It has been about 9 months since E3 2011 when Sony proudly showed off the new and improved PS Vita but only Japan had yet to see it on store shelves, until this week, and in the hands of core gamers. According to Shuhei Yoshida, who is in charge of all the games produced internally for Sony platforms, the mobile gaming market in Japan is healthy and actually larger than the console market. He also mentioned that sales were good but nothing to get ecstatic over, in an interview with Dean Takahashi of Venture Beat. Sony fans outside of Japan remember the disappointment of having the release date pushed back to February 22nd 2012 (unless you preordered) from an original 2011 holiday season release. So why is Yoshida remaining optimistic about the PS Vita's US launch?

As it turns out, Yoshida believes the success of their US launch will be based on three factors. The first one is at the core of how Sony traditionally looks at improving their devices, add a lot more power and make the graphics look really great. The PS Vita certainly lives up to those expectations, given it's production specs. The second factor plays to the PS Vita's new array of innovations like the touchscreen, back touch, camera, 6 axis, accelerometer and revamped operating system. These additions open up how gamers experience a portable gaming device in a way that is truly unique from the PlayStation 3 and 3DS. At E3 2011 Uncharted: Golden Abyss stole the show when it came to showing off the Vita's new functionality and how it could be implemented in games.

The third thing Yoshida feels will seal the deal for a great US release has to do with ditching the old XCrossMediaBar in favor of a new and improved Android-based operating system. Find out why after the break.

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VentureBeat:Why Sony’s Shu Yoshida thinks the PlayStation Vita will kill it in the U.S. compared to Japan (interview)

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The last time anything from Microsoft was reported as being hacked goes back to November 2010 when a developer reportedly "hacked" the Kinect for Xbox 360 and just recently the Microsoft Store for India, operated for Microsoft by Quasar Media, was temporarily taken offline in response to attacks from the group Evil Shadow. This adds the Microsoft Store to a long list of other companies that have been hacked over the past 2 years such as Sony's PlayStation Network (now the Sony Entertainment Network), Sega Pass Online, Electronic Arts and Activision's Call of Duty Elite service.

On Monday the 13th, Microsoft decided to take their India store offline after realizing that it's customer database might have been compromised. In a blog post, someone calling themselves 7zl and the organization Evil Shadow, took credit for the attack. They also released usernames and passwords to accounts that Microsoft had kept stored in plain text. In most cases, retailers only secure the minimum amount of information required by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard which only really entails encrypting payment processing information. As bad as this is for customers, it's still a step up from Twitter employees storing usernames and passwords in plain text in their gmail accounts. Microsoft released a generic statement saying that they are dealing with the situation.

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USA Today:Hackers breach database of Microsoft's India store

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Sony recently tipped their hand a little by showing us how they see the future of power distribution in the year 2030 with their prototype power outlets. About 18 years from now we will no longer be slaves to the power companies' monopoly on our lives and the pay-as-you-go way of life will have infiltrated more than just mobile communications service providers and charging stations for your electric cars and e-bikes.

The outlets themselves will be outfitted with FeliCa transmitters which are an RFID (radio frequency identification) technology that works over existing power lines. This is meant to allow the user to be identified and payment to be processed based on a pay-as-you-go-basis where the user can simply swipe a card across the outlet or automatically get charged based on the payment information on file with Sony. They would also give the user a choice from energy sources currently available so if your house just so happens to have solar panels and batteries or perhaps a personal nuclear reactor, you might feel better about having more control over power.

Leveraging this conceptual technology to make the world a better place has some major dependencies to contend with. Check out Sony's concept movie below and see just how bright and white Sony thinks the future will be.

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Sony:Concept movie: New Authentication Outlet

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Apparently, even in the Internet Age, brick n' mortar stores still hold a glimmer of prestige even with mega-corp software giants like Microsoft, Apple and maybe Google in the near future. With Google's launch of the online Chrome Store back in December of 2010 it's only taken Google a little over a year to come up with some plans to pull a Tron and bring the shiniest online store ever into the physical world.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, Google has stated that their plans are only plans and no hard decisions have been made. The decision to pursue this further has come from some testing with the concept that Google has conducted in London. They built some test stores inside of PC World and Currys and attempted to sell laptops, presumably with Chrome OS.

In a planning application filed in Dublin, Google disclosed that the store would be 1,323 square-feet and sell some sort of Google merchandise, presumably Chrome OS laptops as well as t-shirts and the like. The store would be physically located in the Montevetro portion of Barrow Street.

My personal hope is that they do a good job incorporation the whole "chrome" aspect in their store aesthetic very well. Apple needs someone to step up and sell products in a much brighter environment with more reflective properties to be challenged. The plans for the real life Google store also indicates that they are still serious about continuing to pit Chrome OS and Android against one another but that could start to change as the Chrome web browser recently became available for beta on Android 4.0 devices. It will be interesting to see what kind of a showing Android makes in their stores, if any. Should the store become a reality in the near future I would suggest using another form of payment besides Google Wallet to make purchases since the security still seems to be a little on the unpolished side of things.

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Bloomberg:Google Plans First Retail Store at European Base in Dublin

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My interview with John Egan, who was representing the HomeGrid Forum shed some light on what's up and coming for G.hn technology. Just in case you're wondering what that is, G.hn is a home networking technology that uses existing (legacy) wiring in the house to transmit data with bandwidth of up to 1 gigabit per second, hence the tag line, "Any wire, anywhere." Some of the heavy hitters that participate in the HomeGrid Forum such as AT&T, British Telecom, Best Buy and Marvell Semiconductor understand there is good reason for adherence to this standard as it benefits both consumers and service providers. The consumer is afforded a choice in service provider and the service provider themselves have assurance that all their existing and potential customers have the opportunity to take advantage of the service provider's technology. Simply put, the standard uses rules and guidelines that helps prevent fragmentation of the market. When these products hit the market be sure to look for the HomeGrid Forum logo which reassures interoperability in your house.

A definite plus with G.hn technology is that so long as the house has electrical outlets it can be taken advantage of. If you're reading this and you live in a mansion the question of range could come in to play but through the use of nodes, that act as repeaters, the data can travel long distances without any signal loss. Based on some estimates from service companies, not having to run any new wiring saves 4 man hours of installation time plus materials. This help make the use of G.hn technology easy, efficient and cost effective. More good news is that consumers can also expect prices for new technology to be comparable to the old technology that is currently in use.

Interview by Jon Wurm of F5 Live for the TechPodcast Network.

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We can expect to see full fledged products come to market around July and in the meantime, Mr. Egan gave us a hands on demonstration of some prototype technology that is in the works. Check it out after the break.

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