Hey, remember the N-Gage? It was Nokia’s attempt, in 2003, to leverage its at-the-time unbeatable place in the forefront of cellphones to beat Nintendo in the portable gaming market. It was going to do absolutely everything! Tune in radio! Take annoying calls from your parents! Slice! Dice! There was no way it could lose!
That didn’t end well, but Sony obviously wasn’t taking notes, and now, we’ve got the Xperia Play. The official announcement of the new phone, plus which Apple rumor is now taking the place of the Verizon iPhone in the Apple Rumor Hall of Legend, today in Uproxx News.
First up, the Xperia Play. From, of course, Sony Ericsson, and on the Verizon network first, it has essentially a DualShock that slides out instead of a keyboard, with analog touchpads and left and right triggers along the sides. It also has the standard features of any cellphone released in the modern day: 5 megapixel camera, multi-touch capable screen, microSD slot, and so on and so forth.
As for games, it will apparently come with “Ridge Racer”, and franchises like “Dead Space” and the apparently-not-quite-dead-yet “Guitar Hero” are coming along for the ride.
As for how it’ll do, that’s up in the air. Sony has done well in the portable gaming market: the PSP may have gotten clobbered by the Nintendo DS, but it still sold millions of units and is a popular portable system today. But the PSP didn’t come with a data plan. Our bet is that the real success will be in how the Xperia Play differentiates itself from other experiences on the market; better make use of that touchscreen, game developers.
Meanwhile, now that the Verizon iPhone officially exists, and might even come in white for the five people who actually care, Apple and gadget bloggers find themselves without an Apple product to make up rumors about in order to attract traffic. So they’ve dug up a classic that’s been going around since the iPhone launched, and now we’re hearing lots of hot rumors that a smaller, cheaper iPhone is on the way.
Apparently, this new iPhone will be one-half or two-thirds smaller, have an edge to edge touchscreen, and will have a universal SIM card slot, meaning you can just buy this iPhone from Apple, slot in your SIM card, and you’re rocking a trend Apple product, just like everyone else.
The source of these rumors, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, are of course unimpeachable, but we’re a little skeptical solely because of the sizing: if it really is half as big, that would make it about two inches tall by one inch wide, basically two iPod nanos stacked together. It’s certainly in line with Apple’s philosophy, which believes small is beautiful, and not just because Jobs as a creepy dwarf fetish. And we’re sure Apple likes the idea of a cheaper iPhone to snag all the people who don’t already own the most popular cellphone ever made; it’s in line with their sales philosophy.
It’s the SIM card that trips us up. Apple? Giving the power of choice to the consumer? We’re pretty sure science will prove unicorns exist in a magical land of marshmallows and happy clouds before an Apple product actually gives consumers more choice.
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- Sony releases all the details of the Xperia Play. Well, all the details that haven’t already leaked. Which we guess would be the screen resolution? (Forbes)
- The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg have both leaked details about the iPhone nano. They conflict in a lot of places, but let’s just all freak out anyway since we’ve been talking about it since the iPhone itself came out. (Washington Post)
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- Bill Murray had his golf game interrupted by a deer. If only it were a gopher, then our “Caddyshack IRL” meme would finally take off (MSNBC Photoblog)
- And in heartwarming news, Eli, the dog of Pfc. Colton Rusk, a fallen Marine, was given to his family by special dispensation of the Secretary of the Navy. Our condolences to the Rusk family, and we hope Eli has a long and happy life with them. (Huffington Post)
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- Lonely after Valentine’s Day? Female? Willing to move? There are 180 million singles in China, with 119 boys born for every 100 girls. (Yahoo!)
- Meanwhile, 27% of women have been dumped via text message. Maybe Apple can make that a new feature in the iPhone Nano. (Cosmopolitan)
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