Following up on our post of July 21st about the Play TV add-on accessory for the PS3. It has now been leaked that Sony is adding a feature that will no doubt cause everyone PS3 owner in the US to salivate with desire. The DVR add-on with have no Digital Rights Management and will “export [recorded] videos to your PS3’s XMB menu as MPEG-4 video for free use on other devices.”

This is presumably to take advantage of the synergy with the PSP. But what a great idea - the Playstation 3 already the number 1 Blu-Ray DVD player in America, perhaps even the world. For Sony to put out a DVR component accessory which will not only expand the PS3 capability but also add synergy to the PSP and other media players is simply a stroke of genius. And it gets better.

According to Joystiq, the PlayTV unit comes with two high definition tuners allowing users to watch one channel while recording another - and enjoy it all in 1080p. 1080p folks. Full HiDefinition with no DRM. I’m sure lawyers at the MPAA are working overtime to draft legislation to prohibit the PlayTV from ever being sold here in the States. But thanks to Amazon.UK, will it be too long before they start popping up on eBay? You can bet I’ll be looking for them.

Hat Tip – Joystiq

[ European PS3 owners get DVR capability with no DRM copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Sony has gone back on their initial trumpet blowing, chest beating press release by touting that the PSP-3000 have the same battery life as the PSP-2000, although Sony America’s hardware marketing director John Koller did mention that “we should expect shorter battery life in the PSP 3000, perhaps as much as 20 to 30 minutes shorter.” He has made a 180-degree U-turn now with his latest statement, “I’d like to make a correction and clarify that the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about four to six hours for games and about four to five hours for UMD videos.” Maybe our readers who have the PSP-3000 can just let us know the results.

Add a comment | From: Sony PSP 3000 Battery Life Not As Touted | Visit Ubergizmo

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Sony has gone back on their initial trumpet blowing, chest beating press release by touting that the PSP-3000 have the same battery life as the PSP-2000, although Sony America's hardware marketing director John Koller did mention that "we should expect shorter battery life in the PSP 3000, perhaps as much as 20 to 30 minutes shorter." He has made a 180-degree U-turn now with his latest statement, "I’d like to make a correction and clarify that the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about four to six hours for games and about four to five hours for UMD videos." Maybe our readers who have the PSP-3000 can just let us know the results.

Add a comment | From: Sony PSP 3000 Battery Life Not As Touted | Visit Ubergizmo

Nintendo’s behind the PSP by one iteration already - we’re now at the PSP-3000 while the DS is still stuck in its Lite mode. Not that there is anything unlovable about the DS Lite, since the device is still as sexy as the first time it was unveiled, but according to IGN, the big N are working on yet another hardware refresh that will see dual touch screen displays, with one of them functioning as a widescreen. If true, these will surely rock the gaming world, since you’ll get totally new games that take advantage of two touch screens, although it remains to be see what kind of games pan out by then. If that’s true, this would place the new DS as a second generation unit instead of a refresh.

Add a comment | From: Nintendo DS 3rd Iteration Brewing | Visit Ubergizmo

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The new gaming device will have ready a 4.3 inch high resolution wide screen, anti-reflection technology, a built-in microphone, Skype and other communication tools. There's a video port which will let you take the game to your closest TV through the separately sold cables.

The new PSP 3000 will come in pearl white and mystic silver and it will retail for 19,800 yen or about $183.

Nintendo's behind the PSP by one iteration already - we're now at the PSP-3000 while the DS is still stuck in its Lite mode. Not that there is anything unlovable about the DS Lite, since the device is still as sexy as the first time it was unveiled, but according to IGN, the big N are working on yet another hardware refresh that will see dual touch screen displays, with one of them functioning as a widescreen. If true, these will surely rock the gaming world, since you'll get totally new games that take advantage of two touch screens, although it remains to be see what kind of games pan out by then. If that's true, this would place the new DS as a second generation unit instead of a refresh.

Add a comment | From: Nintendo DS 3rd Iteration Brewing | Visit Ubergizmo

The puzzle game genre, albeit one of my favorite game genres, is unfortunately rife with games that rehash the same tired old gameplay. Delta Warp is an action puzzle game with gameplay like a breath of fresh air. It was practically doomed to obscurity being a Japanese-only title developed by the unknown IOSys for an unfortunately failed system like the NeoGeo Pocket. Like many games, it might have been quite well received had it just gotten more attention.

The gameplay and rules are fairly complex, for an action puzzle game, yet the game is intuitive enough to ease the learning curve quite a bit. The action is based around controlling a delta (aka triangle) as you flip it along its three edges moving it through adjacent triangle-shaped spaces in each stage. While the game initially feels turn based, you'll soon notice the ticking timer and the quick speed at which you can move.

One side of your delta is white, the other is black. (Being an Ikaruga fan, I'm a sucker for polarity-based gameplay mechanics!) Certain spaces in each stage are black or white as well and landing your delta on these spaces with the correct side of the delta facing up causes them to be cleared. Once these spaces are cleared the stage is complete. The challenge of this is eased slightly by the ability to rotate your delta around its 90 degree angle as well. Confused yet? I don't blame you. The game is difficult to describe but once you get into it, it all feels so right.

In addition to the core gameplay elements above, each stage features various kinds of spaces. Among others, some spaces crack and eventually disappear, some alter your delta in stange ways, some even launch you upward or cause you to fall through to the various elevations of a stage. Thats right, most stages have more than one level that you'll need to move between in real-time to solve that particular stage.

The graphics have an abstract sci-fi look similar to Taito's Arkanoid series and they look even better in action. This is one of the prettier games on the NeoGeo Pocket. This is nicely complemented by the music and sound effects which fit the odd but energetic vibe of the game quite well.

There are plenty of stages to work through and the game even features a robust level editor. Play this game once and I'm fairly certain it'll keep you wanting to come back for more, just like a great puzzle game should. There's nothing else quite like it.

Note!: This game was programmed to use the NeoGeo Pocket's hardware in strange ways, therefor it's hard to emulate. NeoPop plays it decently but traditional saving doesn't work (savestates might), there's some odd slowdown (it's hard to notice but watch the timer) and strange graphical glitching. RACE-PSP for the PlayStation Portable actually plays it best of any emulator I've seen (near perfectly), as I personally worked with the emulator's very talented developer to get it working. The best solution to playing it accurately? Buy it! It's still available at Play-Asia among other places.

For more information, see Portable Review or Defunct Games.

Last week, Sony's PlayStation Director of Hardware Marketing, John Koller, said the new, brighter PSP-3000 would suffer a battery life loss of up to half an hour. Now he's furiously backtracking.

I'd like to make a correction and clarify that the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about 4 to 6 hours for games and about 4 to 5 hours for UMD videos. While the enhanced screen of the new PSP draws a little more power, our engineers in Japan worked to reduce the power consumption of the overall system including its components, so you won't have to worry about losing any time when enjoying the more vibrant visuals displayed with the new PSP.

That's nice to hear, but it certainly doesn't gel with what Koller was saying just last week. Nothing could have possibly changed in the design since then.

Speculation: the sentence "our engineers in Japan worked to reduce the power consumption of the overall system" is a bit weasely. According to Famitsu, the new PSP-3000 firmware will featurea setting which will allow you to ramp back the color and brightness to PSP-2000 levels. My guess is that Koller's backpedaling, but if you want to play on a lower-power mode, at least that option's available to you.

New PSP’s Battery Life Equivalent to Current PSP [PlayStation Blog]