Death of the UMD

I was introduced to the Sony PSP six months back. My friend proudly showed me his whimsical purchase. I myself was quite surprised as I knew he had no interest in computer gaming. His take on it - "It plays UMD movies, which is what interested me." Seemed quite a nice idea.

Quite naturally, we looked for the AV out cable in the PSP box - to connect it to a TV. If the iPod video can do it, so should the PSP, shouldn't it? Finding no such cable, I pulled up the user manual and was, quite frankly, disappointed. There was no such feature.

Recent reports confirmed our basic deduction. The UMD as a media for movies will not work. Further, games for the PSP can also be loaded onto a MemoryStick. So there's not exactly any requirement for the UMD.

I still quite appreciate the PSP. It's quite slick. The game titles are quite interesting. It immediately detected and connected to my WiFi router, and my friend checked his mail quite effortlessly.

Another parting crib regarding the PSP, they could include at least one pre-installed full version game when shipped. Something like the default Mario cartridge that shipped with most NES and its emulators. The default pack included only unplayable demos.