While you might think that you don’t need to surf the web while you game, think about the times when you press “Alt+Tab” on your computer in the middle of a game to do some quick surfing or answer an instant message. PlayStation Vita players won’t have the privilege of putting their game on hold, something which might upset some of Sony’s multi-tasker fans.

When you press the “PS” button in the PS Vita while playing a game, everything in the OS shows up. At your fingertips, you have the music library, your friends list, and even a Twitter (News - Alert) client. The web browser, though, is nowhere to be found in the hand-held console. One wonders why you can still use Twitter but not surf the net. All OS functions, including the web browser, show up when you no longer take part in a gaming session.

PS Vita’s international release will be in February 22nd, while its Japanese release will be in December 17th. Sony has confirmed that the console will not be able to run the web browser and a game simultaneously even on the release of the console in Japan. The company further explains that it will have this capability in a later update afterwards.

The PS Vita is a system that incorporates several features never seen before in hand-held environments. The list of features includes two usable touchscreens, gravity sensitivity, and augmented reality, which projects a holographic image of a game onto a surface and interacts with any obstacles on the surface. The augmented reality system uses a series of cameras and projectors inside the hand-held device to properly portray interactions with the texture of a given surface.