick and play it in the PSP. The PSP has a USB interface to copy to the stick as well. Or you can use any card writer that supports Pro Duo sticks. The PSP requires nothing special to play an MP3. However, if you have AAC format or any other DRM formats (other than the ATRAC3) the PSP won't play them. It's not as if you could get your paid AAC iTunes store songs off of the iPod to put them onto the PSP anyway (obviously you could recovert them through Analog playback, though).

>Accordingly, Mr. Taylor concluded that the PSP poses no serious challenge to Apple's iPod dominance in music players

Yes, but not because of the arguments in this article. The reasons it isn't an iPod killer are as follows:

1) The PSP is bigger and heavier (less convenient for MP3s)
2) It has no hard drive (probably its biggest failing)
3) It's very fragile (although, the iPod probably is too)
4) Must use Pro Duo card for Music (costly for cards with limited sizes)
5) The battery life is likely shorter than an iPod
6) The MP3 GUI interface is functional, but not full featured.

In less than one hour after purchasing the PSP, I had played a game of Twisted Metal against six other people somewhere in the world via my wireless router, hooked it up to my computer with no problems and no new drivers and copied a couple of songs, 20 photos and two minutes of vacation video it. The next day I took it to work, showed it off and the following day, after two co-workers had purchased one each, we played Twisted Metal against each other across the lunch room.

Is it an iPod killer. No.

Is it a portable DVD killer. No.

Is it a great little game machine that can (depending on the size of the memory stick) hold that funny and inappropriate-for-corporate-email video, your favorite songs of the day (yes, you have to burn them to CD and reimport them as MP3s if you purchased them in a different format) and a collection of photos. Yes.

If I HAD to chose just one item to take with me on a road trip, it would be the PSP, loaded up with a couple dozen songs (lower the bit rate a bit maybe), no photos, no videos, and a couple of game. But I'm never forced to chose just one thing, so we usually leave the house with...
Three iPods (original - mine, mini - wife's, shuffle - kid's)
Half a dozen burnt CDs - family sing-a-longs (nothing like American Idiot to bring the family closer)
GameBoy Advanced with a six or seven games.
Laptop computer (sometimes - if we plan to be heading somewhere overnight)
Sony Clie for checking email and directions at hotspots
Two camera-phones
Two digital cameras (I get the old one, my wife gets the new one)
Sony digital video camera (sometimes depending on where we are going)
and now...
PSP with a couple of games and, for the time being, SpiderMan 2

And all of this fits in a bag smaller than we used to have to carry my kid's diapers in.

who in the right mind would compare PSP to iPod?

PSP Vs. NDS is also still an absurd comparison. they both targeting a different crowd.

Feature wise the PSP isn't close to an iPod killer for listening to music. For playing games or movies the iPod isn't close to a PSP killer. Now that is just comparing the features.

The reason I do believe the PSP will effect iPod sales is because they are both aimed at similar markets. There is only so much disposable income people have to spend on items like this. Both will compete with each other for the consumer's dollar.

If I didn't already have an iPod and I had the money to spend right now I would probably opt for the PSP, games and movies are just as important as music to me, and it seems I would get more functionality out of the PSP with the added benefit of listening to music (even though its music features are weak, but just as weak as the iPod shuffle IMO).

To be honest I wouldn't buy either one right now, the iPod doesn't have enough modern features I want (movies, games) and the PSP doesn't have good enough music support.

Anyone who thinks the PSP and iPod aren't in direct competition with each other for the same dollar isn't thinking right.

>Anyone who thinks the PSP and iPod aren't in direct competition with each other for the same dollar isn't thinking right.

On the one hand, yes. It is competing for the same dollars in the same demographic. But, the PSP is primarily targeting the youth demographic (8-35). Where, the iPod also targets a slightly older demographic (18-50). The iPod is useful in many outdoor and exercise activities (especially the shuffle). Where, the PSP is not (because of it's size, weight, battery life and fragility). Because of the size, weight and battery life of the iPod), it's easily wearable and functional where the PSP is not in that same situation.

So, yes, it is competing for the same dollars in the same demographic. The iPod also reaches a broader demographic because of the wearability and usability factors in more situations that isn't available to the PSP.

I had already bought an NDS when it came out in November, and I've never owned an MP3 player, so when the PSP came out I was leary, but bought one anyway.

Games/Screen - Impressive
Music/Movie/Picture - Half-assed
Proprietary Technology - Embarrassing
Price - Abismal

I took the PSP back to Target today (full refund), bought an iPod mini, and traded Lumines for Fight Night Round 2. This was the strangest purchasing debacle I've ever experienced. But I'm totally stoked about my final decision. PSP sucks. Proprietary technologies blow. Sony needs to realize this if they ever want to compete with companies like Apple and Nintendo in their respective markets. To me, the PSP fails at threatening either of these. If it had a hard drive and maybe cost a little more (sadly), or if they just lowered the price of the current design. They've spread themselves too thin trying to be Jack of All Trades. And as a result is Master of Few.

A PSP is first and foremost, a gaming system. A gaming system with some additional features.

That said, here's the primary reason you should buy a PSP:

1) If you want to play quality 3D games (obviously)

Here are the primary reasons you shouldn't buy a PSP:

1) To play movies
2) To browse the internet (not available at the moment)
3) As an MP3 player
4) For any other reason than playing games.

While the 4 reasons above are not at all primary motivations for buying a PSP, they are very good secondary reasons. If you are looking at buying a device that plays awesome 3D games and, at the same time, offers some excellent good secondary features (movies, mp3 player, photos, etc), then the PSP is worth considering.

If you're looking for an MP3 player only (or a device to be used primarily in this capacity), then the PSP is not what you want. You should opt for a much smaller and lighter unit with specific features devoted to playing MP3s and listning to music (such as an iPod).

If you read the manual that comes with the PSP it clearly states that "dead pixels" are a normal function of the unit. Futhermore, when seeking to have you TFT screen replaced by Sony you'll have to wait for hours to speak with someone who will site the instruction manual and if you're persistant enough they will offer you this -

You ship them the PSP at your expense
You wait 4-6 weeks for them to replace the TFT with a used one
You pay a service fee

This is crap, the product is crap - check out how I solved my dead pixel problem -> http://www.tehskeen.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=341&c=24

When you can play the entire library of Genesis and SNES games on a IPOD, I'll consider your point of view.
/No one buys the PSP for the MP3 function alone

This article is garbage.

You can copy any normal MP3 to the PSP and it will play it back fine (with a small inter-track gap, smaller than the iPod's). You do not have to import CDs, that you own or otherwise, via SonicStage or buy from Connect. It's not great as a music player because of its size but nothing Sony has done in terms of hardware/software functionality has crippled it in any way like the article suggests.

You can buy 4gig memory sticks, although they're expensive. a 1gig memory stick doesn't got a huge amount and, while it's a proprietary standard, just about every recent memory card reader device supports it and allows you to copy music and films over without any issue. 1gig is plenty of space for considerable movie content given the resolution and stereo-only sound of the device, which means video files can be compressed more than usual.

Who did Apple pay to say and write down this rubbish?

i can copy any song to it. i don't use CD's i own or SonyConnect - you can simply drag and drop them into the music folder when connected to your computer and bam it works.

lies...

You can copy songs directly onto the memory card in mp3 format. No shitty, slow and buggy iTunes software thank God. Just like the screen quality, the audio quality is superb. Add movies (its easy to convert DVD's to mp4 files for it with free tools) and games, and yes it is definately an iPod killer. It's also great for reading eBooks, see http://sourceforge.net/projects/bookr/ though that is a bit more involved to install for non technical people.

A 2GB memory card is less than $100 US, and 4GB are now out, and will only get bigger and cheaper in the future.

2GB memory card will hold 4 or 5 movies depending upon their length, and can be transferred to the 2GB card in 10-15 min.