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Portables (Games) Sony

PSP Becomes a Phone Via UK Deal With BT 41

Posted by Zonk from the pretty-sexy-phone dept.
marcellizot writes "PSP owners might want to sit down for this one: Sony has just signed a four-year deal with BT to turn the PSP into a phone. The partnership will add wireless broadband communication functions, including high quality video calls, voice calls and messaging. The partnership will initially integrate the PSP with BT Broadband's video and voice softphone VoIP software, meaning that calls will be free, with the customer only having to pay for the BT broadband subscription. This means that initially the service will only enable the PSP to communicate with products that run the softphone software. BT has already confirmed however that in the months following the service's debut, additional features will be launched to enable calls and messages to PCs, fixed lines and mobiles."
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PSP Becomes a Phone Via UK Deal With BT More

PSP Becomes a Phone Via UK Deal With BT

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  • Wow, the PSP really is following in the footsteps of the N-Gage. It's as popular, and now it has the phone functionality.
    • The only question is, will they put a special side-mounted mic+speaker onto an addon so you can have the full N-Gage experience?

    • It's actually sold over 20 million... (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In fact, 21 million PSPs have been sold worldwide, and it's still selling. It's as popular as the Xbox or Gamecube, vastly more than the Dreamcast or Ngage. It's also sold more than twice as many systems as the 360, although that did launch later.

      The actual hardware is pretty poor IMO (analog nub in particular) but you can't really knock its popularity.
    • At least a couple people out there actually still use their PSPs.

  • Multi-functionality (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EMeta ( 860558 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @09:37AM (#19236523)
    Woah--technology actually using its inherent capabilities? This is revolutionary! What next, the Zune playing songs from your computer's hard drive? cell phones transferring songs from one to another? A next generation operating system running faster than a previous generation? A moderation system that keeps obvious, redundant posts like this one out of the way?

    Naw, some things are too crazy.

    • Well, at least one of those can happen already. I transfered a bunch of (non DRM'd) songs from one phone to another via bluetooth.

      However, being serious for a moment, there's been a lot of talk on the PSP forums about voip functionality being hidden somewhere in the PSP firmware for a good while.

      But having to add a microphone onto the PSP seems a tad bit awkward. If it connects up like the camera addon, then it'll no doubt look pretty stupid, heck, even worse than the dreaded sidetalkin' N-Gage days of yo

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by EMeta ( 860558 )
        The smart move (and what I imagine they're doing, considering the PSP's largess) would be to add a bluetooth interface module to it, and let people use their own bluetooth headsets.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Pikoro ( 844299 )
        Um. It will most likley use the same camera addon or the mic from the Talkman series. Since video calls are mentioned as well, I would go with the camera addon since it already has a mic built into it. Bluetooth would be a cool addition...
    • I thought thats what admins were for. :f

    • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by Breakfast Pants ( 323698 )
      The PSP is so dorky--seriously Sony, lose the disc drive. The drive is so out of place on a portable that I can't believe anyone bought the thing.
  • Can I talk on it while holding the PSP sideways [sidetalkin.com]?
  • If you see someone talking to their PSP, it could be that they don't have severe mental problems...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      they don't have severe mental problems...
      Let's not jump to conclusions, they'd be paying for a BT VOIP service...

  • My Impression (Score:3, Insightful)

    by VE3OGG ( 1034632 ) <VE3OGG@NOSpAm.rac.ca> on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @09:57AM (#19237053)
    I gotta say, while it is nice to see Sony promoting its platform (something it has been known to do with lackluster results), and that they seem to be thinking up creative methods to do so, I can't say this passes my simple "common sense" litmus test.

    If a service launches with an obviously limited functionality, very few will buy into it (as, really, it is just a nifty gee-whiz feature). However BT (and any company investing in such a move) would require significant sales initially to show that there is profitability. OF course, no one will be terribly interested in the PSP, so the sales won't be there, and the service will likely be axed, or those "improvements" will never appear...

    Just my 2c Canadian....
  • This is pretty cool, what can U.S. customers hope for, I wonder?

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by sortius_nod ( 1080919 )
      a retarded president and your jobs being shipped to china... wait, you meant about the PSP-mobile thingie...

  • another nail in the Mylo coffin (Score:3, Insightful)

    by speculatrix ( 678524 ) on Wednesday May 23, 2007 @11:37AM (#19239327)
    seems like there's even less reason to get a Sony Mylo these days, I wonder what marketing genius at Sony decided to create it? OK, so the Mylo has Skype and a thumboard, but it's very expensive. If it weren't for the locked nature of the PSP I'm sure some entrepreneur would have produced some interesting packages for the PSP which would have made it more useful as a general purpose communicator.

  • 1) What is "the BT"?

    2) How do you dial a PSP? No touch screen, no keypad. Are you supposed to move a cursor around on an on-screen keyboard? Kind of like naming your main character in old rpg's.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by VJ42 ( 860241 ) *

      1) What is "the BT"?

      there is no "the" BT stands for British Telecom [bt.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by poot_rootbeer ( 188613 )
      How do you dial a PSP? No touch screen, no keypad.

      A few possibilities:
      1) Push the analog nub around like a rotary phone's dial.
      2) Map the D-pad, face buttons, Select, and Start to 0-9, *, and #. Impress your friends by instructing them to call you by entering the Konami Code.
      3) Seriously, who even uses a keypad for dialing anymore? I select a name from a contact list when I need to make a call. A lot of automated phone systems even support voice activation instead now.
      • Seriously, who even uses a keypad for dialing anymore?

        Someone who wants to call anyone they've never called before?
        • Heck, even for THOSE I'll typically press the Command button and say "Dial 1-555-123-4567..."

          It takes longer, but half the time I'm doing it from the road, so I'd rather be safer about it. Some phones (like many of LG's new ones) are extremely repetitive when doing that, though, so it really depends on the model.

      • I bet they could sell the rotary dialing with the analogue stick as a retro-style feature.

        But seriously, if you use this as your main phone you're going to have to download contacts from a computer (and by computer I mean a PC with clunky proprietary software) onto the phone. You won't be able to update or add to your contacts very easily. This is exactly why I don't use the calendar/datebook function on my iPod: its read-only.

  • I know the Slashdot crowd is meeting this development with skepticism, but by George if Apple can pull off this kind of shenanigans with the iPhone, then Sony can do it too!

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