To be perfectly honest, we were sort of wondering when the scuttlebut on the Vita’s revamped online modes would hit the grapevine, if only because we knew Sony would have to bring out a few new tricks to compete with the 3DS’s awesome Street Pass. Apparently, they knew it too, which is why they just simply showed up with their take on Street Pass, among a few other things.
The first o these is what Sony calls Near. “What Near does is it allows users to discover each other, leave gifts for each other and essentially find out more about games. You can see where people are in relation to your location, their five most recently played games and also gifts that they’ve registered.”
Other modes include an Xbox Live-like Party mode which will allow you to invite up to three friends for a chat and a “landing point for when you start any game on PS Vita” called LiveArea.
Source Eurogamer