Remember this? Nearly 3 years in the making, Tom Porter shares his 2005 PSP Predictions VS. Today — the PSP in 2008.

“The PSP is one of the most creative and powerful gaming handhelds ever devised. At its inception in 2005, many people speculated how far the PSP would go. Graphics out of the box were superior to anything the Nintendo DS could muster. It could also by default, play music, watch movies and look at pictures on the go, anytime, anywhere. Still, for some people this wasn’t enough, and imaginations set to work devising the future of the PlayStation Portable machine. This article compares the hope for the future with modern day reality for the functionality of the PSP, and its subsequent accessories.

Sony PSP WebCam (70% Reality Rating in 2005)
The Portable Sony Console has seen the release of a 1.2 Megapixel camera, along with software to edit movies and photos on the go. Unfortunately, the device was sold only in Japan to date, and the software is in Japanese. However, all PSP regions have access to the basic functions of photo and video taking. There were rumors floating around that the PSP camera would be released in other locations in late 2008/early 2009.

Sony PSP Direct Data Exchange: (75% Reality Rating in 2005)
The PSP came built in with a meager Game Sharing feature, which worked only with very few select titles. PSP Gamers hoped that in the future that Sony would introduce some sort of wireless transfer capability of music, photos and game saves over IR or WIFI. Although this is not a reality with Official Firmwares, Custom Firmware applications such as IR shell and a few independent programs allowed this. Since this primarily is a homebrew type community, we can say this has been fulfilled.

Sony PSP TV (50% Reality Rating in 2005)
With the introduction of cell phones capable of watching television around the same time as the PSP launch, there was been much speculation that the PSP may one day be able to watch TV. Again, your wish is Sony’s command, that is if you live in the pampered land of Japan. Sony recently released a 1-Seg type USB accessory that can in fact watch a special type of TV signal being broadcast in the homeland of Sony. The bad news however is that if imported to the United States or other locations, this device will be little more than a paperweight, as it does not pick up standard analog or digital signals.

Sony PSP Keyboard: (90% Reality Rating in 2005)
The lack of a USB keyboard for the PSP has been a major disappointment for many fans. To be quite honest, the reality of this back in 2005 was almost assured, as Sony itself touted around a mini-thumb pad, and almost was released. Many people speculated the PSP’s USB mode was incapable for such a device. This is not true, as all was needed being a few minor tweaks to the firmware for it to function properly. Again, the homebrew scene stepped up to the plate, introducing some custom firmware modules activating the IR port to communicate with Palm Pilot type external keyboards. Although possible on the older PSP systems, the lack of an IR port on the newer slim models render the keyboard nonfunctional. We cant honestly say there is a universal keyboard, Sony or otherwise as of yet.

Sony PSP Universal Remote Control: (50% Reality Rating in 2005)
The newer slim playstation portable no longer has an IR port, which many remote controlled devices require to operate. Despite this, several Remote Control programs have been written for the older PSP units, and can control virtually any device. Although not official Sony software, these modules work very well, and ironically enough even works with the Xbox.

Sony PSP TV-Out: (30% Reality Rating in 2005)
Back in the days of the older PSP models, there were a few creative solutions for a person displaying his/her portable system on a television. The two most conventional ways (if you would call them that) was to have a large box on the outside of the screen, projecting it into a mini optical scanner. The other way was to manual open and modify the system. Sony released the PSP 2000 series, which had TV out capability built in. Some criticism for only allowing Progressive TV output for gaming was heard, but quickly died down. A much neater solution than the old PSP, that’s for sure.

Sony PSP Hard-Drive: (80% Reality Rating in 2005)
Max Media helped us out with this unusual device. Adding almost double the weight to the system, and a big bulky battery pack, this almost forgotten accessory was the forefront of ultimate storage…back in 2006. Containing 4 GB of space, it was slower than conventional memory cards and sucked battery juice faster than a Game Gear. Today in 2008, there are bigger memory cards available cheaper than this hard-drive accessory.

Sony PSP VOIP Telephony: (40% Reality Rating in 2005)
Last but not least, the PSP Telephone. Recently, Sony teamed up with Skype to give gamers the ability to talk to one another. Not something the telephone companies have been doing successfully for the past 100 years mind you, but just another novel way of communicating via the Internet. The limitations are pretty big, need to be in a WIFI spot, have an Microphone accessory, requires the Slim PSP model… but reality non-the less. This feature will in the future hopefully become more user friendly.

And there we have it folks. These were major predictions for the PSP, and most of them discussed came true. The PSP certainly has come a long way. For sure, the PSP will still have more innovative features on the drawing board…both from Sony and homebrew programmers. We come a long way baby.”

No doubt.