AT&T has noted today that the upcoming PS Vita with 3G will be carrier locked, meaning only AT&T SIM cards will work in the handheld.
All international GSM SIM and T-Mobile in the U.S. will give an error when turned on.
Yesterday, the carrier revealed pricing for the 3G data plans. The carrier says 250MB will run you $15 per month, and $25 will get you 2GB. Those prices come on top of the extra $50 premium the 3G model demands on the base price.
Although the device is carrier-locked, Sony revealed that device will at least be region-free, meaning Japanese games will work on American handhelds, and every other combination.
With a release date in late February for the U.S. and Europe, the Vita will run on an ARM Cortex A9 quad-core processor and be powered by a quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU.
Featuring a 5-inch capacitive multitouch OLED screen (with 16 million colors), the device will be 7.16 by 0.73 by 3.28 inches. Furthermore, the Vita has 512MB memory and 128MB VRAM in its graphics processor.
Result for: europe
Apple has now proposed a smaller standardized SIM card than is currently used, allowing its iOS devices to be marginally thinner.
UK carrier Orange seems to support the proposal:
We were quite happy to see last week that Apple has submitted a new requirement to (European telecoms standards body) ETSI for a smaller SIM form factor — smaller than the one that goes in iPhone 4 and iPad.
They have done that through the standardization route, through ETSI, with the sponsorship of some major mobile operators, Orange being one of them.
Processing would take some time, but thew first devices using those SIM cards could be out next year.
Result for: europe
Verizon will bring the Xperia Play smartphone to the U.S. next week, May 26th.
Sony’s “PlayStation Phone” is an Android device that has slide-out gaming controls.
The device has been available in Europe for two months now but the American launch kept getting delayed.
Sony’s smartphone will come pre-loaded with Madden NFL 11, Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, The Sims 3, Star Battalion, Crash Bandicoot, and Tetris.
The smartphone will cost $200 with 2-year contract.
