life-with-playstation posts (Subscribe to this feed)

Life with PlayStation 1.10 update adds United Village channel

by Andrew Yoon { May 11th 2009 at 12:45PM }

Have you booted up Life with PlayStation lately? Sony's enhanced Folding@Home application saw an update last week, upgrading the program to version 1.10:

Added support for adding and removing channels dynamically.
Added a local time display in the LIVE CHANNEL.
Updated Mood categories for automatic music selection.
Added support to enable Folding@home™ Expert Mode which disables all other channels and features that may impact simulation performance. Folding@home™ Expert Mode can be activated by navigating to: Options Menu > [Configuration] > [Folding@home].

One of the new channels introduced to Life with PlayStation is United Village, "a project designed to provide an experience of sharing a sense of community and culture from locations around the world." Right now, it's a bit sparse, and we don't really see its potential. Hopefully, the fact that channels can be "dynamically" added suggests more channels are on their way.

[Thanks, zKAPOWz and Gotoxy!]

CES 2009: Life With PlayStation has 2 million users, update in Spring

by Andrew Yoon { Jan 8th 2009 at 1:00PM }

Life With PlayStation is a surprisingly solid app, which meshes today's news and weather with background music and Folding@Home capabilities. The free application has garnered 2 million users since its launch last September. Sony has just announced Life With PlayStation will be getting an update in Spring, although no details have been revealed yet. We're hoping to see more channels added to the service. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements from CES.

Life with PlayStation available now

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 18th 2008 at 2:45AM }

Life With PlayStation is available worldwide now. Hopefully the app won't be pulled again considering Sony sent out an official press release about the global launch this time. To update, PS3 owners need to go to the Folding@Home icon and then they'll be prompted to upgrade to Life with Playstation. The initial content is the news-and-weather "Live Channel." Our initial impressions: It's a very high-def and slick version of the Wii's news and weather channels.

Life With PlayStation is really live, really

by Andrew Yoon { Sep 18th 2008 at 2:03AM }

At last.

Life With PlayStation was leaked yesterday, but now it's officially available to download. Simply go to Network -> Folding@Home. You'll be prompted to download two update files. Once you're done, Folding@Home will be replaced on your XMB with Life With PlayStation. Don't worry -- you can still cure cancer. But now you'll be able to check the news, listen to music, and research the weather all from one app.

[Thanks, Random1448!]

Some lived a Life with PlayStation ... briefly

by Jason Dobson { Sep 17th 2008 at 2:00PM }

It appears that someone at Sony proper forgot to drink their morning coffee and accidentally threw the wrong switch, resulting in a handful of lucky insomniacs getting an early glimpse at the PS3's oft-delayed news-and-weather-service, Life with PlayStation. Sony's answer to the Wii's weather and news channels, which utilizes Google data to display real-time data, was originally expected to drop in July before being delayed on a pair of occasions, most recently earlier this month.

According to Sony, the application was posted for public download during testing "temporarily, by mistake," allowing pictures like the one above to be captured and posted online. As for when the app will get a proper release, Sony is only saying that an announcement will be made "shortly." For now, it seems that we'll have to go about getting our news and weather info the old fashioned way: by rolling our chairs over to the computer.

Life With PlayStation was downloadable, but not for long

by Jem Alexander { Sep 17th 2008 at 8:30AM }

Whoops! Looks like Sony might have accidentally let Life With PlayStation slip out into the public domain. Not for long, though, the service is now unavailable again. Though a few Americans managed to get their hands on it, Sony has told Eurogamer that "while testing the application, Life with PlayStation was available for download temporarily, by mistake." No doubt we'll be seeing a release date announcement pretty soon, which is good because the worldwide weather and news service has been delayed numerous times since July. Not that we can get too excited about it -- we already have that functionality on our TVs and laptops (not to mention our Wiis).

Update: Video proof, after the break.

Continued →

Sony promises Life with PlayStation still 'on its way'

by Kyle Orland { Sep 1st 2008 at 4:00PM }

Remember when Sony said its news-and-weather-service, Life with PlayStation, would be coming in August (after initially saying it would be coming in July)? Well, calendar-equipped readers may have noticed that August has come and gone and the service is still not available. Not to fret, though, as a post on the official PlayStation blog promises that the team is just "pushing some paperwork" on the service and asks that anticipatory fans (both of you) should "hold tight just a bit longer."

The post also reveals that the free service will integrate with Folding@Home, so users can help Stanford researchers as they're scanning the headlines. Let's see CNN.com do that!

Life with PlayStation delayed ... again

by Alan Tsang { Aug 29th 2008 at 9:30PM }

Oh, you are killing us, Sony! Unfortunately, Life with PlayStation has been delayed yet again and some "paperwork" is apparently the culprit. Noam Rimon of SCEA R&D, in an attempt to soothe us, reminds us of some of the cool features of Life with PlayStation, such as reading the news, checking the weather, listening to music and best of all, Folding@home will be running the background when you use this little add-on.

To be fair though, the application is free and it'll let us help cure cancer while listening to our favorite tunes. It is also stated we will only have to "hold tight just a bit longer." Looking forward to it, Mr. Rimon!

[Thanks, Tony!]

Sony delays 'Life with PlayStation' debut

by Randy Nelson { Aug 1st 2008 at 4:25PM }

Revealed in June, Life with PlayStation is totally not Sony's answer to the Wii's news and weather channels. Okay, it is. Utilizing data from Google and a spiffy, HD rendering of the earth (think PS3's "earthrise" music visualizer) the downloadable app displays real-time weather and news headlines. It's also been delayed.

SCEA president Jack Tretton spoke about Life with PlayStation's imminent release at the company's pre-E3 media briefing last month. The way we understood it, the app would go live quite soon-ish. Now comes word from SCEA's senior R&D manager, Noam Rimon, that it will actually arrive in August. Hey, that's this month! Why the delay? Rimon cites "a few procedural matters" as the hold-up. (Translation: the R&D group was having too much fun spinning the virtual globe. Whee.)

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Life With PlayStation didn't arrive in July ... in case you hadn't noticed

by Jem Alexander { Aug 1st 2008 at 9:20AM }

So Life With PlayStation, the upcoming global news and weather service, didn't make its July release. According to Noam Rimon, of the SCEA R&D team, this is due to some "procedural matters" and the service should instead be released sometime in August. No more specific date than that has been revealed, but no doubt we'll hear more closer to the time. Rimon promises that when it finally arrives, Life With PlayStation will offer "a variety of interactive content and channels on a visually stunning worldwide map interface."

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Life with Playstation, on video

by Alan Tsang { Jun 27th 2008 at 7:30AM }

Were the pictures not enough? Now you can watch the globe in action with the above video showing the freshly announced Life with Playstation. Apparently, the globe isn't just a map but rather actual satellite imaging showing real-time cloud patterns. In addition to reading the news, it also appears you can browse the web and create a selection of music in your hard drive under a title, such as "relaxation", to suit your mood.

[Thanks, Kspraydad!]

Life with PlayStation, in pictures

by Andrew Yoon { Jun 26th 2008 at 8:30PM }

So what is the recently unveiled Life with PlayStation? Well, it takes the globe (featured as a PS3 music visualization) and adds news and weather from around the world. It reminds us of the Wii Weather channel, but in glorious 1080p. Pictures from Watch Impress show the ability to use custom soundtracks. It also appears the channel will integrate with Folding@home in some way, allowing you to cure cancer while reading the daily news.

Life with PlayStation won't be the "next big thing," but it's certainly intriguing. Hopefully, we'll be able to get some hands-on time with it in due time.

Sony presentation reveals some nice surprises

by Jem Alexander { Jun 26th 2008 at 9:15AM }

Sony's Strategy presentation today revealed more than just a video download service. Some other little tid-bits of info spilled out as well. Firstly, as seen above, White Knight Story is aiming to be out this fiscal year. That means sometime between now and April 2009. No doubt we'll be seeing more of the game, as well as a less-vague release date at E3 next month.

A weather and news service was also revealed as part of a new Life With PlayStation brand. This will feature an interactive globe showing real time weather reports and headlines from all over the world. This feature will also support geo-tagged photos (awesome) and other features which will be released over time. Again, we'll probably hear more about this whole Life With PlayStation brand at E3.

Finally, it's been confirmed that the PSP will gain direct access to the PlayStation Store at some point during this fiscal year. Sadly, there are no more details than that. While this is definitely getting us excited for E3, we have to wonder whether Sony are keeping back any actual surprises for the event. Is it possible that they could have all this and more to reveal to us next month?

Source - PS3Attitude
Source - IGN