Last week I wrote an article crediting the PSP go for being environmentally sustainable. As a fully digital device it can download games, movies, music and all sorts of other stuff including demos and older PlayStation & PlayStation 2 titles. Instead of having to waste plastic on CD’s, DVD’s, boxes, packaging, shipping, paper manuals and everything else that goes into physical distribution, devices like Apple’s iPod and Sony’s PSPgo rely completely on the internet.

So all is well and good but there are still more questions to be answered about the PSPgo. For example, this weekend I am considering an upgrade to my car stereo. It has been several years since I put my last deck in and since then there have been several innovations in how portable devices like iPods can be integrated and played through car speakers. These innovations are great because they empower end users like me to download songs instead of buying them in store… once again saving materials and helping the environment. My last deck had a 1/4″ auxiliary audio in jack in addition to it’s CD/MP3 player, it was similar to this Sony deck which allows audio to be imported directly. The newest generation of car stereos have USB ports built in which not only import audio but also charge devices and even allow users to control the devise itself! Functions like next song, play and pause are all controlled directly on the dials and buttons of the deck. Just below is one such device sold by none other than Sony… You can see the USB input on the far right side in the middle, just above the quarter inch jack.

So lets put the pieces together. Sony makes the PSP which can play music, movies, games and functions in much the same way as an iPod. Their newest PSP, the “go” has an expanded 16Gig hard drive and is positioned to be an all digital device, empowering users to download more media and be more portable. Sony also makes in dash CD players, some of which have USB connections designed to interface with iPods… Now will these same in dash decks also be able to interface with the PSPgo and allow users to change songs, charge, and pass through audio directly to their car speakers just like iPods? I sure hope so, but I’m guessing not.

Now I’m torn because I’m not sure whether to buy a current gen car stereo or wait until I can verify this. Maybe I’ll have to wait for a new line of Sony decks to be released? Does anyone out there know the answer to this? Sony, are you listening?