Wombat Mobile I should be coding or sleeping instead of this...

I managed to get my grubby hands on a PSP this morning. It wasn't too bad of an experience.

I got to the Best Buy in Union City around 6:55am and the line was better than I expected. I thought about going to Krispy Kreme and coming back, but decided to just get in line.

Just after 7am, some BestBuy employees came out and said they were going to start letting 5 people in at a time to start getting stuff, and then start ringing up people around 8am. They also said something about the store having either 200 or 250 PSPs(it was hard to hear) and everyone would be getting one, which was a great relief. Shortly afterwards, they gave out numbers to everyone in line. I got # 92. It was pretty smooth, they've got this line thing down to a science at BestBuy.

After I got in the store, they tried to push the pricier bundles, but I was only interested in the $250 version so I got in the checkout line. This line actually went kind of slowly since each cashier had to call out to runners to fetch a console and the games each customer wanted. That could have been done a little more efficiently.

I didn't get a good feel for which games people were buying, although RidgeRacer was sold out. Interestingly, that title was also sold out yesterday at EBGames when I bought my games.

I left the store around 8:10am with my PSP. There was no line at that point, but they still had numbers to give out as I left. It looked like they'll sellout today, but, in hindsight, I could have showed up at 8am and been ok.

I unpacked it when I got home, but haven't turned it on yet, so I don't have a real impression yet, except that it looks damn cool. Really slick, kind of like if Darth Vader carried a tri-corder. It's smaller than I thought it would be. Maybe I have massive hands, but it feels really tiny.

One disappointment is the white accessories, though. I heard they were bad, but they're even worse in person. Whoever made that call should be fired. The white leather lanyard made me laugh out loud. It looks like part of a handbag my mom would carry. Did the accessory people even talk to the people who were handling the device?

Anyway, it's charging under my desk right now, and I'm sure I'll be blogging more about it over the next few days. Today is probably the peak of the hype for this thing, but I think the coolest part of this experience was seeing people jazzed who normally don't get excited about anything. I mean this is a demographic who's rallying cry might very well be "Meh.". But talking to people in line and as well as online, there's a lot of excitement about the PSP. Maybe because there's the sense this thing is more of a revolutionary product rather than just an evolutionary one that's causing people who normally don't get excited about things like this to care. We'll see if it lives up to its promise.

It's funny, I haven't even turned it on yet, but I haven't been able to shake this stupid grin off my face all day. :)