now...? later...? or other...?

There are really very few worthwhile games for the PSP. Most of them are just poorly done PS2 ports. Also, the layout of the controls on the PSP were designed for the much smaller asian hands, and tend to be rather uncomfortable to larger western hands. I also find the screen to be hard to look at for long periods of time. The resolution is just too high for the screen size IMO.

In its factory state, the PSP is pretty useless. I won one a couple years back during that McDonald's Monopoly thing and it just sat in a drawer of my desk collecting dust. There is another option, though the legality of it is questionable, and you risk "bricking" (or rendering unusable) your PSP by doing this.

Provided you have a specific firmware version, you can downgrade your PSPs firmware to a lower version which can then be upgraded to a custom firmware. This involves writing to the internal flash memory of the PSP, which is where the bricking potential comes in. Once you do that, you can turn the PSP into a wonderful little handheld emulator. It can handle pretty much every game system up to the PSX, though the PSX support is still spotty. It makes an excellent Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis emulator for example, so you can relive the days of playing classic Mario or Sonic games.

The important thing to note, is that you need to own a copy of a game before you can legally use it in an emulator, otherwise it's piracy. It's also a bit of a legal gray area whether or not the custom firmwares are legal, so if this makes you uncomfortable, don't attempt it. And there's always the risk of bricking your PSP. However, if you don't, you lose access to almost all "homebrew" (software made by independent people, not working for some game company) for the PSP.

The DS, from what I hear, can be pretty hit or miss with its games too. They can either be really good, usually Nintendo made games, to downright evil. Designing games to make good use of two screens and a stylus takes some effort, and not every game will pull it off well. I understand there's at least something of a homebrew development community, though I have little idea how extensive, what it involves, etc.

And as for the PSP2, there have been rumors floating around about that since about the time the PSP hit the market with a resounding thud. Sony has denied it each and every time, and with the trouble they've been having moving PS3 units, I doubt they want to take on the financial burden of a new PSP design. Maybe in a year or two when the production costs for the PS3 have likely gone down they'll start working on one. And even if a PSP2 arrived tomorrow, Sony has a history of supporting old consoles well after a new one has been released. It was only about a year ago they finally dropped support for the PSX, and the PS2 still has quite a few new games coming out for it.

The psp may be the ultimate media platform and without a doubt it is a better platform than the ds hardware wise. Obviously its the games that count and there are not many good games for the psp. The ds also kicks the poo out of psp for battery life, thats only because the psp gets most of its data from that little sd card and its powering the laser and spinning the disk. So the verdict, i would get it if a miracle occurs and a buncha good games come out for psp i would get it but im happy with my ds lite but thats your choice now is it?

Just my opinion, but personally,I don't understand all the hate for the PSP or buy into the "the DS has better games" argument in any way, shape, or form. I own both systems and the PSP has gotten hours and hours of more play than the DS- great games include 2 GTA games, The Warriors, Ratchet & Clank-Size Matters, Lego Star Wars, and Burnout Legends (the DS versions of Lego Star Wars and Burnout Legends both suck hard). As far as good games on the DS, well there's Mario 64 (a port of an N64 game) and the New Super Mario game that could have just as easily been released on the GBA (perhaps minus a few of the background effects). Plus in addition to games, the PSP plays music, movies, and lets you watch TV (if you set it up right and get a LocationFree basestation for your home network). I personally have never been more disappointed in a gaming system as I have been in the DS and the PSP has gotten more play from me than even my PS2 ever did.

PS. 2 upcoming games I'm eagerly anticipating for the PSP are a God of War game and a game based on Oblivion. Can't say that there is anything on the current release schedule of DS games that interests me in the least. (And with the exception of Donkey Kong vs. Mario 2, I've found the touch screen controls on all other games that utilize it to be frustrating and gimmicky. While a second analog nub on the PSP would be nice, I'll take just one analog nub over the touch screen any day).