With the successful Nintendo DS launch of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars behind them and the October PSP launch imminent, developer Rockstar has created a Facebook application that allows friends to send and receive fortune cookie messages through the social networking site.

The GTA: Chinatown Wars Fortune Cookie application supplies a randomly-generated selection of thinly-veiled insults in the form of 'fortune cookie' messages ranging from "You should travel more. People don't like you here" to "Yes, you do look fat in that." You can also write-in your own message if you choose.

Clicking each fortune flips the paper over to the back, revealing a Chinese word - we've come across such colorful ones as "female dog" (gau na) and "low life" (zeen yun).

It's not the most creative social networking tie-in to a video game that we've seen (and it deprives us of actually breaking open the fortune cookie!) but it does point to a larger trend of major publishers who have started to use sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to engage fans of their products -- EA created a Madden 09 quiz application for last year's big football title, and Ubisoft has developed TickTock, a game completely independent of the company's other IPs that tests you on your friends' status updates.

We'd like to declare a true end to tacky PSP styling options that "feature" plastic rhinestones. To celebrate, Thrustmaster announced five new options to protect your PSP Slim or Lite in May 2008. The T-Case ($12.99) and T-Travel Charge ($16.99) lets you watch videos through the clear casing and it also doubles as a stand. What's the difference? For $4 more, the T-Travel comes with the T-Case, a cigarette lighter charger and a retractable 2-in-1 USB cable for charging and transferring files.

And with more letter T power than Mr. T, the T-Megapack ($29.99) gives PSP Slim and regular PSP owners a stiff and opaque case called the T-Travel Bag (sold separately for $12.99), a stereo headset called the T-Stereo (sold separately for $15.99), a UMD carrying case (holds 5 UMD + two memory stick duo cards), a screen protector plus a 2-in-1 USB cord and a cigarette lighter charger. Maybe it will arrive soon enough so you can give your mom one on Mother's Day. She'd probably love to share.

Now, this is what Sony should have done with the PlayStation Portable in the first place. An enterprising gearhead nicknamed L0rdNic0 has ripped up his PSP and rebuilt it with two analog control sticks.

If you've ever tried to play a first-person shooter on the PSP, you know this is pure genius, and we hope Sony will rip this guy's idea off without delay for the next-gen PSP.