With this in mind, is Sony best advised to try obtain permission from MS or Apple to offer the ability to install their OS on the PS4? Sure there are issues with Licenses, but by the time the PS4 is released the license for XP or perhaps even the failing Vista will be cheap enough to justify this. Offering a much more publically known OS will no doubt be another factor to help sell Sony’s next console. I know that the ability to install Windows on the Macbook is what was the deciding factor for me. The ability to dualboot is essential for me. And we all love machines capable of doing multiple things. Just look at our mobile phones, they now feature cameras, wifi, radios, tv tuners…and the list of extra features keeps increasing. The PS3 is a real media machine, and I can only see the PS4 becoming even more versatile.

Of course, this is purely pipe dreams and speculation, but thought arousing non-the-less. What are your thoughts regarding the matter of 3rd party OS’s on the PS4? Perhaps even the rumoured Google OS will make a show on the PS4.

The $448.73 price tag was calculated today’s component prices although it does not mention anything about bulk discounts that I am sure Sony will manage to get.

If iSuppli are correct with their estimations, do you feel that 2009 will be the year Sony start to make profit from their consoles instead of relying on games sales? It may require a bit more of a hardware revision… maybe dropping a couple of unused features. No doubt the costs will drop and eventually they will turn a profit on the console sales. I just wonder what else can be done to achieve this…

Sony managed to cut the material cost of the second-generation PlayStation 3 by using more advanced components. In particular, the consoles use a more advanced version of the Cell processor and other chips made using a 65-nanometer manufacturing process, instead of the older 90-nanometer process. This shift reduces unit manufacturing costs for each chip and lowers power consumption, which means Sony can use a less expensive power supply.

Via: PCWorld

The Playstation 2 accounts for a hefty 31.7% usage in minutes per week out of 6 named consoles and others. Sadly the PS3 only managed to account for 7.3% in the list and came in at number 5 just above the Game Cube.

You might be wondering why the PS2 is on top of the list and why the best selling consoles (the current gen’s) are not at the top spot. The reason for this we can assume is that the PS2 has a far bigger user base due to being on sale for many years more. It seems the PS2 has a very loyal following. Hopefully in several years time we will see the PS3 dominating the top of this list as loyalty grows in the console.

More facts and figures can be found over at Kotaku.

From the comments received, we have selected the three main choices of games, and have included an ‘other’ option. If you vote, please leave a comment telling us why you think your choice is GOTY 2008!

My vote is already in…..

In the last post here at PS4Talk we mentioned the possibility of 3D TV coming to the Playstation 4… well it now seems that Sony are completely ahead in that they might be releasing a firmware update that will bring 3D images to the Sony PS3. Sony will be supporting the Blitz Tech 3D Engine as of next year which will make it possible for the console to create stereoscopic 3D visuals and hopefully the same too for Blu-ray content. Of course you will need a compatible screen to utilise these services.

mitsubishi_3d

Via: Wired

3D TV in the past required the use of special glasses, sometimes with red and green colours in the lenses, or other glasses like the IMAX uses. A new technology has been made available over the last couple of years which aims to present a 3D picture without the need of glasses. When watching a football game you could lean to the side and see objects closer to you move faster across the screen then objects further away. With out the need for special glasses it does make 3D TV more desirable and this could easily be adapted in to Playstation games.

What are your thoughts? Should Sony make the PS4 3D TV compatible?

More details can be found here, here and here.

It needs to recoup some of its foreign-exchange losses after the yen has soared more than 25% against the euro since July. A stronger yen cuts into overseas revenue when brought back as yen.

It is not clear which products of Sony will see this price hike. I do hope it’s not the Playstation and games as I think they need to reduce prices if they want to stay competitive.

For full details of this news check out SonyInsider.

Toshiba are launching a new SSD that is in the 2.5″ form. It’s capacity is a fairly huge 512GB which makes it the worlds largest capacity 2.5″ SSD drive in the world. It will be officially shown off at CES in 2009 which will be held in Las Vegas in a few weeks time. The 512GB SSD is named the THNS512GG8B and is a NAND-flash-based SSD.

“The solid state drive market is evolving rapidly, with higher performance drives to meet market requirements, and differentiated product families targeted for appropriate applications,” said Mr. Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Vice President of Toshiba Corporation’s Semiconductor Company. “This new 43nm SSD family balances value/performance characteristics for its targeted consumer applications, through use of MLC NAND and an advanced controller architecture.”

It does make you wonder what capacity will become available by the time of the PS4 launch and if storage on the PS4 will be SSD based rather then harddrive based. Looking at the history of flash drives we could expect to see capacities a lot larger then 512GB being made available by 2012 although to get the PS4 costs down I am sure Sony won’t put the largest available SSD in as they tend to cost a lot. I do see the possibility of at least a 1TB SSD being used on the PS4.

Via: GadgetVenue

A couple of months ago I came across a new system called “Real Time Games”. The idea behind this system was that GPS tracking devices would be put in Formula 1 cars and then as the cars race the data would be streamed to a company who would then allow you to play live against the real F1 drivers. Imagine racing around a track on your Playstation 3 actually playing against Lewis Hamilton who is driving on track in the F1 final. That would certainly be a step beyond hard on the difficulty setting level. As well as tracking data about where the drivers are on the track, the weather could also be a contributing factor. Rather then the computer randomly selecting a weather settings you would actually race in the current race conditions. One last feature of this system is that the data from previous races can be loaded up so you can play historical races too and gain that level of realism that is far beyond AI.

The system is made by iOpener and is something I am looking forwards to seeing come live.

What other games could use this feature? I like the idea of playing against someone professional “live” so to speak.

Via: Real-Time-Games

Having memory built into the controller would be just like the good old days of PS1 and PS2 where you could take your memory card with you to share your game saves. Now, you may think that this can all be done online through your PSN ID, but there are people who apparently don’t have the internet! Having this built in memory would allow you to save particular preferences, costumes, levels etc so that they can be shared with friends. You could also perhaps save a few images on there, and use it as a USB pen drive replacement?

Do you think this is necessary for PS4 controllers? Would you benefit from such a feature, or do you think it’s a waste of time? Or what other specifications do you think the PS4 controller should feature?