Apple bested Sony in the digital music game, but as video becomes a bigger part of the portable media picture, the company that invented the Walkman may have a leg up. Sure, the video-capable iPod got loads of attention when Apple released it in October. But Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP), best known as a handheld game console, was quietly playing video and music when it hit store shelves six months earlier.
If the PSP’s new capabilities didn’t catch on right away, it’s largely because downloading and playing video clips and other media files was cumbersome at best. Third-party software developers finagled solutions, but none appealed to the masses.
Recently, though, Sony introduced PSP Media Manager ($20 downloaded; $30 in a retail box), software that does for the PlayStation Portable what iTunes does for the iPod. It provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface to load content from a PC (performing all needed format conversions in the process), and organizes media files to make playback of photos, MP3 tracks, video clips, and podcasts a snap.
There are more signs that the PSP is evolving into a must-have multimedia device. Sony offers a firmware upgrade to enable Wi-Fi Web surfing. And every major Hollywood studio is releasing movies on Universal Media Disc, a tiny storage format that is compatible only with the PSP, with sales reported to be brisk.
