The idea of Sony merging the PSP with a smartphone has been around for about a month now, but this photo proves it’s real. It’s clearly marked as a Sony Ericsson unit with Android phone buttons below the screen, with a slide-out panel that holds the standard PSP game controls as well as a touchpad in the middle. The Android version it’ll run on isn’t clear, although it’s expected to run on Android 3.0 (which may or may not be Gingerbread), as well as a custom interface that comes with a link to the Sony Marketplace for downloading games.
Okay, to be clear, Nintendo didn’t announce a ship date for the dual-screened 3DS handheld. They did mention when they’re going to be announcing the golden date though. According to this Bloomberg Japan report, they’ll be announcing a release date on September 29. Nothing new after that, but we could still at least expect the 3DS to arrive by the holidays.
Nintendo finally gave out initial (and official) details for the 3DS handheld during their E3 keynote. The dual-screen handheld still basically looks like the dual-screened DSi, but the 3.5-inch top screen will support 3D visuals without needing any special glasses.
Steering wheel accessories usually make for a fun driving game experience by adding a little bit more realism and feel. Nintendo usually thinks of ways to make gaming intuitively fun, with controls and interfaces that usually take up a few minutes for anyone to learn. According to this report, Nintendo has filed for a patent that basically claims dibs on touch-based steering wheel controls for their DSi handheld.
