Sony unveils "Life with Playstation" PS3 service
By Nilay Patel 
posted June 26th 2008 7:51PM
posted June 26th 2008 7:51PM
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]
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/
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.
Sheesh...two "me too" PS3 updates in as many days.
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.