For Streetpass? Basically, you carry your 3DS around with you. The built in pedometer counts your steps and the steps convert into coins. You earn up to 10 coins a day (1000 steps) and can use these coins to buy puzzle pieces. As you streetpass with other people, they can choose to take one of your puzzle pieces and you can choose one of theirs to complete various Nintendo themed puzzles.
Yes, Near has similar concepts but does it differently. If you update your location manually, it will record your distance travelled since the last known location. This is presented as a series of black footprints on the radar.
If you set Near to update automatically, it will do the same distance calculation automatically. These will appear as *white* footprints on the radar.
But there is no coins to earn. The system keeps track of the stats, waiting for other games to use I suppose.
Theres also a mini game quest thing called Find Mii where your main Mii gets kidnapped and you have to Streetpass with other people and use their Miis to rescue your Mii. As they progress through the stages, they come across treasure chests containing hats that you can then use to dress up your Mii.
Yes, I think the fun comes from the mini-games. I read that they are going to release T@G and other mini-games in SCEE Vita launch. Hopefully more developers use GPS in clever ways. The upcoming Gust game is said to use some 3G/GPS concepts. No details so far.
It's not just the built in stuff too. Developers can have their games support Street Pass, and you register those games on your system so that it can collect Street Passes from those games without the game being in the system. You just get a notification and a list of which games have updates.
Yes, Near also supports 3rd party games. As in any game can use Near to post/exchange/trade items, and interact with other players.
EDIT:
Vita does have solid and innovative platform concepts, but I think Sony has yet to deliver the upper layers. I think those StreetPass games you mentioned deliver the goods/benefits very well, much better than Near sitting pretty gathering stats.
Hope to see more Near apps, or even a revamped Home for PS3 and Vita.
I've already gotten more out of Near in one night compared to almost a year of Street Pass.
I've tried what you said and I rarely get anything out of it. Plus, the 3DS dies extremely quickly in sleep mode if you keep the WiFi antenna enabled (the Vita has already lasted much longer in sleep mode by comparison).
Near seems to work from anywhere and manages to find people reasonably far away.
I think the key differences are the time shift, and the dynamic discovery range. Near is meant to work even if the players are not at the same place at the same time. The Near servers remember who're at the same place for the past say... 24 hours.