Warranty Voided! Shocking Footage!

Ok, so not so shocking footage. But hey, extremist headlines are all the rage these days.

iFixit has posted the first PS3 Slim dissection photo shoot, and there are some interesting tidbits exposed as the layers come off. First of all, we now know how Sony is keeping this pint-sized reactor cool. Check out Steps 10 and 14, and meet the mother of all console fans. Checking in at 17 blades, this thing is probably larger than the palm of your hand (unless your name is Shaq). Lots blades combined with a massive size is a strong indication that Sony was going out of its way to keep the Slim as quiet as possible while still moving the heat out of the device. The new PS3 may be first console to give the PC case modding community a bad episode of fan envy.

Some good news appears in Step 5 as well. We already knew that the hard drive was supposed to be easy to access and replace, and now we have confirmation of that. Slide out the 5400 RPM Toshiba drive, and slide in in your preferred SATA Massive Tome of Storage. Expected news, but pleasant to see all the same.

Delving deeper into the device, we get some lovely high-rez shots of the processor itself (Steps 24 and 27). Huge. Silver. Huge. Yeah, its a processor. Not that exciting for most of us, but your mileage may vary.

And there we have it. Before its official release, the PS3 Slim has been dissected and its innerds exposed for the amusement and education of gamers everywhere. While it is certainly a nice piece of engineering, ultimately the fate of Slim will rest on its games, not the device. If upcoming titles for the PS3 are as impressive as the fan in the Slim, then Sony is in for some brighter days.

Rumor mill: PS very P

Rampant speculation this morning that the long rumored, eagerly sought, and extremely predictable UMD-less PSP is coming soon to a massive trade show near you. This is a move that will surprise exactly no one. UMD died as a movie distribution format when Sony got the brilliant idea to make people pay for a movie twice if they wanted to watch it on their PSP. A version of the device that removes such essentially useless hardware is about as logical as an umbrella store in Seattle. With the advent of oodles of digital distribution systems for movies online, I don't think UMD will be all that badly missed by purchasers of the new and improved smaller PSP-Go.

No doubt you will also see reference to a newer, thinner, PS3 that could be making an appearance sometime in the next year. While it will not be seen at E3, so far as we know, hopefully it will have an impact there. The fabled thin-PS3, it is thought, will remain under lock and key until current supplies of the PS3 evaporate. How can Sony make that happen? Maybe... lower the price? While reasonable when compared to the price of production, the PS3 eats far too many Presidential portraits when compared to its current generation console brethren. Given the fairly impressive array of PS3 titles due out in the near future, this is a shame. Lower prices should equal greater market penetration, recession not withstanding. Hopefully with a rumored slimmed down PS3 on the way, the chunkier original will finally get that price break.

But that's merely wishful thinking at this point. The PlayStation very-Portable is on its way to E3. Now, if only Sony would give away free samples...

Invasion of the PS3BOTs

When the Cell processor was first discussed, Sony seemed to anticipate the PS3 hooking up and sharing processing power with everything from your Cell equipped TV to your Cell equipped phone to your Cell equipped refrigerator. Now, I haven't seen any refrigerators marketing themselves as gaming accessories lately, but if some March rumors could be believed, it is may only be a matter of time before your PS3 interfaces with your fridge much more directly.

According to patents, Sony may be working on a robot for the PS3. Thats right, a seeing, driving, game playing robot in your very own living room doing something or other for the enhancement of your console entertainment. The patents seem to say the robot will be moving about the room you game in, somehow interacting with you and the room in a way that adds an element to a particular game. That is an interesting concept, to be sure, but it seems a touch limited for something as inherently cool as a gaming robot. Lets add a couple basic hands to this bad boy and give ourselves the ultimate gaming accessory. Need a fresh drink? Surely the 'bot can grab a couple of cans out of the chill chest. Pizza man arrives in the middle of a fight? No worries, the 'bot can handle it. The possibilities here are endless.

Granted, the possibilities are so endless that it is doubtful the default programming could handle them all. A good scripting language takes care of that problem. Really, all Sony needs to do for this to to become the best gaming accessory since the d-pad is to either add hands or make the robot chassis modular so that additional hardware could be added later. Then, either publish the programming language or open up the 'bot's operating system and the potential for global dominance would be in place. Not literally, of course.