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PlayStation Vita’s Maps And YouTube Disappearing Along With Some ‘Near’ Features
The PlayStation Vita is about to lose some of its features in the coming months. The company is pulling the plug on two apps and some of the handheld's social capabilities.
The Maps app, which provided access to navigation services on the device, is being phased out. This will be removed in the March update. Sony also says that some aspects of its ‘Near’ social suite will no longer function at that time. Sony has not yet specified which of the Near functions will cease to work.
Sony will also be eliminating the YouTube app from its portable console. It will no longer be supported as of April 20, and will be unavailable to download as of today, January 28.
Our Take
Given that most Vitas are only WiFi enabled (and therefore useless away from a hotspot), Maps has very limited utility. Despite my enjoyment of the Vita, I never look at Near and haven’t used the Maps feature a single time.
As for YouTube, I suppose there are numerous other ways to access the site. It’s still a surprise that it’s being removed, given the ubiquitousness of Google’s video service.
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