The PS3 Specs:
The PlayStation 3 system will be available with two different hard-drive options in Japan and the United States in November 2006, and in Europe and Australasia in March 2007. The later date for the European and Australasian launches (as well as those planned for Russia, the Middle East, and Africa) has been blamed on delays in blue-laser diode production. The console will hit Japan first on November 11. The 20GB model will sell for 49,980 yen (about $429), roughly $85 lower than the 59,800 yen price Sony originally announced for the console at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006. Sony will let Japanese retailers name their own price for the 60GB version. The PlayStation 3 will launch in the United States on November 17. In the US, the 20GB version will retail for $499, and the 60GB version will retail for $599. In Europe, the 20GB version will retail for 499 euros, and the 60GB version will retail for 599 euros. In Australia, the 20GB version will retail for AU$829.95, and the 60GB version will retail for AU$999.95.
The new PlayStation 3 console has an elegant design featuring clean lines and pleasing curves. In contrast to the Xbox 360's puckered "inhale" shape, the PS3 sides expand outward, barely containing the hardware inside. Designers had to build the case around the advanced cooling system built to handle heat output from the Cell processor, the Nvidia GPU, and the system power supply. PC or even Xbox 360 owners would expect a system with as much power as the PS3 to sound like a small aircraft on power up, but the system is actually remarkably quiet. "When it starts to notice a heat issue, it can ramp up the fan RPMs, but in general, it's as quiet as the PlayStation 2 was," according to Sony's Richard Marks.
Early prototypes showed consoles in white, black, and silver--but initial models will only be black. Sony used material choice to add extra sophistication to the console design. The console exterior appeared to be a glossy, opaque black in official preview images, but the system casing is actually a very dark, semi-transparent black similar in style to the PSP's exterior. The curved top of the console suggests that the PS3 will need to sit at the very top of your equipment stack if placed horizontally. The console will weigh in at a solid 11 pounds. In comparison, the Xbox weighs 8.5 pounds and the Xbox 360 weighs 7.7 pounds. The PS3 measures 12.8"(W) x 3.8"(H) x 10.8"(L), which is in line with the other consoles.
Like the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation 3 will be able to stand vertically or sit horizontally on an AV rack. PS3 owners will be able to reposition the console while the system is running without worrying about accidentally damaging a game or movie disc. "We've been doing that for six years now, I think, so we're confident that we'll have no issue with that," said Marks.
PlayStation 3 60GB PlayStation 3 20GB
Price $599 $499
CPU Cell Processor Cell Processor
GPU Nvidia RSX Nvidia RSX
System Memory 256MB XDR 256MB XDR
Graphics Memory 256MB GDDR3 256MB GDDR3
Hard Disk 2.5" SATA 60GB 2.5" SATA 20GB
Optical Drive Blu-ray Blu-ray
USB 2.0 4-ports 4-ports
Flash Memory Slots Memory Stick, SD, Compact Flash None
Ethernet Port Yes Yes
Wi-Fi Built-in 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi None
Bluetooth 2.0 EDR Yes Yes
Bluetooth Controllers Yes Yes
Resolutions 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI Port Yes Yes
Digital Optical Out Yes Yes
The 60GB console features a front-slot-loading Blu-ray optical-disc drive and four USB ports, as well as memory stick, compact flash, and SD card reader support to provide for an absurd level of media connectivity. The 20GB PlayStation 3, in comparison, won't have memory stick, compact flash, or SD card ports. The 60GB version will also come with Wi-Fi built-in, but the 20GB version will only have the Ethernet port.
The Blu-ray optical-disc drive can play games and movie discs. Each Blu-ray disc can hold up to 54GB worth of data, which should virtually guarantee that games won't be left wanting for extra media space. Games will be region-free, but movies will still have region locks preventing multiregion playback. The Blu-ray spec has North America, South America, and Asia (except for China) in region A. If the spec doesn't change, that means your US PlayStation 3 should be able to play those Blu-ray Godzilla movies imported from Japan. The first 500,000 PS3 units will ship with a full-length Blu-ray movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. The PS3's Blu-ray drive will also support many of the older disc formats, including CD-ROM, CDR+W, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, and DVD+R.
The 2.5" portable hard drives supply the system with much-needed storage space for PlayStation Network downloads, applications, and media files. Games will use the hard drive for game saves, and it will cache game files for decreased load times. During the Gran Turismo HD E3 2006 demonstration, Sony's Kaz Hirai boasted that load times would be reduced to two to three seconds. The game took around six to seven seconds to load during the E3 demo, but loading times will likely drop once developers have more time for game optimization. The 60GB PS3 will be more useful than the 20GB version if you wish to take advantage of the system's media functionality, but Sony has stated that upgrading the hard disk will be as simple as dropping a larger capacity 2.5" SATA notebook hard drive into the system.
Cell Processor:
The PlayStation 3 will have a 3.2GHz Cell processor that consists of a single PowerPC-based core with seven synergistic processing units. The Cell is the result of a joint effort between IBM, Sony, and Toshiba. The primary PowerPC core has a 512KB L2 cache, and each SPE has 256KB of its own memory to work with. The CPU has an eighth SPE for "redundancy," which means that each Cell chip only needs seven working SPEs to pass muster for the PS3.The Cell processor will be powerful enough to drive a new class of gameplay physics impossible to run on older console hardware, including cloth and fluid simulations, as well as large-scale rigid-body interactions with hundreds and thousands of objects colliding onscreen. Today's PCs in comparison will need a physics add-on card or find a way to tap the GPU for physics processing to run PS3-level physics effects. Additionally, developers will be able to use the Cell's SPEs to give games new audio effects previously only available on the PC with dedicated audio processing.
The industry-wide shift to multicore processing platforms will have a major impact on developers in the coming years. A lot of the burden will fall upon the hardware manufacturers themselves to design systems and provide tools that will make it easier for programmers to write games. Sony has announced that the PS3 will use Open GL/ES, a specialized API closely related to Open GL, and programmers will be able to access the Cell's SPEs using C or C++ tools, instead of having to program on the assembly level as they did with the PS2.
Nvidia RSX:
Sony will pair the Cell with a very powerful graphics processor based on advanced Nvidia technology. You may remember that Nvidia did the graphics for the first Xbox system, but with reports of contract disputes between Nvidia and Microsoft, few were surprised when both companies chose to change dance partners for the next console cycle. Microsoft went with ATI for the Xbox 360, and Nvidia hooked up with Sony on the PlayStation 3. The end result of that collaboration is the PlayStation 3 RSX "Reality Synthesizer" graphics-processing unit, a massive 550MHz, 300-million-transistor graphics chip based on GeForce 7800 GTX graphics technology.
The PlayStation 3 has 256MBs of Rambus XDR memory and 256MBs of GDDR3 memory dedicated to graphics. Nvidia claims that the RSX can take advantage of the combined 512MBs of memory, since it is capable of writing directly to system memory. The increased graphics-memory bandwidth and storage space will let developers use high-resolution textures and enable antialiasing to provide detailed, jaggy-free graphics. The RSX's programmable shader capabilities greatly increase graphics efficiency and will let game developers use advanced effects such as subsurface scattering to simulate human skin.
Wireless Sixaxis Controllers:
The new PS3 controller heavily resembles the traditional Dual Shock gamepad design. The L2 and R2 shoulder buttons located on the top of the controller have been enlarged, with increased depth in stroke for more subtle game control. Sony has also enlarged the tilting angle of the analog joysticks to enable more delicate manipulation and a wider range of motion. Whereas the analog sticks on the Dual Shock controller for the PlayStation 2 had 8-bit sensitivity, the new controller will have 10-bit motion detection.
The new controller has two analog sticks, the usual four-button complement on the right side, and four top-side trigger buttons. However, the new PlayStation 3 controller will also have six-axis motion-sensing capabilities. The controller is capable of sensing motion in six degrees: up, down, left, right, forward, and backward. The new six-axis movement control will let players use body English to help control a game. For example, tilting the controller upward in the jet fighter game Warhawk will point the aircraft's nose in the air and shifting the sides of the controller up and down will cause the aircraft to tilt in a similar manner. The controller will weigh no more than the wired Dual Shock controller, even with the added six-axis functionality, but that might be due to the loss of force feedback support.
Like the Xbox 360 controller, the new PlayStation 3 controller will be wireless, but it'll get its freedom from Bluetooth rather than the traditional 2.4GHz RF. Devices operating with Bluetooth generally have a range of around nine meters, but Sony has stated that the PS3 controller will have a 20-meter wireless range. The controller will have a 30-hour battery life, a figure that seems to be in line with other Bluetooth devices but far short of the 300-hour 2.4GHz models available for current consoles. You will be able to recharge the controller by connecting it to the PlayStation 3 with a USB cable. The controller will be functional while tethered to the system and will also be hot pluggable, which means you can plug and unplug controllers while the system is on.
PlayStation 3 Launch Games:
Sony has announced that the PlayStation 3 will have 21 games available "through the holidays," which means anytime between the system's launch on November 17 and the end of the year. But that might only be the conservative estimate. Sony Computer Entertainment America president Kaz Hirai told GameSpot in an interview that he estimates that we'll see "upward of 30 titles or so between first- and third-party [publishers] for the PlayStation 3" by the end of December.
PlayStation Network:
The PlayStation Network will be similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live service and will provide community features such as personal login accounts, friends lists, avatars, and matchmaking, as well as communication options including messaging and eventually voice and video chat. The PS3 won't have a camera accessory ready at launch, but SCE CTO Masa Chatani has talked about developing an HD IP camera peripheral that will let you broadcast an HD-quality video stream for video messaging and conferencing.
The free PlayStation Network service will include community features and online multiplayer gameplay. Resistance: Fall of Man, for example, will feature a 40-man online multiplayer mode and a robust lobby system with buddy lists, as well as support for parties, clans, stats, and persistent experience levels. Xbox Live Silver, Microsoft's free basic service, provides community options, too, but Silver-level subscribers can only play massively multiplayer games online. Players must upgrade to a paid Xbox Live Gold service subscription to access online multiplayer gameplay for non-MMO games.
Sony's service will offer an Xbox Marketplace-like PlayStation Store where players can go to download a variety of content including games, game demos, additional game content, and video files such as movie trailers and music videos. John Smedley from Sony Online Entertainment demonstrated the working store at Gamers' Day 2006. Developers will have the option to integrate shops directly into games, letting players buy items from within the game experience. PS3 users can transfer cash to their "PlayStation 3 Wallet" by credit card or with prepaid cards. All items will be priced in dollars and cents rather than "points" as in other online systems. Sony has suggested that the commerce service can also handle subscriptions for massively mulitplayer online games or other games that may require constant upkeep.
Media Capabilities:
Upon system boot up, PS3 console owners will be greeted with the familiar cross media bar (Xross Media Bar in Sony marketing-speak) menu system already in use on the PSP and Sony televisions. The XMB lets you navigate horizontally through top-level selection categories: users, system settings, and media options such as photos, music, videos, games, network, and friends. Each top-level category, when selected, will display a vertical list of related available options. The user menu, for example, will let you create new users or switch user accounts. Parents can set up "child" accounts that can limit games access based on ESRB and MPAA ratings.
The photo options offer several slide show styles, including one particularly impressive show that uses the system hardware to render the images as physical photographs gently falling into place over a white work surface. The system can also play music while running a slide show. The PS3 supports several major music-file types (MP3, ATRAC, AAC, and WAV) and has a built-in music visualizer. Users can import songs from a flash memory card through the USB port or rip songs directly from a CD. Sony gave the video menu a next-gen feel by using 15-second video clips as video thumbnails. A selection screen with several moving video thumbnails has a much more powerful effect than a line of boring still images. Users won't be able to transfer files directly from a PC to the PS3 over a local area network, but you will be able to transfer or play video directly from flash memory cards or over USB.
The network menu provides access to the PS3's built-in Web browser, the PlayStation Store, and the PSP Remote Play feature that will let the PSP stream video from the PS3 over a Wi-Fi connection. Harrison demonstrated the Remote Play feature at Sony's Gamers' Day 2006 by playing the first half of the movie trailer for Casino Royale on the PS3, pausing the video, and then resuming playback on the PSP's screen. Streams will be limited to the local Wi-Fi network at first, but Sony has plans to extend the feature to PS3-to-PSP connections over the Internet. PS3 games will also support the PSP at some point in the future. At E3 2006, Sony demonstrated a preview build of Formula 1 that could output a video stream to the PSP that lets the player use the portable as a rearview mirror while playing the game on the PS3.
The Web browser looks to be fully functional with all the must-have features such as Flash support, which Harrison demonstrated at Gamers' Day by opening YouTube and playing a video of Kaz Hirai's "Riiiidge Racer!" E3 presentation a couple of times. You can open multiple browser windows and switch between them fairly quickly. The PS3 uses the same cell phone-style text-input interface used on the PSP, which means you should plug in a USB keyboard if you're serious about using the console for Web browsing.
The friends list is the final icon on the XMB. We haven't seen a lot of the friends-list functionality outside of text messaging, but in Harrison's Gamers' Day demo, we noticed that several of the people on his friends list had PlayStation-affiliated avatars like Kratos from God of War and Sly Cooper.
Keep your eye on this space! GameSpot will be updating this feature with new information as it's released!
The PlayStation 3 system will be available with two different hard-drive options in Japan and the United States in November 2006, and in Europe and Australasia in March 2007. The later date for the European and Australasian launches (as well as those planned for Russia, the Middle East, and Africa) has been blamed on delays in blue-laser diode production. The console will hit Japan first on November 11. The 20GB model will sell for 49,980 yen (about $429), roughly $85 lower than the 59,800 yen price Sony originally announced for the console at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2006. Sony will let Japanese retailers name their own price for the 60GB version. The PlayStation 3 will launch in the United States on November 17. In the US, the 20GB version will retail for $499, and the 60GB version will retail for $599. In Europe, the 20GB version will retail for 499 euros, and the 60GB version will retail for 599 euros. In Australia, the 20GB version will retail for AU$829.95, and the 60GB version will retail for AU$999.95.
The new PlayStation 3 console has an elegant design featuring clean lines and pleasing curves. In contrast to the Xbox 360's puckered "inhale" shape, the PS3 sides expand outward, barely containing the hardware inside. Designers had to build the case around the advanced cooling system built to handle heat output from the Cell processor, the Nvidia GPU, and the system power supply. PC or even Xbox 360 owners would expect a system with as much power as the PS3 to sound like a small aircraft on power up, but the system is actually remarkably quiet. "When it starts to notice a heat issue, it can ramp up the fan RPMs, but in general, it's as quiet as the PlayStation 2 was," according to Sony's Richard Marks.
Early prototypes showed consoles in white, black, and silver--but initial models will only be black. Sony used material choice to add extra sophistication to the console design. The console exterior appeared to be a glossy, opaque black in official preview images, but the system casing is actually a very dark, semi-transparent black similar in style to the PSP's exterior. The curved top of the console suggests that the PS3 will need to sit at the very top of your equipment stack if placed horizontally. The console will weigh in at a solid 11 pounds. In comparison, the Xbox weighs 8.5 pounds and the Xbox 360 weighs 7.7 pounds. The PS3 measures 12.8"(W) x 3.8"(H) x 10.8"(L), which is in line with the other consoles.
Like the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii, the PlayStation 3 will be able to stand vertically or sit horizontally on an AV rack. PS3 owners will be able to reposition the console while the system is running without worrying about accidentally damaging a game or movie disc. "We've been doing that for six years now, I think, so we're confident that we'll have no issue with that," said Marks.
PlayStation 3 60GB PlayStation 3 20GB
Price $599 $499
CPU Cell Processor Cell Processor
GPU Nvidia RSX Nvidia RSX
System Memory 256MB XDR 256MB XDR
Graphics Memory 256MB GDDR3 256MB GDDR3
Hard Disk 2.5" SATA 60GB 2.5" SATA 20GB
Optical Drive Blu-ray Blu-ray
USB 2.0 4-ports 4-ports
Flash Memory Slots Memory Stick, SD, Compact Flash None
Ethernet Port Yes Yes
Wi-Fi Built-in 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi None
Bluetooth 2.0 EDR Yes Yes
Bluetooth Controllers Yes Yes
Resolutions 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI Port Yes Yes
Digital Optical Out Yes Yes
The 60GB console features a front-slot-loading Blu-ray optical-disc drive and four USB ports, as well as memory stick, compact flash, and SD card reader support to provide for an absurd level of media connectivity. The 20GB PlayStation 3, in comparison, won't have memory stick, compact flash, or SD card ports. The 60GB version will also come with Wi-Fi built-in, but the 20GB version will only have the Ethernet port.
The Blu-ray optical-disc drive can play games and movie discs. Each Blu-ray disc can hold up to 54GB worth of data, which should virtually guarantee that games won't be left wanting for extra media space. Games will be region-free, but movies will still have region locks preventing multiregion playback. The Blu-ray spec has North America, South America, and Asia (except for China) in region A. If the spec doesn't change, that means your US PlayStation 3 should be able to play those Blu-ray Godzilla movies imported from Japan. The first 500,000 PS3 units will ship with a full-length Blu-ray movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. The PS3's Blu-ray drive will also support many of the older disc formats, including CD-ROM, CDR+W, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, and DVD+R.
The 2.5" portable hard drives supply the system with much-needed storage space for PlayStation Network downloads, applications, and media files. Games will use the hard drive for game saves, and it will cache game files for decreased load times. During the Gran Turismo HD E3 2006 demonstration, Sony's Kaz Hirai boasted that load times would be reduced to two to three seconds. The game took around six to seven seconds to load during the E3 demo, but loading times will likely drop once developers have more time for game optimization. The 60GB PS3 will be more useful than the 20GB version if you wish to take advantage of the system's media functionality, but Sony has stated that upgrading the hard disk will be as simple as dropping a larger capacity 2.5" SATA notebook hard drive into the system.
Cell Processor:
The PlayStation 3 will have a 3.2GHz Cell processor that consists of a single PowerPC-based core with seven synergistic processing units. The Cell is the result of a joint effort between IBM, Sony, and Toshiba. The primary PowerPC core has a 512KB L2 cache, and each SPE has 256KB of its own memory to work with. The CPU has an eighth SPE for "redundancy," which means that each Cell chip only needs seven working SPEs to pass muster for the PS3.The Cell processor will be powerful enough to drive a new class of gameplay physics impossible to run on older console hardware, including cloth and fluid simulations, as well as large-scale rigid-body interactions with hundreds and thousands of objects colliding onscreen. Today's PCs in comparison will need a physics add-on card or find a way to tap the GPU for physics processing to run PS3-level physics effects. Additionally, developers will be able to use the Cell's SPEs to give games new audio effects previously only available on the PC with dedicated audio processing.
The industry-wide shift to multicore processing platforms will have a major impact on developers in the coming years. A lot of the burden will fall upon the hardware manufacturers themselves to design systems and provide tools that will make it easier for programmers to write games. Sony has announced that the PS3 will use Open GL/ES, a specialized API closely related to Open GL, and programmers will be able to access the Cell's SPEs using C or C++ tools, instead of having to program on the assembly level as they did with the PS2.
Nvidia RSX:
Sony will pair the Cell with a very powerful graphics processor based on advanced Nvidia technology. You may remember that Nvidia did the graphics for the first Xbox system, but with reports of contract disputes between Nvidia and Microsoft, few were surprised when both companies chose to change dance partners for the next console cycle. Microsoft went with ATI for the Xbox 360, and Nvidia hooked up with Sony on the PlayStation 3. The end result of that collaboration is the PlayStation 3 RSX "Reality Synthesizer" graphics-processing unit, a massive 550MHz, 300-million-transistor graphics chip based on GeForce 7800 GTX graphics technology.
The PlayStation 3 has 256MBs of Rambus XDR memory and 256MBs of GDDR3 memory dedicated to graphics. Nvidia claims that the RSX can take advantage of the combined 512MBs of memory, since it is capable of writing directly to system memory. The increased graphics-memory bandwidth and storage space will let developers use high-resolution textures and enable antialiasing to provide detailed, jaggy-free graphics. The RSX's programmable shader capabilities greatly increase graphics efficiency and will let game developers use advanced effects such as subsurface scattering to simulate human skin.
Wireless Sixaxis Controllers:
The new PS3 controller heavily resembles the traditional Dual Shock gamepad design. The L2 and R2 shoulder buttons located on the top of the controller have been enlarged, with increased depth in stroke for more subtle game control. Sony has also enlarged the tilting angle of the analog joysticks to enable more delicate manipulation and a wider range of motion. Whereas the analog sticks on the Dual Shock controller for the PlayStation 2 had 8-bit sensitivity, the new controller will have 10-bit motion detection.
The new controller has two analog sticks, the usual four-button complement on the right side, and four top-side trigger buttons. However, the new PlayStation 3 controller will also have six-axis motion-sensing capabilities. The controller is capable of sensing motion in six degrees: up, down, left, right, forward, and backward. The new six-axis movement control will let players use body English to help control a game. For example, tilting the controller upward in the jet fighter game Warhawk will point the aircraft's nose in the air and shifting the sides of the controller up and down will cause the aircraft to tilt in a similar manner. The controller will weigh no more than the wired Dual Shock controller, even with the added six-axis functionality, but that might be due to the loss of force feedback support.
Like the Xbox 360 controller, the new PlayStation 3 controller will be wireless, but it'll get its freedom from Bluetooth rather than the traditional 2.4GHz RF. Devices operating with Bluetooth generally have a range of around nine meters, but Sony has stated that the PS3 controller will have a 20-meter wireless range. The controller will have a 30-hour battery life, a figure that seems to be in line with other Bluetooth devices but far short of the 300-hour 2.4GHz models available for current consoles. You will be able to recharge the controller by connecting it to the PlayStation 3 with a USB cable. The controller will be functional while tethered to the system and will also be hot pluggable, which means you can plug and unplug controllers while the system is on.
PlayStation 3 Launch Games:
Sony has announced that the PlayStation 3 will have 21 games available "through the holidays," which means anytime between the system's launch on November 17 and the end of the year. But that might only be the conservative estimate. Sony Computer Entertainment America president Kaz Hirai told GameSpot in an interview that he estimates that we'll see "upward of 30 titles or so between first- and third-party [publishers] for the PlayStation 3" by the end of December.
PlayStation Network:
The PlayStation Network will be similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live service and will provide community features such as personal login accounts, friends lists, avatars, and matchmaking, as well as communication options including messaging and eventually voice and video chat. The PS3 won't have a camera accessory ready at launch, but SCE CTO Masa Chatani has talked about developing an HD IP camera peripheral that will let you broadcast an HD-quality video stream for video messaging and conferencing.
The free PlayStation Network service will include community features and online multiplayer gameplay. Resistance: Fall of Man, for example, will feature a 40-man online multiplayer mode and a robust lobby system with buddy lists, as well as support for parties, clans, stats, and persistent experience levels. Xbox Live Silver, Microsoft's free basic service, provides community options, too, but Silver-level subscribers can only play massively multiplayer games online. Players must upgrade to a paid Xbox Live Gold service subscription to access online multiplayer gameplay for non-MMO games.
Sony's service will offer an Xbox Marketplace-like PlayStation Store where players can go to download a variety of content including games, game demos, additional game content, and video files such as movie trailers and music videos. John Smedley from Sony Online Entertainment demonstrated the working store at Gamers' Day 2006. Developers will have the option to integrate shops directly into games, letting players buy items from within the game experience. PS3 users can transfer cash to their "PlayStation 3 Wallet" by credit card or with prepaid cards. All items will be priced in dollars and cents rather than "points" as in other online systems. Sony has suggested that the commerce service can also handle subscriptions for massively mulitplayer online games or other games that may require constant upkeep.
Media Capabilities:
Upon system boot up, PS3 console owners will be greeted with the familiar cross media bar (Xross Media Bar in Sony marketing-speak) menu system already in use on the PSP and Sony televisions. The XMB lets you navigate horizontally through top-level selection categories: users, system settings, and media options such as photos, music, videos, games, network, and friends. Each top-level category, when selected, will display a vertical list of related available options. The user menu, for example, will let you create new users or switch user accounts. Parents can set up "child" accounts that can limit games access based on ESRB and MPAA ratings.
The photo options offer several slide show styles, including one particularly impressive show that uses the system hardware to render the images as physical photographs gently falling into place over a white work surface. The system can also play music while running a slide show. The PS3 supports several major music-file types (MP3, ATRAC, AAC, and WAV) and has a built-in music visualizer. Users can import songs from a flash memory card through the USB port or rip songs directly from a CD. Sony gave the video menu a next-gen feel by using 15-second video clips as video thumbnails. A selection screen with several moving video thumbnails has a much more powerful effect than a line of boring still images. Users won't be able to transfer files directly from a PC to the PS3 over a local area network, but you will be able to transfer or play video directly from flash memory cards or over USB.
The network menu provides access to the PS3's built-in Web browser, the PlayStation Store, and the PSP Remote Play feature that will let the PSP stream video from the PS3 over a Wi-Fi connection. Harrison demonstrated the Remote Play feature at Sony's Gamers' Day 2006 by playing the first half of the movie trailer for Casino Royale on the PS3, pausing the video, and then resuming playback on the PSP's screen. Streams will be limited to the local Wi-Fi network at first, but Sony has plans to extend the feature to PS3-to-PSP connections over the Internet. PS3 games will also support the PSP at some point in the future. At E3 2006, Sony demonstrated a preview build of Formula 1 that could output a video stream to the PSP that lets the player use the portable as a rearview mirror while playing the game on the PS3.
The Web browser looks to be fully functional with all the must-have features such as Flash support, which Harrison demonstrated at Gamers' Day by opening YouTube and playing a video of Kaz Hirai's "Riiiidge Racer!" E3 presentation a couple of times. You can open multiple browser windows and switch between them fairly quickly. The PS3 uses the same cell phone-style text-input interface used on the PSP, which means you should plug in a USB keyboard if you're serious about using the console for Web browsing.
The friends list is the final icon on the XMB. We haven't seen a lot of the friends-list functionality outside of text messaging, but in Harrison's Gamers' Day demo, we noticed that several of the people on his friends list had PlayStation-affiliated avatars like Kratos from God of War and Sly Cooper.
Keep your eye on this space! GameSpot will be updating this feature with new information as it's released!