I use my PlayStation Vita every day and the majority of the time it acts as an MP3 player to keep me entertained with podcasts and music. My daily commute usually involves firing up Super Stardust Delta then switching over to the music player and listening to a podcast whilst I game.
Due to the limited space on the memory card I only keep twenty or so MP3s on my device, usually the latest podcasts from Radio One and Five Live, the TSA podcast, a couple of random tunes and half finished versions of tunes and mixes I am working on so I can listen to them and decide what needs changing even though I’m not in my studio.
This Sunday I’m jetting off for my two weeks holiday and to complicate matters further I have recently moved, which means I have no internet access until Virgin install my new broadband connection.
As I knew I would have no internet connection before I moved I fired up iTunes and downloaded a plethora of podcasts, tunes and audio books and spent a good few hours carefully selecting the perfect playlist for the 22 hour flight to Hawaii.
The move went well and I have spent most of this week unpacking and arranging my life. Last night I finally got round to setting up my computer and thankfully it had survived the journey and sprang merrily to life.
I connected up my Vita, wiped a couple of demos off the memory card to clear some space for my holiday playlist, fired up Content Manager and…
[drop2]“You must be connected to the internet to use Content Manager”Obviously that cannot be true, I must have misread the message so I try again.
“You must be connected to the internet to use Content Manager”
I will not describe what happened next but it did involve questioning the parentage of Sony and the use of colourful and fruity language.
You cannot use Content Manager for PlayStation Vita unless you have an internet connection.
That means I cannot transfer my holiday playlist to my Vita and for the next month I am stuck with the same couple of podcasts and a smattering of half finished demos.
This is utterly, utterly ridiculous.
There is not a single reason why Content Manager needs to talk to the internet when all I want to do is transfer a rare remix of ‘Ooh Ahh Just A Little Bit’ by Gina G to my console.
Why on earth does Content Manager need to talk to the internet? Surely not to check for a software update, all the other Vita apps work without being online. Frankly it’s rather worrying, are Sony gathering data on what I transfer to my Vita?
I do love my little PlayStation but I use it for music more than games and this stupid requirement has left me with a multimedia brick for the next month. There is no way on hell I am sitting on an aircraft for 22 hours without music – so there is only one thing to do.
I’m going to go and buy another iPod and do you know what Sony? It will transfer all my music to the device without being connected to the internet. The Vita will be left at home and the money I was going spend on Vita games for my holiday will be spent on iTunes instead.
Do you know what will happen when I come back from holiday, Sony? I’ll keep the iPod in my pocket as it’s smaller and my Vita will be left at home. I won’t be using it every day and I sure as hell will be buying fewer games for it.
I suspect the Vita is going to sit on a shelf at home and gather dust. To be honest it’s somewhat of a surprise it still exists, I could have thrown the damn thing against a wall I was so annoyed last night.
Epic fail Sony, epic fail.
skibadee
Vita for music seems a bit strange to me never use mine for that.
skibadee
if it a piracy measure it has to be done they got screwed on the PSP by that.
FRUIT0FDOOM
This is quite a crappy flaw indeed! Your PS3 doesn’t need to be connected to the Internet to transfer files from your Media Server (PC). Tuffcub also raises a valid concern – why does it require an internet connection for something transferred over USB?
Would just like to add for all those bashing the article the clue is in the title – it has opinion written all over it; “Why I’m not” for instance. Sure enough it also contains interesting information that may prove of use to readers in the future. Stop ya bloody whining, worse things are happening
KeRaSh
I actually used my PSP to listen to music while on the bus to school when I was younger. :)
rick_x
Not understanding the vitriol on this post, Sony have always marketed the PSP/Vita as a multimedia device (part of the reason both have failed spectacularly IMO). The need for an internet connection to do a simple transfer is something that a lot of people won’t know about and seems unnecessary. I realise people will cite piracy as the reason but as we’ve seen with DRM on the PC, cumbersome security is often an accelerant to hacking and someone with the same problem as TC (and some hacking skills) may just see this as a justified reason to go in there and hack the system, just to get what should be a seamless user experience. As we’ve seen time and time again DRM is only hurtful to genuine users, hackers will always find a way round it.
ohmikkie
After reading the article an a number of comments I still don’t get it. Why not bypass using the content manager and transfer the files manually?
I did that all the time with me PSP and android devices. Never tried with me Vita; it’s gathering dust.
Alex C
You can’t bypass it.
ohmikkie
Yeah I checked earlier on. Now I understand the pain.
I’ve never liked the idea of installing rubbish on me PC just to copy media to a device (partly why I’ll never own an apple device).
I can see my PSP being used more on flights now.