I have to admit that this week’s announcement from Apple (while impressive) left me disappointed on one major front. I was really expecting Apple to do something clever with the form factor of the iPod Video in order to get a larger screen on there. Yes, I know it’s physically larger than the standard iPod Photo screen, but I’m talking another inch or so each way, perhaps in a widescreen orientation.

I expected I would be envious of the new iPod when I compared it to my PSP, but the screen size is so important to me that I don’t regret having the PSP at all. The device can play games and music, I have an iPod anyway to carry the bulk of my music collection, and I know how to take DVD films and dump them to the PSP. Apple also wasn’t able to seal a deal for movies beyond the Pixar shorts that they got. If they’re able to do that, I’ll reevaluate, but without a legal, legit, and easy way to get mainstream films onto the iPod, it’s not quite good enough. Movies for the PSP (on their UMD format) may be a little overpriced, but the availability of titles makes it easy to grab a movie for a trip.

Which leads me to the next point for this post, a review of how the PSP did on my trip out to California last week. I had a number of movies on UMD and movies from my DVD collection with me on the trip. I ended up watching several on the trip. Overall, the PSP was a great portable video player. I was able to watch nearly two whole movies without running out of juice on both trips. The only reason I wasn’t able to finish the second movie was that the flight was too short. My only major complaint is that the sound level on the recordings was too low. The PSP has a UMD volume feature that boosts the audio to compensate, but it wasn’t enough. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the sound level on DVDs are also set very low. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s universal enough to make me believe that it offers some advantage in dynamic range or something. The UMDs seem similarly “quiet.” Games, on the other hand, are nice and loud. I actually had the captioning on so I could understand some of the quieter dialog. It’s just a problem on planes, really. When I used it while camping, it was perfectly loud enough.

I mostly watched movies I had already seen, but I did get one movie for my birthday from Heidi that I hadn’t watched yet. Based on a recommendation from my sister, she got me Crash. I really liked this movie. The ensemble cast delivers great performances across the board. The story is pretty simple. As the events unfold, we start seeing how racism plays into the lives of all of the characters (good and bad). It’s the story that makes this a great movie. Good actors and a good story… funny how that makes for a good movie.

If you liked Traffic, you’ll like this movie. Like Traffic, the writer has worked in some portions that just kick you in the gut. It’s not a happy movie, really. I think that’s part of what makes me like it. It’s not a happy ending. There’s some authenticity in that and not in a contrived way.

Rating: 8/10