Learning using Portable device

Elliott Masie sent out a "xLearn Lab Video report" on Device Based Learning on SONY Portable Playstation.

Here is the specification of the Portable Playstation from a SONY press-release:

It has 16:9 widescreen TFT LCD (16.77 million colors) on a 480 x 272 pixel screen. The dimensions are 170mm x 74mm x 23mm with a weight of 260g. It also comes complete with the basic functions of a portable player such as built-in stereo speakers, exterior headphone connector, brightness control and sound mode selection.

PSP also comes equipped with diverse input/output connectors such as USB 2.0, and 802.11b (Wi-Fi) wireless LAN, providing connectivity to various devices in the home and to the wireless network outside.

PSP adopts a small but high-capacity optical medium UMD™ (Universal Media Disc), enabling game software, rich with full-motion video and other forms of digital entertainment content, to be stored. The UMD is 60mm in diameter but can store up to 1.8GB of digital data. There is a build-in copyright protection system has been developed which utilizes a combination of a unique disc ID, a 128 bit AES encryption keys for the media, and individual ID for each PSP hardware unit for content protection.

With that capability in an affortable price range (US250 according to the media), Sony Portable Playstation may be a good device for e-learning. However, how can be used and for what it can be used are still at a very early stage. Elliot suggested that it may be used as a new employee orientation device, or a sale's information/training as well as presentation tool.

He mentioned several times that SONY Portable Playstation can also communicate with nearby SONY Portable Playstations creating a possibility of collaboration, albeit in a small geographical range.

The immediate question I have is how available is the information needed to develop material on such a device and is there any "blank recordable" UMD and the associated writing device available for us to put our training material on it.

ps After doing a bit more research, here is the specification of the UMD:

UMD Specifications
Dimensions: Approx. 65 mm (W) x 64 mm (D) x 4.2 mm (H)
Weight: Approx. 10g
Disc Diameter: 60 mm
Maximum Capacity: 1.8GB (Single-sided, dual layer)
Laser wavelength: 660nm (Red laser)
Encryption: AES 128bit
Profile: PSP Game (full function)
UMD Audio (codec ATRAC3plus, PCM, (MPEG4 AVC))
UMD Video (codec MPEG4 AVC, ATRAC3plus, Caption PNG)

Look like we can burn UMD using a DVD writer if we can the media in that size and the appropriate software!