"There is no doubt that the entertainment industry is helping to drive the direction of high performance computational science," said Professor Peter Coveney of University College London.

Gaurav Khanna, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, uses an array of 16 PS3s instead of a supercomputer to simulate two black holes merging.

"A single high-precision simulation can sometimes cost more than 5,000 hours on the TeraGrid supercomputers. For the same cost, you can build your own supercomputer using PS3s. It works just as well, has no long wait times and can be used over and over again, indefinitely," said Khanna.

Either way, T3's mock-up looks sexy as hell, and they also think a new rumored 160GB model could appear in the new slinky, skinny-as-Kate-Moss form. [T3]

A couple of other users at the official PS3 forums are claiming the same thing and it appears only machines with the serial numbers CE133190xxx and CE133212xxx are affected. Anyone out there experiencing the same thing or is this a case of overly sensitive ears? – Louis Ramirez

New PS3 Owners Report Noisy, Defective Consoles [DailyTech]

At midnight Spain, a major Sony stronghold, they were giving away half-price consoles but this morning retailers were reporting that the 600€ PS3s were not exactly flying off the shelves. An informal poll in El Corte Ingles, Spain's biggest retail chain, showed that there were still enough consoles to last until at least next week. Video of le bâteau in Paris and more European indifference/desperation after the jump.

The night before the Mayor of Madrid (he's the one looking at the la-las of the lady on his left in the picture below) was up way past his bedtime to present a cute tweenager with her first console courtesy of Banesto bank. They were selling PS3 at half the price to tout for new business (to get that offer you had to tell your employer to transfer your salary to your Banesto bank account for a minimum of 25 months). T-shirts with "My mom had her paycheck paid into Banesto and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" "I've got Playstation 3" emblazoned on the front and baseball caps were also doled out.

In Berlin, german gamers were treated to a free gig, courtesy of those nice people at Sony (thankfully, no David Hasselhoff). Italy got its consoles two days before everyone else, after retailers Darty announced that their PS3s were going on sale on Wednesday morning. Ooh, those Italians can't half be rebellious when they want to. – Ad Dugdale

PS3 Launch Leave Parisians Cold [Next Generation]

Blu-ray Edges Out HD DVD in February [TG Daily]

Stars Customize PS3s in Vegas [Complex]

PS3 Put on a Diet [T3]

Latest PS3 Firmware Hits, Fixes BC Graphical Issues [Kotaku]

"There's a heck of a lot more under the hood and it costs us more money to make it. . . I think the consumers that get their hands on a PlayStation 3 clearly see the value and not only want to buy one for $599, in some instances they're willing to pay ridiculous prices to buy one on eBay."

Sony Honcho Negs PS3 Price-Cuts [Kotaku via Game Informer]

Let's hope the high price on that cable is some kind of translation error, because if you're paying $1200 for an HDMI cable, we have some prime real estate in south-central Florida to show you. Nevertheless, this is one jaw-dropping set up, rivaling those dudes who set up a movie theater to play bowling games on their Wii. – Louis Ramirez and Charlie White

PS3 at 200 Inches with Thousand Dollar Cable [Kotaku]

PS3s in Stock Show Demand May Be Softening [Reuters]

Product Page [Electronista]

Red and Silver Third-Party PS3s Coming [Kotaku]

Here's what they had to say.

Ultimate AV:

The PS3 more than holds its own in image quality, and wins hands down on boot up and disc access speed.

It would be hard for me to recommend a PS3 as a primary Blu-ray playback device; to those with zero interest in gaming. On the other hand for those with at least a passing interest in gaming, multimedia and Blu-ray playback, the PS3 does indeed offer an attractive mix of features.

PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Disc Player [Ultimate AV]
Sony PlayStation 3 (BD Playback) [Home Theater Blog]

Dreaming of a White PS3 Christmas [Kotaku]

Toshiba: We'll Beat Sony to the Living Room [PC World]

•A Sony poll inquired if he'd be interested in an HD Eyetoy Camera. To which he replied, "HuhWhatsItOKyesSure?!" (See photo) The odds: 3/10. Marketing guys always label everything HD. It's what they do.

•Rumors that the PS3's Bluetooth remote is showing up in stores. Which may be a comfortable thing to sleep next to if you're still waiting for your preorder or can't dream of affording more than a PS3 clicker. –Brian Lam

Eyetoy HD? [Kotaku]
Bluray remotes in the wild [Kotaku]

Clip: PS3 BC Issues Popping Up [Kotaku]

Case in point, officers tried to serve a warrant to a teen suspected of robbing a student of two PS3s. Things turned bad when the kid was unarmed, but may "have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers." Yikes! In addition, his german shepherd was also "shot to death."

Lesson: don't be holding anything in your hand when police knock down your door. More specifically, nothing black, like a SIXAXIS. – Jason Chen

N.C. police kill student accused in PlayStation 3 robbery, police tried to serve warrant [WHDH]

But this only works if you're playing a game that supports both 720p and 1080i. Early reports say that the PS3 still can't upscale a game from 720p to 1080i. So in games such as Resistance, whose only HD resolution is 720p, you'll still get bumped down to 480p rather than up-rezzed to 1080i. Sigh. – Charlie White

Like That, Another PS3 Firmware Update Hits [Kotaku]

This auction is being listed to help raise money for me to pay my medical school tuition. I waited on line at Wal-mart for over 57 hours. I was even there a whole day before anyone else arrived. I was first in line and when all the PS3's were finally released to the public, I bought everything they had available and therefore, THIS IS THE ULTIMATE PS3 AUCTION! I haven't seen a bigger PS3 auction on eBay yet!

Unfortunately for him, eBay's taken down his auction. Unfortunately for everyone else, he'll no doubt scam enough money to pay for his education, after which he'll become your local doctor. – Jason Chen

Douchebag PS3 Auction of the Day [Kotaku]

The benefits of HDMI 1.3, are translated into English below for easy digestion through my easily riled intellectual bowels.

Lipsync: Like Milli Vanilli, it can coordinate the output of audio and video. Increasingly important as all sorts of video and audio voodoo can cause unequal delay in the signal.

Jump for the rest of HDMI 1.3's upgrades—plus a super bonus video.

Double the Data Rate: Upgraded from 4.95 gigabits per second to 10.2 Gbps. Useless, except for the added color depth this allows

Deep color: Simply put, the new spec allows for billions of colors instead of millions. And we all know, millionaires are a dime a dozen these days.

Uncompressed audio: Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio can be sent uncompressed. Existing setups can already stream that stuff decoded, as can the PS3 (I think) so this isn't going to be useful for most people, but wtf, we'll take it anyhow.

We won't complain, esp since our regular old HDMI cables work with HDMI 1.3. Instead of this $60 dollar cable, go get something cheaper. Unless you're as big of a Playstation fanboy as this guy.

–Brian Lam

HDMI cable for PlayStation 3 DLC-HD20P [Sony]

With the PlayStation 3, you are getting the performance of a supercomputer at the price of an entry-level PC

The Xbox 360 on the other hand, costs $323 to make, these days. So, what we're trying to get at here is that the PS3 is a good deal. A lot of bang for the buck. A Bargain. A wonderful surprise, for us, and for Sony. Good job, guys!

But I suppose we could have figured it out for ourselves if we'd considered how much the PS3 costs per pound. Fat ass.

Did you know the WiFi module is only $15 bucks? Hit the jump to see the price per component for everything else.

–Brian Lam

iSuppli guts the PS3 [isupply]

Reporting and Photography by Lisa Freedman

PS3 [Gizmodo]

You can stream media directly off memory cards (SD, CompactFlash), or you can copy them to your hard drive for easier playback and added functionality. For example, when you copy videos to your hard drive, you get "live" thumbnails—thumbnails that play themselves. You can also see a better view of the PS3's photo album feature, which still hasn't gotten old yet. – Jason Chen

Further reading: PS3 and Wii Unboxing [Gizmodo]

Previously, we thought the trigger buttons were too slippery and the controller too light. Now that we've gotten a lot more play-time with it, the SIXAXIS feels just like a DUALSHOCK. The R2 and L2 shoulder buttons are pretty squishy (that's good), and as long as you press it down in the middle of the pad, there's fairly little chance of slippage. The weight issue is negligible, and the lack of rumble was hardly missed. Since rumble was never a uniform thing throughout games, not having it doesn't really affect gameplay at all.

In the two games we tried, Genji and Resistance, the controls were tight and we didn't have any problems. – Jason Chen

I wiped some off with my hand, and lo and behold, it was scratched up to hell.

You'll want to keep yours in an oxygen bubble for maximum shinatude. –Brian Lam
Wii and PS3: Complete and Synchronized Unboxing [Gizmodo]

Bonus: you'll even get a few seconds of the Final Fantasy XII title screen. – Jason Chen

Further Viewing: PS3 Interface Walkthrough [Gizmodo]

So, if you click on over here, you can get some of the experience of owning a PS3, with $600 more dollars in your pocket, without standing in line, and um, without the games. And for some actual video of the crossbar experience, we've got that too. –Brian Lam

Sony's PS3 Manual [Via Kotaku]

The new system update 1.10 lets us sign online to the PlayStation Network, but unfortunately the entirety of country selection consists of Japan. We'll try again in a few days. – Jason Chen

As you can see, the PS3's cable is only five feet long, not nearly far enough for anyone to use while playing. It's only a "charge" cable—unless you want to sit up close and incur the wrath of mothers everywhere—as opposed to Xbox 360's "play and charge" cable. Just something to keep in mind.

Update: You could also theoretically plug the PS3 controller into a laptop, a powered USB hub or an Xbox 360 sitting next to you on the couch, but that's a kludge. – Jason Chen

Either way, the fonts are too small.

BTW, I am not an eye doctor, and the comparison to the Snellen eye chart aren't literal or scientific measurements. It's a joke.