When a company forms specifically to publish games for Apple’s iPhone, it’s certainly worth noting. But when that company is headed up by two veterans of Electronic Arts who see the iPhone as hotbed for game development, it really grabs headlines.

Such was the case over the summer when Neil Young and Alan Yu formed Ngmoco, which has kept fairly quiet since then. That changed last week when Ngmoco—an acronym for “Next Generation Mobile Company”—announced its first three offerings for the iPhone, giving Macworld an inside look at both their efforts and how the iPhone game market is shaping up.

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We know the type, because we do this ourselves: you rush out to buy the latest gadget, sometimes even waiting in line at midnight with a bunch of other geeks. For a few months, you and your gadget do everywhere together: the mall, the movies, even to class. But after a while, the love affair starts to lose its lustre.

Maybe a newer, glossier, thinner or lighter version is revealed (Apple and Nintendo are the worst offenders here). Or maybe you feel like you’ve simply outgrown your silicon-and-lithium-ion crush. This happened for a lot of people who bought PSPs on day one – massive hype led to massive disappointment a few months later as a library of hit games failed to materialize.

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It’s increasingly becoming an anomaly when a blockbuster action adventure swoops into theaters without a running mate on gaming platforms. However, when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull debuted in theaters in May, it arrived alongside Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. Nowhere to be seen was LucasArts’ PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game, which has remained largely undercover since being announced in 2006.

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A new PlayStation Portable (PSP) from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is scheduled for release in the Middle East on October 15, 2008.

Regarded as an enhanced version of the console’s Slim & Lite version, the new PSP-3000 sports an improved LCD screen for better image quality and a built-in microphone for communication ease. The PSP-3000 will be available as a bundle with one software title at a recommended retail price of AED 799.

A Go! communications bundle will be offered along with a variety of games bundles including Buzz!: Master Quiz, as well as FIFA ‘09 and Harry Potter through third party partners.

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This morning at the Leipzig Games Convention, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe officially revealed the PSP-3000. Shortly thereafter, Sony Computer Entertainment America formally announced that the latest hardware revision of the PlayStation Portable would ship worldwide in October, or in roughly two months’ time.

SCEA’s announcement gave more concrete details about the PSP-3000 and Sony’s plans for it outside Europe. The handheld is the same width as the PSP-2000, the slimmer model Sony unveiled at E3 2007, and will sport the same video output functionality. However, the new model will now output gameplay in interlaced video format compatible with non-progressive video displays.

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There’s no doubt now that Skype is coming to the Sony PlayStation Portable - Sony’s own website, updated to preview next week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, admits as much.

“Call friends, talk trash to fellow gamers or catch up with acquaintances via Skype for PSP,” the site says, letting the cat well and truly out of the bag. In May 2007, Sony Europe partnered with British Telecom (BT) to develop communications tools for the handheld. The result is Go!Messenger, a video chat and IM tool that’s set to be made available to European PSP owners later this month.

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Less than a month and a half after Sony added a remote-start option and information bar, among other features, to the PlayStation 3’s firmware, the console maker has today added more new features to its console.

Topping the list for many in the PS3’s firmware update 2.10 is the introduction of DivX and VC-1 video-playback technology. Last month, DivX Inc. revealed that its proprietary file-compression format–which has gained popularity for transmitting media files over the Internet due to its ability to balance quality with low bit rates, leading to smaller file sizes–was already active in the PS3 software-development kit version 2.0. Earlier this month, the fall update to the Xbox 360 added similar functionality.

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