@BrianK

It has not learned from it's 'rootkit' days...

Sony OtherOS case from Groklaw. All charges in the class actions appear to have been dropped against Sony. Except for the violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Give it a read.

EDIT:
My version of Sony's defense:
Sony's states because they never stated a duration of the OtherOS, or any feature, of the PS3 they have a right to remove anything at any time. They even argue that if you're in your 1 year Warranty for Repair and have a functioning Linux they won't guarantee you will receive Linux back.

It's only with software this stuff is possible. People love to apply car analogies to computers so let's do that. Honda says your vehicle is warrantied for 3 years or 100K miles. At anytime it can determine that the backseats are unacceptable to them. At night they sneak into your home and remove your backseat. But, you have no recourse because no one said you'd have backseats as long as you had your car. Would you really want a Honda vehicle?

Last edited by BrianK on 22-Feb-2011 at 07:37 PM.

@BrianK

It gets worse. Look what happened in Germany:
http://kotaku.com/#!5769020/ps3-hackers-home-raided-by-police
Quote:

It's bad news for graf_chokolo, but also for Sony, as only half an hour after first telling the world of the raid via his blog, the hacker had managed to upload his work — aimed at cracking open the PS3 and getting Linux back up and running on the console — on the internet for countless others to toil away on.

I don't understand what's so special about a hacked PS3 that it needed to be confiscated...as if that will prevent a subsequent unhacked PS3 from being hacked...

Sony's in a downward spiral. On a brighter note, now that it's totally hackable, hardware sales should probably climb...

Sounds like they are doing this Deus Ex prequel justice...

http://kotaku.com/#!5769270/hands+on-with-the-new-deus-ex-and-the-next-stage-in-human-revolution

@Lou

Quote:

I don't understand what's so special about a hacked PS3 that it needed to be confiscated...as if that will prevent a subsequent unhacked PS3 from being hacked... Sony's in a downward spiral. On a brighter note, now that it's totally hackable, hardware sales should probably climb...

It appears, subsequent to the Sony raid, the would be hacker released all the Sony Hypervisor information (called HV Bible) he had and he built up. Sony should in turn write the guy a big check for helping sell the PS3.

@BrianK

Quote:

BrianK wrote: @Lou Sony should in turn write the guy a big check for helping sell the PS3.

Now that it's profitable: exactly!

PS3s are illegal Okay not quite. LG has sued Sony in a long standing patent battle over Blu-Ray. European courts have banned shipments of PS3 entering Europe for at least 10 days. PS3s have been seized in the Netherlands.

It's estimated that retailers have about a 2-3 week supply on hand. So, this might not impact anything. I suspect it'll depend on Sony's response to the courts and the next steps in the case. If LG wins Sony will, undoubtably, need to pay LG a stipend for each PS3 sold. OUCH! The next question is what will happen to a similar lawsuit in the USA?

@MikeB Quote:

My take: For 2011 I expect the Wii sales to continue to rapidly decline and the XBox to drop in sales for 2011 as well (IMO the Kinect hype will die down rapidly while Playstation Move will be gaining steam). The PS3 will most likely perform even better than it did in 2010.

I too expect the Kinect to slow down. However, the Kinect just crossed 10 Million sales in roughly 4 months.

@BrianK

Quote:

BrianK wrote: PS3s are illegal Okay not quite. LG has sued Sony in a long standing patent battle over Blu-Ray. European courts have banned shipments of PS3 entering Europe for at least 10 days. PS3s have been seized in the Netherlands. It's estimated that retailers have about a 2-3 week supply on hand. So, this might not impact anything. I suspect it'll depend on Sony's response to the courts and the next steps in the case. If LG wins Sony will, undoubtably, need to pay LG a stipend for each PS3 sold. OUCH! The next question is what will happen to a similar lawsuit in the USA?

The news just keeps on getting better for Sony...

Kinect appears to have 2+million lead over the Move. LINK

@BrianK

Quote:

BrianK wrote: Kinect appears to have 2+million lead over the Move. LINK

I think thanks to Kinect and all the bad press that Sony is getting, MS should hold on to #2.

With the decling sales of the Wii and now that the 3DS is launched, I really hope Nintendo announces a new console at E3.

@Lou

Quote:

I think thanks to Kinect and all the bad press that Sony is getting, MS should hold on to #2. With the decling sales of the Wii and now that the 3DS is launched, I really hope Nintendo announces a new console at E3.

It'll be interesting to see what Nintendo's next console play is. Clearly the Wii-HD (aka PS3+Move) wasn't as attractive as one might think it could be. It's obvious that strategy will not drive Sony to #1 this gen. Had Sony not the the Move I think they'd be game over.

This generation Nintendo has locked their #1 position. That being said declining Wii sales does portend the end of the platform. The Wii is selling fine. We just saw in Xmas of 2010 the Wii hanging with the HD competition an selling more than 1million in a week. My recommendation to Nintendo is do not ship or announce a Wii2 in 2011. If things look 'bad' they could likely do price cut before Xmas instead.

Nintendo always does a good mix of high quality hardware with low production cost. Afterall they don't have TVs to fall back on to sink billions into next gen. I suspect we'll see Nintendo/IBM make a PowerPC GPGPU system. Might want to give the 25-32nm manufacturing process a year to come online and work most of those bugs out.

Kinect breaks records...

"Following one of the biggest launches in consumer electronics history, Kinect for Xbox 360 continued its momentum in 2011 reaching 10 million Kinect sensors sold worldwide to date. Not only were sensor sales an overwhelming success, but Kinect drove significant game sales with more than 10 million standalone Kinect games sold worldwide to date.

Guinness World Records: Kinect for Xbox 360 is Fastest Selling Consumer Electronics Device

In a nod to the recent sales success of Kinect, Guinness World Records has officially named Kinect for Xbox 360 the fastest selling consumer electronics device"

@BrianK

That is pretty amazing that it outsold the iPhone and iPad!

@BrianK

Quote:

BrianK wrote: PS3s are illegal Okay not quite. LG has sued Sony in a long standing patent battle over Blu-Ray. European courts have banned shipments of PS3 entering Europe for at least 10 days. PS3s have been seized in the Netherlands. It's estimated that retailers have about a 2-3 week supply on hand. So, this might not impact anything. I suspect it'll depend on Sony's response to the courts and the next steps in the case. If LG wins Sony will, undoubtably, need to pay LG a stipend for each PS3 sold. OUCH! The next question is what will happen to a similar lawsuit in the USA?

The inital 'stop shipping' was ruled against in court. PS3s are now shipping again within Europe. LG has to pay a small stipend to Sony. Though the only action was to sell or not sell the PS3. The reason for the suit, patent infringement, was not decided and is still going forward.

Kinect does surgery

Penny Arcade Rocks!

Doesn't do anything for us gamers but the new PS3 Supercomputer Condor is online very cool.

This gets more pathetic everyday.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/03/sony-v-hotz-mismatched-serial-numbers-and-sealed-manuals.ars

According to a recent study, the PS3 by the end of 2010 had overtaken the XBox 360 with regard to the global active userbase!

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-04-01-analyst-figures-show-worldwide-ps3-install-base-bigger-than-360

A great achievement considering Microsoft's marketing strenghts, seemingly unlimited resources and foul play, especially when considering the XBox 360's 1 year headstart for Japan and North America and 2 additional holiday seasons or more for Europe and the rest of the world this is a great achievement!

Sony had to digg deep in its pockets delivering a supercomputer level console at competitive pricing. For years Sony lost money on each PS3 they sold at retail due to the console's high specs which the company deemed critical for its long term strategy, including a high capacity Blu-Ray drive for good spec gaming and high definition movie playback purposes, including the at the time latest HDMI standard and uberpowerful Cell processor allowing great support for 3DTVs including with many first party games and for 3D Blu-Ray playback.

Congrats Sony!