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Possible new PlayStation Portal model pays homage to the Vita's OLED

While much of the focus on PlayStation's next steps is the PS6 and PS6 Portable , the two-year old PlayStation Portal could be getting a revamp according to those pesky internet rumours.  Update : Hints at pricing are around £/$250-299 for the new model, but everything remains deeply in rumours territory. Presumably to hit the 10% (currently 7%-ish) adoption rate among PS5 owners that would make it a bone fide hit gadget.   As the improvement in connectivity and streaming tech, proven by many gamers enjoying their PS5 or PlayStation Plus streamed content from around the world, an updated Portal Pro could be on the cards.  Possibly featuring a 120Hz display and an OLED screen in honour of the mighty Vita, that'd be cool. Assuming the 120HZ streaming is solid, an OLED would be the more welcome addition, especially with the latest generation of technology offering QD-OLED (Quantum Dot-OLED), WOLED (White-OLED) and other buzzy titles for smarter display.  Whatever ...

Whatever happened to the Vita's apps?

The Vita doesn't really need apps, but it was a minor delight that the likes of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and others came out around the launch period to show the media and social capabilities of the handheld. How much do you use them now? I use Twitter, Skype and YouTube from time to time, but that's about it.

I'd love to use Netflix, Crunchyroll and some other media apps, but they don't even exist in Europe. I was kind of hoping Sony was holding onto them for PlayStation TV, but that makes no sense in the gloom of the Vita's line-up. Sony and partners should be throwing them out like confetti to keep users engaged with the Vita, and therefore a little more likely to buy games.

Following that, you have to wonder what happened to other common media apps like iPlayer or Sky TV. These apps are relatively small, easy to code (or port Android editions) and with flexible codecs on the server side, sending Vita formatted video should be a trivial exercise.

So, what's stopping them? Twitch mentioned the possibility of an app, but don't appear to  have gone further. Being able to stream Vita sessions would be awesome, although there might not be enough power to do so. What else do we gamers need but there isn't an app for yet?

Currently playing on my Vita/PS3/PS4/PS5


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