Sony’s PSVita To Hit Stores Near End Of 2011

Sony unveiled their “next-generation portable” (NGP), last month, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) which was held in Los Angeles. Sony revealed that the official name for their NGP is PSVita. The PSVita is supposed to help Sony remain in the market for portable gaming, as Apple and other large companies have a large lead with products such as the iPad and iPod Touch. Sony has confirmed that the Wi-Fi version will retail for $249, however the 3G will go on sale for $299. As for the 3G version, Sony will “team-up” with AT&T, nevertheless AT&T’s issues with the 3G iPad models. When Sony announced its partnership with AT&T, the crowd let out some chuckles, yet was still respectful. An abundance of people are looking forward to the new PlayStation portable, especially because of its brand new features and specifications.

A great feature that Sony added to its new product is the new front and back multi-touch screens. They allow for better game-play experience and a lot more control over your game. Nonetheless, Sony also added motion sensors and Six-Axis sensors to the portable, the same ones found in the PlayStation controllers. Another slick feature is “Chat on the Fly”. It allows you to chat with your friends while in the midst multi-player action or while watching videos. This is quite a good new feature that will receive a lot of “plus” points for Sony. Another huge feature for the PSVita are the dual analog sticks; feel the intensity while playing first person shooters. Equally important are the front and rear cameras, they provide an augmented reality for the player so that we can merge the real world and the game.

The PlayStation Vita’s specs look quite impressive; however it’s easy to write them down, but will they actually perform?

CPU – ARM^® Cortex™- A9 core (4 core)

GPU – SGX543MP4+

External Dimensions – Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)

Screen (Touch Screen) – 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLEDMulti touch screen (capacitive type)

Rear Touch Pad – Multi touch pad (capacitive type)

Cameras – Front camera, Rear camera

Sound – Built-in stereo speakers, Built-in microphone

Sensors – Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass

Location – Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support

Wireless Communications – Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n =

1×1)(Wi-Fi)(Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth^® 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)

Keys / Switches – PS button ,Power button, Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left), Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), Shoulder buttons (Right/Left), Right stick, Left stick, START button, SELECT button,Volume buttons (+/-)

What sticks out the most is the CPU, the touch screens, and the sensors. The CPU is definitely going bring an abundance of power into this device. The gaming on Sony’s PSVita will be set to a whole new level. As I said in the paragraphs above, the touch screens will most definitely provide a better gaming experience. This is because the touch pads which are integrated into the PSVita will let the player feel like their in control of their game a lot more. The same goes for the sensors.

As of right now, the time of writing, there are 20 games that have been officially announced for the PSVita. These games include: Uncharted Golden Abyss, FIFA 12, Call Of Duty, Little Big Planet, WipeOut, Modnation Racers, and Lego Harry Potter. Of course, with Naughty Dog in the beta stages of their new game, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Uncharted will be one of the bigger games for the PSVita.

Sony’s PSVita carry’s a very slick design. I bet you there are going to be a lot of protective cases out for the PS Portable when it launches, but I have to say, it would look nicer without one. If I were to get a PSVita, I’d have to go through long and stressful thoughts regarding a case for the device.

Let’s see how the PSVita turns out. What do you think of it?

Echofon For iPhone & iPod Touch. Best Twitter Application Yet!

Echofon for the Apple iPhone & iPod Touch, is a fantastic way to keep in touch with your Twitter Friends & Followers! Echofon was created & published by Naan Studio, Inc. It’s currently listed as Free on the Apple App Store, but who knows, this might change… very soon. I find this app fulfills all my “Twitter needs”, to be honest, I would say this is better than the application Twitter brought to the iPhone & iPod Touch.

Echofon allows you to add as many Twitter accounts as you want. You can switch through all your accounts, with just a few taps. Once you’ve chosen your account, you can view all the Tweets on your Time-line, under “Home“, or look at your mentions, simply by tapping “Mentions“. 🙂 If you’ve checked those all already, you can either check your Messages or Lists.

Echofon works extremely well, & is a pleasure to have on my iPod Touch. All though the advertisement gets really annoying sometimes, it’s definitely one of the best Twitter apps on the App Store. The application receives all new tweets exactly at the time when they were posted. Absolutely no delays!

Pros:

• Simple & Great User-Interface
• Add Multiple Accounts
• Able to do anything that you could do on the Actual Twitter Website

Cons:

• Advertisement

Overall I would rate Echofon 4/5, because there are a few things that could be better, such as advertising. I would still strongly recommend you to purchase this application.

If you’re interested in downloading Echofon, click the following link: http://itunes.apple.com/

Want to find out more about Echofon, the visit it’s web page: http://www.echofon.com

Apple’s Itunes now lists “Game Center” Compatible Apps.

Apple has added some more information to the way it labels games in the iTunes App Store. Prior to the last update, people wanting to find games that were compatible with Game Center, Apples new Multi-Player platform, were forced to search for them or look for them in the special “Game Center” Icon which was featured on the “Featured” page of the App Store. Now that Apple added labels for apps that are compatible with Game Center, users will have easier & quicker access to the compatible apps.

Do you have Game Center installed on your iPod or iPhone? Are you happy about the fact that Apple placed labels on the apps that are compatible with Game Center? Tell us in the comments.

Carcassone Board Game for the iPhone & iPod Touch Now Available!

Carcassone is one of a type! It’s the perfect game for the whole family. It’s a bit challenging for the newcomers, but don’t worry, it has a superb Tutorial which you can decide to read or listen to. For the people that know the rules of this classic game, it’ll be no problem playing the game. The main aim of the classic game is to expand the “board” by appropriately placing tiles next to each other. The game also allows the player to place Farmers, Thief’s, & Knights in order to collect as many points as possible. You will be able to play with up to 5 players in the “Normal Game” mode, under “Local”. Carcassonne also allows you to play Online against anyone in the world via WI-FI or Local Multiplayer via WI-FI & Bluetooth. While playing Online Multiplayer, it’s only possible to play with 1 other person (2 in Total), but in Local Multiplayer you can choose to play with up to 4 other people (Computer or Human). A new feature added into Carcassone is called the “Solitaire” mode. This mode allows the player to complete a certain challenge with limited amount of Carcassone cards. For every card you place next to another, you will lose a certain number of points. The Points start at 1000 & will decrease every time you place a card until you completed the challenge. The aim of this mode is to finish the challenge with the highest possible points. Carcassone also features a High-Score Leaderboard. The High-Scores consist of the Solitaire mode, Local Multiplayer mode, & Internet mode, although I haven’t quite figured out what Internet mode is supposed to display. Unfortunately Online Leader boards haven’t been added into the game yet, but will soon. The downsides of Carcassone are that the turn timer while playing online takes to long, & that Multiplayer High-Scores haven’t been added into the High-Scores section yet. One more thing I like about this application is that it’s possible to play more than 1 game at a time. It’s extremely simple to play at least 5 games simultaneously, but the Pop-Ups telling you that it’s you’re turn in your other games do get quite annoying! Here are a list of other features Carcassonne has:

• Official Carcassonne game with original artwork
• 8 different AI players
• Internet multiplayer with Push Notifications
• Local network play with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
• Unique Solitaire mode
• Available in English and German
• Online and offline ranking
• Comprehensive in-game manual
• Tutorials with voice acting
• Compete for the best score in Solitaire Game of the Week
• Chat function for Internet and local network games
• Invite friends to play in-game or via email

I’ll leave it at that.

Carcassonne is definitely a great game, which could do with a few more updates, but other than that, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys puzzle games & doesn’t mind giving up a bit of time. I admit that it’s price ($4.99) is a bit too much for the game at the moment, but when the developers updates that game, Carcassonne will definitely be worth your money!

Fruit Ninja for iPhone & iPod Touch Now Available!

Normally cutting fruits is boring & non-fun; but now there’s FRUIT NINJA! FRUIT NINJA is an application created for the Iphone & Itouch, and recently FRUIT NINJA HD was released for the Ipad. The application was created with a lot of creativity, you notice this while playing the game, because of it’s unique User-Interface. Once you launch the application, a creative Home screen will appear. Although the graphics are well thought through & well designed, I think they could be improved. The graphics look a bit old-schooled; once you play FRUIT NINJA you may or may not realize what i’m saying. The aim of FRUIT NINJA is to slice as many fruits as you can without slicing bombs(1 Type of Gaming Mode). The minute you slice your first fruit, the graphics start to get better. Now you’re able to see all the juice dripping from the sliced fruit, which to be honest, is kind of addicting to look at! You might ask yourself, “How do I slice fruits?”. You slice fruits by sliding your finger across the fruit, & as a matter of fact you do this for the rest of the game’s options as well. Instead of touching the screen like you find yourself doing in other games, you slide you finger across anything you’d like to ‘click’ on.

Navigation

• Once FRUIT NINJA launches, the Home screen should appear, with 3 circles containing fruits. A new feature which was added in an updates is the DOJO, located at the lower left of the screen. Then there’s the ‘New Game’ option which is found right next to the DOJO. Last but not least is the Openfeint feature; located at the top right corner, placed diagonally above the ‘New Game’ option. As I mentioned before, the Home screen could use a bit more graphics, but other than that it’s been designed creatively.

Game Modes

• Once FRUIT NINJA is launched, you’ll be able to ‘Slice’ the ‘New Game’ option to access the 2/3 finished game modes. Once you’re in that option, you’ll be allowed to pick between two game modes: Classic & Zen Mode. While playing the Classic Mode of FRUIT NINJA, you have to slice as many fruits as possible without slicing bombs. The Player has 3 ‘lives’ which are bombs, once you slice 3 bombs the game’s over. Players can achieve High-Scores by making combos. You make combos by slicing as many fruits as possible in on go (Applies to both Game Modes). While playing the Zen Mode of FRUIT NINJA, you have 90 seconds to slice as many fruits & make the most combos as possible without ‘Lives’ & Bombs. Here’s a tip for high combos: You can use as many fingers for blades as you want. Personally I like the Classic Mode more, because I think it enables you to achieve a higher score than playing the Zen Mode.

Online Features

• FRUIT NINJA contains Openfeint which allows you to connect with other people around the world, share High-Scores, compete, & much more! To use Openfeint you’ll need to make a FREE account, or sign in with one if you’ve already got one. FRUIT NINJA also allows you to post your latest High-Scores to Twitter & Facebook. I think that this application would be boring without Openfeint because you wouldn’t be able to compete about scores.

All-in-all, I think this applications has potential to become something greater than what it is at the moment. There will definitely have to be future updates to make this possible, I’m sure the developers are thinking about updates. To be honest I got bored really quickly playing this application, even with Openfeint integrated into FRUIT NINJA. In the end it’s just doing the same simple tasks after & after each other. But who knows! Maybe its your type of game.