Sony’s great new portable gaming hope hits the shelves, but at a considerable price…

It’s another big day for handheld gaming as Sony has unleashed its new portable gaming machine on the British public.

Almost a year ago, well eleven months to be precise, we had the launch of Nintendo’s 3DS handheld.

Initial sales fell somewhat short of expectations, but picked up later in 2011, particularly after a sizeable price cut was implemented.

For a time the 3DS could be had for not much more than £100, and it’s still only around the £135 mark today. Initially it launched with an RRP of £230 (and retailers were selling it for around the £200 mark).

Sony’s PlayStation Vita, the basic wi-fi variant that is (it also comes with a 3G option), has the same initial RRP and retailers are again offering it at around £200.

That isn’t cheap in these recession focused times, particularly when you consider stumping up for extras such as memory cards, and the price of the games which are as expensive as their full console brethren. Indeed, costlier in some cases.

So the question is, does the Vita have enough juicy hardware appeal to carry sales at this level, where the 3DS underperformed somewhat?

The Vita certainly has some strong points in its favour. Visually, games look pretty darn impressive on the 5 inch super AMOLED display, driven by a quad-core processor and quad-core GPU which doesn’t completely demolish the battery life (it should last around three to four hours, according to reports, similar to the 3DS).

It also features dual analogue sticks, a touchscreen display, a rear touchpad, and twin cameras – so there’s undoubtedly some impressive hardware packed on board.

And then there’s the software launch line-up, one of the bigger failings of the 3DS. Sony has at least ensured that some attractive – if not killer – titles are available upon launch, including FIFA, Uncharted and Wipeout.

Initial reaction from critics is that these efforts definitely look gorgeous and fluid on that 5 inch display.

And there has been plenty of raving about the Vita’s social features and online gaming potential.

But the Vita still has to go up against the growing legion of smartphone and tablet owners who are taking their mobile gaming to these devices – where games are way cheaper, or indeed free – rather than traditional handheld consoles.

The truth is, the Vita is likely too expensive to be a consideration for the casual gamer at this price point; but then, it’s really aimed at the serious core gamer.

Courting that audience, however, has seen its sales wane in Japan since it was launched at the end of last year. And we’re wondering if it’s in for a similar fate over here.

Indeed, are many folks going to wait for what they see as the inevitable summer price cut, a la the 3DS? Is the launch line-up really good enough to twist gamers’ arms to buy right now?

While the Vita is clearly a classy device, it still has a great deal to prove. And Sony, which has been struggling financially of late, really can’t afford more red marks on the balance sheet.

The smaller sibling of the Xperia S is to be revealed at MWC

Another new Sony (not Ericsson, the two have now parted company) phone has been leaked ahead of next week’s Mobile World Congress.

And this one is the Sony Xperia U, which is the little brother of the already much discussed Xperia S.

TechRadar spotted the leaked snap, and you can take a look for yourself here. The phone is a very similar looking design to the Xperia S, except on a smaller scale.

The Xperia U will apparently boast a 3.5 inch (WVGA) display, the same size as the iPhone, and a 1GHz processor, along with a 5 megapixel camera.

It’s a more mid-end phone with doubtless a more middling and affordable price than the Xperia S. Some sources have pegged it at around the £250 mark, but we’ll have to wait for confirmation of the price nearer the time it’s ready for the shelves. An April launch is on the cards.

The Xperia S itself is loaded up with a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 4.3 inch display.

Naturally, both are Android devices, with Gingerbread expected to be on board the Xperia U, but a swift upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich should be delivered.

Prepare for a lot of new phone announcements next week as Mobile World Congress comes to town.

Other MWC leaks of late have been the Optimus Vu, LG’s rival to the Galaxy Note which will be shown off at the event, and ZTE which has two fresh Ice Cream Sandwich handsets to reveal.

Cloud computing is to be tightly integrated into Windows 8 across all devices

Microsoft has spoken about its plans to tightly integrate cloud computing in the form of SkyDrive with the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

SkyDrive is Microsoft’s cloud-based storage locker currently used by some 17 million folks around the globe.

It is to be tightly tied in with Windows 8, however, via integration with Windows Explorer and a SkyDrive app that will allow usage across all devices, from desktops to tablets (it’ll be a Metro-style app with touch support).

The idea is it will be dead easy to save out files from the Windows 8 desktop to the cloud drive, with the operation being seamless. Files will be accessible on any machine, obviously.

You’ll even be able to reach files on your remote computer that you haven’t put on the SkyDrive, with the facility to log on and grab files you’ve forgotten when working on a remote machine (though there will be a double helping of security measures here, to help avoid any potential abuse).

Rather than emailing files across to other people, Microsoft envisages a simple click to share via the cloud system on the Windows 8 desktop.

Of course, your default Windows settings, browser settings, UI customisation and important files can also be backed up to SkyDrive. That means when you purchase a new PC, after the operating system has installed, you can pull all this back down from the cloud and be good to go with a minimum of fuss.

Microsoft is also intent on backwards compatibility with SkyDrive for the desktop, and it will function not just on Windows 8, but also Windows 7 and Vista.

In a Windows 8 blog post, Mike Torres and Omar Shahine, Group Program Managers for SkyDrive, enthused: “With SkyDrive in Windows 8, you won’t just have cloud files synced to your PC.”

“You can also turn your entire PC into your own private cloud, and use its terabytes of local storage to easily access, browse, and stream your files from anywhere by simply fetching them from SkyDrive.com.”

Certainly this sounds a very promising scheme of things when it comes to convenience, but there are questions being raised on issues such as privacy. For example, will Microsoft have access to a user’s stored documents and data in any form?

Policy issues such as these, and the security levels of the remote file grabbing feature, are elements which will no doubt be discussed in detail in the near future.

While Kingdoms of Amalur, last week’s chart topper, falls out of the top ten

There’s another new number one in this week’s all-format game chart, the third different number one in three weeks.

UFC Undisputed 3 has hit the top of the chart, doing what Undisputed 2 failed to manage (the previous title only reached number two, despite actually shifting a few more copies).

Neither, though, performed as well as the original, which was a chart topper and in fact outsold the current game by three to one.

It’s the first number one for publisher THQ since Homefront which was released almost a year ago now.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, last week’s number one, slid out of the top ten completely, dropping to number twelve (it’s very rare for a top selling title to fall quite so badly in its second week).

Price promotions saw FIFA 12 and Modern Warfare 3 moving back up the chart to take the number two and three spots respectively.

Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games zipped up to number four, boosted by sales of the new 3DS version, and Battlefield 3 edged up to number five.

That was followed by Fantasy XIII-2, which was number one two weeks ago, dropping four places to number six this week.

Skylanders broke into the top ten, up from number fourteen to number seven, and the Darkness 2 slid to number eight.

Skyrim is clinging onto the top ten at number nine, followed by Just Dance 3 which pushed Assassin’s Creed: Revelations out of the ten best-sellers list.

An incremental upgrade, once again, for the next iPad’s CPU?

Another iPad 3 rumour has been spilled, and we can expect a few more over the next couple of weeks.

It’s only just over two weeks time until the tablet is supposed to be officially unveiled, but the latest piece of speculation comes regarding an image of the processor which has been leaked.

This was posted up on a Chinese website by the name of WeiPhone, and it has spread over the internet like… well, like the latest major iPad rumour.

The real news is that the chip is labelled with an A5X model number, which suggests an incremental upgrade from the current A5 CPU. Many were thinking Apple would step things up with a new A6 processor.

Possibly even a quad-core model, given that one of the most prominent rumours is that the iPad 3 is set to feature a hugely improved “retina” resolution display (and Android tablets have already pushed forward into quad-core territory).

Which would obviously require a fair bit more power in the processing department when it comes to graphic intensive apps and games.

The pic and model number have led some to speculate that perhaps the iPad 3, much like the iPad 2, won’t be as big a step on as everyone is thinking it could be. And that the major upgrading is being saved for the iPad 4.

We’re not so sure. Given that the iPad 2 was very much an incremental upgrade, we’re thinking that Apple surely has to step things up further with a juicier introduction on the hardware front this time around.

We may, of course, be completely wrong. There’s just a fortnight before we find out now.

7 inch slate might arrive by the end of this month

ZTE doesn’t just have ambitions to make an impact on the UK with its own brand smartphones, but tablets as well.

And the first effort from the company is due out soon, a budget Android slate which will retail at the Kindle Fire-esque level of around the £235 mark.

The ZTE V9A Light Tab II is a smaller 7 inch slate with a capacitive touchscreen and a 1.4GHz processor.

4GB of memory is on board, with cut-down storage expected on a more budget minded device, although the Tab II does boast 3G as well as wi-fi, which is much less expected at this price level.

Other specs include twin cameras, again, a surprise at this level, although we’re talking a 3 megapixel main snapper and 0.3 megapixel front-facer. A microSD slot is on board so you can expand the storage.

The slate weights 400 grams and has a claimed battery life of around five to six hours. It will run Android 2.3, Gingerbread – not even Honeycomb, let alone Ice Cream Sandwich – and that’s perhaps the biggest disappointment.

Hopefully the tablet will be up for an ICS upgrade before long.

Wu Sa, Director of Mobile Device Operations at ZTE, commented: “ZTE V9A is ZTE’s first own-branded tablet made available in the UK and we are very excited about its entry into the market. We plan to continue our progress in the UK, introducing ZTE branded consumer devices with key capabilities at reasonable prices.”

“Our UK strategy is very much focused on providing quality devices – a factor which is apparent through our growth and development in the handset arena”.

According to online retailer Clove, the tablet will be on sale at the end of this month, although that might slide to the start of March.

We’re now looking at next month for the Android 4.0 upgrade

Yet more news has emerged on the incoming update for the original Asus Transformer tablet which brings it up to speed with Android 4.0. Unfortunately, it’s not good news.

In the first week of February, Asus updated its UK Facebook page to say that the Ice Cream Sandwich update “should be” arriving this month.

Well, it seems that might not be the case – at least not in Singapore, anyway. On the Asus Singapore page, the company posted that: “We are informed that the ICS upgrade for TF101 will be ready within the Feb/March 2012 period. You will be able to receive the upgrade notification via FOTA once we have a confirmation date.”

So, as we predicted from the initial lack of commitment to a firm date, it would seem March will be the arrival time for the Transformer to catch up with ICS and its big brother, the Prime.

It isn’t clear, however, whether this Singapore post is applicable to the rest of the world. Unsurprisingly, Asus UK has been facing questions, and has posted another update on its Facebook wall.

The firm said: “Regarding the reports of ICS for TF101 being pushed back to March – Asus UK has not received any information confirming this. We will let you know if there is any further, solid developments and when we have a difinitive (sic) date for the release.”

So, the overall picture seems to be one of uncertainty, but we’re still betting Transformer owners will be waiting until next month before their tablet receives an ice cream transformation.

Assuming there aren’t any further delays on top of that, which judging from the amount of toy-chucking going on in both the UK, Singapore and doubtless other Asus Facebook pages, will really push some users to breaking point.

Meanwhile, Google’s operating system’s unwanted image of being fragmented is still very much alive and well.

Stephen Elop, who earlier this year signed and exclusive deal with Microsoft so that Nokia smartphones will run only Windows Phone 7, commented on the implications of the acquisition for Samsung and HTC, Motorola’s Android rivals.

“If I happened to be someone who was an Android manufacturer or an operator, or anyone with a stake in that environment, I would be picking up my phone and calling certain executives at Google and say ‘I see signs of danger ahead,’” he said.

Google has however presented its move as one designed to defend all Android makers in the ongoing smartphone patent litigation war, in which they are being sued by Apple, Microsoft and Oracle.

Motorola holds about 17,000 patents and Google released statements from all its major Android partners welcoming the strategy when it was announced on Monday.

Mr Elop also claimed the all-cash deal vindicated his decision to work exclusively with Microsoft.

“The very first reaction I had was very clearly the importance of the third ecosystem and the importance of the partnership that we announced on February 11, it is more clear than ever before,” he said.

Google’s move has prompted renewed speculation that Microsoft could acquire Nokia or RIM, the maker of BlackBerry.

Coming to the defence of Android partners against Apple

The never-ending patent wars are continuing with some gusto this week.

Apple has been on the offensive, once again, earlier in the week bringing a US lawsuit against Samsung for a number of patent violations (as well as attempting a preliminary injunction ban on the Galaxy Nexus).

And yesterday in Germany, Apple scored a victory against another firm, Motorola, in a battle over a slide-to-unlock patent (one of the patent allegations also levelled against Samsung).

That, theoretically, leaves Motorola’s devices, or many of them (the Xoom tablet was at least cleared of any wrongdoing), facing a ban in Germany.

Naturally, though, Motorola is set to appeal and also has a workaround for its unlock mechanism ready to go in order to avoid products being stripped off the shelves.

The latest news, however, is with regard to Google, which has a new piece of patent ammunition which it can use to defend its various Android partners.

The Register reports that a patent for unlocking mobile devices has actually been granted to Google this month.

And that could mean all Android manufacturers could switch their unlock mechanism and hide under the umbrella of this particular patent, leaving Apple’s current avenue of attack which has featured in a number of cases effectively negated.

Of course, that’s just one small facet of a global legal battle which sees the tentacles of large corporations snaking around the Earth and lashing at each other in countless courtrooms.

Is the average consumer sick of it yet? Very probably. Is the average lawyer? Not likely.