Sony unveils "Life with Playstation" PS3 service

Kaz Hirai took to a Tokyo stage today to give us a peek at the Playstation's future, and he let slip a couple of interesting tidbits. First, Sony will be launching a new program called "Life with Playstation" that will give users real time news and weather, using a globe metaphor reminiscent of the Wii's News Channel. Of course, since the PS3 has considerably more horsepower under the hood, the globe is a rendered weather satellite image showing cloud patterns, and it also supports geo-tagged photos and other content. Kaz also previewed the video-download service set to launch next month at E3, which will allow you to download or stream video to the PS3 and PSP. The store looks a lot like the current PlayStation Store, and it looks like HD rentals will run around $6 while SD purchases will clock in around $13 when it launches in the States this summer. We'll learn a lot more at E3, presumably, but for now we'll just settle for a decent screen shot of that globe interface.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

[Daniel @ Jun 26th 2008 7:56PM]

so hd material is cheaper then sd most me a typo

[Peter @ Jun 26th 2008 8:03PM]

HD RENTALS are $6.
SD PURCHASES are $13.

[DarCowAlways @ Jun 26th 2008 11:44PM]

Hah... yeah... I was thinking the same thing. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Wes @ Jun 26th 2008 10:03PM]

$6.00? Wow, even with high gas prices I can drive to my local blockbuster and rent blu-ray movies for cheaper or go netflix and have them delivered to my door.

It seems expensive but I guess maybe thats the price of inflation hitting?

[gabe @ Jun 26th 2008 8:04PM]

what ever happened to Sony Home?

Weather reports on ps3 - wow - they sure take good care of us!

[Paulmichael @ Jun 26th 2008 8:09PM]

Home is still in beta, it in fact just received an update a few days ago. Apparently, the open beta is going to begin on July 10th. Firmware 2.40 is around the corner as well, giving us in-game XMB access, trophy support, and other things. Weather reports may not be too exciting, but I bet it looks nice in HD haha.

[hiko36 @ Jun 26th 2008 8:13PM]

I use Doppler all the time. An HD weather service would be extremely useful to me. It may not be Home but it is an exciting feature nonetheless.

[Yevon @ Jun 26th 2008 8:20PM]

Indeed, I'm sure both PS3 owners will be extremely pleased.

I kid, I kid...

[hiko36 @ Jun 26th 2008 8:26PM]

Is it sad that I had to read your comment twice before I got it?

[sinai @ Jun 27th 2008 12:52AM]

i didn't think it was possible, but it got LESS funny the second time, right?

[hiko36 @ Jun 27th 2008 2:04AM]

@Sinia

I must have come down with a case of SUPER FAIL, because I didn't get your comment either...

[DP @ Jun 26th 2008 8:23PM]

You're dropping the ball Sony...

[DP @ Jun 26th 2008 8:23PM]

You're dropping the ball Sony...

[sinjinn @ Jun 26th 2008 8:49PM]

i disagree, sonys console is the most intresting console out there.

[MasterCKO @ Jun 27th 2008 1:42AM]

agreed sinjinn,

Sony is constantly adding significant value to my purchase, like monthly. It's pretty remarkable, actually.

[chris fredette @ Jun 27th 2008 11:42AM]

hugh? Most interesting on paper is more like it. I have all 3 can tell you the wii is way more interesting and innovative. If it had a bit more power it would rule the world.
The 360 has had movies for a long time and their interface is great. The PS3 is busy and too techey for most people. The 360 also has way better looking games(graphics wise) and way more titles. I also hate the PS3 form factor.
Sony is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay late and a dollar short.

[Ayman @ Jun 29th 2008 3:41AM]

@Chris
first if the Wii had a bit more horse power then it would have to increase the ram to process more graphics, hence would be MORE EXPENSIVE, hence would lose the point of the term Weeeeeee

2nd the Xbox has more titles because there is no main difference between it and the original except more power (with wireless controllers) and it was release 1 year in advance of the PS3. they charge xbox owners on playing online. it doesnt support 3rd party hardware application. it is a white box, that the best graphics it has to offer to 16% of owners is the Red rings of Death, but dont worry to temporally fix the problem is to WRAP A TOWEL AROUND THE BOX AND MAKE IT OVER HEAT so the something would snap back on

the PS1 came out in CDs, the PS2 came out in DVDs, the PS3 in BD,
that alone shows how the PS series are ORIGINAL

[grull27 @ Jun 26th 2008 8:33PM]

Xbox Live FTW! :D

[Tony @ Jun 26th 2008 11:45PM]

the way I see it is ; I'd rather go to a free party with a smaller amount of cool people , than pay to hang out with 14 year olds

[Septimus @ Jun 27th 2008 6:19AM]

Racist, dribbling, cocktard 14 years olds (to clarify). Haven't played on Live in 2 years. Still pay for the bastard thanks to MS's great treatment of it's users to demos etc.

[Rask @ Jun 27th 2008 8:13AM]

Septimus - You don't need to pay for Line to get the demos.

The Free, SIlver account allows you access to all that stuff.

[jitty @ Jun 26th 2008 8:37PM]

My question is how good will their HD rentals be? Will they be in 720p? 1080p?

[John @ Jun 26th 2008 10:03PM]

I'd guess 720p - it's HD, it looks good, but it takes way less time to download. And assuming that they plan on this being highly used, less bandwidth too.

[The Sound @ Jun 26th 2008 10:05PM]

99.9% sure it will be 720p, only because the size of a full 1080p download would be too large for many people to download, especially those with limit internet bandwidth.

A compressed 720p video will be roughly 5 or so gb's.

[Wes @ Jun 26th 2008 10:07PM]

The better question might be, what's the bitrate? I agree its probably 720p but I wonder if it'll be 3mbps? 5mbps? 8 mbps?

I think apple is 3mpbs and xbox live was 5mbps? I've always found xbox 360 looks a bit better than apple tv's hd though they are both 720p and attributed it to the higher bitrate.

[Boudu @ Jun 27th 2008 12:30AM]

I've rented on both XBL and iTV for HD content, and I would say that it looks good. However, some movies have VERY discernible compression artifacts (such as V for Vendetta). This is especially noticeable in movies with a lot of dark scenes (again, V for Vendetta). The short-comings can be distracting at times but not enough to ruin the watching experience.

Blu-ray looks much much better then the downloaded highly-compressed HD content (which should be obvious being that BD is 1080p and approaches 50GBs), but to many HD downloads may be "good-enough". The problem I've had with HD downloads is that it takes forever to download them, and kinda negates the whole point of getting it "on-demand". If I see a movie I want to watch that night I kinda want to start watching it in "minutes" not "hours". For that reason I usually just go for the SD version because I want it ASAP. Another problem I've had is that the selection thus far is paltry for the online-catalog.

Personally, I think the PS3 will become a stellar piece of entertainment equipment. Digital-distribution + Blu-ray + upscaled-DVDs + Divx/MP4 support + DLNA. Its good to have a choice of how you want to watch; the system is almost agnostic.

[Septimus @ Jun 27th 2008 6:20AM]

Good chance it will be 8Mbps. Bigger HDD availability on the console and it is the optimum file size/quality ratio for WMV VC-1.

[arkweld @ Jun 26th 2008 8:38PM]

"Life with Playstation.

Because we still can't fix Home and yet again we aimed too high and fell far short."

[arkweld @ Jun 26th 2008 8:39PM]

"Life with Playstation.

Because we still can't fix Home and yet again we aimed too high and fell far short."

[Macview @ Jun 26th 2008 9:34PM]

Repeat it all you want, not gonna make it true buddy

[andres @ Jun 26th 2008 11:33PM]

well, maybe he didnt see that he double posted due to his burned retinas
(hint:arkweld)

[arkweld @ Jun 27th 2008 3:36AM]

Truth in what?

You have to be blind to see that the only reason this exits is because it was planned to be a feature of Home and rather than wait until they give up and cancel it because they yet again made promises they couldn't keep, Sony are just releasing elements of Home in bits and pieces so they don't waste 100% of the effort.

I can't wait to try this. I'll be able to output the weather to one screen and do something else on another thanks to the dual HDMI outputs on the PS3.

Oh, wait ...

A Sony announcement is like an X-File. It might sound cool but until it's actually seen in the real world it's just something a crazy person is talking about and there is no reason to believe in. It might as well be locked on a shelf in an underground bunker filed as "Couldn't deliver."

Right next to the DMX-NV1.

[sinai @ Jun 26th 2008 9:21PM]

what everyone seems to be forgetting is that Sony owns a large percentage of the movie industry. so you have Apple on the music side, and Sony on the TV/Movies. Microsoft is going to have a long way to go.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jun 26th 2008 9:32PM]

Rentals are $6? Blockbuster down the street rents Blu-ray movies for $4.99.

[required @ Jun 26th 2008 9:39PM]

but you've got to go down the street to pick it up and drop it off

[micxer @ Jun 26th 2008 9:43PM]

True, though down the street @ $4+/gallon makes $1 extra seem worth not getting off your ass.... :-)

[slojohn @ Jun 26th 2008 9:52PM]

blockbuster by me rents all discs except games for $5.99 plus tax. . .
and, I play tuba FTW!!

[Drew Metcalf @ Jun 26th 2008 10:00PM]

You may be able to rent them for 5 bucks at a movie store, but what about the dollar in gas you spend, of coarse kidding ... yea it's going to be more expensive then going out to rent it from a store, your paying for convenience.

[Galley @ Jun 26th 2008 10:49PM]

Apple HD rentals are $3.99 or 4.99.

[hiko36 @ Jun 27th 2008 1:20AM]

But if I stay at the house then I'm not tempted to buy a big ass tub of GUMMI BEARS!!!!

[fendee1 @ Jun 26th 2008 11:05PM]

I am still homeless.

[Rob @ Jun 27th 2008 12:44AM]

There are a couple of (very dark) vids of PS Home and the new Life with thing here:

http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/video_sony_shows_off_playstation_home_and_life_with_playstation_services/

[Temple @ Jun 27th 2008 3:28AM]

Holy crap, its got live view of clouds/dopler and weather on the entire globe.

Maybe I'll actually use this.

[arkweld @ Jun 27th 2008 3:45AM]

So does NASA's World Wind application. And that's been available for 4 years.

I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't just built on the the SDK.

http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/

[Mr_Fizzlepop @ Jun 27th 2008 12:49AM]

Lots of trailers on the playstation store for free DL are 1080p, so we'll have to wait and see. I agree that Bandwidth will be an issue, but it could be there will be a 1080p or two movie DL available.

The long trailer for Shakiras Oral fixation tour was in 720p, so again, just have to wait and see.

[Kevin @ Jun 27th 2008 1:03AM]

I'm still going to wait for Home, but these definitely pluses.

[Andy Anonymous @ Jun 27th 2008 1:50AM]

Sheesh...two "me too" PS3 updates in as many days.

[Rick @ Jun 27th 2008 12:25PM]

Wow, so I guess I'll stick with cable HD rentals then. Why does Sony always overprice things? Apple TV (slightly lower quality) is $4, BlockBuster is like $5 with tax and HD cable rentals are $4. So, why would I magically think "Hey, screw inflation" and pay more to rent with my PS3.

I hope these prices get adjusted or they'll follow BRD, cool tech but too expensive for mainstream consumption.

[Amazing&Humble @ Jun 27th 2008 12:52PM]

Sony is sh**ier to its customers than Microsoft ever dreamed and blue ray.. ha ha ha... This is like the people that say they can hear the difference between 128kbps and 256kbps... get over your selves videophiles.. in normal light you can't freakin see the difference between 720 and 1080 in real world conditions (action scenes with crap flying all over the screen)... Blue Ray is the biggest RIP OFF ever...

[nick @ Jun 27th 2008 5:14PM]

If you have not played mgs4 on a full 1080p TV, then no you wont notice much of a difference, but considering that the game itself filled a dual layer blu-ray and the action and cut scenes are one in the same, that its really impressive, if you are playing on an sd tv the 360 is comparable, but the in-game world is in a league on its own with the ps3, not to mention the scalability considering the mgs4 only uses 4 of the 6 available processing cores. the x-box is a glorified bottom shelf pc, built with off the shelf components, its not in the same hardware sector as the ps3. its funny to think that you can either buy a blu-ray player for the same cost as a 40gb ps3 and have more features than any standalone blu-ray player, but the ps3 is not 'good' enough, please its out of the 360's league