Handheld Linux

Sure, it doesn't look quite as slick as a PSP, but it does have an air about it that smells like electronic goodness. I'm talking about the GP2X, a handheld gaming device with a Linux kernel.

Look at the screen, man! 3.5 inches, 320x240 resolution TFT LCD. The Nintendo DS screens are each 3 inches and have a resolution of 256 × 192. The PlayStation Portable's is a crazy 4.3 inches, 480x272 resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

We could sit here and compare specs all day long, but that isn't why this device is getting blogged. It's the fact that they've opened up nearly all aspects of development on it. That means all sorts of homebrewed entertainment that the folks at Nintendo and Sony have tried so hard to prevent on their machines. Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega, and arcade emulators are already developed for the thing! Great stuff. They even give you a dev kit on the site, which would be great for me if I knew how to program stuff (Don't tell my employers. They don't know that I randomly hit keys until the program does what it should).

You can read more about the $200 device (as of the writing of this article) on the wikipedia article and a review of it on Blether.

What? $200? A PSP costs $250! Hmm... Well, I still like it anyway.