Yesterday afternoon I finally caved in and purchased something that I had my eye on for quite some time – a PlayStation Portable.  I also picked up a couple of games to go along with it, including Dissidia: Final Fantasy to satisfy my Square-Enix fanboy tendencies.  Naturally, the wrappers were torn off the second I got home, the PSP’s charger got plugged in, and the instruction booklets were thrown into the massive tub-o’-manuals beneath my kitchen sink.  For the next three hours I sat impatiently waiting for the silly thing to finish charging.

As soon as I noticed that the charging indicator had turned off, I plopped myself down in my living room rocking chair to fiddle with the unit’s display settings.  The XMB menu was fairly easy to navigate since I was already used to it from both my TV and PS3, so I had made the necessary changes in no time flat.  It wasn’t until I attempted to play Dissidia, however, that I started to encounter problems.

Like other PSP games, Dissidia has a standard option that allows you to install a portion of the game onto a memory stick, letting you play the game with less loading time than you would have if you solely relied upon the UMD disc media.  Since this was a brand-new PSP, I decided that I had nothing to lose by opting for the largest installation file size option…and promptly got treated to a message that said “installation will take approximately an hour.”

I sat the PSP down (on edge) on the end table next to me and decided to go make supper while it was installing.  Forty-five minutes, a plate full of spaghetti, and a sink full of dishes later I returned to discover that the installation had been aborted.  Apparently the PSP had fallen flat on the “cancel” button when my cat decided to treat the living room furniture as his own private playground.  Not exactly the wisest decision on my part, leaving it unattended.

Since I actually wanted to play the game for a bit before I went to bed, I decided to re-try installing it in my office.  This time though I left the PSP on my desk face-up - well out of reach of the devil with fur – while I was cleaning the mess I call a workspace.  Another 30 minutes later or so and the game finished installing.

After playing the game for about an hour I decided that I should make sure that I had gotten the most recent system update before going to bed.  I set up the MAC filters on my wireless router, configured the wireless networking settings on the PSP and…nothing.  The thing didn’t respond.  I tried entering the WPA passphrase a second time to make sure that I didn’t miss any characters, but still it wouldn’t connect to the network.  I even tried doing it a third and fourth time to verify that I wasn’t doing anything wrong.

It was at this point that I started to panic a bit.  I had just purchased a new gadget and it wasn’t working properly.  Disappointed, I sat down to see if I could find anything online that would help me troubleshoot the problem.  It wasn’t until had been browsing Sony’s support site for at least 15 minutes that I realized I had never turned on the WLAN switch.

Apparently there’s a reason why you’re supposed to read instruction manuals…

Yesterday afternoon Sony finally confirmed a rumor that had been floating around “teh internets” for several months now: the existence of the PlayStation 3 "Slim."  Along with that announcement came details of a $100 price drop on existing “fat” PS3 models:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/18/playstation-3-now-299-slimmer-version-coming-september-1st...

Since then a good number of customers have asked us if Best Buy will be honoring price matches on recent PS3 purchases.  In short, the answer is yes – but only if customers are still within the 30-day price match period for video game consoles.

The steps customers need to follow in order to obtain a price match vary depending upon where they made their purchase. For purchases made at one of our retail stores, customers simply need to return to their local store with a copy of the original receipt and speak with an associate at the customer service desk.  For online purchases, however, customers must contact our BestBuy.com support staff at 1-888-BEST-BUY (1-888-237-8289).

Looking for additional information regarding our price match policy?  Make sure to check out the links below!

Best Buy Retail Store Price Match Guarantee

BestBuy.com Price Match Guarantee

I tend to have a difficult time picking out birthday gifts for my family and friends - not because of personal indecision, but due to the same stubbornness and personality quirks that everyone seems to share.  My parents generally refuse to give a straight answer to the “What do you want?” question, my brother always answers with “I don’t know,” and the majority of my friends will go on and on about how they’d feel guilty for accepting any kind of gift.  It’s frustrating and almost invariably means that something is bound to be re-gifted six months down the line.

Well, my brother’s birthday is just around the corner and this past weekend I once again found myself at a loss regarding what to get him.  As usual, he hadn’t been very forthcoming about what he wants – he just said that he’d let me know when he thinks of something.  Without knowing it though he did manage to give me an idea.

No matter where he goes, my brother always lugs around with him an ancient Walkman CD player.  Along with that player comes a massive folder full of CDs, as well as a carrying case that looks like it is only being held together by the sheer willpower of an otherwise malevolent entity.  Needless to say, upon seeing him Tuesday afternoon walking around with the “Carry-All-That-Should-Not-Be” I decided that it was time to buy him an MP3 player – whether he wants one or not.

When I first started my search Tuesday evening the obvious big names came to mind: Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and Sony.  The field was narrowed down significantly though when I realized he probably would never use one without a built-in radio tuner.  Eventually, my search led me to the “Coming Soon” section of BestBuy.com and to the Zune HD.

My first thoughts of the Zune HD were that while it may not initially prove to be as app-friendly as the iPod, it does appear to promise at least one thing that the iPod cannot deliver: the ability to play back videos purchased through the Xbox Live Marketplace. What were my next thoughts?  I may have found the perfect match - my brother is an avid Xbox 360 player and would probably love the ability to bring downloaded Netflix videos wherever he goes.

Now, if it only came out before his birthday…

Ten years ago you would have been hard-pressed to find musical artists that distributed their work digitally.  Today, digital distribution seems to be part of the norm.  Whether that change was a result of the advent of the MP3 player, file sharing services, or fee-based subscription sites is uncertain, but it most definitely means that digital distribution is here to stay.

Imagine everyone’s surprise then when Sony confirmed at this year’s E3 convention that the next generation of their handheld console would be doing away with disc-based storage media entirely.  That’s right.  Not only does the “worst kept secret of E3” eschew the UMDs of its disc-based predecessors, but all “new” titles for the PSPgo will be available for download through the PlayStation Network as well.

Now, I have to admit that this news left me a bit skeptical at first – I like having a physical copy of everything I buy, especially video games.  It made sense though when I considered the popularity of online services such as iTunes and Napster.  Add in the fact that the PSPgo is expected to feature the same PS3 compatibility and software support as earlier PSP models and you’ve got a pretty convincing alternative to the iPod Touch.  True, there’s no direct access to the iTunes app store, but the primary purpose of the PSPgo is to play games…not to use as a Rolodex or egg timer.

Both the piano black and pearl white models are available for preorder on BestBuy.com, but for more information make sure to check out the official product page:

http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP/Systems/pspgo.html

...and yes, Kaz Hirai does actually call it the "worst kept secret of E3."  Don't believe me?  Check out his segment of the press conference at 28 minutes, 45 seconds into the video!