New PS3 Firmware v2.70 Released!

Playstation 3’s XMB was updated last night, to version 2.70 which brings the following enhancements:

Text Chat feature that enables you to communicate online with your PlayStation Network friends. Now, you’ll be able to chat with up to 15 online friends using the Wireless Keypad, on-screen keyboard, or other compatible keyboard peripherals. Not only can you chat with your friends instantly, but you can also access Text Chat while playing PS3 games and even participate in up to three chat rooms at once.

Friends list on the XMB (XrossMediaBar)

• Sort your friends via their online status
• Attach larger files to the messages you send to your friends (file size will increase from 1MB to 3MB)

Video delivery service on PlayStation Store

• Video files you’ve purchased from the PlayStation Store can be backed up to an external storage device and then restored to PS3’s internal hard drive for playback – so you can clear up space on your hard drive and then restore the video anytime in the future
• Videos you’ve purchased for PSP (PlayStation Portable) system can now be transferred to PS3 for playback

New PS3 Firmware v2.60

Version 2.60 of the Playstation 3’s XMB has been released just now, apparently it offers better support for your photographs and comes in the form of a separate 105MB download following the upgrade.

The app can detect faces and can organize by whether people are smiling or not, how old the subjects are, colors, landscapes, and that kind of thing. Looks like a typically Sony interface that might be fun, if you make a habit of storing photos on your PS3. Other updates include support for the new 3.11 version of DivX encoding and guest access to the PlayStation store.

You can take a look at a video demonstration of the features on Sony’s Playstation 3 blog, here. Or just watch it via youtube below!

Toast

Inventables have come up with an interesting twist on the traditional toaster. They’ve made it transparent, so there’ll be no more burnt toast.

They have loads more quirky ideas at their website, which you can view here. Interesting concepts to note are the Origami DVD player and an Origami mobile phone.

Air

Steve Jobs has unveiled the latest in his lineup for the first quarter of 2008, a 13.3″ super slim 3lb (1.36kg) MacBook, called MacBook Air. Although not a sub-notebook like the Sony TZ series, it comes with neither an optical drive nor an ethernet port.

Like the TZ series however, it uses a Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2gb RAM and has the option of a solid-state hard drive, for faster booting and access times. An 80gb hard drive will be the standard on the notebook that is already being called “the world’s thinnest”.

Being priced at $1,799 (£914), it will certainly be in the same sort of price bracket as the smaller, lighter and in my opinion more beautiful TZ series offering, once the higher UK pricing is revealed.

One thing that most certainly is nice is the full aluminium case that will, of course, come as standard.

Apple have launched this alongside Apple TV 2.0 and another interesting product, known as Time Capsule, which is primarily designed for use with Leopard applications such as Time Machine, for wireless back-up of data.

Looks alright, so far.

 Info on the MacBook Air courtesy of Ars Technica