Sony's Playstation 3 is not just for those who like to play video games,
it is also a very capable and advanced media player. A CNET review states
that, For starters, the PlayStation 3 hits the shelves as the most
affordable Blu-ray player you can buy--merely half the price of $1,000 to
$1,300 models from the likes of Samsung, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips,
and--ironically--Sony
(Carnoy, 2006). The Sony Playstation 3 can read
digital photographs from most digital cameras, USB flash drives, and home-burned
CD-Rs, not just the Memory Stick Duos and other Sony products. It also includes
some cool slide show features.
The Sony Playstation 3 also supports a great deal of music types, including MP3, ATRAC, AAC, and WAV files. They also are downloaded in the same fashion as the photographs are, and have a built in visualizer. It does not stream from other media players except the Sony Playstation Portable.
The Sony Playstation 3 can play High Definition Blu-ray and DVD videos, unlike its
competition. It also supports MPEG1, MPEG2, and MPEG4/h.264 video files from flash,
USB, or disc-based media
(Carnoy, 2006). Users can also stream video and music via LAN
from PCs, also it can stream from the Playstation Portable as well as stream to the
Playstation Portable via the Playstation 3's Remote Play feature. For transferred videos,
the Sony Playstation 3 uses thumbnails that show 15 second clips instead of just one still
image, which is a neat feature.
Sony also comes with a built in Web browser which supports a USB or Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. As for the keyboard, you will not have to use the virtual keyboard if you have one, which will save time while typing a lot of things at once. The browser supports Flash and has a zoom in and zoom out feature to help with the readability if users do not have a HDTV in 720p, 1080i, or 1080p.
Ken Webb Creations
