The pre-release of the Playstation 3 brought pictures of a slick, shiny, Playstation model. On release, these Playstations were nowhere to be found, and instead a less appealing black model was in its place. Despite a small rumbling of disappointment in Sony fan base, no one was too upset over the letdown.

Of course, people get tired of the same model and color. Michal Birecki decided he was going to change the look of the Playstation by painting it pearly white. His success earned him a $1,425 sum in his wallet as he sold it on eBay. Michal is a professional when it comes to automotive body work, making this an easy task for him.

Originally, he just wanted to resell his Playstation on eBay, but had no way of making his model stand out from the rest. With a total of 12 hours and $250 in cash, he painted his Playstation with a sense of perfectionism. With his success, he registered his own domain name and managed to bring in more business. He has promised to sell a red and silver model, in addition to the pearly white seen below.

Although he will most likely be out of business when Sony releases new colored consoles in the future, he plans to keep his business of console painting alive by expanding to other consoles like the Nintendo Wii.

As of now, he is only accepting a few orders at a time, so don’t be surprised if you don’t get your order in. On his website, he has a simple walkthrough of steps you should take in painting your own Playstation 3. If you don’t have the experience in painting required, you can always try getting the winning bid on his eBay auctions, which have recently been selling at the “Buy it Now” price, an indication of just how popular these machines are.

However, Beware, a can of spray paint will never achieve the gloss and prestige his work holds. If you aren’t sure on how to paint your Playstation right, or don’t have the extra money to buy it painted, it is better to wait a year and let Sony do the work for you.

British Corporate Executive of Sony, Phil Harrison, let important information slip recently. Apparently, the Playstation 3 is going to allow movie downloads to its network of downloadable content.

This comes as no surprise to Microsoft, who released their own TV/Movie downloadable content since November 22nd. Interestingly enough, you can obtain rentals through the service that will play once downloaded for 24 hours. Microsoft plans to keep rates “competitive” with Sony, who hasn’t released any rates yet.

Sony is keeping any more information on the subject hush-hush. The system, properly named the Playstation Network Platform, will be very similar to Xbox-Live. The big selling point of the service is that it will be free of charge to use, except for Massively Multiplayer Online subscriptions and video game/move rentals. They plan on making this very similar to Itunes in terms of compatibility and ease of use.

Another surprise in the mix is a new flavor of eBay- one solely for gamers. Sony plans to create an online marketplace to buy, sell, and trade gamer related items. This auction type service is expected to create a big ripple in the gaming community. It is likely that Microsoft will copy Sony’s lead and make a service similar to this eBay for gamers.

When can you expect all of these changes? Don’t get too excited. Further details will come in May, and even more details following at the next Electronics and Entertainment Expo. Even still, we can only speculate on the prices that Sony will demand. It is expected that they will try and make up for lost money, with the 200 million units sold, and approximately $240 is lost with each sale.

One thing, though, is for sure. Next time you want to order a game or video, its 3 PM and you are still in your underwear, you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home. With Sony’s latest innovations, you will never have to leave the comfort of your own living room.

Make way for the Playstation 3

The Playstation 3, commonly abbreviated to PS3 is the Sony Computer Entertainment Company’s latest offering in the high-stakes computer game wars. Officially released in Japan on November 11, 2006, it is Sony’s 7th generation video game console and it is the 3rd release in the company’s popular Playstation series. It was released in the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Canada six days later on November 17, 2006 and at the time of this writing is yet to be released in Europe, Singapore and Australia, with a scheduled release date of March 23, 2007.

Two different configurations have been initially planned for the PS3 namely the Basic model that comes with a 20GB hard drive and the Premium model that ships with a whopping 60GB hard drive.

Sony officially announced the Playstation 3 to the public in May 16,2005 by way of an eagerly anticipated unveiling at the 2005 E3 conference. While there wasn’t any actual fully functioning Playstation 3 consoles present at this event nor at the Tokyo Game Show held later in September of the same year, the company did give the public a taste of their innovative new product with demonstrations using devkits of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots running on PC hardware with much the same specs as the actual units. As well as the software demonstrations, video presentations were also shown to the public that showcased game footage of Mobile Suit Gundam based on the planned Playstation 3 specifications. These teasers were sufficiently impressive enough to whet the appetite of most of those in attendance at these events and in the E3 held in 2006, Sony finally delivered and showcased games on the actual Playstation 3 units. (more…)

By now, everyone has heard of the Playstation’s heating problems. Many complaints were received by Sony about constant console crashes, and they admit themselves that they don’t know the exact problem, other than general heating troubles. One thing is for sure, however: the Playstation 3 sealed case- designed to keep Sony’s secrets hidden- just turned your $599 console into a George Foreman grill.

One YouTube user recently made a stir in the community by uploading his own video of how he cooks steak: straight from the Playstation 3 case. As for feedback, surprisingly, no one bashed the Playstation 3 for being such a hot-head, but rather the fanboys of Sony praised the system for bringing closure to the old term, “But can it make toast?”. (Or in this case, something more manly; a nice, juicy, steak)The maker of this video has gone on to register a domain name, for the sole purpose of showcasing his grilling invention. In a recent issue of the Official Playstation Magazine, the maker of this fine grill demonstrates his invention. He has received enough publicity to invest in a great start for his grill-making business. So far, the PS3-Grill has been up for bid on Ebay.com twice, both removed for rule violations. (more…)