It is needless to say that the PlayStation Portable (PSP) is more than a video gaming device. In itself, and with the help of the homebrew scene, the handheld can easily be transformed into a total portable entertainment system.

This is why Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey is wondering why Sony didn't take advantage of this. According to the analyst, Apple's iTunes has been enjoying the huge market for mobile video content for some time now and Sony has still to take a slice of it. McQuivey expressed his regret,

The thing is Sony could have been all this. The Sony PSP is one of the best portable entertainment media devices that anyone has come up with in years. It has a relatively big screen, plays video beautifully, has good storage and audio. It could have been the first big mobile carrier for TV shows and movies.

McQuivey explained as well that this problem is not focused on the PSP alone and is in fact the problem of Sony since the time of the Betamax. Quite boldly, the analyst added that Sony will never win a format war ever because it refuses to open its channels and listen to what the consumer wants. He then adds that,

You got a company here that's pushing its own approach on every level, and as a result nobody is using its memory stick or video format, so you don't have the same robust market that you could have had if you said 'We're going to open this up. You can put your Windows Media files on here. You can put your QuickTime files on here

The PSP, as you all know, uses format Universal Media Discs (UMD). Quite ironically, these UMDs can only be played and viewed on the handheld unit.

Tag this as off-topic. This is not news. This is however, something that may be a bit entertaining if you're a Tekken fan. Consider this the byproduct of beer, too much Tekken: Dark Resurrection for the PSP, and a VHS/betamax marathon with buddies.

In this post, this blogger will point out a few observations regarding some Tekken fighters. Particularly, with which real-life celebrity they might've been based on.

Let's start with the obvious ones.

Yeah, most Tekken characters are inspired by pop-culture martial arts heroes and anime cliches. With characters like Law and Lei, the reference is pretty obvious, but with some other characters it isn't quite that immediate. For example, anyone remember Cynthia Rothrock?

More on Cynthia, Arnie, B-Movie villains, and Connan O'Brien after the Jump!

Are UMD movies going the way of the dinosaur? Well, Kotaku reports a rumor today from an alleged Target employee stating that at least his retailer is getting rid of the poorly-supported format.

The story goes that the employee works in the electronics section at a Target store and when he walked in today he noticed the PSP UMD movies section was missing. His boss supposedly said that Target wasn't going to be selling UMD movies any longer. This employee supposedly then called other Target stores in his city, and they also said they had pulled the disks.

So, does this mean UMD movies are going, going, gone?

Well, we reported earlier that Wal Mart may get rid of UMD sales this year and that Universal movies studios are no longer going to make movies for the UMD format.

But Target online still lists around 500 UMD movies for sale, so these disappearances from Target could just be a regional effort. Or it could be the beginning of a trend to move away from the format.

What do you guys think?