A major update is headed to the PS3.
Sony unveiled the details of the console’s firmware version in a post on the official Playstation blog. Here are a couple of the features it will bring:
– Player trophy collections now appear under the “Playstation Network” tab of the XMB menu
– Trophies earned on Playstation Vita games now appear on the PS3
However, the update is really more about retiring services than it is adding new ones. The real significant parts of the update are that it will get rid of the Life with Playstation application, which allowed users to see things like the current weather around the world.
Life with Playstation also tied into Sony’s partnership with Stanford University to conduct cloud-based research functions. The feature, known as Folding@home, will also be folding with the new PS3 update.
According to Sony, more than 100 million computation hours were logged with the PS3’s Folding@home initiative.
The project’s lead researcher Vijay Pande said, “The PS3 system was a game changer for Folding@home, as it opened the door for new methods and new processors, eventually also leading to the use of GPUs. We have had numerous successes in recent years. Specifically, in a paper just published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, we report on tests of predictions from earlier Folding@home simulations, and how these predictions have led to a new strategy to fight Alzheimer’s disease.”
