Future for Sony's Playstation Network

Sony's CEO Howard Stringer has revealed that Sony will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3 console.

Stringer noted the expansion is a good idea because the number of PS3's sold puts a limit on the scale of the network possible.



To quote: Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer has spoken on how online services have driven the expansion of the PlayStation business, and has implied that Sony is set to push the PSN service on other devices.

“We will be expanding the PlayStation Network to hardware other than the PS3,” he said in an interview with Asian news service Nikkei. He said that Sony will be expanding the PSN because the number of PS3 units sold “puts a limit on the scale of the network possible.”

“Sony has a vertical structure for each product line, an organizational structure that resists change, so it will take time to achieve this network growth. However, a large number of employees share my opinion on this,” he added.

Logitech Harmony PS3 Remote Adapter

The Gadget: An IR to Bluetooth adapter for the PS3, letting you use any Logitech Harmony universal remote to (finally) control your PlayStation 3.



The Verdict: So worth it. Not only can the adapter turn on and off the PS3 directly from your remote—it's powered from an AC outlet instead of one of the PS3's USB ports—just about every function that the PS3 can perform can be mapped onto the remote's buttons.

The remote works by first syncing, like any other standard Bluetooth PS3 remote, to your PlayStation 3. Then it takes in IR blasts from your remote and translates them to Bluetooth commands. All you have to do is re-add the PlayStation 3 to your Logitech Harmony profile and it will automatically import the correct IR codes to your remote.

In practice, it's essentially flawless. I was able to control a Blu-ray movie, a DVD and a DivX video from just the buttons on my Harmony.