Yes, I’m afraid so. As I mentioned before, Adobe Acrobat and Custom Soundtrack support would be nice. But as I’ve been spending more time with the DS, here’s a few more that have come to mind:

• Remove the UMD drive. Sell games on flash memory and via download from the PSN store. That’ll help with battery life, load times, and hopefully make navigating and using the PSP a snappy, speedy experience. It will probably reduce the size and increase the durability of the handheld to make it more feasible as a portable device. And the added benefit of having flash memory carts instead of UMDs? Combined with a smaller footprint of the handheld itself, it means gamers can take more games with them wherever they go, easily. Sony has recently said they took the wrong approach with the PSP, trying to make it more of a portable PS2 rather than emphasize the simple 2D gaming of the DS. But I disagree. I think they had the right idea, just the wrong design for a handheld to support that. If they add the obvious second analog stick, increase the load times, make it more portable, and still deliver a higher quality, higher polish gaming experience, I think they have a goldmine on their hands.

• Better WiFi connectivity. It would be nice if the PSP could stream audio and video files from a PC. It would also be nice if it had 802.11g or even N, but I don’t know what the latter would do to battery life. I’d even like the ability to transfer files from my PC or PS3 via wireless, instead of hunting for a USB cable. And in terms of battery life, I’m fine with the current length of 4-6 hours. If I’ve been gaming for that long in one sitting I need a break anyway. But if the console provided a quicker startup/shutdown, then it would support those quick 10, 20, or 30 minute gaming sessions that should be native to portable gaming. Even if the game itself does not promote these quick gaming bursts, remember – sleep/standby mode is your friend.

Sony is almost there in terms of really breaking through with handheld gaming. The ideas and core concepts are in place, but the devil’s in the details, and what seems like small problems are the things that are really holding the system back. I hope to see a PSP2 in 2009, with all of these recommendations incorporated in the design. I really like my PSP, and I think it has a lot of great games and functionality, but I’d really like to be able to use it as it’s intended.

Until then, hello DS.