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Sony schedules PSN maintenance today, wants you to know this time it's on purpose
Sony knows you're likely scarred for life after its many security snafus, so it's doing all it can to keep you in the loop in regards to its PSN. The network will be experiencing a temporary outage today to make room for "routine scheduled maintenance" starting at 11AM ET and ending at approximately midnight. As usual in these scenarios, you won't have access to any PlayStation services on your PS3 or PSP, including PlayStation Home and Sony's Music and Video Unlimited offerings. That said, if you were shootin' and slashin' fools before the downtime, you should have no hassle continuing with your current session -- though access to any of the aforementioned services is still out of the question. Desperate to know exactly when the PSN will be back up and running? Keep it locked on the Playstation Twitter feed to find out.
Hacker gets XBMC running on his PS3, tells you how (video)
Sony's disabling of Linux on the PS3 has made many people very angry, some more so than others, but for an enthusiast named madshaun1984 it was something of a call to arms. He didn't file a lawsuit or whine about it in forums -- oh no. He sat down to get XBMC working and has succeeded, albeit slowly. Right now the CellSDK that this build relies upon is not up to snuff performance-wise, so just scrolling through media is somewhat less than fun and you can forget about playing it. But, the hope is to improve that and to turn the PS3 into a proper media-streaming Linux box... so long as you don't update the firmware, anyway. Full instructions on how to do this are at the source link, but be prepared to spend the better part of an afternoon at it if you want to try yourself. For those not ready for that kind of commitment (or anyone who already has the latest firmware) you can just enjoy the video proof after the break.
Sony taken to court over PS3 'Other OS' removal
Sony forced PS3 owners into a tough decision with the mandatory 3.21 firmware update: either lose online play, or forgo Linux support. On Tuesday, Anthony Ventura chose door number three -- and filed a lawsuit in California, asking the judge for class-action status. The complaint quotes Sony executives on numerous occasions saying how vital and important the "Install Other OS" feature was to the game console (it's a computer, remember?) and claims breach of contract, false advertising, and several other causes of action against the entertainment giant. Sure, a lawsuit was bound to happen, given the number of angry PS3 owners out there, but here's the thing: there's no telling whether the court will grant a class-action certification here, and even if the case gets that far it's pretty unlikely to force Sony to turn the feature back on -- instead, customers will probably receive a token amount in damages while the lawyers get their full fees. For example, a rare, successful class-action suit against Palm -- filed in 2004 -- got Treo 600 owners only $27.50 in store credit, five years later. Meanwhile, we hear European PS3 owners just have to ask for their money back -- which, we promise you, is the fastest way to put an end to your Linux-based PS3 nightmares. Either that, or just wait for Geohot to make it all better.
Video: High-res image enlargement tech for PS3 and PSP takes extreme closeups to a new level
The GigaPan has opened new doors in ridiculously high-resolution imagery, creating pictures so huge our feeble human minds can't hope to comprehend them. Sony's getting in on the action, not so much with the idea of capturing historic events at gigapixel resolutions, but providing the same sort of effect by linking multiple documents and items together and allowing you to zoom from one to the next. The video after the break shows a number of demonstrations, including what looks to be a release calendar that, inside each cell, contains high-resolution photos and even videos of whatever is releasing that day. Hidden advertising is also possible, like a mosquito on a man's face tagged with an ad only apparent after you've gotten uncomfortably close to the poor man's face. The adult entertainment opportunities are endless. Also demo'd is a new voice recognition library for the PS3, dubbed PS3VR, which can take you straight to your Cindi Lauper albums even if you're not a girl and are seemingly disinterested in having fun. That tech isn't quite so interesting, but it and the high-resolution libraries are intended for release to developers... eventually. Read - High-Resolution Enlargement TechnologyRead - PS3 Voice Recognition
Is Netflix PS3-bound, too?
Rumors of Netflix content streaming to the PS3 date back to, well, the first rumors of it hitting the Xbox 360. We all know which of those two platforms got some red envelope love last year, and now, soon after hearing the service may be heading to the Wii, we have what seems to be similar confirmation that Netflix is at least still considering bringing their bitstream to the PS3. The screenshot above was captured by a reader, showing a message like that on the earlier Wii survey -- in fact it's exactly the same from what we can see. Given our proximity to that least newsy day of the year on April 1st we can't be sure this is entirely genuine, but it probably is time for Sony to make a little room in its XMB for Netflix. [Thanks, Jake N.]
