I think the 3DO was decent looking for its time... I also think the Infinium Phantom was pretty good looking (although not a real thing and too large).

There should be Bluetooth there, as the phone can only connect to tne PS3 through the USB or Bluetooth.So it's a fake.If there is a PS3 I am sure TV Tokyo's World Business News would show it on it's program

Am I the only nut that thinks consoles should start following the standard stereo equipment sizes? I'd love it if my receiver, cd player, xbox, ps2, etc.. were all the same length. Then everything stacks up neatly and organized, even if its not right on top of each other.

I like them smaller so I can stick them behind the doors under my TV rather than in the component stack.

I like to keep them out of site as much as possible, with all the cords etc.

Anything with wood panelling!

remember the 2600 had an all black box too.

The thing to remember is that the UMD is really not a PSP only format, its just a small format media disc... I'm sure we'll see UMD videoplayers, audioplayers (ipodclone umd), UMD drives for PC's and whatnot.. Rewriteable UMD's would be sweet.

Here's one in silver:


How's that for an "Xbox fanboy".

You are absolutley correct, in fact Sony is banking on it. Sony is already producing 100,000 UMD discs a day. For sure the UMD is one huge potential future revenue source for Sony.

The problem is there are already many other open formats that can do what UMD does and there are formats that can do it better. Sony makes a lot of money on CD and DVD sales, but these sales are dropping do to people getting there content directly over the internet. As time goes on this trend will continue, so the UMD is an attempt by Sony to substain its cash profit and its disc processing factories. Just as Nintendo stuck with carts for business reasons, Sony is sticking with optical medial for as long as possible.

The problem in my mind is Sony's continual blatent use of properitary standards in the industry. (Which is a large reason why their standards fail: Beta, Minidisc, Mem. Stick, etc.) If Sony managed to create a world of UMD consumption it would be a huge cash cow for them. This is why Sony is willing to sell the PSP at a loss in attempt to make the UMD standard take hold. Many people think it is the PSP vs the DS or GBA, this is true on the surface but there is a much larger business plan with the PSP then just "killing Nintendo".


All that said, it is very likely that if the PSP succeeds that Sony would include a UMD drive in the PSP to push the format into more homes. The reason for my original post was more of anger then anything else, I'm really tired of Sony holding back the PC and electronics industry because it thinks it always has the best answer to something. I certainly will contend that the PS3 could have UMD drive, I just think it shouldn't.

UMD is going to bomb like a lot of other Sony proprietary formats. That's what I think anyway.

Woah!
I've heard of "typos" before, but what the hell just happened there?!

Sorry, I went back and added open and apparently screwed up big time. *Fixed* Thanks.

I read some where that they are thinking of compromising with the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war that is looming. Not sure what a compromise means but maybe we'll see one format for High-def video.

I like Sony's Blu-Ray ideas, it's definitely the best format. Too bad it's looking like it'll go the way of Beta. I hope they don't compromise.

Without going too far off topic...
Is it because of costs?
On paper, yes, it does sound like the better format. I always said, however, that the HDDVD format was more cost effective and will eventually outsell Blu-ray.

on topic:

It looks like to me that it's a pretty good render that ironically looks fake because the guy tried to hard to make it look authentic. I don't think the reflections on the glossy surfaces would be there on a real ad from Sony. The other thing that makes me think it's not authentic is that it just looks bad. You can see where the artist picked up design cues from various other Sony products, but none of it blends together well. Design-wise, it looks a bit frankensteiny to me.

off-topic:

It's probably correct in some sense to say that Beta, MD, and Memory Stick have failed in that none of them became the dominant standard for their segment. However, keep in mind that both Beta and MD were successful enough that Sony sold products profitably and continued to develop new products using those media for over a decade. Marketing execs in many companies would be thrilled to have "failed" products such as those.

As for Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD, I'd actually give the edge to Blu-Ray at this point. Studio support for both standards is weak in the sense that most of the announcements from the studios amount to little more than PR fluff. There's no binding or exclusive agreement so any of these studios that have come out for one or the other format can/will adopt whichever format starts to become distinctly more popular.

The difference is that with Sony controlling Sony Pictures, Columbia, MGM, etc.; they're much more likely to exclusively support Blu-Ray early on with their library of movies. Also I think the PC industry is leaning much more heavily towards Blu-Ray. Sony, Dell, HP, and Apple have all committed to supporting Blu-Ray as the next generation optical disc format for their PCs.

DVD burners for PCs have been selling very strongly and I don't think most consumers are buying them mainly for data storage since they've had access to alternative re-writable 4.7GB formats for years and none of them took off because none of them were compatible with their DVD players.

This PC to TV interaction in the next generation is going play an even more important part and Blu-Ray has a distinct advantage in that they already have shipping products (albeit extremely pricey at this point). Also, don't discount the fact that there will be over 1 million Blu-Ray players out in the market within months of the PS3's launch. That more than anything will be what kicks off the market for pre-recorded HD movies.

I'll go with the consensus and say the Dreamcast looked the best. Somehow the white colour really worked for it to. Also the new slim line ps2 is just badass because of it's size (although it doesn't necessarily look great in itself).

A UMD slot of psp games in the ps3 wouldn't be absurb, but wow, it would sure add to the cost. Kind of cool though, you could play psp games with a decent stick .

I agree with many people here that the PS2 is not a good looking machine. I got one at launch, but I was never a fan of the industrial design of it. I thought the original PlayStation was a much more elegant unit (but I think the new slim model is a huge improvement). That said, I think the Xbox is average and the Cube is pretty good.

None of them look as good as the Dreamcast, in my opinion. I still love the design of that thing.

I couldn't believe my eyes how utterly horrendous the PS2 was when it first came out, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's the design for the PS3. What would surprise is that they'd add a UMD drive. Don't make no sense because it would cost them too much money and nobody would want too see UMD movies on the TV when there's DVDs and HD-DVDs around.

GBA SP.

But what if the UMD drive is there so we can play PSP games on the TV? Now that would be worth it! I have no interest in the PSP, because I'm not out enough to warrant a hand-held system, but if they put out a PSP peripheral similar to the Gameboy Player on 'Cube, I'd probably snatch it up in a heartbeat.

even more wacky PS3 stuff:

http://www.ps3world.com/index.php?ref=Concept&id=1

The crop circle one is......interesting,and that silver one is just god-awful ugly.

I think this is the best looking one of the bunch:

This one is interesting too. I like the contoured front, but not so sure about the top or the blue light. I like my electronics to not have too many LED's or lights. Too distracting. I heard the XBOX 360 is going to have a ring or green light around it that lights up.

I don't care for the contoured front,reminds me too much of the N64.If the blue strip across the front lit up that would be awesome though.