This site has some pretty good info on the PS3. Now that I’m transitioning out of AOL and Netscape, I’m thinking I may want to take a break from the day to day grind and work on some writing, possibly a book. The more I tinker with the PS3, the more I can see the potential for another hacks book. I could incorporate much of what I learned from writing PSP Hacks into a chapter on PS3 and PSP integration. The question is: would the book have to be translated into Japanese to be a large seller? It’s difficult writing niche books about gaming platforms as the sales of the book are inevitably tied closely in with the sales of the console. At the outset, I’ll be handicapped by the PS3’s price. Still I find the idea appealing. I think I’ll start working on a book proposal and see how good it sounds and then start shopping it around to O’Reilly.
There are a few things I’m curious about though. With the PSP, one of the things I discovered while writing the book was that Sony kept releasing Firmware updates that led to hurried revisions and added features that could have been covered, but weren’t. Looking at the current layout of the PS3, I can already spot several holes in the current firmware that if I were a betting man I would guess Sony will eventually release. If you look at the current PSP firmware, it supports several features that the PS3 doesn’t, most notably podcast support. It would be great if I could subscribe to all my favorite audio *and* video podcasts on the PS3 and watch / listen to them all on my TV. The technology is already in the box, as the PS3 supports MP3, MPEG-4, and internet connectivity.
In any case, I think the short-term future holds a bunch of writing possibilities for me. I’m going to probably do some freelance writing, some articles and perhaps some long-form feature blogging, and work on a book proposal or two. We’ll see what comes of it all.
Related posts:
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
With it’s ability to run Linux, I think one of the hangups with the PS3 from the hack perspective will be convincing people something is truly clever. I mean sure you could right up some long how to about making your PS3 serve all your home’s media, but how do you avoid people saying “I get it; it runs Linux”.
Well, getting the console to do many of the Linuxy things without having to reboot into linux would be the ideal situation. Writing homebrew applications for it. Hardware mods. Etc. Also, most hardcore users who would say “I get it; it runs Linux” are most likely not going to go out and buy a book on any sort of hacking anyway. The target audience is more of a new hacker / moderate hacker level. The tinkerer hobbyist.
there are some good hacks for the ps3 and a good book would probably be a hit go for it….