Life With Playstation Launched

Posted by Deadly Cyclone at 11:34 AM 0 comments

Do you wake up every morning wishing you could use your playstation to check news and weather as opposed to that stale, "so 1950's" newspaper? Well now you can. After a minor leak yesterday, Playstation Blog finally has the details on their newest unveil, a virtual weather/news/webcam interactive globe called Life with Playstation. 

The service is free to download and features a huge interactive globe that contains real cloud movements, weather courtesy of the weather channel, news from Google, and webcam images from the Earth Television Network. 

Also, as a neat side feature, while browsing the globe you will be conne

cted to Playstation's "Folding at Home" project via Stanford University.

"We’re also really excited to share that this new lifestyle service is running in parallel with our Folding@home project. Essentially, this means that while you’re taking a stroll on Life with PlayStation, you’re automatically helping Stanford University to work towards curing diseases such as Alzheimer’s and various types of cancers. For those familiar with Folding@home, we’ve made some enhancements for more advanced simulations of protein folding and support for wider variety of simulations, in addition to adding a unique ranking system showcasing top contributors from around the world."

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Weekend News Wrap-up

Posted by Locklem at 11:27 PM 0 comments

Sony fans will have the chance to get a demo of Final Fantasy XIII. How you ask. The demo will be bonus content on the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete Blu-ray disc which is scheduled to release in Japan in March of 2009. There has been no U.S. date announced at this time.


In other Sony news, Sony announced their new service, Life with Playstation, is not ready to release. Do not worry though, Sony says it will be released later this month.


It looks like the storage of the Xbox 360 disc may be becoming a problem. John Carmack of id Software is working on a game called Rage, which will be released on PC, PS3, Xbox 360, and Mac. Carmack says the Xbox 360 version will look the worse due to limitations on storage. Apparently the royalty fees to include three discs are too high. He does go on the say the problem is only the storage space, not the hardware.


By now everyone knows the Xbox 360 will be getting Avatars. What is on everyone's mind now, will they cost? Well, initially, the basics will cost you nothing. VentureBeat asked Microsoft's John Schappert about the possibility of micro transactions. Schappert suggested it was a possibility while taking some jabs at Sony's Home. Basically, you can bet for sure you will be paying for extras down the road (similar to how gamerpics are now).


What would a wrap-up be without some rumors? Apparently, a rumor says Xbox 360 will be getting another price cut in September. Joystick has more on the price cut rumor. UPDATE: More on the rumor from 1up. UPDATE 2: Yet more evidence of a price drop. Info from Kotaku.
In other rumor news, Peter Jackson's Halo project is looking for a Creative Director. If you are interested, you can read more about the Halo rumor over at 1up.

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