We admit it: there is technolust in our hearts, and for once it's not for an Apple product. We are actually afraid to go see a PlayStation Portable in person, because the photos, video, and gushing reviews crammed into every last corner of the 'net are doing enough of a number on our salivary glands that we have to walk around holding empty Big Gulp cups under our chins to avoid leaving a trail on the carpet. To actually try a PSP up close and personal might well cause our glands to explode, drenching dozens of innocent bystanders in a ceaseless torrent of geek drool. Oh, sure, we've heard all about the lackluster public interest on launch day, the dead pixels, the iffy buttons; doesn't matter. It's a PlayStation 2 that sort of fits in your pocket, and it plays music, shows photos, and even plays movies, too. So will the long-awaited and much-hyped PSP finally be the product that usurps the iPod's position as the must-have portable digital entertainment device?

Could be, but apparently at least some people are betting on "no." For what it's worth, our drool is reserved solely for the games aspect of the PSP; its other features seem somewhat lacking. If you want to watch a movie on the PSP, you have to buy said movie on a teensy proprietary disc. The PSP seems more useful as a portable photo album, but it also seems too big to be a carry-all-your-photos-everywhere device like the iPod photo. And as for playing music, well, faithful viewer Andy Schimpf dished us up a Fortune article which, while assuring us all that Sony will sell a gazillion of these things regardless, lists several reasons why the PSP can't hold a candle to the iPod as a music player. For one thing, there's no hard disk, so you have to shell out for a Memory Stick to hold your tunes; 1 GB of storage will run you about $150. And once you've got your songs on there, "the PSP music software doesn't allow easy sorting of tunes by artist, album, or playlist."

In other words, every aspect of the PSP not related to gaming-- especially music-- seems like an afterthought, leading Fortune to quip that "some Sony fans were hoping the PSP would be an iPod killer, but it's not even an iPod wedgie." That doesn't mean that Sony won't sell a ton of them, of course, and they may well supplant the iPod as the hard-to-find gift that has shoppers bludgeoning each other with their own severed limbs this holiday season, but at this point we're going to assume it's more for the "crazy-good Tony Hawk 2 in your pocket" factor than any sort of "and hey, now I don't even need to carry my iPod anymore" notion. On the other hand, music on the PSP is probably less of a compromise than gaming on the iPod; Parachute, anyone?

Of course, for anyone who insists on quality portable music and quality portable gaming (not to mention decent digital photography, full-featured PDA functionality, less-compromised movies-on-the-go, etc.), the really hot gift this Christmas will be giant pants with a couple dozen oversized, reinforced pockets to house an iPod, a PSP, a cell phone, a handheld organizer, a digital camera, a portable DVD player, an intravenous steroid pump to make it possible to carry all that other junk, and a working lightsaber to fight off all the muggers coming after the $3,000 worth of swag in your trousers. Start writing to Santa now!