Camera, GPS, New Software Coming to PSP

Sony Computer Entertainment has outlined some of its plans for its Playstation Portable (PSP) gaming platform, including three software updates and add-on USB camera and GPS units.

Ken Kutaragi said three PSP software updates are planned for 2006, with the first (slated for “spring”) to include support for Macromedia Flash, a Chinese font set, and the capability to downloading audio podcasts via RSS. Intriguingly, this update is also scheduled to include under-the-hood tools for software developers to begin supporting camera and GPS add-ons for the PSP.

The camera and GPS accessories are currently scheduled for launch in September and October 2006, respectively. Few specifications for the add-on units were released, although the USB camera can swivel around, and includes a microphone to it can offer video chatting capabilities, and the GPS unit uses the standard WGS84 reference system, enabling the unit to get a fix within 40 seconds of activation and update its coordinates every second.

Kutaragi said the second software update (due in “summer”) will expand the video profile for the Universal Media Disc (UMD) removable media supported by the PSP, and add support for video podcasting. The third software update