Got a PlayStation 3? For those of you that have picked up Sony's shiny black plaything, we've put together a Digital Home top ten of tips that you won't find in the user manual.

1) Play games from any country

Harbouring a desire to play Super Gaiden Ninja XI? Now you can. In fact, you can handily play any PS3 game from any country. On holiday in the States and spot the latest release at a bargain dollar-to-pound price? Help yourself. So far, at least, PS3 games aren't being region coded. That said PS2 and PS1 games are so you can't play a US title on a Euro console.

And let's not forget that Blu-ray movies are region-coded so the barriers aren't completely down yet.

2) The secret video reset

One of the most annoying aspects of the PS3 are its video settings. Take it up to the bedroom portable or round to a friend's house and there's a good chance that you won't be able to see anything onscreen because your 'new' TV is running at a different resolution or using a different cable connection. And - because you can't see anything - you can't change it. Until now. Shut down your PS3 then restart by pressing and holding the power button. This will reset your PS3 to its most basic 480p graphics mode so you'll be able to see enough to choose RGB SCART, component, HDMI or whatever from here.

3) See how much charge is on your pad

There's no indication of how much charge is left on the pad itself. Instead it appears on screen during games. Press and hold the PS button on any joypad. An indicator will appear, showing your pad's charge as a small battery. A full battery pic means a fully-charged pad. Neat.

4) Download game saves

Chances are someone out there has already beaten that boss for you and saved their game afterwards. Why not take advantage of it? Google 'PS3 game saves'. There are hundreds of finished and half finished game saves scattered all over the internet. Download the save you want - it'll come in a 'PS3' folder that you can lift onto a USB stick and put into your PS3. Go to the Game menu, choose your stick and the game save you downloaded should be right there. Press Triangle to copy it to your hard drive.

5) Make free video phone calls

You will need a USB headset (like the one you use for PS2 Socom) and an EyeToy camera. Plug in both via USB then go to your Friends menu. Choose a friend you've signed up earlier and press Triangle. Choose Start New Chat and type a message. Something like 'Videochat?' should do the trick. Now, providing they're in front of their powered-up PS3 (perhaps you could text them to tell them to be in position?) then they'll see your message and be given the option to accept your videochat.

Now, provided they too have a camera and headset, two windows will open, one showing you (so you can make sure you're looking your best), the other displaying your mate. Best of all you can hit Triangle again and invite more people to join your chat - up to a maximum of six. And the cost? Not a bean above your usual broadband connection charges.

6) Browse multiple Internet windows

Open the browser (go to Network) and surf to a page you want. Now open up the menu with a press of Triangle and choose 'Open In New Window'. Enter another URL and then do the same again. Keep going until you've got six windows open. Now press L3 (done by clicking down the left stick). You're now in multi-page mode. Move the left stick to flick through the web pages as though they were bits of paper, then click L3 again to zoom in.

7) Upgrade your hard drive

We took the drive out of our PS3 and found it to be a Seagate Momentus 5400rpm 60Gb 2.5inch SATA drive. We swapped ours out effortlessly for a Seagate Momentus 120Gb 2.5inch SATA drive and it worked perfectly. Remove the cover flap on the bottom of your PS3 with a fingernail. Undo the blue screw and slide the drive over to the right and out of your PS3. Undo the four screws on the 'caddy' and remove the old drive.

Put your new drive in the caddy (it should be exactly the same size, of course) and re-do the four screws. Slot it back in and slide to the left to make the connections. Re-do the blue screw, pop the cover back on and restart your PS3. Say 'yes' to the message on screen and voila - new super-size hard-drive. (Go to Settings, System Settings, System Information to check).

8) Share your bought downloads

You can download anything you've bought from the store to five PlayStation 3's. This is useful if you've got more than one PS3 (of course) and also if you've wiped your hard-drive and don't fancy paying for the same download twice...

However, you can also choose to share your download with your mates. The PlayStation Store logs how many times each download has been downloaded by each user. On your mate's PS3 Create New User and log onto the store with your ID. You'll now be able to go to your download and see that you've already downloaded whatever it was that you paid for. You can now download it again, using another of your downloads and giving it to your mate for free. Or a small optional charge...

9) Force a PS3 to show your files

Put your photos in a folder called 'PICTURE' or your videos in a folder called 'VIDEO' or simply *force* your PS3 to look at your files on your stick regardless of what you called them or where you put them. Insert your stick and go to the menu option you want (Photos, Music, whatever). Press Triangle to bring up a menu and choose Display All. This will show every file on the stick. It even works for a plugged-in iPod, though the multi-folder structure you'll reveal is a bit baffling. Still, your songs are in there if you've got the patience to find them.

10) Change your album art

When you import a music CD your PS3 automatically pulls down the album art and stores it with the tracks. Occasionally it gets it wrong, however, or it may simply not be able to find the art of your hipper, less commercial tracks. This is easily fixed however. Download a pic of the art you need as a jpg on your PC and put it onto a stick (in a folder called PICTURE, ideally). Copy it to your Photo menu (press Triangle). Now go to Music and select the album folder with the offending art. Press Triangle and select Information. Go to the Photo menu and select your new picture. Bingo.




Is Microsoft building a new Xbox ?



Microsoft's recently filed 'multi-component gaming' patent might suggest as much. Like most patents, the content is heavy-going and open to interpretation.



Yes, this patent might suggest a new console system or it might hint at an Xbox or Zune handheld (again). The patent might also be a dreamy evolution of Microsoft's 'Live Anywhere' initiative that plans to link together Xbox 360 and Windows Vista gamers later this year.

What's not in doubt is that the patent suggests some sort of consumer-friendly distributed computing system. There's more to this than being able to play Geometry Wars on a Zune; more than the ability to use one gaming ID (with its associated high score tables and achievements) across different game-capable platforms. Although both are good places to start.

Microsoft's ideas are bigger. Not only will you be able to use, say, a PDA to access the functions of your Xbox (like the PSP can access the PS3 ), but the PDA will be able to grab a slice of the Xbox's processing muscle to supplement its own. Each device would be viewed as a single component in the distributed computing system.
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And by adding more components, you increase the available power of the network. Alongside an Xbox 360,a PDA or gaming handheld becomes an "adjunct" device, donating its processing power and any available storage to whatever application is being run across the network.
New Xbox incoming?

Does this vision require a refresh of the Xbox 360? Maybe. Maybe not.

Despite the fact that the Xbox 360 is only just over a year old, the patent suggests that "the various techniques described herein can be implemented in connection with hardware or software" and that the apparatus for this distributed or componentised system "can take the form of program code."

"When implemented on a general-purpose processor," says the patent, "the program code combines with the processor to provide a unique apparatus that operates to invoke the functionality of a multi-component gaming system."

If the distributed computing functionality is handled through software, rather than new hardware, then Microsoft's patent could easily be referring to the networking of the Xbox 360, Zune, Vista PCs, and Windows Mobile-powered PDAs and phones. It will fuse the current platforms together rather than create a whole new architecture.

From a Digital Home perspective, using a distributed computing network any video stored on a handheld device could conceivably be processed and rendered by a more powerful connected device. Or you could hook your handheld up to your home cinema system, taking advantage of a big screen display and surround sound system.

Microsoft will obviously continue to use its PC heritage to get ahead of Sony's PlayStation 3. Gaming is one battleground; the digital home is another. The computing side of Microsoft's business has extensive experience in distributed applications, master/slave device networking and remote access. So the contents of patent 20070087830 might not be as far-flung as some might think.

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PSP TV Add-on

Sony in an effort to upgrade the usability of psp to more than just a handheld console announced today in Tokyo the availability of a new Tuner addon ( 1Seg compliant only for now ) for which can turn the system into a portable TV that's capable of receiving digital television broadcasts.The TV Tuner will go on sale on 9/20 at a cost of 6,980 yen. It will only be compatible with the new PSP-2000 redesign, so current PSP owners are out of luck.

Source: Stupid IGN, TechPowahUp


I wanted this thing to be made for a psp for the longest, this would be good in a power outage

don't know about $57.1911 Usd though, should have been $30-49!