Sony is planning a tablet computer with a touch panel similar to Apple's iPad for later this year that the Japanese manufacturer promises will make the best of its gadgetry and entertainment strengths. 
 
 The product code-named S1, shown Tuesday in Tokyo, comes with a 9.4 inch display for enjoying online content, such as movies, music, video games and electronics books, and for online connections, including email and social networking. 
 
 Sony, which boasts electronics as well as entertainment divisions, also showed S2, a smaller mobile device with two 5.5 inch displays that can be folded like a book. 
 
 It did not give prices. Sony Corp. Senior Vice President Kunimasa Suzuki said the products will go on sale worldwide from about September. Both run Google's Android 3.0 operating system. 
 
 The announcement of Sony's key net-linking offerings comes as it tries to fix the outage of its PlayStation Network, which offers games and music online. 
 
 It is unclear when that can start running again. Sony has blamed the problem on an "external intrusion" and has acknowledged it would have to rebuild its system to add security measures and strengthen its infrastructure. 
 
 Suzuki said both of the latest tablets feature Sony's "saku saku," or nifty, technology that allows for smooth and quick access to online content and for getting browsers working almost instantly after a touch. 
 
 "We offer what is uniquely Sony," Suzuki said after demonstrating how the S1 was designed with a tapered width for carrying around "like a magazine." 
 
 The devices will connect to Sony's cloud-computing based library of content such as movies and music, as well as to Sony PlayStation video games adapted for running on Android and digital books from Sony's Reader store, the company said. 
 
 Sony, which makes the Vaio personal computer and PlayStation 3 video game console, has lost some of its past glory _ once symbolized in its Walkman portable music player that pioneered personal music on-the-go in the 1980s, catapulting the Japanese company into a household name around the world. 
 
 It has been struggling against flashier and more efficient rivals including Apple Inc. of the U.S. with its iPhone, iPod and iPad machines, as well as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., from which Sony purchases liquid-crystal displays, a key component in flat-panel TVs. 
 
 Sony has already promised a successor to its PlayStation Portable machine for late this year, code-named NGP for "next generation portable," promising the quality of a home console in an on-the-go machine boasting a screen double the size of smart phones. 
 
 The popularity of smart phones including the iPhone has been another threat to Sony. 
 
 Kazuo Hirai, promoted in March to head Sony's sprawling consumer products and services division, said Sony's strategy has always been about combining the benefits of hardware, software and networking to make consumers happy, and that was the same goal for S1 and S2. 
 
 "There is no change to that approach," he said. ||||| Sony had an event today and as expected, it introduced the PlayStation 4. The next-gen platform is designed to shift focus from the living room to the gamer, Sony said, and overall, PlayStation’s approach is meant to make it possible for gamers to play wherever they want, whenever they want. 
 
 PS4 lead system architect Mark Cerny talked about how the evolution of the PS4 came about, saying it began five years ago, earlier on in the life of the PS3. The PS3 was a first step, which was designed to connect to a variety of services, but it was limited because of how early it launched in that world, Cerny said. 
 
 “Much less value is found today in blast processing or a system-on-a-chip,” Cerny said. He suggested tech could interfere with design innovation. The tech remains important, he stressed, but the idea was to create a platform that was all about experience. Sound familiar? That’s because it’s a tune Apple and Steve Jobs started playing years ago when they realized the spec race was a nonstarter in the mobile phone world. 
 
 “By game creators, for game creators. It is a powerful and accessible system,” Cerny said on stage, suggesting that this time around there was a strong emphasis on ease of development, hence the use of a standard x86 PC CPU. The GPU is designed for use with “practical tasks,” he said, with the overall goal of making development a painless experience. 
 
 Essentially, the PS4 is an advanced, x86-based personal computer, which means that it should be easy for developers to build. All of this is clearly an answer to a major complaint from studios about the previous generation, which was infamously tricky to master from a software perspective. 
 
 Sony also unveiled a redesigned DualShock 4 controller, which has the Vita-style touchpad depicted in rumors, ad works with a 3D “stereo” camera accessory to track its movements in a loose approximation of what’s possible with Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect. 
 
 The hardware is clearly also borrowing some tricks from mobile games. It has save states that allow users to quickly freeze and resume gameplay, without having to save just by switching on and off the console. There’s also background downloading, which allows digital titles to be played before they’re even completely on your local drive. 
 
 Social is another key tentpole for the PS4, according to Cerny. He described a new function that allows you to quickly pause and upload gameplay videos as easily as you might have done with static screenshots in the past. There’s also spectator functionality for watching “celebrities” gaming, something which seems to have been borrowed from Twitter’s success with famous members. Networking will also be based around real names and profile pictures, instead of strictly on gamer tags and avatars, too, and all of this will plug into mobile apps to help gamers stay in touch. ||||| Early this morning, the Xbox One hit store shelves. With Sony’s PlayStation 4 having launched on the 15th, that means both of the new game consoles are now available. Which should you buy? 
 
 I’m assuming for purposes of this argument that you’re not the kind of insane gamer who has spent the last six months drooling over game trailers on YouTube, making sure their pre-order is going to be fulfilled on day one, and posting furious messages to internet forums defending the console of their choice. Once everybody’s done lining up in the cold and sleeping in tents outside a Best Buy to make sure they have their new toy in hand, that’s when it’s time for everyone else to make their decisions. 
 
 Xbox One, PlayStation 4. They sure do look the same! A couple of big black rectangles. And it’s important to remember that for the most part, they’ll play the exact same games. The idea of the platform exclusive has all but gone extinct as games have become significantly more expensive to create. Unless Microsoft and Sony are going out and paying big bucks to keep a game off the other guy’s platform, publishers are going to get their games into as many channels as possible. So if you mostly play games like Assassin’s Creed , Madden or Call of Duty , the software libraries aren’t going to be the deciding factor for you. 
 
 Videogames are my job and my life, so I don’t make these decisions. I get everything. I even got a Japanese PlayStation Vita for some reason I can’t figure out. But if I had to choose just one, I’d buy a PlayStation 4. It’s cheaper ($400 vs. $500) and it has the kind of games I like — I much prefer Sony’s exclusive games to Microsoft’s. So there you go. That’s what I’d do. 
 
 But you’re not me. So that’s not exactly the most helpful piece of data. There are all kinds of people out there, and depending on what your priorities are, the next-gen console you should go for will be different. Let’s look at some common scenarios. And if none of these works for you, well, then I’ve got one more recommendation at the end that should work. 
 
 You Need the Most Power 
 
 PS4 and Xbox One are very similar pieces of hardware, but PlayStation 4′s hardware has more power behind it. Now, if you’re just looking at the exclusive game libraries and other features of these platforms and basing your decisions off that, this really doesn’t matter: You’re not going to not play a game because of the hypothetical possibility that it would look nicer on a platform on which it will never be available. 
 
 However, if you do see yourself playing mostly games by third-party software makers, the odds are good that the PlayStation 4 versions will always look as good as or better than the Xbox One’s. This is being borne out in the launch lineups so far. Call of Duty Ghosts will only run at a native 720p resolution on Xbox One, but at a full 1080p on PS4. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Battlefield 4 will have similar resolution deficits, though not quite as pronounced. 
 
 “If it’s running at 720p vs 1080p, you’re going to notice the difference, by far,” said a Ubisoft producer in a recent blog post. So if you’re looking for the absolute prettiest graphics for your massive TV, buy a PS4. 
 
 You Love Shooters 
 
 And judging by the sales of first-person shooters, a fair few of you do. Based purely on what we can see in the near future, the Xbox One will have a decided advantage when it comes to the shootbang genre. First off, although Halo developer Bungie has split off from Microsoft and will be making multiplatform games, Halo itself remains an Xbox-only franchise and will not be switching teams anytime soon. 
 
 But it goes further than that: Respawn, the studio formed by many of the former leads from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward, will be releasing its new shooter Titanfall exclusively on Xbox 360, Xbox One and Windows PC. And publisher Electronic Arts says it’s not a timed deal — the game will simply never come out on PlayStation. I played Titanfall at Penny Arcade Expo and it was pretty awesome — you can wall-run straight up buildings and jump into gigantic robots to stomp around and cause massive damage. It could be the most serious threat to Call of Duty ‘s dominance. 
 
 Add to that the fact that Call of Duty and Bungie’s new game Destiny will be available on both platforms, and it’s clear: If you’re into shooters, buy Xbox One. 
 
 You Love Japanese Games 
 
 While Xbox platforms have done very well in the West, Microsoft has simply never been able to gain a foothold in Japan. However, the economics of the game industry have hit Japan as hard as anyone, and now many of the major blockbuster games coming from Japanese developers (what’s left of them, anyway) often get released on both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 simultaneously. 
 
 However, there are still plenty enough exceptions (the fabulous role-playing game Ni no Kuni was only on PS3, for example). I don’t see the dynamics of the Japanese gaming market changing very much with Xbox One and PS4 on the way — it’s quite likely that PS4 in Japan will end up with ten times the installed base of Xbox One, and de facto exclusives will come out of that. And of course, Sony also has its internal Japan Studio. 
 
 Both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will be region-free1, meaning that if imported games come out before they come here (or not at all), you can play them on your box. But if you’re looking for the system that will end up with the most exclusive games from Japan, buy a PS4. 
 
 You Still Have Cable 
 
 Still watching live TV, eh? That’s cool, I do it too sometimes. One of the major differences between Xbox One and PlayStation 4 is that Xbox One wants to be in charge of your television channels. You can plug your cable box output into the back of the Xbox One, and then you can do all your TV watching using the Xbox. 
 
 It’s not a perfect experience, as we noted in our review, but the advantages outweigh the downsides. You can use the Kinect voice commands to browse the listings and change the channel. Kinect can turn your TV on and off, raise and lower the volume, etc. And although you can’t use Kinect to browse through your DVR (and Xbox One doesn’t have DVR functionality of its own), you can use it to fast-forward and pause TV shows without picking up the remote, which is pretty sweet when you’re watching TV while eating dinner, which is all the time. 
 
 You can even multitask, watching TV while playing a game. 
 
 If the thought of this makes you misty-eyed about the future (or if you just like the idea of your TV and game console sharing a single HDMI slot), and you don’t have any particular attachment to either game library, buy an Xbox One. 
 
 You Want the Most for Your Money 
 
 Besides being $100 more expensive than PlayStation 4, Xbox One has another hidden cost: Most of its features are actually locked behind the $60-per-year Xbox Live Gold paywall. The TV guide, apps like Skype and Netflix, the Game DVR feature that lets you record and share clips, and of course online multiplayer gameplay — none of it will work unless you’re paying Microsoft $60 a year. 
 
 Now, it’s true that with PlayStation 4, Sony has locked multiplayer gameplay behind a similar paywall, the $50 per year PlayStation Plus. But of the major features, that’s pretty much the only thing you have to pay for on PS4. If you buy the platform, you can use Netflix and other apps without paying. You can even broadcast your gameplay live to Twitch and Ustream without paying one red cent more to Sony. 
 
 So if you want to use media streaming, etc. with no subscription required (and don’t expect to be doing much if any online multiplayer), buy a PS4. 
 
 You Don’t Always Have Control of the TV 
 
 If you live alone or have your own gigantic television, you’ll always be able to play your new next-gen console in peace no matter which you choose. But what if you’re time-sharing a TV with roommates? Or children? 
 
 With PlayStation 4, you never have to go without. The Remote Play feature lets you play your PS4 content on the PlayStation Vita handheld. Get them both connected onto Wi-Fi and you can turn your PS4 on from standby mode, navigate the menu and play your game — all using the controls and the screen of the Vita. This is intended for use in the same house, with both machines on the same Wi-Fi network. But some users have found that they can play their games without much lag from 100 miles away, if the connections are good. 
 
 This goes down on the list of “features you never knew you needed until you had them.” It’s a major selling point of Nintendo’s Wii U, which has a screen on its controller and thus doesn’t need an extra piece of hardware to do off-TV play. It’s not as perfect on PS4 as it is on Wii U, but reports are saying that it’s good enough that you can always have access to your next-gen games even when the kids are watching a Dora the Explorer marathon on Saturday morning. If that sounds amazing to you, buy a PS4. 
 
 If You’ve Read All of This And You Still Don’t Know 
 
 If you’ve gotten to this point and you still aren’t sure whether you want a PS4 or an Xbox One, I think I know what advice to give you: Don’t buy either. 
 
 I’m not saying you should never buy either. I’m saying that if the cool new features of these boxes aren’t enough to sway you one way or the other, you might not be happy with either one at this point. I’ve been playing the exclusive launch games for both Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and neither library is very good right now. Sony’s big launch game Knack is cute and pretty, but can get repetitive and a little boring. Microsoft’s Ryse: Son of Rome is a rushed mess. 
 
 There’s just nothing to really get excited about. And from third parties? Most of their big games are available, in slightly less pretty form, on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — and I fully expect Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of major games to continue to be released over the next year or two as the industry cautiously transitions to the new consoles. Heck, even Titanfall will be on Xbox 360 as well as Xbox One. 
 
 So you have time to wait. The major third party games will keep coming out for the platform you already own, and first parties are still in all likelihood a year or more away from really getting their asses in gear and releasing some gotta-have-it exclusives that weren’t rushed to make it out on day one. And at $400 and $500, there’s a lot of room for those prices to drop before next Christmas. Not to mention the fact that a lot of promised features, like Twitch streaming on Xbox One, are still unreleased. If you don’t want to pay to be a beta tester for everyone else, then don’t. 
 
 For the time being, there’s no shame in just letting the console wars happen without you. Then you can sort through the wreckage. 
 
 112:15 PM 11/22/13: The original version of this story was based on an outdated version of the Xbox One’s region locking policy and has been corrected.
– Sony today unveiled its next-generation gaming system, PlayStation 4, saying the console will be part of a new ecosystem focused on hardware, software, and "the fastest, most powerful gaming network." The new console is the Japanese electronics giant's first major game machine since the PlayStation 3 went on sale in 2006. Today's unveiling is Sony's attempt to steal the spotlight, at least until Microsoft unveils its next Xbox in June at the E3 video game expo in Los Angeles. Among the PS4's revisions is an updated controller that adds a touchpad, motion control, and a "share" button. The controller also features a light bar, which means a new PlayStation camera can more easily track the device. Sony has struggled lately to keep up with Microsoft and other rivals such as Apple and Samsung. The company is promising nifty mobile devices, sophisticated digital cameras, and other gadgetry as part of its comeback effort. More details at Gizmodo and TechCrunch.