March 24, 2005 Play With Yourself The day has finally arrived. Like Christmas in springtime, today Sony releases its long-anticipated PlayStation Portable. The main appeal of this hand-held device is that it's a quadruple threat: It plays games, movies and music, and works as a photo viewer. The device also sports a lot of multi-player and wireless capabilities. For instance, a game sharing feature allows you to play wirelessly with (against) a friend even if your friend doesn't own the same game. Your friend is able to see the game only while your PSP is turned on. And you don't have to be near a wireless hotspot. You connect with other PSPs directly. Along with the launch of the PSP, Sony is introducing a new storage medium called UMD. We've seen games on cartridges; we've seen them on compact disc. By comparison, the UMD is miniature at not quite 2.5 inches in diameter with 1.8GB storage. What's available for PSP today? Games: Sony has a list on its Web site of all the titles currently available and says that over 100 are in development worldwide. Games appear to be running around $40 each. Movies: A UMD copy of Spider-Man 2 comes with the PSP. More titles including, Hellboy, Resident Evil 2, House of Flying Daggers, and Once Upon A Time In Mexico come out on UMD April 19. Music: The PSP supports MP3. At a suggested retail price of $249.99, this machine is by any measure a bargain. It has the potential to do for video games what the iPod did for portable music. The PlayStation Portable is available in multiple locations, packaged with a variety of games. Our favorite is the PSP Starter Bundle with Ape Escape: On the Loose available at KB Toys.