PS3 firmware 2.80 avaiiable

Eric Lempel interview on PC World

http://www.pcworld.com/article/167966/sonys_eric_lempel_on_ps3_updates_firmware_rumors.html

Game On: There's a rumor circulating that Sony has something big planned for the PlayStation 3 this year, a firmware update on the order of Microsoft's New Xbox Experience. True or false?

Eric Lempel: We've released a bunch of firmware updates to date, and we'll continue to do that. We're aiming to release them quarterly, and sometimes there are a lot of great consumer features in them, and other times they're just updates to help things behind the scenes. I should say that a lot of times when we do these updates, there's a ton of stuff in them for our developers, and consumers don't see the benefits of those until they play some of those games that come out later on.

I think it's important to know, a lot of people wonder why we do these updates when it just says something about security enhancements or that playability of software will be better. Actually, behind the scenes, there are reams of documents sometimes with improvements for developers, where they can take advantage of a bunch of new tools, or new ways to allocate memory, or other ways to improve performance. So I'd start off by saying that.

You'll definitely see another firmware update this year, but it won't be like what the rumors say. We're working on some consumer features that consumers will definitely like, but it's nothing like what you're reading about, and at this time I don't want to confirm any of those features because they're not completely locked down yet. We're looking pretty good, and timing is a little rough, but just in terms of that rumor, it's not the case.

Part II coming later...
 
GO: How about the battery-life-of-controller glitch, where it cuts off the system time when you tap the PS button? I keep seeing that pop up, but it's like this weird fifty-fifty thing, where fifty percent are angry about it, and other fifty percent are angry at the people who're angry about it.

EL: You know, I'll tell you, I personally don't like that either, and it's something that's definitely being corrected. You can put me in the angry camp.

YES!!!!!!!!!!

And a wet noodle in the ear to whomever implemented that faux pas in the first place.

=)

Cheers
 
EL: You know, we very much thought about that, and actually with 2.8 we implemented something that we didn't talk a lot about. We actually gave consumers the option to update. What I mean by that is, prior to 2.8 you had to update. So you'd turn on your PS3 and it would say, you know, if you want to go in the store, if you want to play an online game, or go into PlayStation Home, it would say there's an update available, please update before moving any further.

With 2.8 it was an option. Users didn't have to update when we released it, and actually weren't prompted to do so, because there wasn't any consumer-specific functionality. I'd say a majority of consumers out there who just wait to get hit by these updates didn't even know about it. They might still not know about it.

Its good and interesting to hear that the firmware updates are also for developers. I wasn't sure if they did separate firmware releases for devkits and consumer consoles but now its clear that they do and explains why some firmware upgrades have very little consumer side functionality.
 
I don't see the value of optional updates from a develop standpoint.
It's more likely that optional updates fix or add functionality that does not change online or base library interface.
 
My theory for the 2.80 update was that it contained some big updates on the PSMC drivers and related functionality. These comments make that theory a little more plausible, I think.
 
I don't see the value of optional updates from a develop standpoint.
It's more likely that optional updates fix or add functionality that does not change online or base library interface.

I think it only makes sense for title-specific, developer enforced features (e.g., special libraries used by them). They can bundle the update with the game.
 
Why would they [Sony] want to use anything from Google OS? :???:

With a keyboard and a mouse it would be the perfect Net PC, connected to the HiDef TV in your living room, with a Google Account you have a complete office pack. And we would get a proper browser.

It could be a dual boot option, something you launch from the XMB or the best solution, both.
 
If it's a dualboot option, it's as useless (or useful, depending how you look at it) as the installable Linux at the moment. I don't see it working as part of the PS3 (or future PS) OS, since that should run a bit more efficient/optimized together with all the other features that makes up the OS.

The current PS3 browser for instance is great. It may not get all the websites done (Chrome doesn't either, although it is without question better of course), but it works well in that it's integrated seamingless into the OS of the PS3, which IMO is a lot more important than having those google features and being possibly bloated.


EDIT:
Besides, if we're talking about "next PS" system anyway, we can all be sure that with more resources available for such tasks, the browser will be undoubtedly better than what we're seeing now. I'm not sure Google-OS is at all required or even favourable, but I guess if they offer an installable version like you can install Linux at the moment - why not (or if it can be launched as a PS app like a game would be launched).
 
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Yeah, the PS3 is definitely the fastest way to get to B3D for me - from turning on the PS3 to seeing the first page its about 15 seconds I think, if that. My laptop doesn't even wake from suspend that fast. ;)
 
Now, if Sony was smart and bright they would approach Google now, they would RUN to google and ask if they could be a part of the Google OS, "send" whatever is needed to the the Google Labs and port that Google OS to the PS3.
I'd love to see a true platform OS for PS3, to make it a 21st century Amiga. Still, Sony deliberately avoided MS's advances of including a 2nd party OS which is why Sony have to worry about the HD competition they have, and with good reason. They want to own the living room, not share it. If they're going to compromise, may as well be with the enemy and create a Sony/MS console. Otherwise I think it'd be more in Google's interest to court PlayStation to spread their OS into a fixed platform and generate a lot of positive buzz. It could be a good symbiosis. In fact there's nothing other than Google to stop them porting it to PS3 as is. PS3 allows other OSes.
 
Yeah, the PS3 is definitely the fastest way to get to B3D for me - from turning on the PS3 to seeing the first page its about 15 seconds I think, if that. My laptop doesn't even wake from suspend that fast. ;)

Actually, comparing rendering speed of FireFox on 6.2 YDL and the PS3 web browser, sometimes the latter outperforms the former too. It's the render accurarcy that bugs me. Speed-wise, it's not too shabby relatively speaking.
 
Yeah, the PS3 is definitely the fastest way to get to B3D for me - from turning on the PS3 to seeing the first page its about 15 seconds I think, if that. My laptop doesn't even wake from suspend that fast. ;)

Shame on your laptop. :) From turning on my computer to seeing the B3D forums takes me all of 5-ish seconds (to type in my password) on my Vista machine. It'd be virtually instantaneous if I didn't have to type in my password.

Sleep mode is a wonderful thing.

Regards,
SB
 
Actually, comparing rendering speed of FireFox on 6.2 YDL and the PS3 web browser, sometimes the latter outperforms the former too. It's the render accurarcy that bugs me. Speed-wise, it's not too shabby relatively speaking.

IIRC, 6.2 YDL comes with Firefox 2.0.

Firefox 3.5 (the latest) is a good 4-5x faster than 2.
 
The refresh of the XMB depends on the framerate that the game is running in I think.

I've read this in many different places since they introduced the ingame XMB, but I don't think that it's the case, because it's silky smooth for me when running WipEout HD, yet as sluggish as hell, really slow, when on top of GT5:p. Both 60fps games.

I assume that it will potentially run at maximum at the framerate of whatever game is underneath it, but not necessarily keep up with it. If a game is taking most of the bandwidth, surely the in-game XMB will simply take what's left over (minimum bandwidth defined for the OS maybe?).
 
Naughty Dog also mention more Cell cycles available. If it's true and refers to the 2.8 update (which apparently also had VidZone stuff) then it's interesting to know what they improved.
 
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