It's currently in vogue, for instance, for Nintendo DS fans to ridicule any coverage of Sony's PlayStation Portable, on the grounds that DS sales dwarf those for the PSP. But I've spent part of this week testing a smart PSP accessory that I'd buy as a consumer, despite a relatively steep price of $100.

The item is a new extended battery for the PSP from Blue Raven Technology, promising 8 to 15 hours of extra power. The exact amount of time is influenced by what type of game is being played or what other kind of PSP functions are being used.

The selling point, however, is the design.

Difficulty: Easy Learning Curve: About a half hour

Ever since the 2004 release of Driver 3, the Driver series has made a habit of trying to mimic the unique success of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series, achieving marginal success. Last year's Driver: Parallel Lines wasn't terrible and was a big step up from the much-maligned 2004 release of Driver 3. However, it still failed to do anything as well as the series it was aping and came off as the also-ran that it was. Development duties have been passed off to Sumo Digital for Driver '76 on the PlayStation Portable, but once again the series comes up short.

Pros
Solid funk-heavy '70s soundtrackComic-inspired story sequences look good
Cons
Storyline is short, predictableLanguid police response takes the fun out of rampagesRandom load timesEmpty streetsNothing to do
Read Full Review >> .

Sony extends PSP online libraries

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) has finally confirmed plans to launch an online store for users of its PlayStation Portable.The store will work much the same way as the PlayStation Store for the PS3, allowing owners of the PSP to buy and download a range of content.SCEA president Jack Tretton announced the store at the company's Gamers Day in the US this week."The advent of a long-awaited and quite frankly long overdue ability to deliver a downloadable service for the PSP will help us out a great deal. Hopefully we will have it out there by the fall," he said. .

Police reunion to avoid same-old, same-old

"When the stakes are really high, we always come out of the box swinging," Copeland said of high-profile gigs like Bonnaroo during a conference call with journalists Tuesday. "Sting and Andy (Summers) are two guys who just don't back down. The bigger the prize, the harder they fight."

That said, Copeland is trying to help Sting and Summers understand that the hard-core Police fans will be coming to more than one show on the reunion tour, and, as such, will be expecting the set list to change regularly.