PlayStation®Network General

[Tribble6]

The first product incorporating Google TV has finally hit the market - Sony Internet TV (a Blu-ray player with the Google TV technology).

Given this (there are a few videos on YouTube), what implications does this have for the PS3's Internet Browser?

I predict Sony will do absolutely nothing with the ps3 browser for the following reasons:

1. The demand from PS3 owners for an improved browser comes way down on the list of improvements they would like to see.
2. Removing the browser is not necessary (avoid any possible legal challenges, however unlikely), as all they have to do is not upgrade the browser and it will die an extremely slow and painful death, due to the introduction of HTML 5 and a mandatory Flash 10.x requirement.
3. There is no point in investing any resources in a feature only a handful of users use, doesn't make them any money and they have competing products on sale or soon to be on sale.

Ok, so if you're a PS3 owner, what likelihood is there you're going to buy a Google TV product?

Clearly, you won't be buying the Sony Internet TV as you already have an excellent Blu-ray player, so just buying it for the Google TV feature is rather unlikely.

Also, if you've bought an HD TV in the last year or so, you're hardly likely to sell it just so you can buy a new Sony TV incorporating Google TV. In many years time, when it comes time to buy another TV, you'll buy a Samsung (sorry Sony ).

If you have "loads of money", you might consider buying Logitech's Google TV set top box, but for most of us (we are in a recession after all), perhaps in the distant future.

So, in the mean time, there's 35 million PlayStation 3's, will all that untapped potential. I for one intend to make use of that power, for as long as possible (how long, a year, two years at most before the browser is entirely defunct - not sure).

[Iceman_Cobra]

I still want an update that adds party chat to which I've been wanting for months, but Sony just doesn't seem to care that some of us would like to socialise while gaming.

[jfsebastian]

First of all thanks Tribble for all your continuing efforts regarding the browser. You certainly put Sony to shame. One thing I've noticed with the bookmarklet recently though is it doesn't seem to work with Google anymore. Is that deliberate? Regarding Google TV I would suggest that it could be incorporated into PS3 which is a pre-existing platform with a large user-base ready made for it. I agree with you that Sony seem to be more interested in shifting their internet TVs rather than maintaining the browser. I wouldn't have very much confidence in there being long-term support and maintenance of the browser for the internet TV given their track record with PS3. It really is a shame to see a great and useful feature that was so ahead of the pack neglected and squandered by Sony.

[shona39]

Isn't it ridiculous. PS3 can upload videos to facebook, yet if you reassure they are running correct, facebook can't show them as there appears always the demand of installing the flashplayer Vers.10.1.

Idiots who have invented that.

[Tribble6]

Hey jfsebastian, I much appreciate yours and JediKnight246 support for the bookmarklet (and anyone else who has had a kind word).

Effectively rebuilding YouTube, the world's #3 web site (based on Alexa ratings), to make it work great in  the PS3 Internet Browser has proved to be one gargantuan task for just one engineer, working in his living room. I tell you, getting the queue working as well as it does was not doing my health any good at all (I was on occasion working till 2 a.m.), especially when YouTube changed everything, just when I was about to release v1.0 of the plugin...

The good news on the browser is whilst it may not be in Sony's commercial interest to develop the browser any further, it is not in the interest of Web community as a whole. Web sites, such as Wikipedia (fantastic news that this is working again on the PS3), thrive on as many visitors as possible, regardless of their browser and there are some people who can afford a PS3 but not a PC as well, so it is great they can again have access to the world's encyclopaedia .

I would actually argue that it is not in Google's interest to choke the browser as Google makes the bulk of its funds from advertising on Web sites, so I would of thought they would want to support any and all browsers. I don't understand why they haven't fixed the markup error in their search results (I've reported this twice) where they omit the required closing paragraph tag for the star rating images, which adds the extra blank lines you see in the ps3 browser. If they are deliberately trying to make the browser look bad, this clearly fails their "do no evil" test and as i say, what about the advertising - surely you want this to look as good as possible

When I update the bookmarklet, I always make sure the Google plugin is still working fully. To be frank, the changes I make are rather superficial and even I don't even use the bookmarklet on Google that often. I do use it when Google shows a "doodle" on the home page (the art work they sometimes show), out of sheer curiosity. The other day, they had one for John Lennon's birthday which didn't work because it wasn't coded as a link and I was too busy on other tasks to address this. Please let me know what specifically isn't working and I will certainly fix it.

As promised, I intend to publish my in depth findings on the browser so web sites can add support for the ps3 for a fraction of the cost it would have otherwise cost them. Watch this space on this one.

As far as Google TV and maintaining the browser are concerned, this is a new ball game. Unlike previous attempts at a browser for use on the TV, this uses a major browser (Chrome), which can be automatically updated via Firmware updates. So I see no reason why Google TV shouldn't succeed in this regard.

Could Sony come up with a Google TV extension for the PS3, that you pay for? I  know very little on the PS3's hardware, but this doesn't seem practical. The main problem is the PS3's 256MB or RAM which limits the software it can run, unless it has been specifically written for the PS3 which is expensive.

I tell you one thing, it would have taken me far less time to fix the issues in the PS3's NetFront browser than writing the bookmarklet...

[jfsebastian]

To answer your qestion Tribble, The bookmarklet worked perfectly the first time I tried it with Google but every other time since (including the latest update) it doesn't work at all for me. A message comes up saying the bookmarklet is designed only to work with Youtube and Google, so it appears not to recognise Google. Maybe it's just an isolated case and others can use it with no problems. The main thing is Youtube works so much better thanks to the bookmarklet. I just thought you'd want to know.

[mont348]

Is there a usable itvplayer on the browser till we get the XMB short cut?

I have tried it but all i get is due to licence issue Blah Blah Blah it not available in your area and i am a Uk psn user i thought they may have something usable (beta) before the XMB short cut launch.

[JediKnight246]

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mont348 wrote:
Is there a usable itvplayer on the browser till we get the XMB short cut?

I have tried it but all i get is due to licence issue Blah Blah Blah it not available in your area and i am a Uk psn user i thought they may have something usable (beta) before the XMB short cut launch.

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The ITV Player website worked for me on the browser several months ago, after ITV had redesigned the website, it worked for a couple of days, then i started getting the messages about license issues and so on, so we'll probably have to wait for it to be added to the XMB.

[paddybee]

the worst thing I think is that facebook still freezes up when you try to view pages or photos, I wish they would update the whole thing, I just don't bother looking at facebook or any site like it that may freeze my ps3 now, could be so great

[mont348]

I dont give a monkeys about facebook but if there's a fanbase update the browser Sony!