I've got a bad feeling about this. Ramping up to 24/7 production with a product which has a lot of past the bleeding edge components (BluRay, cell processor etc.) for a hard deadline sounds like a formula for high defect rates and design flaws. In this regard the 360 is a harbinger, look at the problems in the first batch of production of that unit.

The worst part is that Sony has recently fallen down on quality control, which they were previously famous for. Dead pixels on the PSP, exploding batteries, BluRay drives that won't play BluRay movies, and don't get me started on Vaios. The PS3 may turn out to be the Edsel of consoles.

Sony seems to be taking a new tact, DRM with extreme predjudice:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/11/1815258

A few observations:
As for the the Betamax2000 I mean memory stick format is not only it's proprietary format, but the corresponding licencing fees which drive up the price, which is already at a premium due to the lower volume of production (resulting from its proprietary nature). This means that the memory stick costs twice as much as compariable formats. This is lethal when dealing with portable media players.
As for the good hardware/bad software arguement the problem goes a little deeper . Sony is reasonably good at hardware, nowhere near as good as Panasonic or Nintendo on ruggedness, but reasonably good. Where they really shined was user interface and styling, traditionally very well thought out and intuitive. The problem is that bad software kills the user interface for the PSP. It's really a pain to navigate or use. The hardware of the PSP is pretty atrocious as well, with the misbegotten UMD drive, memory stick and horrific battery life (another lethal defficency in a media player)
As for the DS being incapable of playing media, the Play Yan is very capable and uses very cheap SD cards with incredible battery life.
The problem is that Sony is so constrained by DRM and Prorietary formats that they cannot effectvely challenge Apple or Nintendowith new innovation. The only hope they have to save the PSP is wireless video download for travellers. The PSP could do it well with a simple patch, but since they can't get their shite together on music much less video the PSP will always be an also ran.

Joeseph:
Pretty much correct. The infitec system uses a pair of filters that transmit red green and blue lines of the spectrum. The spectral lines are very tight and the offset between the left and right lines are imperceptable. Basically a tricolor version of the old anaglyphic method. It doesn't require a special screen, but it has efficency issues.
As for Real3d, they use fixed circular polarization glasses coupled with a polarization modulating cell (z-screen) in front of the projector. Such a system can be very good but literally requres a silver screen to avoid depolarization of the images.
The third option is shutter glasses no special screen involved, but the glasses are expensive and active.

Um #21, yeah linux is just like the PS3. The horrific price and install issues, especially on those knoppix disks!

As for the PS3 being like the iPod. Well my 'iPod' is a Nintendo, a GBA micro with a play yan cartridge, indestructable cheap and it plays video.

Actually, the use of this tech to track the essential "cold chain" associated with vaccines could be a major boost for disease eradication.

Actually the MIT model railroad club was one of the earlier elements of the early computer clubs.