PlayStation 3 to get update, retires Life with PlayStation

Sony has announced a new firmware update for the PlayStation 3, according to the PlayStation Blog. The update is set to change the interface in a major way. The biggest change is how and where your trophies will be displayed.

Previously, trophies were displayed in the Game section of the XMB (cross media bar). With the update, the trophies will instead be found in the PlayStation Network section of the XMB, and will display more information on a game’s trophies without having to go into the trophy information. Another big change is that the PlayStation 3’s trophy section will also display trophies earned in PlayStation Vita games. You will also be able to see your trophy level and progress towards the next level while viewing your trophy collection

Sony is revamping the Trophy collection

Another major announcement by Sony is that the company will be shutting down some of the services available on the PlayStation 3 starting from November. The first of these services is Life with PlayStation. This would also conclude Sony’s participation in the Folding@home project by Stanford University – a distributed computing project that was aimed that understanding protein folding, misfolding, and studying the causes of a variety of diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

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Vijay Pande, Folding@home research lead at Stanford University, had this to say about the contributions of the players in the project: “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. The next steps, now underway at Stanford, are to take this lead compound and help push it towards a viable drug. It’s too early to report on our preliminary results there, but I’m very excited that the directions set out in this paper do appear to be bearing fruit in terms of a viable drug (not just a drug candidate).”

Recently, Sony had released an update that redesigned the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3. The new interface is meant to be cleaner and easier to navigate, as it makes anything you are looking for easier to find.

When you launch the store from the XMB, the first thing you’ll see is the ‘What’s New’ section, which gives you information to buy the newest games and downloadable content (DLC). Sony has now added a ‘carousel’ to the ‘What’s New’ section with the redesign. When you browse through the carousel, you’ll see a ‘Hero’ on every page. The heroes on the page will depend on what games are for sale, ranging from Connor from Assassin’s Creed III to Corvo from Dishonored.

The new update with the trophy collection changes, numbered 4.30, will be available from October 23.