Europe getting 40GB PS3 bundles packing Gran Turismo, Blu-ray movies

While we chew on that incoming Metal Gear Solid 4 80GB PS3 (with DualShock 3) in the States, Europe has a pair of SKUs of its own to look forward to. Sony's hitting with a "movie bundle" on March 19th that includes Spider-Man 3, 300 and Casino Royale on Blu-ray, along with a 40GB PS3, all for the regular €399 price. If you can wait until March 29th, for the same price you can nab a 40 gigger bundled with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Both bundles promise to be quite appealing, but apparently neither come packing HD cables, which could be a bit of a hangup for those ready to make the Blu-ray plunge.

PlayStation 3 Head-Tracking — No Gimmicks, No Glasses, Just A Camera

We were already blown away by Johnny Lee's headtracking demo using a Wiimote, but it looks like Sony's trying to take it mainstream in a much slicker way. The company was demoing a PS3-based headtracking system at GDC that doesn't require any special IR glasses to function -- it just uses a bone-stock Playstation Eye camera to track your ugly mug around the room. Sony says it's not announcing the system for any games yet, but we can't imagine devs aren't clamoring for this to get official -- this would be amazing for all sorts of genres.

PlayStation Store Getting Overhauled In April

The PlayStation Store is finally getting a graphical user interface overhaul, one planned to arrive alongside Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on April 15. The revamp of the PlayStation Store is said to give it a look more in tune with the SingStore, pictured above, which is already accessible from the PlayStation 3 version of SingStar.

Details were light on the change, but beyond a coat of paint, word was that navigation would change to a series of icons running along the bottom of the interface. We don't have official confirmation on this one yet, so consider it rumor for now.

MGS PS3 Bundle, Kratos PSP and DualShock3 Release Date

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots PS3 Bundle

To coincide with the much-anticipated North American launch of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots in late Q2 2008, SCEA will introduce a PS3 bundle, which will include an 80GB PS3, the upcoming blockbuster Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and a DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller for $499.99 (MSRP).

As has been announced previously, MGS4 will include a Metal Gear Online “Starter Pack.” If you can’t wait to try out MGS4, the good news is you don’t have to much longer. Those who pre-order the game will be guaranteed access to a multiplayer beta test for Metal Gear Online scheduled for late April.

God of War PSP Entertainment Pack
In June, a new PSP Entertainment Pack will be hitting stores, featuring the famous face of the Ghost of Sparta — Kratos. Here’s what you get in the bundle, which will be available for $199.99 (MSRP):

• Limited-Edition “Deep Red” PSP with Kratos silkscreened on the back
• God of War: Chains of Olympus
• Superbad on UMD video
• Voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops from PLAYSTATION Store for free

God of War: Chains of Olympus still arrives for PSP on March 4, 2008.

DUALSHOCK 3
The final piece of big news coming out of DPS is another much-requested release date: SCEA will introduce the DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller for the first time in North America in April 2008 for $54.99 (MSRP). Compatible with more than 100 PS3 games, DUALSHOCK 3 has both rumble and motion-sending SIXAXIS technologies. So now you’ll be able to play Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, and, yes, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots with rumble turned ON.

80GB PS3 goes missing from Sony Style site

The 80GB PS3 has disappeared from the Sony website. Could it be possible that all those juicy rumors of a refreshed, resized PS3 package are actually coming to reality?

PSP super-hack hits the internet

Well you knew it was coming. That PSP hack we told you about a few weeks ago has hit the interblogs, and we predict all hell will be breaking loose any moment. Un-retired homebrew mastermind Dark_AleX has come up with a little number called Timemachine, which is capable of spinning your PSP back to all sorts of crazy firmwares at the touch of a button.

Sony's PlayTV for PS3 gets shown off, still only for Europe

Sony's been relatively mum on its Slingbox-like PlayTV add-on for the PlayStation 3 since it announced it last fall, but it's now finally starting to show it off for all to see and, thanks to the BBC's dot.life blog, we now have a pretty good idea of what European PS3 users can expect. As you can see in the video after the break, the PlayTV software appears to be straightforward enough, and includes the usual program guide, and options to pause and rewind live Freeview TV, as well as the ability to record one channel while watching another (thanks to the dual tuners in the device itself). Also on display is the PlayTV's ability to work with your PlayStation Portable via Remote Play, which'll let you watch live TV (or recorded programming) from anywhere with a WiFi connection. One of the few things it can't do, it seems, is record programming in the background while you're playing a game, although the developers are apparently "working hard" to add that feature. Still no word on a price or exact release date though.

Run retail PS3 games from hard disk, black-hat magic required

While we're not to the point of backing up (or downloading) your favorite retail PS3 games to disk, hackers have taken a significant step in that direction. PS3News is reporting success in running PS3 retail game back-ups from both internal and USB drives on a "PS3 Test" development machine. Unfortunately, those games must still be stripped of their encryption, patched, and remastered to execute properly. So check your illicit 25GB PS3 game download fantasies, there's still plenty of work to be done before this goes mainstream.

The PS3 Processor Has Been Successfully Shrunk

IBM has successfully miniaturized the Cell processor that you know from Sony's PlayStation 3. Formerly built upon the 65nm scale, the new version will be based on the 45nm high-k process. What's this mean? Money, power and heat savings for Sony. And maybe a smaller or cheaper PS3 for you.

Along with the higher processor yields, what's most attractive is the power/heat savings. These 45nm Cells use 40 percent less power than the current, 65nm Cell. Sure that's a power savings for customers, but it's also a major heat savings for designers. The PS3 may not have the red ring of death problem like we've seen in the Xbox 360, but a cooler, smaller Cell could fit in a cooler, smaller PS3 (requiring less fans, etc.).

And while Sony has already managed to nearly break even on their console production cost vs. retail prices, the impending redesign could help Sony cut a legit profit from hardware (or allow Sony to cut prices again, instead). We'll keep an eye out for the new chips, but unless they come bundled in a smaller or cheaper PS3, none of this will really matter to you anyway.

PS3 Folding@Home Hits 1M Users

SCEA's Playstation 3 Folding@home project, which went live back on March 22, recently topped one million user, meaning that about 3,000 PS3 users have registered for Folding@home a day since the software went live on the console.

"Since partnering with SCEI, we have seen our research capabilities increase by leaps and bounds through the continued participation of Folding@home users," said Vijay Pande, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home project lead. "Now we have over one million PS3 users registered for Folding@home, allowing us to address questions previously considered impossible to tackle computationally, with the goal of finding cures to some of the world's most life-threatening diseases. We are grateful for the extraordinary worldwide participation by PS3 and PC users around the globe."

Thanks to all of those PS3 owners willing to tie their console to the network, and pay the resulting electric bill, PS3 users make up about 74 percent of the total teraflop computing power of the Folding@home project.

Well done Sony, well done. Oh, speaking of well done, Team Kotaku is currently ranked number 106 at folding@home. If you haven't signed up (for Folding@home) and own a PS3, you really should.

Developer makes desktop VR application for PS Eye

Wasn't PS3 supposed to take us to the fourth dimension? Wasn't it supposed to be like entering the Matrix? Right, Crazy Ken?

Well, it appears a lone PS3 developer wants that to happen. By utilizing a Eye camera and some homemade glasses, he's created a VR program that tracks your head and gives the illusion of three dimensionality from your television. (Similar to this famous Wii hack.) It's pretty cool -- and even cooler is that he intends on making this code publically available to all PS3 developers. Hopefully, we'll see a unique PSN title take advantage of something similar.