Just a small heads up that N’Gai Croal has parts 2 and 3 of his Phil Harrison interview up. They’re great reads for any PS3 fan.

Loot: The Phil Harrison Interview, Part II
Loot: The Phil Harrison Interview, Part III

I went through the menus and nothing seemed different to me. But I did notice that the web browser is faster than it was before. Since the US Playstation site has no info about this update I checked out the Japanese site. Looks like the main thing that was updated is the AV-Chat now has a zoom feature.

If there is someone that can test this AV-Chat Zoom feature, please comment how it all works. I don’t really video chat with people. But I do have a eye toy.

[Update]

Looks like Playstation Asia updated there site about this new video chat feature. And it’s in english.

You can also use a USB camera compatible with USB video class (UVC) for video chat

I’m disappointed in this news. I was hoping this would be part of the march firmware update for Europe and the rest of the world. Being able to connect a external hard drive, digital camera, memory stick, etc. to the PS3 and having access to those files anywhere in the world via a wifi spot is a great feature. As it is right now, it’s just local remote play, and that’s kind of useless.

I wonder how it will work when remote play goes global. Do you need to have the PS3 powered on? Or can you just have it on stand by? I like the fact that you can also access your buddy list on the XMB and use the PS3’s web browser as well.

Sony’s “global” connectivity plans within 6 months

Just curious about what kind of internet connections all of you are using. A friend of mine couldn’t get WPA TKIP to work. Is there anybody out there using that? So here’s the question:

What internet connection are you using for your PS3?

1. Wired
2. WEP
3. WPA-PSK (TKIP)
4. WPA-PSK (AES)
5. Not online

Previous poll results:

What PS3 improvement do you want most?

* Background downloading: 31% (80)
* Fix for 1080i/720p problem: 17% (44)
* In-game support for PS3-stored songs: 14% (36)
* Global buddy lists, invite friends to game: 10% (25)
* System-wide chat support: 7% (17)
* Bluetooth keyboard/mouse support: 6% (15)
* Global remote play: 3% (9)
* Better internet browser: 3% (8)
* Better file/folder management: 3% (7)
* Global ranking support: 2% (6)
* Improved Bluetooth headset support: 2% (6)
* Better PS2 memory card support: 2% (6)

Total Votes : 259

When I first got my PS3, a bunch of people sent me invites because they saw my name online somewhere, probably right here. I thought the whole concept was pretty cool, so I accepted invitations all over the place. But now I have a huge buddy list full of a bunch of people I don’t know and don’t play games with. I keep getting messages that so-and-so is online and you know what? I don’t care!

I was thinking of trimming down the list to just the people I know or correspond with, but am having second thoughts. Would that be rude? It might be disconcerting to be forcibly removed from someone’s buddy list. I don’t want to tick anybody off, I just want to clean up my list.

What do you guys think?

According to gi.biz, Sony has announced the prices of it’s first-party and downloadable games, that will be available alongside the EU PS3 launch:

Sony has announced pricing plans for first-party PlayStation 3 titles, revealing that disc-based games will cost EUR 59.99 / GBP 39.99 at launch. Sony also hinted at pricing for downloadable games such as BlastFactor, flOw and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, which will be available via the PlayStation Network service. For an “introductory period”, they will cost between EUR 2.99 and EUR 9.99.

If that’s true, then it seems us Europeans have got some good news to talk about for a change. I was expecting PS3 games to retail at £49.99, possibly around £44.99 online, so to hear that first-party games like Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm and F1 Championship Edition etc will retail at £39.99 (possibly £34.99 online) is great news. Obviously 3rd party games like CoD3, THP8 and Oblivion will still more than likely retail at £49.99.

It’s also good to see that downloadable games such as Tekken 5: DR and Calling All Cars could cost as little as £1.50 initially. Dodgy Euro conversions not withstanding of course.

I don’t know if this is just for the launch period or whether ALL of Sony’s future first-party games will have a RRP of £39.99. I hope it’s the former but I doubt it. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve done this to combat the likelihood of people importing first-party PS3 games from Japan/North America, as they are supposed to be region free. Still some good news for a change

Sony announces prices for first-party PS3 games