Start Playing Around!
by Gary Woods

It has been predicted that the number of portable gamers will almost double in the next few years, from 23 million in 2003 to 43 million in 2009. Sony's PlayStation Portable, or PSP, has been talked about for over two years now, but in May the world got its first look at the prototype and preliminary specifications. Gracefully sculpted in black, the PSP carries over the general button layout of a PlayStation controller, with additional controls seemingly well positioned to stay out of the way during game play. It's hard to say without actually holding the finished device, but it sure looks like an ergonomic winner.

The Sony screen is a true 16X9 ratio, making it ideal for viewing movies in widescreen format. Plus, the PSP will include a remote commander on its headphone cord. Sony is emphasizing strong PlayStation compatibility, backing it up with powerful media playing functions. The PSP uses a single Memory Stick Pro Duo slot and a new miniature optical media dubbed Universal Media Disk, or UMD.

These 60mm UMD disks will hold up to 1.8 gigabytes on each single-side, dual-layer platter and will utilize Sony's proprietary ATRAC3 audio and MPEG-4AVC video formats that are all 128-bit encrypted and copy protected in typical Sony fashion.

The tech world is abuzz about mobile media players, with the general consensus being that this will be the next big things after the iPod's resounding worldwide success with mobile digital music.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910