PS3 Firmware 3.0 coming September 1st. TOMORROW!

Basically, the PS3 3.0 firmware will be adding a New & Improved Information Board, Status Indicator, better Friends List, PlayStation Store Shortcuts, Personalization, and a trophy update. I’m not gonna get into what they all are. You can do that yourself, by using the google. It’s not hard. If you’re lazy, go here.

It souds like good news. First, Sony announces a price cut to $299 and releases a PS3 Slim. Now they release the PS3 3.0 Firmware. Good news. Right? Maybe. Watch this video for the PS3 announcement, then read on.

It looks like all they’re updating are aesthetic features. As far as I’m concerned, the only cool feature is the new status indicator. It’s nice to have your online friends easily visible, along with your message count. Also, the ticker being there (always visible) is good.

Here’s what they need to release tomorrow:

• Cross-Game Voice-Chat
• View your Trophies Online (Trophy/Web Synchronization)
• Better AVI Playback
• Game Lobbies
• PS2 Emulation through Software.

It’s gonna be a bad tomorrow if we don’t see some improvements on the in-game aspect of the PS3. I’s good to have this nice home screen and all, but if the in-game doesn’t improve, then I guess the Xbox 360 is gonna get a boost. We don’t need that.

Update (09/01/2009):

In the new friends list, your Playstation Network friends will appear in a slightly redesigned format and messages will now be viewable from each of your friends’ respective profiles.

The Status Indicator which can be found in the top right corner, consists of your icon, friends’ icons, and number of online friends, message icon which lets you know if you received a new message, a scrolling ticker which displays the latest PSN news, and if you press the “PS” button then the Battery Life indicator will stop covering the clock.

iPhone App Review #3: Facebook 3.0

So, there you have it. Facebook 3.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch! Isn’t it pretty!? It’s actually really nice. The home screen has been completely revamped. As you can see, all the main features ofFacebook are nicely laid out. As you start receiving updates in your News Feed, Inbox, or whatever, you get a nice little notification letting you know about theupdates. Unfortunately, this version of the app doesn’t support push, but according to Facebook for iPhone’s Facebook page, “The one feature everyone is asking for, Push Notifications, is in development but it won’t make it into 3.0. You can expect it in a 3.1 update later this summer.” It’s good news for the end of the summer, but not now. I guess it’s a good thing. With all these push notification apps coming out, we’re gonna need to see some better battery management upgrades coming out in iPhone 3.1.

A second page, and possibly more, has been added to the home screen. Here, you can add and remove “bookmarks”. You can add a fan page you currently subscribe to or a contact you would like to gain quick access to. It’s safe to assume that in the future, the ability to add applications into the mix.

A really interesting feature has been added to the friends list part of the app. A little telephone icon now shows up beside the name of the contact (that has made that information available) and you can call them or send an SMS.

Other features added are 3GS video uploading, upload and manage photo albums, zooming in on photos, and you can now visit links posted in your News Feed via the built in web browser.

So, there you go. Upgrade your Facebook app for free at the iTunes App Store.

iPhone App Review #2: eBuddy

eBuddy is a free fully featured instant messaging (that doesn’t contain ads) application for the iPhone. It stands alone from other apps like IM+, BeeJive, andPalringo in that it offers full access to all the services that they offer (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, GTalk, and Facebook Chat) and includes push notification. The instant messaging apps that come with push notification have a price range of $4.99-$9.99, but they don’t really offer much more (in terms of functionality) than eBuddy does. They offer more on the side of aesthetics for their price point.

eBuddy comes across as a clean and easy to navigate instant messaging app. It takes very little loading time (even on a 2G) and responds quickly inside the app. Once loaded, though, you have to register for an eBuddy account (if you haven’t already). It’s not very intrusive. Once it’s done you don’t have to worry about it again. All it needs is a login ID, password, and your age.

Push works as you would expect it to. It runs in the background and whenever you get an instant message, you’ll be notified like you would a text message. The only downside of push in the eBuddy app is that the longest you can leave it running when closed is 30 minutes. Most apps have a longer time like 24 hours or 3 days, but not this one. I guess, cuz it’s free….

Nothing special in the settings menu. You can sort your buddy list by name, group, or account. Notification options using sound and vibration. It has one feature called “shake to buzz”. This is basically the same as ‘nudging’ on MSN.

So, there you have it. It’s a great IM app for the iPhone if you’re looking for something free and well made.

Lost: Season 6 Theories

Quite a bit of time (103 days) has gone by since Lost: Season 5 ended and everybody wants to know what happened with the bomb. Did it go off? Were the Losties transported back to 2008? Does nothing happen? Was a rift in time created which causes alternate realities where the Losties can possibly meet up with each other, creating a hole in the space-time continuum which causes the entire universe to implode on itself? Until Season 6 starts up (early 2010), we’ll actually not know. Many theories can arise, but which is actually the right one? Which makes the most sense?

I’ve scoured the internet endlessly trying to find the best and most plausible theories and came up with these. Here are the 3 best theories for what may happen in Season 6 of Lost.

1. Conflicting Realities: Two, to be exact. In this theory, the bomb goes off as planned by The Losties and two realities are created. One is the one we know with our friends on the Island and the other is what Jack had planned on happening (The plane landing in LAX).Unfortunately, in the timeline where the bomb goes off, anyone close to the bomb dies. Their characters still exist in the other reality though. Since Desmond is not on the island, and he’s a constant, his consciousness will switch between both versions of himself. This theory can get really confusing, but once the gap has been closed between the two realities, it will become a tale of Good vs. Evil. More can be read about this theory here.

2. What Happened, Happened — the Moustrap Theory: What happened, happened. No reboot. No alternate timeline. Jughead always exploded. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, Jin — they will all survive the Incident. But they won’t rejoin Dharma and they won’t flash back to where they once belonged. They will have to get back to the future the way we all do — one day at a time — but they will not age because Jacob’s touch “Alpertized” them (they just haven’t lived long enough to see that they don’t physically age yet) and they will go through their lives from 1977 to 2004 with a foreknowledge of what is to come. They will be rescued from the angry Dharma mob by Richard Alpert and the hostiles and they will be recruited into the “what lies in shadow of the statue” club. In the first half of season six, we will learn that Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Jin, Hurley, and Sayid are the main people setting the stage for the oceanic 815 crash — even to the point where they ‘encourage’ and ‘manipulate’ certain events to get people on the plane who need to be on the plane (even their younger selves). But that’s just the first half of Season 6. There is still the overall victory that must be won — the final battle — the loophole that must be closed — the war that must be won. The consequences to Ben’s loophole killing of Jacob and the showdown with un-Locke/MIB and whatever else is going on with this mysterious island and the smoke monster and whatnot. The balance between yin (Jacob) and yang (MIB) must be restored, and Jacob has found a way to out-loophole the loophole — Jack and co. to the rescue (“they’re coming…”). Read more about The Mousetrap theory here.

3. Reset: The bomb goes off and once the explosion destroys the energy source, our Losties are ‘reset’ back to the present.Everyone else in proximity dies, or is badly injured, but those further away live. The radiation from the bomb spreads throughout the island and all Dharma members remaining on the island must wear hazmat suits, and inject themselves while working outdoors to avoid the lethal amounts of radiation. Construction on the Swan is finally completed. However, it’s purpose is now soley to keep the massive electromagnetic energy at bay. The hatch is marked ‘Quarantine’ to remind the ‘button pushers’ to stay indoors, or risk infection, and women are no longer able to have children if they conceive on the island. Bottom line: This is the incident, and this is what always happened. Read more here. So there we go. Three completely plausible theories. Which one do you side with? Either way, the outcome is gonna be one excellent season of Lost, and I, for one, cannot wait.

PS3 Slim Announced!

Unless you’re living under a rock, you will have by now already found out about the PS3 Slim. If you don’t believe me, check it out for yourself.

Apparently, this new PS3 will be sold for $100 less for a new price point of $299.99 (USD). This is great for people who are in the market for a PS3, but shitty news for people like me who already own one.

According to Engadget:

“The buttons in the front are now physical and actually “click” in to function. The PS logo above the disc drive does not rotate for vertical use, and yes, the hard drive is swappable — as you can see from the pictures, there’s a screw on the bottom, hidden by a panel, that lets you take off part of the front for access. We’ve also lined it up against our standard, fatty PS3, and we gotta say, it’s noticeably lighter.”

Also, it will have a 120 GBHard drive, a Duel Shock Controller (The original PS3 only came with a six-axis controller), and HDMI support. It sounds better than my current PS3! I only got the 40 GB hard drive!

Surely, this can’t be as good as the older model. Game developers have been screaming at Sony to reduce the price of the console so they could sell more games. The current price of a blank Blu-Ray disc is around $8, depending where you get it from. They’re definitely not cheap. It sounds to me like Sony may have skimped on the hardware. This may help them sell more consoles in the short term, but may be bad for them in the long term. The PS3 packs a lot of heat, and is definately better than an XBox 360 or a Wii (Don’t get me started on the Wii). Will the same be true for the PS3 Slim? I say no, but I guess only time will tell. I just don’t wanna see any Blue Rings of Death. This is supposed to be PS3’s year!

• http://www.pcworld.com/article/170368/ps3_slim_for_300_in_kmart_sears_ads.html/
• http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/18/playstation-3-slim-unboxing-and-hands-on/