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| PS Vita TV - Gaming, streaming, browsing goodness on your TV Created: 20-09-2013 11:17 Edited: 20-09-2013 11:44 |
PS Vita TV - Gaming, Streaming, Browsing Goodness on Your TVSony have been busy recently, what with the PS4 and now what looks like the best set-top TV box in the world! In something smaller than a smart phone (65.0mm x 105.0mm x 13.6 mm), the PS Vita TV box has the power of a PS Vita games console and most of its features too. The specs are very impressive with a quad core ARM Cortex A9 CPU under the hood and a quad core SGX543MP4+ GPU it runs Vita games as well as the back catalogue of PSP and PS One games available through PSN. The controller is a standard Dual Shock so the only thing missing is the touch screen/touchpad capabilities. This means that not all Vita games are compatible, but there is still over 1,300 games which you can play. The specs beat the pants off of the Apple TV and so does it's price - currently around £63 in Japan (RRP. 9,954 Yen) or £95 with a white Dual Shock 3 controller and 8GB memory card (RRP. 14,994 Yen).  For Apple TV, the gaming side seems like an afterthought with the emphasis on playing content purchased from iTunes. The PS Vita TV offers a much more powerful gaming device - plus access to Sony's huge online TV and movie services (although not as big as iTunes) and their cloud based music service 'Music Unlimited'. The Japanese version has a Hulu player along with access to 7 other popular Japanese video providers at launch. There is a built-in ebook reader too supporting books and comics, and access to Twitter. There is apparently a streaming karaoke service coming soon for it (which I am half hoping will only be available in Japan!) More services will be added over time and there is no technical reason why this device couldn't have a YouTube, Netflix and LoveFilm application too to give customers even more choice. It also has access to email, text chat and voice chat, and the Vita web browser which might not be everyone's favourite but again it still beats the Apple TV which doesn't have one. Just like the Vita you will be able to stream games from your PS4 to the device to play on a TV in another room with your Dual Shock 4 controller.  There is no reason why the new streaming service soon to be offered by Sony to play PS3 titles on the PS4 via the cloud should not work, opening up a library of PS3 titles too. The device has a good stand-by feature which basically tells it to hibernate, storing the current status of your game. This way you can wake it up and continue whenever you like. You can play games against other PS Vita users via the networking 'Ad Hoc' mode, or connect 1 more Dual Shock 3 controller to play two player games (e.g. PS One titles).  It is nice to see them offer a wired network connection as well as WiFi (802.11 b/g/n) for those without decent WiFi coverage throughout their house. On the back you can also see the memory card slot, USB port and HDMI socket too which looks like it will support up to 1080i. It launches in Japan on 14th November 2013, but sadly there are no dates available for release in other territories. |
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