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and unlike the consoles it can game AND IM

I thought Xbox Live has always supported Windows Live Messenger.

AND surf

Wii and PS3 got web browsers early on, but I discovered this past weekend that Xbox 360 has finally added IE.

AND watch YouTube

I've watched YouTube on both my cousin's Wii and my other cousin's Xbox 360. I haven't had a chance to try YouTube on a PS3 (or anything on a PS3 for that matter) but the official PlayStation blog has a post about YouTube.

AND be a media tank

I'm not sure what you mean by "media tank", but all three consoles have Netflix in countries where Netflix is available.

AND do any other task a full fledged PC can do

Why would you want to do tasks that are designed for a desktop input device on a set-top PC?

Anyway, I'm mostly trying to ensure that your arguments aren't themselves straw men.

To advertise Nintendo products? Same as the original?

I dunno, it seems strange not to make any attempt at keeping it going online. I'm assuming it had some readers to keep it going as a pure-print magazine for the past decade, during which it would have made sense to bring it online.

After all, Sony has the PlayStation blog and Microsoft has... uh... whatever this is, I guess. (Does Major Nelson's blog count?)

Nintendo has, well, nothing. Sure, there's nintendo.com, but that compares more to us.playstation.com (playstation.com redirects me to jp.playstation.com for some reason) and xbox.com. They have no real "community" site, which something like Nintendo Power could fill. It seems strange to not even attempt an online version.

To advertise Nintendo products? Same as the original?

I dunno, it seems strange not to make any attempt at keeping it going online. I'm assuming it had some readers to keep it going as a pure-print magazine for the past decade, during which it would have made sense to bring it online.

After all, Sony has the PlayStation blog and Microsoft has... uh... whatever this is, I guess. (Does Major Nelson's blog count?)

Nintendo has, well, nothing. Sure, there's nintendo.com, but that compares more to us.playstation.com (playstation.com redirects me to jp.playstation.com for some reason) and xbox.com. They have no real "community" site, which something like Nintendo Power could fill. It seems strange to not even attempt an online version.

Pairs with other controllers well obviously, but good controller alone. Should be usable with most DualShock drivers.

Note that Sony US announced two models: one with a 250 GB hardrive and the other with a 500 GB one (link). Sony Europe announced a 12 GB model and an other one with a 500 GB HD (link).

12 GB seems quite suprising for modern games (GTA IV: 3.5 GB required... you won't install many games !) and sony pushing for the use of playstation network an the playstatin store...

a 0 is missing?

Nope - it really is 12 GB - a 12 GB flash drive.

Note that Sony US announced two models: one with a 250 GB hardrive and the other with a 500 GB one (link). Sony Europe announced a 12 GB model and an other one with a 500 GB HD (link).

12 GB seems quite suprising for modern games (GTA IV: 3.5 GB required... you won't install many games !) and sony pushing for the use of playstation network an the playstatin store...

a 0 is missing?

Nope - it really is 12 GB - a 12 GB flash drive.

Note that Sony US announced two models: one with a 250 GB hardrive and the other with a 500 GB one (link). Sony Europe announced a 12 GB model and an other one with a 500 GB HD (link).

12 GB seems quite suprising for modern games (GTA IV: 3.5 GB required... you won't install many games !) and sony pushing for the use of playstation network an the playstatin store...

a 0 is missing?

Note that Sony US announced two models: one with a 250 GB hardrive and the other with a 500 GB one (link). Sony Europe announced a 12 GB model and an other one with a 500 GB HD (link).

12 GB seems quite suprising for modern games (GTA IV: 3.5 GB required... you won't install many games !) and sony pushing for the use of playstation network an the playstatin store...

a 0 is missing?

Note that Sony US announced two models: one with a 250 GB hardrive and the other with a 500 GB one (link). Sony Europe announced a 12 GB model and an other one with a 500 GB HD (link). 12 GB seems quite suprising for modern games (GTA IV: 3.5 GB required... you won't install many games !) and sony pushing for the use of playstation network an the playstatin store...

Note that Sony US announced two models: one with a 250 GB hardrive and the other with a 500 GB one (link). Sony Europe announced a 12 GB model and an other one with a 500 GB HD (link). 12 GB seems quite suprising for modern games (GTA IV: 3.5 GB required... you won't install many games !) and sony pushing for the use of playstation network an the playstatin store...

PS3 still plays PS2 games just fine. PS3 never "approved" nor "shipped" any version of Linux. It was rumored long ago that Sony would sponsor this, and there were numerous hacks that let Linux run.. it was never a Sony configuration and never "approved".

The hypervisor was designed to run Linux.

As to Camecube games, that was never a feature of the Wii. Nintendo up until the Wii did do a nice job of having methods of running older games, hell even GameBoy* games on their devices.

Uh yes, actually, it was a feature of the Wii. That's why the Wii has Gamecube connector ports.

XBox has no legacy like Sony or Nintendo to support.

Uh, what? XBox IS the legacy, Xbox 360 is the current console, the two have utterly different processors but the operating system for the current console is derived from the operating system from the prior console, which was derived from Windows 2000. How is xbox-x86 not legacy to xbox-ppc?

1. It's for mobile devices. PS Vita is the current testing platform. When PSSuite launches, it will be available on Playstation Android phones (another whole story).
2. It's beta, but since it's a branded Mono Develop that means good things. iOS can only be done properly on OSX after all.
3. Yeah that was weird but they might be going for the XNA crowd.
4. There's 3D support, you're completely wrong. From their site
>Rather than providing only basic samples for explaining each basic API, the SDK also gives you access to samples of games and applications using 2D and 3D graphics.
5. PSSuite will be a platform. Google can prevent anyone from using the Play store, Apple can prevent anyone from using the app store.
6. It will be $99/year, the same price as iOS development.
Looks like it's right in line with the other mobile platforms.

No PS3 support. Only one device (PS Vita) that has a chance to be ever used by anyone.
Windows-only release based on Mono (and loudly proclaimed announcement that not even OSX will be supported).
Proprietary language controlled by a major competitor (yes, it is proprietary -- C and C++ are open, C# is proprietary).
2D only.
Free (in either meaning of the word) applications and games are not allowed.
Sony reserves the right to prevent anyone from using it after beta.
Everyone who will be allowed by Sony to use it after beta, has to pay Sony.

That's like Nokia and Sony had a baby.

No PS3 support. Only one device (PS Vita) that has a chance to be ever used by anyone.
Windows-only release based on Mono (and loudly proclaimed announcement that not even OSX will be supported).
Proprietary language controlled by a major competitor (yes, it is proprietary -- C and C++ are open, C# is proprietary).
2D only.
Free (in either meaning of the word) applications and games are not allowed.
Sony reserves the right to prevent anyone from using it after beta.
Everyone who will be allowed by Sony to use it after beta, has to pay Sony.

That's like Nokia and Sony had a baby.

[...] Tetris itself isn't even available for any modern platform.

TETRIS for the PS3 begs to differ. As do several other recent official Tetris versions or variants.

I will have to take your word for that, as since I don't have a PS Vita, I am not allowed to see the price of their Download-Only Titles.

Sony - All PS Vita Games
Super Stardust Delta

Of note, they don't even list Escape Plan or Plants vs Zombies...

I will have to take your word for that, as since I don't have a PS Vita, I am not allowed to see the price of their Download-Only Titles.

Sony - All PS Vita Games
Super Stardust Delta

Of note, they don't even list Escape Plan or Plants vs Zombies...

The OtherOS feature was clearly presented on numerous sony websites, such as http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html

It was also mentioned in advertising, specifically that you could turn the ps3 into a computer and that this was a feature the ps3 had which the xbox 360 and wii lacked.

There is more to the PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3) computer entertainment system than you may have assumed. In addition to playing games, watching movies, listening to music, and viewing photos, you can use the PS3 system to run the Linux operating system.

By installing the Linux operating system, you can use the PS3 system not only as an entry-level personal computer with hundreds of familiar applications for home and office use, but also as a complete development environment for the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.).

Looks a lot like marketing to me, and the disclaimer at the top wasn't present before OtherOS was removed.

The fact that a lot of users didn't know about it is irrelevant. By that logic any niche feature of any product stands to be disabled at any time. People generally don't pay much attention to features of products they aren't interested in. Advertising mostly works when the people who see the ads are in the market for the features being advertised. I'd bet that a pretty large proportion of PS3 owners don't even know what linux is in the first place, and thus would ignore or forget any marketing for OtherOS.

Let me know when the Humble Bundles come to the PS3.

But Indie games like Machinarium are available for the PS3. Most Indie games have had a good run around the track on other platforms before they become part of the Humble Bundle.

Which is why almost no one is willing to contribute more than $5 for the lot.

And Sony haven't done that? Oh wait they did.

>Passowrds != CC info... Then here's the source where they say the Credit Cards were encrypted (I probably should have linked this one). >Q: Was my personal data encrypted? A: All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network. The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.

One other point to clarify is from this weekend’s press conference. While the passwords that were stored were not “encrypted,” they were transformed using a cryptographic hash function. There is a difference between these two types of security measures which is why we said the passwords had not been encrypted. But I want to be very clear that the passwords were not stored in our database in cleartext form. For a description of the difference between encryption and hashing, follow this link.

@anonymous coward: "This actually makes more sense. 93,000 accounts of failed users that had password 12345 or something similar"

"given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs" link

Wii Parental Controls

Xbox 360 Parental Controls

PlayStation 3 Parental Controls

List of features you lose if you don't accept Sony's firmware update

About three years ago I wrote a post on the Sony forums where I tried to offer up some suggestions for how I felt they could improve on the PS3 firmware with a minimum of effort. One of those suggestions was to "Encourage mouse support in games". I'll spoil the first two answers I got:

Write a book why dont u

and

use a mouse to play games wth?

and just as a bonus, another one...

btw PS3 not a pc game no mouse

... and so on and so worth for a page or two. That's where I gave up trying to communicate with Sony.

- Making very, very, very sure that they have decent security around any and all personal data they hold.

It's secured by McAfee! How much more secure do you want them to be?

(Actually, I suppose that little badge on us.playstation.com could have predated the whole PSN fiasco. And presumably doesn't apply to the actual PS3 online services, just the PlayStation website. Especially because it's notably missing from the PlayStation blog and forums sites, where you do use your PSN account to log in. Which is more amusing than it being on the PlayStation portal website in the first place, now that I think about it.)

- Making very, very, very sure that they have decent security around any and all personal data they hold.

It's secured by McAfee! How much more secure do you want them to be?

(Actually, I suppose that little badge on us.playstation.com could have predated the whole PSN fiasco. And presumably doesn't apply to the actual PS3 online services, just the PlayStation website. Especially because it's notably missing from the PlayStation blog and forums sites, where you do use your PSN account to log in. Which is more amusing than it being on the PlayStation portal website in the first place, now that I think about it.)

- Making very, very, very sure that they have decent security around any and all personal data they hold.

It's secured by McAfee! How much more secure do you want them to be?

(Actually, I suppose that little badge on us.playstation.com could have predated the whole PSN fiasco. And presumably doesn't apply to the actual PS3 online services, just the PlayStation website. Especially because it's notably missing from the PlayStation blog and forums sites, where you do use your PSN account to log in. Which is more amusing than it being on the PlayStation portal website in the first place, now that I think about it.)

There's also this.

Not only was there the price drop, but DirecTV, Sony, & the NFL also just announced that the PS/3 will have access to the NFL Sunday Ticket for the 2011 NFL season.

Sunday Ticket on PS/3

For those that don't know, you pay $340/season and it lets you watch just about every NFL game. While the average Slashdotter may not care in the least, this is a pretty big deal for NFL fans who don't have DirecTV. I know of at least a couple of people who are planning on purchasing a PS/3 simply because they want the NFL Sunday Ticket.

There will undoubtedly be at least some uptick in PS/3 sales from fans of the NFL. The new $250 price is just added fuel to the fire.

It was definitely advertised. There's a slightly modified version of the original page at http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html

Must be a fanboy army moding you up because this is completely wrong. The original PS3's actually had a ps2 chipset in them. There was no emulation. This changed with later versions as they brought the price of production down. The newer slimline models do not even software emulate. Hell, the newest models, being a lowest common denominator, seal the fate of the original Gen 1 ps3's. They will never fully be utilized ever. A giant waste of R&D as over the years they butchered features so they could stay competitive in the market. It's a tragic tale really. I had such high hopes for the gen1 units. The new slimline only possesses a fraction of that power.

Actually, they did. I have one of them:
To reset your PlayStation(R)Network password, please click on the link below. This link will expire in 24 hours from the time that it was sent. The link will direct you to a PlayStation(R)Network web page and allow you to enter and confirm your new password.

https://store.playstation.com/accounts/security/resetPassword.action?token=--

Obviously I removed my token.

"One other point to clarify is from this weekend’s press conference. While the passwords that were stored were not “encrypted,” they were transformed using a cryptographic hash function. There is a difference between these two types of security measures which is why we said the passwords had not been encrypted. But I want to be very clear that the passwords were not stored in our database in cleartext form. For a description of the difference between encryption and hashing, follow this link." Source: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/02/playstation-network-security-update/ [playstation.com]

According to the map there's a giant storm front of jumbled X, O, SQUARE and TRIANGLE symbols headed for Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. That may explain why those states are still offline while California, which should only just get grazed near San Diego, is already up and running. Not sure why Alaska's offline, since the map clearly shows the storm passing far to the north of Barrrow...

What I'm curious about is why do they re-activate the network per state.
As of right now, just California and a few New England states seem to be "online". One server per state? Sounds a bit odd.
Oh and the map is stored on Flickr. For a moment there I thought someone hacked their blog system too, and just posted faked-up "we're about to go live again" message.

Well, not actually a schedule, but you can see when your state is back online :
Playstation Blog

On the Scandinavian PSN Forum, one of the mods have forwarded a satatement that the expected timeline says partial reactivation pf PSN by may 31st. http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Announcements-Events/PSN-er-nede/m-p/12818124#M2817 "31st is the aim for all the PSN services to be restored and "Restoration of Online game-play across the PlayStation®3 (PS3) and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) systems" is the first phase of that restoration plan."

Rather than Slashdot linking to some site called "I4U" which links to Joystiq, which links to the article on Sony's playstation site, how about we just fucking link to the Sony article and do away with the blog self-promotion chain?

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/06/service-restoration-update/

If you'd like to actually ready what Sony has to say for themselves instead of giving clicks to the self-promoting second-hand site: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/06/service-restoration-update/

OtherOS was directly advertised as a feature. They've slightly amended the page, but the details are still there: http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/index.html

Why not click the link to http://blog.us.playstation.com/ [playstation.com] from the article and make the obvious change to the url (say to http://blog.eu.playstation.com/ [playstation.com])...

Tried that. There is no http://blog.ca.playstation.com/.

For Europe : see this link. http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/06/update-on-identity-protection-scheme/ (cut and pasted from someone else's reply to someone else's question)

For Europe : see this link. http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2011/05/06/update-on-identity-protection-scheme/

The rest of the world doesn't dish out credit to anyone who walks in and gives them a name and address, surely? Isn't that just an American tradition?

Why not click the link to http://blog.us.playstation.com/ from the article and make the obvious change to the url (say to http://blog.eu.playstation.com/) to see if other regions are offering something similar if you are so curious? Why would expect an article written to an American audience would do that for you?

The rest of the world doesn't dish out credit to anyone who walks in and gives them a name and address, surely? Isn't that just an American tradition?

Why not click the link to http://blog.us.playstation.com/ from the article and make the obvious change to the url (say to http://blog.eu.playstation.com/) to see if other regions are offering something similar if you are so curious? Why would expect an article written to an American audience would do that for you?

They did not store the passwords in cleartext, from the PSN Blog:

"One other point to clarify is from this weekend’s press conference. While the passwords that were stored were not “encrypted,” they were transformed using a cryptographic hash function. There is a difference between these two types of security measures which is why we said the passwords had not been encrypted. But I want to be very clear that the passwords were not stored in our database in cleartext form. For a description of the difference between encryption and hashing, follow this link."

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/02/playstation-network-security-update/

From the link in the blog you linked:

Hash - a special form of encryption often used for passwords, that uses a one-way algorithm that when provided with a variable length unique input (message) will always provide a unique fixed length unique output called hash, or message digest.

So they're saying the passwords weren't encrypted, they were stored as hashes. And to explain the difference they link a page that defines a hash as a form of encryption...

Except for that file that said: We are Anonymous. We are legion. http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/05/04/sonys-response-to-the-u-s-house-of-representatives/