Sony's NeoGeo Pocket's (PSP2/Vita) business/non technical ramifications talk

Yeah, it's the wording that's a bit bunk. Although Nintendo have done this and it's caused some issues with save-games that can't be deleted, ruining resale value and rentals. I wonder if that's something we'll see happen on Vita too?
 
"Security concerns" is euphemism for DRM?

Or for high-profit margins?

Or both?

You do actually know that this is not Sony's first handheld portable, don't you?

Personally, I am more surprised at there not being storage included by default, but this does allow them more flexibility, and at least you can easily upgrade later when things get cheaper.
 
There's a fundamentla limitation regards media though. You can't just pop your storage card into a PC and copy over content. That's a stupid limitation in this era, even more so than not including HDMI out. I'd want my media device to take my SD card out from my camera and camcorder or PC and be able to play the content from it, for considerable added value and convenience. Vita appears to require a connection to PC to copy content across. Maybe Sony are thinking everyone wants wireless DLNC instead, but that's no use when you want to watch a movie or listen to music on holiday.
 
There's a fundamentla limitation regards media though. You can't just pop your storage card into a PC and copy over content. That's a stupid limitation in this era, even more so than not including HDMI out. I'd want my media device to take my SD card out from my camera and camcorder or PC and be able to play the content from it, for considerable added value and convenience. Vita appears to require a connection to PC to copy content across. Maybe Sony are thinking everyone wants wireless DLNC instead, but that's no use when you want to watch a movie or listen to music on holiday.

Can still plug in the USB cable into most TVs? Also do we know the type of memorycard? Is it new or is it Memory Stick PRO DUO connector compatible, say? We only basically know that you have to be able to plug it in at the same time as the flash storage for games, so they're not likely to use the same port.

Being a removeable card immediately ups the chance of being able to plug it into something else. Compare that to, say, all iOS devices ...

Also, when someone said inflated prices, I was expecting much worse than 90 euros for the 32GB card (I had no idea about Yen value until I threw them into a converter).
 
There's a fundamentla limitation regards media though. You can't just pop your storage card into a PC and copy over content. That's a stupid limitation in this era, even more so than not including HDMI out. I'd want my media device to take my SD card out from my camera and camcorder or PC and be able to play the content from it, for considerable added value and convenience. Vita appears to require a connection to PC to copy content across. Maybe Sony are thinking everyone wants wireless DLNC instead, but that's no use when you want to watch a movie or listen to music on holiday.

I've never found it more convenient to use a card reader than just connect my PSP to my PSP via a USB cable. And in this way it's no less convenient than any iOS device. Maybe it would help if you just pretend the memory cards aren't removable, that it's more like an optional, upgradeable hard drive?

And there are other options for moving media. The PS3 allows you to copy media to the local disk via DLNA and there's no reason the Vita couldn't do the same. You'll also have remote play as an option if you have a PS3 to stream anything you have stored there over the internet anywhere you have WiFi or 3G access.
 
But SD is universal, so you can take it out of one device and stick it in another without needing a PC. given Sony's range of devices, this'd be a big plus for them. eg. Record something on your camcorder to SD card, viewing on its cheap LCD screen, but then pull out the SD card, pop it into your Vita, and get a much better view or on-the-go editing like the various creative apps that have appeared on iOS. Choice of a propietary format, even if MemoryStick, is another missed opportunity by Sony to create a Sony Experience.
 
But SD is universal, so you can take it out of one device and stick it in another without needing a PC. given Sony's range of devices, this'd be a big plus for them. eg. Record something on your camcorder to SD card, viewing on its cheap LCD screen, but then pull out the SD card, pop it into your Vita, and get a much better view or on-the-go editing like the various creative apps that have appeared on iOS. Choice of a propietary format, even if MemoryStick, is another missed opportunity by Sony to create a Sony Experience.

Absolutely, but I have not one second of doubt that it is more important to Sony to have less piracy this time around. Also, since the games running from the stick are more demanding than usual, Sony would have to implement some kind of 360 style memory card tester to make sure they match the baseline.

Anyway, I'm reserving further judgment until we know more about the memorycards, drm, adapters and whatnot.
 
I'd have thought consumers these days would be savvy enough to know a class 4 or whatever minimum performance is required. Or even allow SD cards for media but not for games content or something. TBH security via data injections shouldn't be an issue with what they've learnt from PS3, so there should be no reason to fear SD cards affecting Vita any more than fearing any USB storage can hack PS3. PSP security was just weak, and shouldn't be the base from which to decided what user limits to impose on account fo security.

Vita's not a terribly bad device, and it seems to have a bit of interest, but it's well short of what it could be and not because of anything sensible like extreme costs and business risks. It's just Sony running at their usual uncertain cruising speed instead of going great guns.
 
In fact, they marketed SD cards which were designated as PSP-compatible.

Even Sony cameras support SD now. Being able to pop in a card with pictures and videos you just took to view on that big display might have been a selling point but apparently the opportunity to make fat margins on accessories must be too irresistible.
 
Is that the mentality behind Sony's disparate approach to business? It boggles my mind how they can miss such an obvious trategy to offer a unified Sony experience. Even as separate divisions working independently, I'd have thought someone in music would have seen the opportunities in PS and sought a collaboration, and someone in cameras, and it would have just happened. Sony will remain an enigma to me; how they could be so completely unaware of their own potential and opportunities!
 
Is that the mentality behind Sony's disparate approach to business? It boggles my mind how they can miss such an obvious trategy to offer a unified Sony experience. Even as separate divisions working independently, I'd have thought someone in music would have seen the opportunities in PS and sought a collaboration, and someone in cameras, and it would have just happened. Sony will remain an enigma to me; how they could be so completely unaware of their own potential and opportunities!

"Class 4" memory cards, you just lost 99% of those that buy memory cards. They don´t know shit about speed and what it means. They wouldn´t stand a chance if speed was an issue with these cards.

In this case i am certain that Sony took a look at the PSP piracy and decided to not giving a damn about it and went for the full package in order to protect the software.. of course in a few years some hacker will have found an easy backdoor :)

As long as i have an easy USB access i will be satisfied, it´s not like i have a SDCARD reader in my PC anyway, nor in my PS3. But i have plenty USB ports
 
"Class 4" memory cards, you just lost 99% of those that buy memory cards. They don´t know shit about speed and what it means.
Although I don't place much faith in the average consumer's technical knowhow, I do think in this respect they'd more likely be up to speed, in the same way they can be trained to recognise key values like MHz, GBs, and resolutions. But I've no stats on that, and maybe Joe Gamer wouldn't know the difference. Although that doesn't discount the use of SD cards, only Sony can provide a PS official one for clueless people and let those who know use their existing cards in their existing devices and Vita.

In this case i am certain that Sony took a look at the PSP piracy and decided to not giving a damn about it and went for the full package in order to protect the software.. of course in a few years some hacker will have found an easy backdoor.
That doesn't make sense to me. PS3 have all sorts of open ports - standard HDD, card slots, DVD drive, USB device access - and it's remained secure. The holes were a mix of insider info and stupid mistakes, with stupid mistakes preventable and insider holes unstoppable so there's no real point in isolating hardware for that, only to stop hacker investigations. Vita could use the same security design as PS3 only even tighter, so how does proprietary formats help? I can only see this as a money-making scheme, and a frustrating back-pedal by Sony who have been embracing open standards.

As long as i have an easy USB access i will be satisfied, it´s not like i have a SDCARD reader in my PC anyway, nor in my PS3. But i have plenty USB ports
I don't either except by USB adaptor, but I do in my camcorder and many people do in their cameras, music players, mobile devices, and even TVs. Being able to share media with these devices makes sense. There's no benefit to not supporting that, and it's not like it's a tiny niche either. SD is a universal storage and distribtuion standard. The cost to system value for Sony by not including a standard SD connector vastly outweighs the financial benefits IMO.
 
the ps3 might have a standard hdd, but the filesystem still is a propietary or atleast rather exotic one with encryption on top to prohibit tampering with files.
if you have the vita formating and using a SD-Card in a similar fashion then the value is vastly dimished.

it could use regular fat cards from cameras and the like, in a read-only fashion. but you dont often swap sd cards around and I guess most ppl just would transfer via USB. To me a physical adapter to use the Vita as USB Host and just plugin the camera would make more sense.
 
I thought security was in the Cell (whose keys were discovered).

Can you not load pirated content on the hard drive, not games but videos and music?

That's why the security claim for these Vita memory cards doesn't sound credible.
 
I thought security was in the Cell (whose keys were discovered).
yes, Cell is the "head" of security, and its "locking up the HDD" so to speak. you can take the ps3 HDD and connect it to a PC but you wont be able to decrypt it (unless you got the keys, and alot of software to make sense of it). it doesnt help if you use a SD Card on the Vita and use a similar system, atleast not with interoperability.
Can you not load pirated content on the hard drive, not games but videos and music?

That's why the security claim for these Vita memory cards doesn't sound credible.
this pirated media already got the protection removed, its indistinguishable from unprotected ones. what the vita should do is protect the stuff you bought on some of Sonys services. (aside from protecting saves and system settings, but those might be stored elsewhere)
 
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Although I don't place much faith in the average consumer's technical knowhow, I do think in this respect they'd more likely be up to speed, in the same way they can be trained to recognise key values like MHz, GBs, and resolutions. But I've no stats on that, and maybe Joe Gamer wouldn't know the difference. Although that doesn't discount the use of SD cards, only Sony can provide a PS official one for clueless people and let those who know use their existing cards in their existing devices and Vita.

That doesn't make sense to me. PS3 have all sorts of open ports - standard HDD, card slots, DVD drive, USB device access - and it's remained secure. The holes were a mix of insider info and stupid mistakes, with stupid mistakes preventable and insider holes unstoppable so there's no real point in isolating hardware for that, only to stop hacker investigations. Vita could use the same security design as PS3 only even tighter, so how does proprietary formats help? I can only see this as a money-making scheme, and a frustrating back-pedal by Sony who have been embracing open standards.

I don't either except by USB adaptor, but I do in my camcorder and many people do in their cameras, music players, mobile devices, and even TVs. Being able to share media with these devices makes sense. There's no benefit to not supporting that, and it's not like it's a tiny niche either. SD is a universal storage and distribtuion standard. The cost to system value for Sony by not including a standard SD connector vastly outweighs the financial benefits IMO.

Who moves data around on a SDCARD? :) The only card i take out is the CFCard from my camera because it´s old and slow to move data. If i am able to "plugin" my Vita and it can be in "USB MODE" then i can move the data from my PC and i am fine.

I simply think that by making the VITA cards "special" it will be harder to get access.. like the DVD drive that rotated backwards. And i am sure they have more tricks than just being physical different :)
 
Who moves data around on a SDCARD? :) The only card i take out is the CFCard from my camera because it´s old and slow to move data. If i am able to "plugin" my Vita and it can be in "USB MODE" then i can move the data from my PC and i am fine.
As I said, what about when you want to veiw media on a separate device? Like my camcorder, if I could record on camcorder and play on Vita, they'd be another reason to think about getting Vita. sony should support an effortless sharing of media and content between devices. The only other option would be includ Wifi in their CE devices and share data thataway, which comes with plenty of issues. Allowing the same SD card to pass from Sony camcorder to Sony DSLR to Sony tablet to Sony console to Sony TV to Sony handheld and gain context-sensitive options (view pics and movies on camcorder and DSLR, play all media on PS3 and Vita and tablet, have simple editing on Vita and more complex eiditing on larger tablet, sort of thing) would provide the best compelling reason to choose Sony, and one that also fits in with other devices so you don't have to buy into the Sony universe 100% but can share media with your other devices keeping Sony an ever contant option in the way Apple isn't unless you're willing to throw your whole lot in with them.

I simply think that by making the VITA cards "special" it will be harder to get access.. like the DVD drive that rotated backwards. And i am sure they have more tricks than just being physical different :)
It will, but why does that matter? Hackers will very quickly learn its idiosyncracies. Security comes from encrypting the content and tying it to the device or platform. for sharing media like rented movies, Sony would use their Qriocity system. For everything else, photos and movies, there's no need to secure them to the Vita.
 
Even the Sony Android tablet which just came out has an SD card slot. But presumably, they're not subsidizing hardware in that product, so they don't have to use a proprietary removable storage format for that.
 
Even the Sony Android tablet which just came out has an SD card slot. But presumably, they're not subsidizing hardware in that product, so they don't have to use a proprietary removable storage format for that.
Sony could do what MS do with Hard disk, Wi Fi on Xbox. It's glaringly obvious the proprietary memory are for security. If they used standard memory cards they'd be one step away from the PSPs piracy woes looking like a walk in the park.
 
I thought security was in the Cell (whose keys were discovered).

Can you not load pirated content on the hard drive, not games but videos and music?

That's why the security claim for these Vita memory cards doesn't sound credible.

There are a few keys involved. The hackers did not discover the key inside Cell itself. I think they found the root key for signing, decrypting and executing user code. Sony changed the loader.

The proprietary memory system is probably hardened at the hardware level to prevent low level attacks. Geohotz glitched the PS3 by messing with the hardware timing. I think a recent successful 360 exploit is also timing based. In the event that the system is compromised, perhaps the media itself can perform integrity check on the system, and/or limit the exposure (e.g., A title-by-title hardware token can be used instead of one key for all titles). This is all just my guess. I could very well be wrong.
 
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