dev kits
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Sharp ships 1GHz IS01 developer's edition in Japan, minus all the goodies
Hoping to get your hot little hands on the tinker-friendly edition of Sharp's Snapdragon-powered IS01 Android MID? If you live in Japan, today's your lucky day -- assuming you're willing to overlook the possibility that the developer's version has been thoroughly neutered. According to a Japanese press release, JN-DK01 dev kits are now shipping, but apparently sans cellular modem (no phone calls, no 3G data) and without API support for FM and 1Seg connectivity. You'll still get to play around with that 960 x 480 multitouch LCD, experiment with IrDA and download Android Market apps over WiFi, but we're not quite seeing the point of working with a cheap-feeling Android 1.6 device stripped of its coolest toys.
Phil Harrison boasts PS3's progress
Phil Harrison has reassured us lately that more than 100 games are in development for the PS3. Not all are launch titles, of course. He reiterated the fact 10,000+ dev kits have been shipped and the company is in full swing for the November launch. This isn't exactly breaking news, but to hear him say as fact the rumors and speculations going around is sort of nice. Especially about the negative press on Blu-ray, he countered: "Right now there are more than 100 Blu-ray movies available today, in the US. More than 100 games are in development, and all the major third-party publishers have pledged their strategic support for the platform."About the developers, he said, "Developers now have final hardware in their hands, though there will be some upgrades to the operating system - there's nothing unusual about that. The new controller is now in developers' hands, so all the pieces of the puzzle are there." All the pieces, except the OS upgrades. Whatever. Here's an interesting bit about the developers: they have working PS3 Blu-ray drives, so they can burn their games onto Blu-ray discs and check 'em out that way, as opposed to running the games off the hard drive or some other media format. At the Tokyo Game Show, we'll see how well the Blu-ray versions stack up. Hopefully some developers will have a decently running beta of a game off of the final hardware and such.
Sony slow on delivering dev-kits to some, not all
From a news article released at Bloomberg.com the PS3 is being met with conflicting views in the eyes of developers yet again. Last time, the issue was about game pricing and this time it's about the PS3 itself. Basically, all the developers are agreeing that the launch titles for the PS3 will NOT be using the full power of Sony's new machine because Sony hasn't given them all the detailed technical aspects of it. Robert Kotick (pictured right), CEO of Activision, said that the first batch of titles to be released "won't use more than 20 percent of the Cell chip's capabilities." If that's true and people are saying these first games look just as good as the 360, multiply that times five. That should make a gap.Not every developer is making such statements of veiled compliments, however. Many smaller developers haven't received a dev-kit at all and the larger ones who have gotten one often complain about limited design details and specs for the system. They say it's too much of a risk to make a game for a system that all the details aren't available for.Both Activision and Electronic Arts (huge American-based developers) have sided against the companies complaining. They say while they don't have the final version of the PS3, they "know what the processor's capacity is" and that overall they are "happy with the development kits." Kotick even said that the PS3 was "the most sophisticated piece of consumer hardware ever."Launch titles only using 20% of the PS3's ability? The two largest US-based developers backing Sony, at least, their dev-kits? Sounds pretty good for the future, if slightly cloudy in November.
HDMI issues at GDC? Or simply no cable?
The PS3 dev kits on display at GDC apparently skipped the HDMI connection for some of their demos, casting doubt on how far along Sony's come with its hardware and digital standards compliance.During GDC, Sony brought along a few PS3 demo units to show off audio and video, which TG Daily spied from a distance. As you can see above, the PS3 graphics demo unit used a standard AV Multi-Out connector while the "two HDMI ports right below the AV Multi-Out port were unused." TGD apparently offered to lend Sony officials an HDMI cable of their own to connect to the system, but they were turned down.Of course, there's also a conflicting pic which Chris Grant took for us on Joystiq Central that seems to show that very HDMI connection being used, probably with another unit. (Scroll down to the second pic here to see it.) So what's the real story? Was Sony lacking enough updated HDMI 1.3 hardware and/or 1.3-compatible TVs to show off the HD goods, or were they simply short on cables? Maybe their budget was a bit tight for GDC (what with Phil's focused keynote and abundance of GDC sessions from Sony), so hopefully we'll see everything hooked up nice and tidy for E3.[Thanks, Michael, Racky, pheen, and DocEvil; via TechSpot and CD Freaks]
