In a typical bereaucratic scenario I forsee, thousands of of Classmate laptops will be distributed to places to where they just lie in cold storage because there's no electricity to operate them.
The thing is if PS3 does'nt have Blu-Ray there will be tons of letters condemning PS3 as no better than a 360. What Blu-Ray provides the PS3 is product differentiation. Face it, (given time) anything that the 360 can do, so will the PS3. The online experience, the games, the graphic will improve. But one thing that the 360 can't have is all that extra gigabytes space that Blu-Ray provides. By the 2007 Christmas, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates Of The Carribbean 3 will help sell a few millions unit of PS3. By 2008 AAA for PS3 will take advantage of the the extra storage. I'm not talking just about games. In case of multiplatform, the PS3 version can includes, demo, trailers, developers diaries without hogging all those precious bandwith through downloading. One thing I enjoy with DVDs is the directors commentary. Imagine the developer of Okami talking about their original realistic version and why they abandon it. Things that can be included, the 360 version will be gimped by comparison.
One great thing about console is six years from now, when I buy the latest game for my PS3, it will run on the same configuration. The same cannot be said about PC.
As you can see the surge in quality from the first generation PS3 say, the original Burnout to the third iteration or Metal Gear Solid 3. I've read an interview (cannot recall where) a developer said he never imagine PS2 capable of running games like God Of War.
Since all next gen console have USB, hopefully in the future developers will have keyboard and mouse support for FPS and RTS games, taking away one more advantage from PC. And we will be playing in front of a 42 inch HD TV. Bought a I7 inch LCD monitor two years ago and now watching enviously at I9 inches LCD that are available at half the price with better refresh rate. I think that the same price/performance curve will be available for Hi Def TV.
I would prefer this item http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/04/23/bmws-clever -concept-completed/ to the Segway. No need to redesign cities. It's much more practical, combining the convenience and fun of a motorbike with the safety and comfort of a car, plus you actually look cool riding one, unlike a Segway which makes you look like a dork. Opinions please.
I would prefer this item http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/04/23/bmws-clever -concept-completed/ to the Segway. No need to redesign cities. It's more practical, combining the convenience and fun of a motorbike with the safety and comfort of a car, plus you actually look cool riding one, unlike a Segway which makes you look like a dork. Opinions please.
Basically, every games consoles is already a computer, but without an input device, i.e. the keyboard and local storage device. Now the PS3 with Linux, USB keyboard and mouse installed makes an excellent home computer. And the most important thing that a lot of the posters seem to miss, is that every games will run on the basic configuration. The expansion capabilities is mainly for aplications or multimedia capabilities. If you just wants to plays games, there's nothing to stop you. It's like buying a cellphone, today, at the very least it will have SMS function, it's up to you whether you want to use it or not.
The closest analogy of what PS3 is trying to achieved is the Commodore Amiga. I know American are basically ignorant of anything outside of an Apple or Wintel, but this is a computer that outperform both platform in it's days. And it was also the best games machine until rise of the popularity of the dedicated video games console.
I suggest you people check the Amiga entry in Wikipedia. Here is some example of choice passages:
The Amiga was originally designed by a small company called Amiga Corporation as the ultimate video games machine. Before the machine was released into the market, the company was bought out by Commodore, and it was redesigned into a real, general-purpose computer. The first model, called the Amiga 1000, was released in 1985 as a successor to the Commodore 64 and a rival to the Atari ST.
Commodore later released several new Amiga models, both for low-end gaming use and high-end productivity use. Throughout the 1980s, the Amiga's combination of advanced hardware and operating system software offered greater power than its competitors, but in the 1990s, other platforms, most of all the PC, reduced or eliminated this advantage.
At the time of its introduction (1985) the Amiga had what was a complex overall architecture, featuring co-processors suited for audio and visual tasks. In many eyes this made the Amiga superior to all competing systems, despite competitors offering faster CPUs, high(er) resolution monochrome graphics and MIDI.
The platform had three significant upgrades (not counting non-Commodore technologies), with the Amiga 2000 in 1987, Amiga 3000 in 1989 and the Amiga 4000 in 1992. These upgrades improved the platform's graphical abilities, allowing for more colors and different display modes, and added expansion slots and ports.
Trivia:
* The Amiga was originally intended to be a workstation. When the A1000 was release, it was advertised as a business machine, but it didn't make it, until it began to be used as an videogame computer.
Trivia:
* The Amiga was one of the first computers for which one could buy cheap accessories for sound sampling and video digitization. This means that not only can the Amiga produce computer-generated images and sound, but users can input "real" images and sound for editing, composition, and use in computer games.
The Amiga can display graphics in 32 bit colour, well before microsoft or apple. Its revolutionary visual processor made it the first computer used to do digital effects for a tv program.
In the PC/Amiga/ST rivalry, the quality of the Amiga's sound output, and the fact that the hardware is ubiquitous and easily addressed by software, was the standout feature of Amiga hardware that the PC lagged behind for years.
Operating systems:
At the time of release AmigaOS was the only consumer oriented operating system to feature both pre-emptive multitasking and a GUI. This, coupled with closely integrated custom hardware, gave the average consumer the experience of an OS well ahead of its time.
One reason for extraordinarily loyal fan base is due to the strengths of the machine at the time: it has a stable, compact, efficient, multitasking OS, it is relatively easy to program for, software has relatively easy access to the hardware (the base hardware was fixed so software could be coded specifically to the hardware), there is a we
I seemed to remember reading articles in the 80's about school kids getting their parents to buy a Sinclair ZX Spectrum by claiming it's computer. Well it is, but all they want to do is plays games on it. I imagine the same line will be used to get a PS3.
Learn computing by typing program listings from magazines on a Sinclair ZX81 and later Sinclair Spectrum. Home computers like Atari ST, Amiga, BBC Micro and others all can be connected to television. A monitor would have cost an arm and a leg back then. Ok, I use them mainly to play games, but there are many serious sofware written for these machines. Atari ST was very popular as a serious computer in Germany before the ascendency on the Wintel machines. The ST and Amiga was at least as powerful as PCs and definitely more use friendly having a WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menu and Pulldown menus) interface and mouse as standard while PC was stuck with DOS. Face it, a low end PC (from 1 GHZ) can handle 90 percent of the the job most people throw at it. I used to run Adobe Indesign on a vintage 1999 450 MHz PC. They just suck at playing games. You are always behind the curve with a new GPU coming out every six month. So take a powerful machine like PS3, with stable design that last for ten years, add Linux and use a HD TV as monitors could bring back the return of the bedroom coders. They might only write the equivalent of Bejewelled for now, but in ten years time they will the future Dave Perry and the Darling Brothers.
At IGN Boards http://boards.ign.com/ps3_lobby/b8269/118795924/p1 /?6 got some developers opinion on Bluray and DVD.
For example:
The infamous Team Ninja (one of the few backers of both Xbox platform in Japan) front man has a thing or two to say about Microsoft's decision to assign standard DVD format to the Xbox 360. Limiting his development team to a measly 9GB does not sit well with Itagaki, especially when Team Ninja is looking to include any number of (MS-coveted) HD cut scenes. It's ironic that Microsoft has been the most outspoken about the "HD era", but is the least prepared for HD.
On a good PS2 game you can have a large playable area with seemingly no loading time, the relevant datas being streamed off the DVD. Having a hard drive is a better version of this. Remember playing games like Resident Evil series (never available for the original Xbox), when you come to a door, there will a pause while the next room is loaded. On a well written game for console with a hard drive as standard, the next room will be cached to the hard drived as the player comes near it, so when he opens the door, it's already there. The PS3 don't have to install the whole game to hard drive, just that while you nearly finish with a level, next level will already be off loaded to the hard drive. Ergo, no loading time. I remember reading an old article about the Xbox. One bragging right the original Xbox have over PS2 is persistent world. Say, on a PS2, you enter a new room and suddenly decide to turn back, the console will have to load it back, taking few annoying seconds, Whereis on the (original) Xbox, the datas is still on the hard drive, taking maybe a few miliseconds to download. Now the situation is reverse.
The PS3 comes with hard drive with both models that will be used to significantly increases load time by cacheing the relevant datas. That's one area that it has the Xbox 360 beaten.
Sony will release Spider-Man 3 in summer 2007 which will gross at least $500 millions worldwide. By Christmas a few millions will buy the Blu-Ray version.
I started in computing with a ZX81 connected to a TV and moved on to a Sinclair Spectrum. Later bought an Atari ST set but had access to a nephew's Commodore Amiga. This was at a time when PC had crappy graphic and cost an arm and a leg.
Now on to my third PC in 10 years which is good enough for everything but play the games at their best. (A good graphic cost more than a PS3).
A PS3 with Linux installed and off the shelf USB keyboard and mouse will be a viable alternative to a Windows PC.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, in five years there will be a Slim PS3 for AS$179 or packaged with a PSEye for AS$199.
The problem is a lot of the casual Wii owners are only playing Wii Sports, and not buying any other titles.
just look at http://www.leftlanenews.com/bmws-clever-concept-co mpleted.html or http://www.worldcarfans.com/news.cfm/newsID/206050 5.005/country/gcf/bmw/clever-research-vehicle
Maneuverbility of bike with full body protection of a car. I'd rather have one of these.
In a typical bereaucratic scenario I forsee, thousands of of Classmate laptops will be distributed to places to where they just lie in cold storage because there's no electricity to operate them.
The thing is if PS3 does'nt have Blu-Ray there will be tons of letters condemning PS3 as no better than a 360. What Blu-Ray provides the PS3 is product differentiation. Face it, (given time) anything that the 360 can do, so will the PS3. The online experience, the games, the graphic will improve. But one thing that the 360 can't have is all that extra gigabytes space that Blu-Ray provides. By the 2007 Christmas, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates Of The Carribbean 3 will help sell a few millions unit of PS3. By 2008 AAA for PS3 will take advantage of the the extra storage. I'm not talking just about games. In case of multiplatform, the PS3 version can includes, demo, trailers, developers diaries without hogging all those precious bandwith through downloading. One thing I enjoy with DVDs is the directors commentary. Imagine the developer of Okami talking about their original realistic version and why they abandon it. Things that can be included, the 360 version will be gimped by comparison.
Yeah, what if they use facial resemblance (just different enough to avoid lawsuit)to famous actress or models.
One great thing about console is six years from now, when I buy the latest game for my PS3, it will run on the same configuration. The same cannot be said about PC. As you can see the surge in quality from the first generation PS3 say, the original Burnout to the third iteration or Metal Gear Solid 3. I've read an interview (cannot recall where) a developer said he never imagine PS2 capable of running games like God Of War. Since all next gen console have USB, hopefully in the future developers will have keyboard and mouse support for FPS and RTS games, taking away one more advantage from PC. And we will be playing in front of a 42 inch HD TV. Bought a I7 inch LCD monitor two years ago and now watching enviously at I9 inches LCD that are available at half the price with better refresh rate. I think that the same price/performance curve will be available for Hi Def TV.
I would prefer this item http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/04/23/bmws-clever -concept-completed/ to the Segway. No need to redesign cities. It's much more practical, combining the convenience and fun of a motorbike with the safety and comfort of a car, plus you actually look cool riding one, unlike a Segway which makes you look like a dork. Opinions please.
I would prefer this item http://www.leftlanenews.com/2006/04/23/bmws-clever -concept-completed/ to the Segway. No need to redesign cities. It's more practical, combining the convenience and fun of a motorbike with the safety and comfort of a car, plus you actually look cool riding one, unlike a Segway which makes you look like a dork. Opinions please.
Basically, every games consoles is already a computer, but without an input device, i.e. the keyboard and local storage device. Now the PS3 with Linux, USB keyboard and mouse installed makes an excellent home computer. And the most important thing that a lot of the posters seem to miss, is that every games will run on the basic configuration. The expansion capabilities is mainly for aplications or multimedia capabilities. If you just wants to plays games, there's nothing to stop you. It's like buying a cellphone, today, at the very least it will have SMS function, it's up to you whether you want to use it or not.
The closest analogy of what PS3 is trying to achieved is the Commodore Amiga. I know American are basically ignorant of anything outside of an Apple or Wintel, but this is a computer that outperform both platform in it's days. And it was also the best games machine until rise of the popularity of the dedicated video games console. I suggest you people check the Amiga entry in Wikipedia. Here is some example of choice passages:
The Amiga was originally designed by a small company called Amiga Corporation as the ultimate video games machine. Before the machine was released into the market, the company was bought out by Commodore, and it was redesigned into a real, general-purpose computer. The first model, called the Amiga 1000, was released in 1985 as a successor to the Commodore 64 and a rival to the Atari ST.
Commodore later released several new Amiga models, both for low-end gaming use and high-end productivity use. Throughout the 1980s, the Amiga's combination of advanced hardware and operating system software offered greater power than its competitors, but in the 1990s, other platforms, most of all the PC, reduced or eliminated this advantage.
At the time of its introduction (1985) the Amiga had what was a complex overall architecture, featuring co-processors suited for audio and visual tasks. In many eyes this made the Amiga superior to all competing systems, despite competitors offering faster CPUs, high(er) resolution monochrome graphics and MIDI.
The platform had three significant upgrades (not counting non-Commodore technologies), with the Amiga 2000 in 1987, Amiga 3000 in 1989 and the Amiga 4000 in 1992. These upgrades improved the platform's graphical abilities, allowing for more colors and different display modes, and added expansion slots and ports.
Trivia:
* The Amiga was originally intended to be a workstation. When the A1000 was release, it was advertised as a business machine, but it didn't make it, until it began to be used as an videogame computer.
Trivia: * The Amiga was one of the first computers for which one could buy cheap accessories for sound sampling and video digitization. This means that not only can the Amiga produce computer-generated images and sound, but users can input "real" images and sound for editing, composition, and use in computer games.
The Amiga can display graphics in 32 bit colour, well before microsoft or apple. Its revolutionary visual processor made it the first computer used to do digital effects for a tv program.
In the PC/Amiga/ST rivalry, the quality of the Amiga's sound output, and the fact that the hardware is ubiquitous and easily addressed by software, was the standout feature of Amiga hardware that the PC lagged behind for years.
Operating systems:
At the time of release AmigaOS was the only consumer oriented operating system to feature both pre-emptive multitasking and a GUI. This, coupled with closely integrated custom hardware, gave the average consumer the experience of an OS well ahead of its time. One reason for extraordinarily loyal fan base is due to the strengths of the machine at the time: it has a stable, compact, efficient, multitasking OS, it is relatively easy to program for, software has relatively easy access to the hardware (the base hardware was fixed so software could be coded specifically to the hardware), there is a we
So how about plugging in one of those new IBM/Sony Cell chip
I seemed to remember reading articles in the 80's about school kids getting their parents to buy a Sinclair ZX Spectrum by claiming it's computer. Well it is, but all they want to do is plays games on it. I imagine the same line will be used to get a PS3.
Learn computing by typing program listings from magazines on a Sinclair ZX81 and later Sinclair Spectrum. Home computers like Atari ST, Amiga, BBC Micro and others all can be connected to television. A monitor would have cost an arm and a leg back then. Ok, I use them mainly to play games, but there are many serious sofware written for these machines. Atari ST was very popular as a serious computer in Germany before the ascendency on the Wintel machines. The ST and Amiga was at least as powerful as PCs and definitely more use friendly having a WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menu and Pulldown menus) interface and mouse as standard while PC was stuck with DOS. Face it, a low end PC (from 1 GHZ) can handle 90 percent of the the job most people throw at it. I used to run Adobe Indesign on a vintage 1999 450 MHz PC. They just suck at playing games. You are always behind the curve with a new GPU coming out every six month. So take a powerful machine like PS3, with stable design that last for ten years, add Linux and use a HD TV as monitors could bring back the return of the bedroom coders. They might only write the equivalent of Bejewelled for now, but in ten years time they will the future Dave Perry and the Darling Brothers.
At IGN Boards http://boards.ign.com/ps3_lobby/b8269/118795924/p1 /?6 got some developers opinion on Bluray and DVD.
For example:
The infamous Team Ninja (one of the few backers of both Xbox platform in Japan) front man has a thing or two to say about Microsoft's decision to assign standard DVD format to the Xbox 360. Limiting his development team to a measly 9GB does not sit well with Itagaki, especially when Team Ninja is looking to include any number of (MS-coveted) HD cut scenes. It's ironic that Microsoft has been the most outspoken about the "HD era", but is the least prepared for HD.
On a good PS2 game you can have a large playable area with seemingly no loading time, the relevant datas being streamed off the DVD. Having a hard drive is a better version of this. Remember playing games like Resident Evil series (never available for the original Xbox), when you come to a door, there will a pause while the next room is loaded. On a well written game for console with a hard drive as standard, the next room will be cached to the hard drived as the player comes near it, so when he opens the door, it's already there. The PS3 don't have to install the whole game to hard drive, just that while you nearly finish with a level, next level will already be off loaded to the hard drive. Ergo, no loading time. I remember reading an old article about the Xbox. One bragging right the original Xbox have over PS2 is persistent world. Say, on a PS2, you enter a new room and suddenly decide to turn back, the console will have to load it back, taking few annoying seconds, Whereis on the (original) Xbox, the datas is still on the hard drive, taking maybe a few miliseconds to download. Now the situation is reverse.
The PS3 comes with hard drive with both models that will be used to significantly increases load time by cacheing the relevant datas. That's one area that it has the Xbox 360 beaten.
Sony will release Spider-Man 3 in summer 2007 which will gross at least $500 millions worldwide. By Christmas a few millions will buy the Blu-Ray version.
I started in computing with a ZX81 connected to a TV and moved on to a Sinclair Spectrum. Later bought an Atari ST set but had access to a nephew's Commodore Amiga. This was at a time when PC had crappy graphic and cost an arm and a leg. Now on to my third PC in 10 years which is good enough for everything but play the games at their best. (A good graphic cost more than a PS3). A PS3 with Linux installed and off the shelf USB keyboard and mouse will be a viable alternative to a Windows PC.