http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/ps3/ en-us Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:43:34 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2135802/posts It's a given that every time we write about digital piracy, or laugh at silly pirate jokes, somebody will write in and admonish us. "Shame on you," they say. "Shame on you for laughing at pirates, when there is real piracy taking place in the world that ends up with people being hurt." Well, those among you who are already preparing to tell us the same, take your fingers off the keyboard: this story really is about high-seas piracy. According to Reuters, the recent growth in piracy off the coast of troubled Somalia means that lots of shipping companies are... The Guardian (UK) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2135802/posts#comment Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:43:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109207/posts Sony's Little Big Planet is one of the most high-profile releases of this holiday season. Developer Media Molecule has seen its game go from indie darling to AAA system-seller in the past year, thanks to the many appearances that the game has made at trade shows and events. However, fans of the game are going to have to wait slightly longer to get it. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that it is recalling the game from retailers after it learned that the soundtrack featured some Arabic-language lines from the Qur'an backed with music. A SCEE representative also confirmed to... Gamespot http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109207/posts#comment Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:31:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2047011/posts LOS ANGELES - In a bid to regain lost ground in the fiercely competitive gaming business, Sony announced Tuesday that it will cut the price of its high-end PlayStation 3 console by $100. It also will introduce downloads of movies and TV shows to the game machine's online store and, with some software partners, roll out a number of exclusive games. The moves suggested that Sony still views Microsoft as its chief rival rather than market leader Nintendo, which seems focused on extending its lead. But, of course, that's not how Sony brass portrayed its announcements at a press event... Mercury News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2047011/posts#comment Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:43:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037128/posts Think you paid too much for your Playstation 3? Don't expect any sympathy from Sony. In the company's fiscal 2008 annual report, Sony revealed that they've now lost roughly $3.3 billion (that's billion with a B) on the Playstation 3 since its launch. That breaks down to $2.16 billion in 2007, followed by a notably smaller but equally daunting $1.16 billion loss in 2008. yahoo games http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037128/posts#comment Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:03:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999515/posts A thief made the mistake of a lifetime recently. He broke into professional female boxer Derdre Rodriguez's house and tried to steal her PS3, PSP and videogames as she lay sleeping. She woke up, saw the robber climbing out of her window, chased him down, smashed his head in with an ice chipper, then, in the most awesome coupe-de-grace ever, the former pugilist forced the thief to pick up the stolen electronics he'd dropped during the chase (A PlayStation 3, a PSP, cell phones and videogames). She then made him wait in the house for the cops to show up... G4TV.com/CNN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1999515/posts#comment Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:24:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1980857/posts When most of us arrived home with our newly purchased PS3, we couldn't wait to start annihilating aliens in Resistance: Fall of Man or kicking butt kung fu-style in Virtua Fighter 5. Not astrophysicist Gaurav Khanna - he used his to build a supercomputer. Khanna now owns a total of 16 PS3 consoles, all linked together to provide the same computing power as a 400-node supercomputer. His set up, which he calls a 'gravity grid', is used to simulate the activity of very large black holes for the Physics Department at the University of Massachusetts. Stacked Sonies: the 'gravity grid'... The Register http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1980857/posts#comment Wed, 5 Mar 2008 19:40:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975292/posts Only a day after Toshiba pulled HD DVD from the high-definition DVD business, conceding defeat in a long-running format war with Sony's Blu-ray, the company has officially finalized a previously announced $835M joint venture with its rival that will help lower PS3 production costs. The joint venture, to be named at a later date, will manufacture Cell chips and RSX graphic chips, both used in the PS3, as well as other microchips that go into Toshiba products. With this, Sony is trying to streamline its operations by getting rid of assets which it simply does not need or are not... TechSpot.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975292/posts#comment Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:51:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1930299/posts Dr Gaurav Khanna is a professor at the University of Massachusetts. He has been renting supercomputers at NASA and the US National Science Foundation for US$20,000-$30,000 a year to run complicated calculations on just how much radiation is emitted in the process of a black hole swallowing a star... "For US$4,000 or so, I can get eight PS3s that can do the same task that I'd do on a supercomputer. For a one-time cost, I have this resource I can use privately. I can use it indefinitely over and over again. That's hugely attractive. That's why I considered the project.... Softpedia http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1930299/posts#comment Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:38:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1898587/posts Plenty of gamers would give their left arm to be included in Grand Theft Auto IV. Miami attorney Jack Thompson, however, claims that he's depicted in the game and wants out. And he threatens to block the release of GTA IV if Rockstar doesn't comply.... Game Politics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1898587/posts#comment Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:18:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1887255/posts July is supposed to be when things start to cool down for the games industry, as students and holiday makers take time off from games over the summer and spend their breaks doing other things. But not this year. The latest figures from the US from NPD Group, reported by GameDaily, have the games industry racking up nearly 40 per cent more sales in July compared with last year. And Nintendo is the one to thank. The Wii and the DS are proving nearly unstoppable, as the pair topped the chart yet again. This time the Wii even managed to... kikizo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1887255/posts#comment Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:09:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1867338/posts Police: Pa. Boy Stabs Brother Over Game Jul 17 01:16 PM US/Eastern LANSDOWNE, Pa. (AP) - A 13-year-old boy fatally stabbed his brother with a steak knife after the 16-year-old refused to turn over a video game controller, authorities said. Jahmir Ricks was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Antwan Ricks at their home outside Philadelphia. The older boy died of a single stab wound to the chest, police said, and a bent and bloody knife was recovered from the home. Lansdowne police said the younger boy told them, "I just stabbed my brother," when they arrived at... Breitbart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1867338/posts#comment Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:00:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1852117/posts Reporting NPD sales figures for the next-gen race between Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 has gotten to be a tiresome affair. Off the top of my head, I don’t believe the rankings have changed ever since December, 2006. Not a lot of drama there. The NPD sales figures for May in the USA were as follows: Nintendo Wii was the big kahuna, selling 338,000 units for the month. Next on the totem pole was Microsoft’s Xbox 360 coming in with 155,000 consoles sold. Bringing up the rear was PS3, with 82,000 as their magic number for May. The handheld department... Portable Planet http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1852117/posts#comment Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:05:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839164/posts PlayStation 3 gives Blu-ray disc sales a boost Impact of new console in market "significant" by Amy-Mae Elliott Print | Email | Save | PDF Tags ps3 261 news, 20 reviews Blu-ray 64 news, 3 reviews sony 257 news, 84 reviews >> More tags 23 May 2007 - News from the Blu-ray Disc Association suggests that the impact of PlayStation 3 on sales of Blu-ray Disc movies in North America and Japan after the launch of the console last November has been "significant". Early market data sourced by the association indicates that a similar trend is developing in Western Europe.... GamesDog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1839164/posts#comment Thu, 24 May 2007 18:11:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1825705/posts Sony really knows how to party. It wasn't enough to have topless ladies at the God of War II European unveiling, they had to go and decapitate a goat and put it on display. Not only that, they invited visitors to stick their hands down the neck, grab out some intestines (not the goat's own, they were procured elsewhere and shoved inside), and eat them. Fantastic. Best yet, the entire thing was documented in their official PlayStation magazine, whose 80,000 print run has been recalled thanks to the stunt. Nice work Sony. Next time, just call it a day after... Gizmodo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1825705/posts#comment Mon, 30 Apr 2007 01:16:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1823503/posts Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that great progress has been made in the one month since PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3) computer entertainment systems became part of Stanford University’s Folding@home program, a distributed computing project aimed at understanding protein folding, misfolding and related diseases. Since the program launched in March, participation by the PS3 user community has been phenomenal, providing Folding@home with immense computing power that is helping to fast forward its research. Furthermore, thanks to PS3’s powerful Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.), the Folding@home program has become one of the most powerful distributed computing networks in the world and is... GameInfoWire http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1823503/posts#comment Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:40:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1813171/posts HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE (HD) is caused by the aggregation of a different type of proteins. Some proteins have a repeat of a single amino acid (glutamine, often abbreviated as "Q"). These poly-Q repeats, if long enough, form aggregates which cause HD. We are studying the structure of poly-Q aggregates as well as predicting the pathway by which they form. Similar to Alzheimer's Disease, these HD studies, if successful, would be useful for rational drug design approaches as well as further insight into how HD aggregates form kinetically (hopefully paving the way for a method to stop the HD aggregate formation). Stanford University Pande Group http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1813171/posts#comment Fri, 6 Apr 2007 17:04:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1806716/posts In an interview with Martin Matt, from the popular GameIndustry.biz site, Sony UK managing director Ray Maguire calls America "a land of cheap people", while the UK is “a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute premium”. When asked about the high price of the PS3 in PAL areas, especially in the UK (where Sony’s console is currently being sold for GBP 425- US $840- more expensive than anywhere in Europe) this is what Ray Maguire had to say: “If you take what's considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive – consider the US... Playfuls http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1806716/posts#comment Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:47:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1805959/posts _INTO THE FOLD: Despite all the criticism the PlayStation 3 has received, everyone acknowledges it's a powerful piece of hardware. Scientists at Stanford University want to harness that power while you're not using it to play "Virtual Fighter." The researchers are studying the folding and misfolding of proteins, processes that may lead to diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and many kinds of cancer. It requires a lot of computing power to simulate the processes, so the Folding@home program has set up a global network of computers to handle the calculations. By the end of this month, Internet-connected PS3 owners will... Fox News Technology http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1805959/posts#comment Sat, 24 Mar 2007 04:31:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803611/posts Sony's new PlayStation 3 video game has gone from top dog to underdog in record time. Despite the buildup and hype around its arrival in November, the PS3 has been outsold so far — at a rate of almost 2-to-1 — by the Nintendo Wii. In February, the Wii was the top-selling console video game system with an estimated 335,000 sold, outpacing the Microsoft Xbox 360 (228,000) and the PS3 (127,000), according to The NPD Group. Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1803611/posts#comment Tue, 20 Mar 2007 09:52:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1790785/posts PS3: difficult stories emerge in run up to Euro launch http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2007/02/13/ps3_difficult_stories_emerge_in_run_up_to_euro_launch.html [...] More juicy perhaps, is the comment made on a blog named FreeRepublic.com, by EA employee Dr. Andrew Garrett: "My opinion - get the 360 and/or the Wii. Skip the PS3 unless there's a big change in the near future." You can read his full post here. Naturally, anti-Sony zealots are spinning this as 'EA says skip PS3', which means Dr Garrett is probably in a whole heap of trouble. That's the problem with the modern videogame industry and the web - the two are utterly incompatible... Blog culture... The Guardian, Blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1790785/posts#comment Sun, 25 Feb 2007 07:59:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1790009/posts Sure, the PlayStation 3 got off to a rocky start and is now only number 3 in next-gen console sales, but Sony Computer Entertainment claims that things couldn’t be better. Well, it could definitely be better, but in any case, Sony is happy with its current status in the market. NPD sales data reported Thursday that the sale of 243,443 units in North America during the month of January contributed to a record $550 million in revenues. Strong sales of the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation Portable, which earned sales of 299,352 and 210,719 units respectively, was also a major... Macworld http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1790009/posts#comment Fri, 23 Feb 2007 20:14:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1788754/posts Nintendo Wii Tops PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 in January (Update1) By Michael White Feb. 20 -- Nintendo Co.'s Wii outsold Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 during January as consumers bought 436,000 of the video-game consoles. Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 was the second-most purchased machine with sales of 294,000, followed by PlayStation 3 with 244,000, Credit Suisse analyst Heath Terry said today in a report, citing NPD Group Inc. data. Wii is outselling PlayStation 3 by almost 2-to-1, the report said. Consumers have been attracted to Wii's price, at half the cost of the least-expensive PlayStation 3,... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1788754/posts#comment Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:57:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1787970/posts Everyone is talking about HDMI with the release of the PS3, and it's worth talking about; many people don't know that much about the cables or the connections. Heck, I've talked to people who don't realize that their PS3 will look better if they upgrade their composite cables that come with the system. I'm not going to try to break down the entire issue of cabling because it's a broad one, but if you're looking to buy an HDMI cable, just pay attention to the fact that there are stores that will rob you and others that won't. When I... opposable thumbs http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1787970/posts#comment Tue, 20 Feb 2007 16:38:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782706/posts Since the dust has settled after the Sony PS3 launch last November I started to feel that the Sony PS3 did not deliver on Sony's promises. For me the only good points right now are the Blu-ray drive and that the games look neat in HD, but game play is not that much different from playing PS2 games. The pressure on Sony is mounting to deliver games that are leveraging the magic powers of the CELL CPU. Several negative Sony PS3 reports appeared over the last couple of days that put their finger in different PS3 wounds. See examples of... I4U.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782706/posts#comment Sat, 10 Feb 2007 23:27:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1777187/posts SCEA spokesman tells New York Times that Nintendo's new console doesn't belong in the same category as the PlayStation 3. In the past, Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesman Dave Karraker has been fairly critical of his gaming rivals at Microsoft. In September, Karraker called Microsoft's decision to release an HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 that only plays movies "unfortunate," adding that the company's 1080p update for the system wasn't "full HD." Two months later, he slammed Microsoft's decision to offer high-definition movies and TV shows for download over Xbox Live as "a disservice to their consumer base" because... Gamespot http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1777187/posts#comment Thu, 1 Feb 2007 04:06:23 GMT