Just a day after cutting nearly 100 jobs from their PlayStation group, Sony has announced more layoffs. The reason? They need to restructure to keep up with Nintendo. They must be in some real trouble, especially since Nintendo has a much cheaper product and is in much higher demand.

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At least 80 employees in Sony Computer Entertainment of America's Foster City, California PlayStation unit have been laid off, according to a report in the popular video game blog, Kotaku.

But Kotaku quoted SCEA spokesman Dave Karraker as saying, "In an effort to accurately align the company to meet the changing needs of our consumers and our industry, (SCEA) has found it necessary to...restructure the company as necessary to continue our standing as the market leader."

And in an email to CNET News.com, Karraker confirmed the report Wednesday morning.

Given Sony's troubles--the much-hyped PlayStation 3 is currently in last place among next-generation video game consoles, trailing Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360--Karraker's comment about SCEA trying to maintain its position as "market leader" is being laughed at by some. Still, the company's PlayStation and PlayStation 2 were world-beaters, and the PS2 is still a best-seller.

Kotaku reported that Karraker would not comment on the number of employees affected, which the blog put at "roughly 80 to 100," according to a source who was among those laid off.

Those who lost their jobs were asked to leave immediately and "either have their manager pack up their desk for them or schedule an appointment some evening to fetch their possessions," Kotaku wrote.

source: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9726665-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

We all know the issue with hooking up a normal external drive via USB to the PSP, it just won't work. The reason it won't work is because the external drive you are trying to hook up is not running in host mode. I just found an external drive that does run in host mode and it will allow you to transfer files between your PSP and your drive. The only thing is that you have to transfer the files from the HD to a memory stick on the PSP to use them. You can probably get around this by using NetHost in IRShell.

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I found this interesting article over at Kotaku about a deaf gamer who really has a hard time playing video games because of the lack of subtitles. I think that it is pretty sad with as much money as companies spend to make these games that they can't build in subtitles. They could even justify it by making the subtitles also available in different languages. I know this option would be great for gamers that don't speak english or that don't speak english that well.

This also directly applies to Flash development. I have done countless video players in Flash and one thing that I always push for are subtitles. Subtitles shouldn't be an afterthought when it comes to a video player, they should be a standard. Not only for those that can't hear, but for translation purposes and for those without their speakers turned on. It doesn't take all that much effort to create subtitles, so please, if you are building a video player for a client try to do subtitles.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/if-dvd-movies-got-.em%27%27%27/deaf-gamer-subtitle-please-255742.php

This is great news if you own a PSP or device that requires a MS-Duo card.

Here is the Press Release:

LAS VEGAS(CES Booth #14200), Jan. 7, 2007 – Here at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, Sony presented the newest member of its Memory Stick® media family – the 8GB Memory Stick PRO™ Duo.

Weighing in at just two grams, 0.79-inches wide, 1.22-inches long, and sporting the ten-pin Serial Memory Stick® interface, this new flash memory card can be packed with music, movies and photos.

Memory Stick cards provide reliable and sturdy storage of digital images. It has become the exclusive PlayStation® Portable memory source and also allows users to expand the imbedded memory of other products like the Sony mylo personal communicator, Sony Ericsson mobile phones and the new PlayStation3 videogame console. The format also remains a core feature of all Cyber-shot® digital still cameras.

Beginning this year, a Memory Stick slot will also be standard on all new 2007 Handycam® camcorder models.

"The life of the Memory Stick format spans from the dawning of the digital camera to the emergence of today's high-definition video and gaming products," said Mike Kahn, senior manager for Memory Stick Media at Sony Electronics. "Throughout all of these advances in the consumer electronics industry, Memory Stick media has remained a constant source of compact and portable flash memory."

According to Kahn, the 8GB MSX-M8GS Memory Stick model will store approximately 1,500 images in 10-megapixel, fine mode; more than 18 hours of video at 768Kb per seconds in MPEG4 compression; and can hold a collection about 2,000 songs in the MP3 format at 128 kbps with an average of four minutes per song.

For versatility, Sony Memory Stick Duo media cards are sold with an adapter for devices with a standard-size Memory Stick media slot. Kahn said they also offer the highest durability in the flash media marketplace with a standard operating temperature range of -13 F to +185 F.

Current models of Memory Stick products employ MagicGate™ copyright protection technology to allow for the secure storage of commercial content such as digital music and downloaded movies.

The 8GB Memory Stick PRO Duo media card will be available in February for about $300 at sonystyle.com, at Sony Style® retail stores (www.sonystyle.com/retail), and authorized dealers nationwide.