Cranking out news for the geeks, music buffs and gossip junkies, my way. -Greg

Sony is preparing to release a new firmware upgrade in June which will bring 3D to the PS3. Apparently the first update will only work on PSN (PlayStation Network) titles. Following that will be an update for Blu-ray, which would allow games and movies alike the 3D option. Folks who purchase Sony’s HX803 3D TV will get a bundle of PS3 3D games with it. You’ll still have to fork out for the 3D glasses, so maybe you should have your friends bring their own.  On a side note, don’t expect anything like this on your Xbox, ever. -Greg

I’ve been telling my girlfriend that we NEED a Playstation 3 to complete our home entertainment system. I’ve given plenty of reasons, the most obvious, Blu-ray, the next being we can share media (pictures, music, and video) across our home network via UPnP, and finally can you guess, GAMES. Well of course non of these mean to her that this is something we need. Well now I have a new reason to add to the list, Netflix! Netflix and Sony are finally teaming up to bring Netflix to the Playstation 3. I will admit that I had already researched a bit on how to get Netflix streamed through the PS3, which there are alternative ways to do so, but I never really threw that out there. Now, this has to be an excellent reason?! Nevertheless I have completed building my Windows Home Server, so the addition of a Playstation 3 is now imperative to complete our home entertainment system. I want, rather need to have the power of pictures, mp3′s, videos, games, blu-ray, netflix, and internet routed out of my beautiful plasma, I must and will have it! Resistance is futile! -Greg

by Ross Miller posted Aug 18th 2009 at 6:23PM

Yes, we can hardly believe it ourselves, but Sony came a-knockin’ at our door today, and we were more than willing to answer. The PlayStation 3 Slim is now official in-house, and it’s a matte-laden beaut. Enough chitchat — live vicariously through our unboxing and hands-on pics below!

Update: Some details for clarification. The buttons in the front are now physical and actually “click” in to function. The PS logo above the disc drive does not rotate for vertical use, and yes, the hard drive is swappable — as you can see from the pictures, there’s a screw on the bottom, hidden by a panel, that lets you take off part of the front for access. We’ve also lined it up against our standard, fatty PS3, and we gotta say, it’s noticeably lighter.

Update 2: Here’s a more thorough comparison between the slim, the original, and the Xbox 360. Some people were asking about the texture of the matte finish, and compared to Microsoft’s console, it’s just a teensy bit rougher (and on that note, about the same weight, too). It’s still just as glossy as the original on the sides, however. We still gotta compare the noise of the slim, stay tuned!

Update 3: While our tests were far from thorough, the initial results from our quick-and-dirty decibel ratings show some promise. At a baseline average of 49 db, the Slim averages between 53 and 56 db when in use / playing a game / installing data (in this case, Metal Gear Solid 4), compared to the 55 to 57 db of the original. Blu-ray movie playback is where it becomes noticeable, as the slim peaked for us at 60 db when the original was doing 70 db running the same disc.