James Channel continues to shed light on old, forgotten gaming gear that still has a few tricks up its sleeve. His latest segment delves deeper into a device from 2003 that appears to be an early prototype for the PlayStation Portal. More specifically, the Intech Controller and Game Screen (model PS2-750). It’s an odd combination of a full PlayStation 2 controller and a little built-in screen and speakers that allows you to play on the go, away from the big living room TV.
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 noise-canceling wireless headphones, priced at $250 (was $400), feature 8 microphones and two processors to read the environment and instantaneously adjust to whatever noise is there. When you lift off, say from an airplane, distracting background noise disappears, while office banter or city traffic fades into a distant hum that no longer draws your attention.
A gamer known as Secret Hobbyist spent months designing and testing a custom circuit board that combines the best parts of two different PlayStation models into a single hybrid console, one that loads games from a microSD card and outputs video over HDMI to any modern display.
Sony announced earlier this week that the PS5 is getting a price increase, with the new $649.99 price taking effect on April 2nd. Anyone willing to act in the next few days can still pick up the current 1TB disc edition at the existing $549.99 price from major retailers, which amounts to a $100 saving well worth acting on if a PS5 has been on your list.
Long before phone cameras became the answer to almost every photography need, Sony released something in 2003 that took a very different approach to the whole idea of a camera. The DKC-C200X was built for one job and one job only, capturing passport and ID photos on the spot. Designed to work as part of Sony’s UPX-C200 system alongside a dedicated printer, the whole setup operated as a self contained unit with no cables or connections required, making it exactly what post offices and ID processing centers needed to turn around photos quickly and reliably
Photo credit: Sarang Sheth | Yanko Design
A recently uncovered Sony patent shows how users could connect a smartphone directly to the DualSense controller. The entire concept revolves around connecting two pieces of hardware that most people already own and using them to create a seamless gaming experience directly into PlayStation. Some drawings included with the application show a phone simply placed on top of the controller’s analog sticks and triggers. A magnetic thingy holds everything together, so you can simply plug your phone in and it transforms into a single, compact handheld item.
Sony announced a price increase on its existing PlayStation 5 hardware lineup this morning. As of April 2nd, the normal PS5 disc edition in the United States will cost $649.99, while the digital-only version will cost $599.99. The big boys, the PS5 Pro, will be $899.99, while the portable PlayStation Portal remote player will cost up to $249.99. The PS5 disc will cost £569.99 in the UK, the digital edition £519.99, the Pro £789.99, and the Portal £219.99. Over in Europe, the disc variant will cost €649.99, the digital edition €599.99, the Pro €899.99, and the Portal €249.99. In Japan, the PS5 will cost ¥97,980 on disc, ¥89,980 on digital, ¥137,980 on Pro, and ¥39,980 for Portal.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be available on PS5 in April of this year, and there will be no additional cost to enjoy it in Virtual Reality. Sim Update 5 includes the VR mode as well as a few other minor improvements, such as snazzy new avionics and compatibility for five new payware aircraft. Anyone who already owns the game on PS5 will be able to try out the VR feature for free because, let’s be honest, the timing looks promising for a release in the first half of next month.
One modder has done something rather impressive with a PS5, transforming a device that was never supposed to be more than a Sony console into a fully-fledged Linux gaming system with a fairly intriguing twist: it runs PC titles via Steam. Andy Nguyen, known online as theflow0, is the modder in issue, as he is the one who got it operating and gave the console serious gaming credentials.
Back in the early 1990s, Nintendo and Sony collaborated to create something big: the Nintendo PlayStation. Sony basically agreed to furnish the CD-ROM technology that would be installed in the Super Nintendo. That meant developers could load games from discs, which opened up a whole new universe of possibilities that cartridges simply couldn’t compete with, and that was a major deal.