We’re just a few weeks out from Sony’s U.S. PlayStation Vita launch, so now’s a great time to review what it is, how it works, what it’ll cost, what’s under the hood and what you’ll probably need to buy a la carte. Ready, set…

What’s a ‘PS Vita’?

A device formerly known as NGP, or “Next Generation Portable.” Sony announced this successor to its PlayStation Portable dedicated gaming handheld on January 27, 2011 (it had been rumored for months) with that unsightly codename. Six months later at E3 2011, the company revealed the device’s much smoother name would be “PlayStation Vita” (the Latin word vita means “life”).

What’s So Special About It, Design-Wise?

The Vita retains the PlayStation Portable’s hockey-rink-style shape, but it’s slightly wider and taller. That’s to accommodate the super-sized 5-inch, 960 x 544 pixel, OLED capacitive multi-touch screen capable of displaying up to 16.7 million colors. By comparison, the Nintendo 3DS’s top screen is 3.53 inches, the PSP’s screen is 3.8 inches and the Galaxy Nexus smartphone’s screen is 4.65 inches (the only smartphone I’m aware of with a full 5-inch screen today is Samsung’s unreleased Galaxy Note). The spec to pay attention to here is OLED (organic light-emitting diode), which means the Vita doesn’t need a backlight, thus improving contrast ratios and allowing for the display to be housed in a thinner, lighter design (the Vita weighs just 260g — that’s 20g less than the original PSP).

While Sony’s eschewing 3DS-style features like stereoscopic 3D (I say wisely) or dual screens, their contribution to the “look, innovation!” pool is the Vita’s rear capacitive multi-touch pad, a back panel wallpapered in Sony’s trademark face button symbols that your fingers can “tap” while wrapped around the handheld. You can use the rear pad to “shoot” the ball in a Vita game like FIFA Soccer, for instance, or to “zoom” the sniper rifle in a game like Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Oh, and the unit includes Sony’s six-axis motion-sensing system (a three-axis gyroscope plus a three-axis accelerometer).

In the “standard features” department, the Vita includes both front and rear facing VGA (640 x 480) cameras, stereo speakers, a microphone, a d-pad and four PS-style face buttons, Sony’s classic PlayStation button, “start,” “select” and volume buttons, a rechargeable (non-removable) Lithium-ion battery and built-in Wi-Fi (3G + GPS optional). Slot-wise, you’ve got a place to stick in PS Vita game cards, one for memory cards (the Vita lacks inbuilt storage memory), a SIM card slot (3G, GPS), a headset jack, a multi-use port (mini-USB) and an accessory port.

The Vita also includes dual analog sticks, and by “sticks,” I mean actual raised control columns with convex-shaped grips (contrast with the flush nubs on the PSP and 3DS). While Nintendo plans to sell a cradle-style peripheral for the 3DS that adds a right-hand joystick, the Vita’s the only gaming handheld on the block with dual analog sticks built-in.

What’s Under the Hood?

The Vita employs an ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor and a PowerVR SGX543MP4+ GPU. To put that in context, Apple’s A5 processor (used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S) is based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 core architecture, and you’ll also find the dual core version of PowerVR’s SGX543MP technology in those devices (the ’4′ in the Vita’s GPU indicates the quad-core version, and the ‘+’ refers to features designed specifically for Sony).

How powerful is it really? Sony’s made several comparisons to the PlayStation 3. They don’t mean spec-for-spec, of course, just that the Vita’s games are expected to look much like PS3 games, detail-wise.

What Colors Does It Come In?

Sony’s offering the Vita in one color only at launch: “Crystal Black.”

Will My PSP Games Work?

The PS Vita will play PSP games, but won’t take the PSP’s UMD game discs, so if you want to play PSP games, you’ll have to buy and download them from the PlayStation Store. That said, you’ll have the option use the Vita’s second analog stick in select PSP games (to pan the view around in a first-person shooter, say) by simply remapping the controls.

Will It Support My Favorite Social Network?

Probably. While these are all “coming in early 2012,” Sony says the Vita will eventually have access to Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Flickr and Foursquare via freebie app downloads from the PlayStation Store.

What’ll It Cost?

The basic Wi-Fi model runs $249.99, while the version with integrated 3G will set you back $299.99.

How About Games?

While you’ll no doubt be able to buy games for less once developers have bite-sized Vita content up on the PlayStation Store, the average going price for a Vita game is currently $39.99 (a handful are $10 more, others are $10 less).

What Are the Launch-Day Titles?

From Sony Computer Entertainment America: Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, Super Stardust Delta, Little Deviants, ModNation Racers: Roadtrip, Wipeout 2048, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Escape Plan and Hustle Kings.

From third-party publishers: Army Corps of Hell (Square Enix), Asphalt Injection (Ubisoft), BEN10 GALACTIC RACING (D3), Blazblue: Continuum Shift EXTEND (Aksys Games Localization), Dungeon Hunter Alliance (Gameloft), Dynasty Warriors Next (Tecmo Koei), F1 2011 (Codemasters), FIFA Soccer (Electronic Arts), Lumines Electronic Symphony (Ubisoft), Michael Jackson The Experience (Ubisoft), Rayman Origins (Ubisoft), Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen (Namco Bandai), Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs (Drinkbox Studios), Touch My Katamari (Namco Bandai), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (Capcom), Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition (Sega) and just announced — Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus.

What Else Do I (Probably) Have to Buy?

The Vita ships without built-in storage (like the PSP before it), which means you’ll have to buy proprietary memory sticks (from Sony) if you want to save games or download content from the PlayStation Store (some games may let you save to the game card itself, but not all). Sony’s price lineup Vita-brand memory cards is as follows: $20 for 4GB, $30 for 8GB, $60 for 16GB, and $100 for 32GB. Note that it’s possible to backup or transfer data between memory cards, but you’ll need a PC or PS3 (as intermediary) to do so.

If you opt for the pricier $299.99 3G model, you’ll have to pay AT&T for the privilege (AT&T’s the exclusive wireless carrier for the system). An “AT&T Data Connect” plan for the Vita runs $14.99 per month for 250MB and $30 per month for 3GB. Both plans have 30-day recurring opt out options and include complimentary access to about 29,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots in the U.S. Note that the 3G feature is currently touted as a way to socialize with friends, sync news feeds, and play turn-based games — just like using your 3G phone tethered to your PC for Internet access, the connection won’t be fast enough to handle head-to-head racing sessions or first-person shooter square-offs.

You might want to budget $10 to $20 for a carrying case, too — remember that we’re talking a full five inches of OLED screen real estate you’ll want to protect.

Does It Support the PlayStation Network?

Of course, but what’s more (and unlike the PSP), PS Vita games now support PlayStation Trophies — Sony’s version of game achievements — too.

How Much Space Do Saved Games Take Up?

This varies by game, of course, but to give you an idea based on back-of-the-box specs, a game like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 requires 4,096 KB, Uncharted: Golden Abyss needs 64 MB and FIFA Soccer will use a whopping 160 MB.

When Can I Actually Get One?

Both models go on sale in the U.S. on Wednesday, Feb. 22 (the system originally launched in Japan on Dec. 17, 2011).

[This post republished from TIME's Techland.]

That means 3G for the Playstation Vita will cost $15 per month for 250 MB, or $25 per month for 2 GB, in addition to the $300 price of the 3G Vita itself. (A Wi-Fi only model will cost $250.) Both data plans will include unlimited access to AT&T’s Wi-Fi hotspots, of which there are 29,000 around the United States. The Vita launches on February 22 in the United States.

I’m disappointed that AT&T and Sony stuck with conventional data plans for the PS Vita. This would have been a great opportunity for AT&T to launch a shared pool of data among multiple devices–something wireless carriers have talked about doing for some time. I can’t imagine a lot of people will want to pay a recurring data charge just for a gaming device, especially when you get the same result by using a smartphone’s Wi-Fi hotspot feature, which would also allow for faster 4G data and connectivity with other devices.

Sony and AT&T are hoping to lure people into paying for data plans by offering exclusive in-game content when players check in at certain geographic locations. We may be able to judge the 3G Vita’s success based on whether game makers continue to produce these kinds of exclusives long after launch.

These days, as the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson explains, all HDTVs are remarkably inexpensive, and getting more so every week. And it’s increasingly hard for any particular brand to stick out from the pack:

This makes televisions different from, say, a tablet. You can compare the iPad and the BlackBerry Playbook across many factors: screen quality, screen size, speed, connection, touch responsiveness, and app store. The iPad is really, really different from the BlackBerry PlayBook. A Sony 40-inch flatscreen TV is really, really similar to a Panasonic. This makes it difficult to build what analysts call “brand premium.” You might pay extra for an Apple product because you have a clear sense of what Apple offers above and beyond other similarly-priced products. Televisions don’t have the same differentiation. As a result, TV prices tend to converge more than other electronics. Given the behavior of consumers, and the efficiency gains of manufacturers, the direction of that convergence is down.

This is an enormous headache for TV makers–and a nightmare, really, for a company like Sony, which is used to being able to command a stiff price premium. Overall, though, it’s great news for TV buyers.

The post-2011 launch date outside of Japan gives Sony and game publishers more time to finish their launch titles. Sony must have seen how poorly Nintendo’s 3DS fared without a solid game lineup, and wanted to avoid releasing the Vita with a whimper. The company says more than 100 PS Vita games are in development now, but didn’t say how many will be available at launch. (In Japan, where the PS Vita launches in December, 26 games will be available from the beginning.)

Sony’s still planning to sell the PS Vita for $250 in the United States, or $300 with 3G connectivity from AT&T. Nintendo’s decision to slash the 3DS price from $250 to $170 apparently hasn’t changed Sony’s thinking on the matter. The cost of AT&T 3G service is still a mystery.

I’m looking forward to the PS Vita even though I have my doubts about the viability of gaming handhelds in a world of smartphones, tablets and the iPod Touch. The PS Vita acknowledges those threats by including a touch screen, front- and rear-facing cameras and apps like Skype, Facebook, Twitter and a web browser, but it also tries to be a serious gaming handheld with quad-core graphics and dual analog sticks for shooters and other modern games. I hope Sony is giving itself enough time to get the little things right and to have a big launch in four months.

One of the ongoing mysteries of consumer electronics is why the enormously popular iPod Touch has its market–touch-screen media players that can run apps–pretty much all to itself. (I still think you could make a nice Windows Phone-powered Touch competitor; Microsoft apparently isn’t interested.) But at Sony’s booth at CEATEC in Tokyo last week, there was a row of Walkman devices–and one of them, the NW-Z1000, is the Touch alternative I’ve been wondering about.

It’s got a 4.3″ display and runs Android–and while the user interface is in Japanese, limiting my ability to judge it, it looks quite nice. It’s coming out in December in Tokyo, but Sony apparently doesn’t have any plans to bring it to the U.S. I’d love to see see it get here, if only to see how it would fare against the iPod Touch.

According to the official Playstation blog, some entity was trying to sign in to users’ accounts on the Playstation Network, the Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment, using “a massive set” of login data obtained elsewhere. The attackers likely got a hold of a large username and password database, and were trying to see if any of those logins worked on Sony’s networks.

Only 93,000 of the login attempts–0.1 percent of the three networks–were successful, and Sony has already locked down those accounts and notified the affected users by e-mail. A “small fraction” of compromised accounts showed additional activity, such as unauthorized purchases. Those users will have credits restored to their accounts. Credit card information is not at risk, Sony said.

The company’s reputation for security got dinged last spring, when hackers broke into the Playstation Network and Sony Online Entertainment. The hackers stole user names, passwords and other personal information, and kept gamers offline for nearly a month.

The news about the latest attack was delivered by Philip Reitinger, who Sony hired as chief information security officer after the April’s Playstation Network breach. Reitinger previously worked at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Communication was definitely a step up this time, although I’m still wondering when, exactly, the attack occurred, and why it’s possible for an outside entity to test logins on such a massive scale.

The best way to convey what it’s like is to share some of the photos I snapped. So here we go.

Sony’s booth was home to a super-fancy show featuring its two new tablets.

There were also long lines at its booth for demos of its new 3D virtual-home-theater headset.

There were certainly plenty of 3D TVs at the show, but they weren’t the center of attraction they’ve been at other recent electronics shows. But folks lined up for demos of super-high-resolution HDTV, such as this crowd at the Sharp booth. (The lady in front is demoing how surprisingly lightweight Sharp HDTVs are.)

In Japan, people still like mimes in a wholly non-ironic way. This one’s also demonstrating how portable Sharp HDTVs are, by toting one around like a suitcase.

Maybe the single biggest theme at the show was energy, and the conservation thereof–a fact clearly spurred in part by Japan’s reaction to its earthquake and the power outages that stemmed from it. Here’s a demo at Panasonic’s booth of a gas pump-like charging station for electric cars.

Just as Ford tends to have a higher profile at U.S. electronics shows than other car companies, Nissan seemed to be everywhere at CEATEC. Here’s a tiny concept electric car that makes a Smart Car look an H2.

Nissan also had a Leaf electric car that doubled as a backup battery for a home on stilts.

The Japanese love their vending machines. This one happens to be solar-powered.

The Wireless Power Consortium had an entire booth of products that use its Qi inductive charging standard to charge up gadgets without wires–including this table.

Intel was one of the few non-Japanese companies with a major presence, including a bunch of intriguing demos. This one involved online shopping, with a green T-shirt that serves as a green screen–allowing you to try out different tops from home.

More Intel: On-the-fly special effects give the lady in the boxy hat different on-screen heads.

Also at Intel, an attendee tries on a bionic arm.

Speaking of Intel, there were several computers based on its Dynabook platform for MacBook Air-like thin Windows machines, including this Toshiba.

Mitsubishi had a neat demo of a giant half-sphere electronic sign made out of gazillions of OLED displays.

At first, I wasn’t positive what this was–but I believe it’s some sort of TV satellite dish. Even if it isn’t, I like it.

I’ll bet that Toshiba didn’t absolutely need to have a human being holding up that tiny sign, which says “Regza,” a Toshiba sub-brand…

In Japan, Hitachi has a sub-brand–at least I think that’s what it is–called Wooo. It’s fun to say!

Yes, this car has giant ears.

Cute!

A live concert on the show floor.

We western journalists who traveled to the show also took a field trip to the astounding Yodobashi Camera in the Akihabara district–a camera/computer/phone/gadget/watch accessory store that just goes on forever and ever. And then a bit beyond that. (Check out the photo below and you’ll see a Tower Records sign–they still have them in Tokyo, and Yodobashi’s CD section is one.) It’s only one of scads of electronics stores in Akihabara, from other behemoths to tiny storefronts.

More news to come in a further couple of posts.

[Full disclosure: I was part of a keynote panel at the show, and CEATEC covered my airfare and hotel.]

And guess what? The policy change is probably legal thanks to the Supreme Court.

Back in April, the Supreme Court ruled that AT&T–and any company, for that matter–can use service contracts to block class action lawsuits and force customers into binding arbitration. Lower courts had argued that such clauses were “unconscionable” under state consumer protection laws, but the Supreme Court overturned those decisions in a 5-4 ruling. The Federal Arbitration Act was designed to promote arbitration over costly and lengthy lawsuits, the court’s majority argued, so allowing class action lawsuits to proceed would be at odds with what the federal law is trying to accomplish.

As Ars Technica’s Chris Foresman noted at the time, the ruling allows AT&T and other companies to “quietly settle a few individual claims instead of being faced with larger class-action settlements which might include punitive awards designed to discourage future bad practices.”

But what’s wrong with arbitration? As GamePolitics points out:

Generally these third parties are hired from companies that specialize in corporate arbitration and – most of the time – side with the company that used their services because they want the repeat business.

Granted, class action lawsuits aren’t so great either. They’re costly, they can take years to resolve, and they rarely result in big monetary awards for the plaintiffs. But they can also prompt changes in company policy, such as Skype eliminating expiration dates on calling credits or Verizon Wireless pro-rating early termination fees.

In Sony’s case, Playstation 3 users have sued to restore “Other OS” functionality to the system. That lawsuit that will continue because it began before the policy change, but if Sony ever wrongs Playstation Network users again, their options are now limited.

Sony had already sort of announced its new Android tablets again and again, but at the IFA consumer-electronics show in Berlin, it did the job officially . The 10.1″ model is the Tablet S, and will ship on September 16th for $499.99 (16GB) and $599.99 (32GB).  The folding one with two 5.5″ displays is the Tablet P, and will be sold with bundled AT&T wireless service at an unspecified date (“coming soon”) and price.

I got some hands-on time with both Sony tablets, and don’t expect either to be the Great iPad Competitor that leads folks to conclude that it’s possible to compete effectively with Apple’s tablet. (In the phone world, the original Verizon Droid accomplished that, even though its reign as the iPad’s archrival was brief.) But neither one feels generic, either–they’re the sort of tablets you might expect Sony to come up with, and I mean that as a compliment. (If Sony had branded them as VAIO tablets, they would have felt right at home in its lineup of desktop and laptop PCs.)

One of the basic problems with building a tablet that’s a plausible iPad rival is that it’s tough to build hardware that’s anything other than an anonymous-looking rectangular hunk of glass and plastic. With the S, Sony has succeeded in building something with its own personality–and its unusual design has some genuine benefits. The wedge shape feels good in your hand, like a folded-back magazine, and allows the tablet to sit on a table at a gentle angle, allowing for comfy typing. It’s not like all tablets are going to ape this design from now on, but I do think that some people will really like it. (Intentionally or unintentionally, it also lets Sony opt out of the “Is this tablet thinner than the iPad?” race.)

Sony has tweaked Android Honeycomb a bit, but judging from my time with the S, it’s managed to improve rather than hurt the interface. (Sadly, that’s not a given with Android modifications.) It added a screen that lets you access your most-used apps quickly. It incorporated a feature for speeding up Web browsing that seems to help. It bundles its own Music Unlimited, Video Unlimited, and Reader services; I haven’t used them and therefore can’t judge them, but doing so nudges the S closer than most Android tablets to the iPad’s fully-integrated package of hardware, software, and services.

(There are a bunch of ways to use an iPad or iPhone as a remote–I wrote about Peel–but they all involve extra hardware of one sort of another.) It’s also PlayStation-certified, which for now doesn’t mean all that much–it comes with a couple of old PlayStation games, with more on the way.

I still think that the iPad competitors who use widescreens–which is almost all of them except for the dearly departed TouchPad–are making a mistake. Wide is good for movies, of course, but it means that the tablet is unnaturally tall when held in portrait mode, leaving you with no aspect ration that works great for books, magazines, and other reading materials. But the S’s 9.4″ screen isn’t bad–it results in a tablet that fits well in your hands. And the S felt zippy and responsive when I tried it

Bottom line: As long as the library of Honeycomb apps remains sparse, every tablet that goes up against the iPad is a longshot. But if I were shopping for an Android tablet right now, the S would be on my list. It’s got a nice set of features–and, just as important, personality.

Meanwhile, the Tablet P gets an A+ for sheer creativity. It fits in a pocket, but its two screens add up way more screen real estate than on anything else that’s pocketable, including Samsung’s Galaxy Note. It has most of the same features as the Tablet S, except for the infrared port. And judging from my short time with it, I think you could learn to forget the fact that square-shaped display is really two screens with a hinge in the middle. (Sony is also promoting apps built to treat the two screens as a team–like e-mail with a message on one screen and an inbox on the other.)

The price that AT&T sells the P for will have a major impact on how well it does. Ultimately, I suspect consumers will regard it less as a foldable tablet and more as an iPod Touch alternative with two screens and built-in wireless broadband–and I I’ll bet that those with a strong affinity for gizmos will be more attracted to it than the teeming masses. It also strikes me as a spiritual successor to the company’s old VAIO P-series machine, a smaller-than-a-netbook device which didn’t catch on.

I’m not going to make any bets on how Sony’s tablets will do…even though the conservative bet at the moment is to wager against anything that’s not an iPad. No matter how well they sell, I hope that Sony is patient with them and with any additional models it has in the works. The company’s already succeeded in coming up with designs that offer a choice, not an echo. But it’s going to take a lot longer than six coughcoughtouchpad weeks to determine whether  it has a shot at success, period.