PS3 Firmware update 2.52 is now available.

Following a short few weeks, Sony have released Firmware V2.52 for its PS3. Citing some improvement is some software (not mentioned which games), some text entry issue within PS3 and corrected some TV display issues of with regards to the PS3 refreshing at 59.94Hz.

So its not as big as the V2.50 update, but you will still have to get it..... so go on.

PS3 Officially Launches in Malaysia, on Sept 20th.

Its finally here, Sony Malaysia have announced that PS3 will be officially sold in Malaysia. It will be launched 10am on Sept 20th at 1U at Ground Floor Highstreet New Wing (that's a popular mall in PJ, locals will know how to get there) and there is even a 24hours Soul Calibur IV tournament before the launch day.

For the launch, Sony Malaysia will be selling a special launch bundle:

80GB PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) Bundle Early Birds Promotion

1 x 80GB PS3™ (CECHK06)
1 x DUALSHOCK 3® Wireless Controller
1 x Soul Calibur IV™ game
1 x Selected PS3™ game (Resistance, Ratchet and Clank Future, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Assassin's Creed)
1 x Custom made PS3™ Tote bag
1 x Soul Calibur IV™ CD holder
Price: RM 1,799

To sweeten the bundle further, Sony Malaysia have generously added special gifts for the first 120 buyers of the PS3 Malaysian bundle, as detailed below:-

1st - 3rd customer - RM 1,000 Sony Cash Voucher
4th - 21st customer - RM 500 Sony Cash Voucher
22nd - 50th customer - RM 300 Sony Cash Voucher
51st - 120th customer - RM 100 Sony Cash Voucher

To facilate for those who wants to be 1st in line, the queue line will be opened at 8am, so plan your day/night well.

And not forgetting those of you who don't ever leave the house, Sony Malaysia have generously made the same PS3 Malaysian bundle available as an online pre-order purchase. The first 20 online buyers will get a bonus Blu-ray movie thrown in. However, details on the online purchase, delivery method and the free Blu-ray movie are not included.

All these details (except for the online pre-order deal) are available from here (http://corp.sony.com.my/3/main.asp).

What this means is that Malaysia will join HK, Singapore and Taiwan as the 4th country to officially have the PS3 (Japan is a whole region as far as PS3 distribution, and its not Asian region). All these while, the PS3s in MY stores are simply parallel imports (usually from Singapore) and the warranty is from the country of origin only. With the launch, Malaysian PS3s can be repaired by Sony service centres in Malaysia itself.

Hopefully, this will lead Sony Malaysia to bring in PS3 games directly as well as any PS3 peripherals and accessories, and that the prices will be cheaper than the parallel imports.

Firmware 2.40 removed from PSN, temporarily according to SCE.

Due to some reports of buggy installation causing some PS3s experience problems. These problems range from reports of bricking, PS3 restarting itself halfway during installations, and even claims that the update wipes out the whole HDD.

SONY have responded to this complain by removing the firmware completely from PSN, and issued a statement in their Playstation.blog. The full statement there is as below:-

"As has been reported on many gaming blogs and websites, we have temporarily taken Firmware v2.40 offline. We’ve received a limited number of calls from consumers experiencing an issue with installing the system software update on their PS3. While our consumer services department has seen a low volume of calls on this topic, we are committed to providing the PS3 community with XMB access features delivered in the v2.40 update. We are working diligently to isolate the problem for those few consumers and to identify a solution before we put the firmware back up.

We’ll provide further information as necessary here on the Blog."

However, there are also numerous PS3s that have been update with no problem whatsoever. For those of us that have not update the firmware yet, we can only wait for SONY to fix this snafu and hopefully get their act together and not release buggy firmware.

For me, there is no hurry as most of the new features (custom music soundtrack, Trophies) only work in ONE game so far. With the already released games not supporting it yet, and only games coming after fall supports it, there is no hurry to update the firmware.

GTA4 patched to V1.02

Last week, GTA4 was patched to version 1.02. The patch is mainly to improve the online multiplayer experience by fixing the following:-

• Fixed an issue where players were unable to enter or exit vehicles in GTA Race.
• Fixed an issue where scripted vehicles were causing games to unexpectedly crash.
• Improved reliability and frequency of PS3 online leaderboard updates.
• Fixed a rare hang some players encountered when moving from a Race or GTA Race lobby into gameplay.
• Fixed a hang that would occur when players were switching teams during the countdown in the lobby.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to get ridiculously high scores from Cops 'n Crooks matches.
• Changed GTA Race and Race so that the last player remaining always receives a reward of $250.
• Fixed an issue where spectating players would prevent the game from finishing.
• Fixed an issue where players were unable to spectate in Round 2 of Cops 'n Crooks games.
• Changed countdown timer in lobby so that it no longer resets when new players join a game.
• Changed the kick option so that kicked players are no longer brought back to single player.

The patch retrieval is done automatically when you launch the game and is connected to the internet, and the patch is small download at 19MBs only (if you are using broadband). Now let me get back to MSG4....

PS3 Firmware update 2.40 to be released July 2, 2008.

PS3 will get the much awaited Firmware 2.40 tomorrow. This latest update is different Firmware 2.36 (released last week) which improves "system stability when playing select PlayStation format software titles," but not mentioning which games.

With Firmware 2.40, SONY finally adds in-game XMB, custom soundtrack options and their own version of Xbox's Achievement system, known as Trophies.

The in-game XMB is a full scaled XMB, with new options to quit game, go online, access Playstation Store, change headset settings and even checking on which of your friends are online, all done without ever leaving the game. Note that the XMB will only work for PS3 games, so accessing the XMB by pressing the PS button on the controller while in a PSOne or PS2 game wont work.

Custom music option for games are also added to the XMB to play your own music, and SONY have added a control panel within the Music category with buttons to play, pause, skip and even to control the volume if its affects the game's audio effects. This feature needs to be added to the game, so it wont work on existing releases but it could be easily patched if the developer chooses to.

The biggest addition to Firmware 2.40 and to the PS3 itself is the Trophies system. Similar to Xbox360's Achievement system, PS3's Trophy system goes a few step further. Instead of points, different type of Bronze, Silver and Gold Trophies will be awarded for completing different tasks. Each game will also have one single Platinum Trophy is available for completing all Trophies in the game. You can then compare your Trophy collection with your friends, and the collection will also be added to you profile for all to see.

To make things more enticing, Sony have added a Level system to the Trophies. Gaining Trophies will level up your profile in PSN, giving gamers more incentive to collect as many Trophies they can find. This will definitely improve PS3's online community draw, as there are much more reason to getting Trophies as opposed to simply having Points to show.

All this and more will be available to PS3 users come tomorrow, so be ready to fully embrace SONY's new online community direction.

Latest Game Titles in MY stores now.

Here are the latest games available in MY stores, but obviously the most anticipated and biggest release for the PS3 ever arrives on Thursday, Solid Snake's first and final appearance on Sony's console, and I hope to bring you impressions as soon as I get my hands in it the same day.

PS3

Haze (US) - FPS
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (US) - Adventure
Singstar (game and mic) (US) - Singing


Xbox360

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy - (EU) - Action
Ninja Gaiden 2 (EU) - Action
Grid (EU) - Racing
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (US) - Adventure


Wii

Kawasaki Snow Mobiles (US) - Racing
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (US) - Adventure
Wii Fit (US) - Fitness

3G enabled iPhone goes official, available in 22 countries on July 11, 2008.

The highly leaked but much anticipated iPhone 3G is official, revealed yesterday during Apple's WWDC 2008.


iPhone 3G will be available in 2 flavors, 8GB at US$199 (RM700) and 16GB at US$299 (RM1000), in the US via AT&T in a 2 year contract, beginning July 11. 2008.


In a strange move, the new iPhone 3G will not be available from Apple's online store nor can you activate it yourself from home. You will now have to walk into an AT&T store to buy and activate it in-store while you are there. AT&T have said that activation can be done in a few minutes, but its still a departure on how Apple traditionally sells its stuff.

Packed with new features are: 3G (duh), Firmware 2.0, GPS (A-GPS that uses cellular signals to complement satellite signals), Wi-Fi (still at 802.11a/g, no N support), new dock (to fit the new shape), 300 hours standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio, 3.5mm flushed headphone jack, and the back is completely in black plastic. Better still, it is also available in full WHITE, way cool!

Pic from Laptogmag.com.

It will be available in 22 countries by next month July 11, 2008. These countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.

Another 48 countries have been identified to receive the iPhone 3G "later this year": Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, C. African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, India, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macau, Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Senegal, Singapore, Qatar, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, Uruguay.


You will notice that Malaysia is not listed, damn! Look like I'll have to wait for the unlocked version then.

Wii Fit (US) is available at selective MY stores

Wii Fit (US) is here. Its not as widely available as other games so you will need to do some walking to find one. It's retail price here is much cheaper than in Singapore, so get it here if you can find one (if you are wanting to get one).


It was here several months ago in the Japanese version, but as I dont read Japanese, I have not bought that version. I will be collecting one unit soon and looking forward to testing the unit out.

Yahoo! board rejects Microsoft's bid, saying its too little.

Well, that was fast. Shortly after Microsoft announced a USD 44.6billion offer for Yahoo! to the Yahoo! board, Yahoo! have officially announced that they are not interested in the deal, citing that the offer was too low for Yahoo!'s potential.

In the press release, "the Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft's unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!'s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders."

"After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments.", it adds.

Microsoft have since then said that they are still very keen on pursuing this merger/buy-out. Lets see how this unfolds.

Microsoft bids for Yahoo! at USD$44.6 billion.

Steve Ballmer CEO have sent a letter to Yahoo!'s board of directors, persenting a formal offer of USD$31 per share for the company. This merger will cost Microsoft USD$44.6 billion at that offer price, with Mr. Ballmer stating "We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market."

"Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers." he adds. Microsoft's current move is seen as their move to counter the threat of Google's market share in search engines.

Yahoo! have yet to respond to the "merger agreement", while Google's David Drummond, senior VP of corporate development (and the company's chief legal officer) says that he worries the acquisition of the internet portal by a company that has "frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies" could "extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the internet." His concern centers around the possibility that the combination of the two monoliths could "unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services."

Seems Google is anxious to keep their lead on their ad revenue, but this is going to be a very interesting watch over the next few months.

No price cuts for Asian PS3

Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong have indicated that there will be no price adjustment for the 60GB PS3, nor any 80GB versions of the PS3 will be made available outside of Korea have been planned.

It now seems that only North America (US and Canada) enjoy the US$100 price cut, as well as having the new 80GB version. However, for European and Aussie markets, a new "value pack" bundle consisting of 60GB PS3 console, two sixaxis controller and two games, Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm (games may vary from region to region), will be available for the same retail price of the current standalone PS3.

Again, no news of this "value pack" being made available for the Asian market. If it does, will it mean that I can get the PS3 "value pack" with two controllers and two games for SG$799??

Microsoft announced price cut for Xbox360 HD-DVD add-on.

On July 26th 2007 during the San Diego: Comic-Con International (SDCC), Microsoft announced a US$20.00 price cut for the Xbox360 HD-DVD add on. The effective selling price from Aug 1st will be US$179.00, from existing US$199.00. If you bought the HD-DVD add on before Sept 30th, you will be entitled to get 5 free HD-DVD from a list of 15 titles, whoop-de-doo.

I dont believe that this will affect prices in MY in anyway, but still something to bargain for if you do decide to buy it. Point to note that this Xbox360 HD-DVD add-on only outputs 1080i instead of the max 1080p like standalone HD-DVD players, or even blu-ray players and the PS3.

PS. I also don't think this is the rumored US$50 drop for the Xbox360.