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Without playing games.

Well, that helps. But after watching the Apple TV come out and having a fair idea of what Microsoft are trying to get at with Windows MCE and Xbox 360, I think Sony are in a good position to sweep them all away, if they do some work with the firmware, make some deals and maybe put out a hardware box or two. I’ve written out some ideas in two sections, small and large ideas. I don’t think Sony would necessarily succeed if they did all this, but they sure would make people sit up and take notice.

Small stuff

These aren’t groundbreaking, but if Sony did all this the PS3 would be more and more appealing to those who want it to be a do-everything entertainment centre. Nobody does this perfectly yet, and I don’t think Apple ever will, so why not go for it?

• Internet Radio. It’s the perfect opportunity, isn’t it? Have an index of good, free internet radio to listen to. Maybe partner with AOL Radio, too? Maybe introduce region-specific streams from FM stations and such?
• Podcasts. Maybe Sony should buy Odeo. But even if the index page is a bit crappy (I think Tivo is similarly crappy), it would be great to have the PS3 pull in a bunch of audio and video podcasts so it would contain more compelling media content to watch. The Apple TV does this well, and Sony would be making a good decision if they were to equal it.
• Codecs. Sony aren’t in a position to tell anyone how to do things in this area, and it’s abundantly clear that going the open route hasn’t worked for them either (Sony have been using standard MPEG-4 formats in their products for a while now.) Include DivX, Xvid, WMV, MOV and FLV support in the PS3. Maybe only the pirates will care, but it’ll be enough to convince a lot of techy folk. Apple and Microsoft will never do this, but Sony could.
• Comprehensive trailers site. Right now the PS Store has a few crappy trailers once in a while - this is not good enough. Either partner with Apple or make a page that’s a lot like Apple’s Trailers page, and offer 720p and 1080p trailer downloads to PS3 users in a smooth interface.
• Follow up on the trailers. You have wifi, why not use it? If you just finished watching a new movie trailer, list movie theatres nearby that are showing it. If it was just released on Blu Ray, allow the person to buy the disc for delivery at their house in the next few days. (Partner with a store for this, or have Sony create their own Blu Ray retail store.) Perhaps if Sony ever get to it, provide a link to a pay-only downloadable link at Sony Connect or whatever? This could be great.
• iPod support. And Sony players too, I guess, but iPod is the important one. Yes, it’s proprietary, and yes, it’d take some effort to keep up with the database revisions, but Sony really need to 1. Have the iPod’s media be easily accessible from the PS3 (right now it just shows the ugly directory tree and won’t use the iTunes metadata) and 2. Establish the PS3 as a media centre, by allowing the PS3 to “top up” the iPod with new podcasts and other content.

Okay, so those are the geeky things - but if Sony did it, they’d totally shake the image of being all about their own proprietary formats for good. The PS3 would all of a sudden capture the attention of the geeky people (and the retarded geeks could even install Linux with Sony’s permission! Whoa.) But there’s some more interesting things I think Sony could do.

Major stuff

• Youtube. Partner with them! Provide their content on the PS3! Make it easy to search and browse, and either watch one at a time, or pick a quicklist of stuff for background buffering and viewing later. Maybe even add a feature to download the file for local storage. Yes, people will use it to view copyrighted content, but it’d also be the first device to present this sort of user-created content all on your TV. It’s kinda like Podcasts but bigger and more.
• A much improved syncing\sharing model. Three things are involved here. Firstly: Implement iTunes support. Any iTunes share of music, movies and photos should be picked up by the PS3. Secondly: MCE support. Emulate the MCE streaming the 360 does. Thirdly: A small, clean, Sony PS3 program for Windows, Lunix and Mac that acts as a daemon that sits in the background, sharing music, photos and video to the PS3 for people who don’t already use iTunes and MCE for the same thing. What does this effectively mean? Well, right now the PS3 is quite confused as it’s hard to get content onto it and it’s unclear why people would want to do so (who the hell would load their photos onto a PS3 with a memory card and just gawk at them in a slideshow? Who would systematically feed their PS3 CDs to rip?) This would fix but by doing as the Apple TV does, and creating a “pool” of content gathered from all available computers holding source material. This would allow the PS3 to act as a true gateway to your PC’s media library and photo library, with less fuss than Microsoft and Apple’s stupid ways. Do dupe checking, buffer content via smart background syncing, and make sure it “just works” - and all of a sudden the PS3 just replaced your Apple TV and MCE extender.
• Digital Video Recorder. Okay, weird? Fair enough. But hear me out on this. I keep envisioning the PS3 as some sort of universal do-everything media centre, and I think this would be the last step in achieving the goal of being the one unified place for all entertainment to be filtered through. I imagine Sony selling a $200 box with a USB cord that takes input from your cable TV box and another device or two, and basically acting as a “receiver” for everything in the living room.

Let me elaborate on that last one. This is what it would look like:

And this is how it’d work: You plug the black box into the PS3 via USB, which powers it and provides a data link between the two. When installed, a “TV” option appears on the XMB, where you get a program guide and options to record TV shows - you know, like a Tivo. Sony could make partnerships globally to get TV guide data. So for $200, you turn your Blu Ray player\SACD player\music library\Youtube viewer\game console into the medium you watch your television through. Imagine that! A single unified interface with a single remote, the ability to flick between TV and Youtube and podcasts and Blu Ray with ease, and for less than a Series 3 Tivo or MCE PC.

Oh, technically? It’s a 400gb hard drive with a HD TV decoder chip and a bunch of inputs. You could plug your cable tv into whatever fits, and your other consoles or whatever else you might use into the other ones - it could have composite, svideo, component and HDMI. Considering that a 400gb external HD retails for $150 USD, I don’t think $200 is a stretch for such a device as this. It would allow hours of recording time, get people constantly engaged with the PS3 interface and really cement the PS3’s position as the ideal device for any new home theatre. It’d blow Apple TV out of the water and make MCE\Xbox 360 look really timid.

About games, I just thought, wouldn’t it be cool if a PSP could download from the PS3 and join a game? Imagine Motorstorm 2 with one guy on the PS3, five guys online, and a friend next to you holding a PSP. Also, a PSP2 with flash memory and finger-touch screen. They should totally do that.

Stupid idea? Comment on me!