One of the cool features of the PS3 is that it is a serious computing device and Sony provided the option to easily upgrade its hard drive as well as install an alternate OS. So I did both.
By far, the easiest HDD upgrade known to man (presently). Simply remove a panel and a screw. Slide out the old HDD and slide in the new one.
The Sony PS3 HDD uses a SATA 5400RPM drive and it is recommended that you get one that runs at the same speed. Replacing the old HDD is trivial and all you need is a small flat-head screwdriver to pry open the side plastic panel to expose the HDD tray and a #0 Phillip-head driver to remove the retaining screw and the four HDD screws holding it to the tray. Once you have the blue retaining screw out you simply slide the tray forward to un-seat the drive and slide it out, doing the reverse to install the new one. Continue reading ‘How I spent the Christmas Holiday - Modding My PS3′
Today I made the plunge and finally got off the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format fence and bought a PS3 system.
There were several reasons for this; first I did NOT buy it because I love Blu-Ray. I like that it has multiple studio and vendor support as well as about 25GB storage per layer, but the hardware for burning those discs is so new it makes the cost of production and third-party devices pretty high. That said, I have been watching Blu-Ray gain progressively more market share and seeing a number of more watch-worthy titles released on that format than HD-DVD. Also, in a less “scientific” approach I noticed a lot more people hanging around and buying from the BD movie shelf than the HD-DVD section at the local Fry’s and the shelf space dedicated to Blu-Ray movies is larger in almost all retail outlets I’ve been in that have them for sale.
One other item of note regarding the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war is that Sony already has considerable legs under the BD format with their alternate professional product line of XDCAM. This is also a blue laser format and is aimed at broadcasters and professional videographers. XDCAM has been around since 2003, well before consumer BD and the PS3 came out in , so even if the Blu-Ray consumer format somehow lost steam and died next year, Sony would continue to chug along with broadcasters and “big media” selling the same underlying technology to a different market. Just like they did when Betamax lost the Beta/VHS format war around 1988 and they sold it’s variant “Betacam” and later “Betacam-SP” to the broadcast industry becoming the defacto tape standard which is still in heavy use today. Continue reading ‘My new PS3 - Go! Go! Blu-Ray!’
I heard a story about a guy, not me mind you, that wanted to mod his PSP to a “homebrew” firmware which would allow him to run far more software than the lame games that were made solely for the platform. We’ll call this dashing and daring fellow “Mr. X” - kinda like Racer X from Speed Racer, only I’m referring to the original, not the lame Shitwood Hollywood remake.
Here is Mr. X’s story:
“I wanted to breathe new life into my languishing and dust-laden PSP. I liked the device’s potential, but the dull games don’t really appeal to me and I wanted to use it as a portable web browser, instead of lugging a laptop around the house. Since a keyboard would make it more functional I looked to see if one was available. Unfortunately, the only production keyboard was just an abandoned concept back in early 2005! Continue reading ‘Modding tech is like a lame drug deal’
