Firmware 1.6
We detail the March update's march onto PS3s worldwide.
Published: March 24, 2007
The big "March update" was recently released, to both acclaim and disappointment alike. Did Sony live up to the hype? Well, you'll have to come to your own conclusions for that, but we'll give you the information you need to work with. The update was speculated to add several features such as full XMB integration into the home button menu, among other things. Although this didn't happen, plenty of welcome additions and changes were made.
The most prolific addition to the Playstation 3's XMB is the Folding@Home client. The medical research project has existed on the PC and other platforms since 2000, its release for the PS3 is the first time that the software has appeared on a console. Within days, the PS3 client has outclassed all of the other F@H clients by far: at time of writing, it's contributing 659 teraflops of computing power, compared to 254tflops from all of the other platforms combined. The program has undergone a facelift for the PS3, allowing users to switch between three protein visualization modes, toggling of audio, "box" mode, stat checking (through the browser), and a globe that lights up with yellow dots wherever a PS3 is currently crunching numbers. It also accurately models the sun's location over the Earth.
When the PS3 isn't busy helping to cure disease, it's doing what it does best: playing games. Unfortunately for gamers, this meant that no downloading could take place, and no new game content could be acquired. Does anyone else see a problem here? It's a bit paradoxical if you ask me -- or Sony, who decided to remedy the issue in this firmware revision. Up to 6 downloads can be queued and take place during gameplay, media playback, web browsing, etc. Why Sony didn't include this earlier is a bit of a mystery (launch pressure?), but thankfully the feature is there before anything extraordinary appears for download.
Another common annoyance of any PS3 owner is that any disc in the PS3 will be loaded when the system boots. The unofficial workaround for this issue consisted of "press buttons and try to move the XMB off of the 'game' section as fast as you can!" -- no more! The "Disc Auto-Start" option added to the System Settings menu makes this trouble a thing of the past.
Less notable changes and additions include resolution and zoom settings for the browser, a full on-screen keyboard instead of the compact cellphone-esque...thing that is found on the PSP, WMA format support, HDMI cable detection during boot, remote play via an access point, new languages (for the European launch no doubt), bluetooth keyboard and mouse support, the addition of "remote play settings", BD-RE disc support, restoration of backup data to another PS3, DSD playback, .m2ts playback, and the addition of "Start New chat" under the friends section.
Whew. It's no wonder Sony chose to release some other features at a later time, because 1.6 is probably the most significant change since the system's release. As Sam pointed out to me, if major issues such as the backwards compatbility image scaling fiasco can be fixed, and these kinds of additions can come about from small releases, imagine what the change from 1.x to 2.x will be like.
The most prolific addition to the Playstation 3's XMB is the Folding@Home client. The medical research project has existed on the PC and other platforms since 2000, its release for the PS3 is the first time that the software has appeared on a console. Within days, the PS3 client has outclassed all of the other F@H clients by far: at time of writing, it's contributing 659 teraflops of computing power, compared to 254tflops from all of the other platforms combined. The program has undergone a facelift for the PS3, allowing users to switch between three protein visualization modes, toggling of audio, "box" mode, stat checking (through the browser), and a globe that lights up with yellow dots wherever a PS3 is currently crunching numbers. It also accurately models the sun's location over the Earth.
When the PS3 isn't busy helping to cure disease, it's doing what it does best: playing games. Unfortunately for gamers, this meant that no downloading could take place, and no new game content could be acquired. Does anyone else see a problem here? It's a bit paradoxical if you ask me -- or Sony, who decided to remedy the issue in this firmware revision. Up to 6 downloads can be queued and take place during gameplay, media playback, web browsing, etc. Why Sony didn't include this earlier is a bit of a mystery (launch pressure?), but thankfully the feature is there before anything extraordinary appears for download.
Another common annoyance of any PS3 owner is that any disc in the PS3 will be loaded when the system boots. The unofficial workaround for this issue consisted of "press buttons and try to move the XMB off of the 'game' section as fast as you can!" -- no more! The "Disc Auto-Start" option added to the System Settings menu makes this trouble a thing of the past.
Less notable changes and additions include resolution and zoom settings for the browser, a full on-screen keyboard instead of the compact cellphone-esque...thing that is found on the PSP, WMA format support, HDMI cable detection during boot, remote play via an access point, new languages (for the European launch no doubt), bluetooth keyboard and mouse support, the addition of "remote play settings", BD-RE disc support, restoration of backup data to another PS3, DSD playback, .m2ts playback, and the addition of "Start New chat" under the friends section.
Whew. It's no wonder Sony chose to release some other features at a later time, because 1.6 is probably the most significant change since the system's release. As Sam pointed out to me, if major issues such as the backwards compatbility image scaling fiasco can be fixed, and these kinds of additions can come about from small releases, imagine what the change from 1.x to 2.x will be like.
