Sony announced yesterday that they are releasing another new addition to their peripherals line up, a Sony branded AC charger. It can charge just about any PlayStation 3 peripheral including the DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller, SIXAXIS wireless controller, Bluetooth Headset and the new Wireless Keypad and it can even charge a PSP. You will be able to charge all of these peripherals without having to turn on your ps3 or even be connected to your ps3.
You may ask what the difference is from this Sony AC charger to the other ones already on the market, well, Sony have this to say: “Unlike the PS3 controller charging stations that are available in the market, we wanted to come out with an accessory enabling PS3 users to not only charge their controllers, but also other accessories, such as the new official Bluetooth Headset and Wireless Keypad.” The charger will be available in the second week of December for 24.99 USD (or £17.99, we think). Will you be picking one of these chargers up, or are you fine with the traditional PS3 based method of charging?
November 27th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Nice idea, I am really not a big fan of the PS3 chat pad though…. Same as the 360 messenger kit. Nice idea but the keys are just too darn small for my liking.
zb100 Says:
November 27th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Totally. USB Keyboard & mouse all the way. Shame only UT3 supported them.
November 27th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I think most people were hoping that the PS3 firmware could be updated to allow peripherals to be charged from its USB ports whilst in standby. Sony releasing this accessory probably means that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.
November 27th, 2008 at 11:28 am
yeah it would be better to be able to charge in standby.
Diver68 Says:
November 27th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I’ll third that…
But with the last FW update, it’s not been soooo bad - I’ve set to power down after 2 hours - so I leave all running at the end of a nights gaming and things should be charged for the next time!
jediryan123 Says:
November 28th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
how do you do that?
masoke Says:
November 28th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
It’s in the Power Save bit of the Settings in the Cross Media Bar. You can set your controllers to turn off after 15 minutes without use and get a choice how long to keep your PS3 on.
jediryan123 Says:
November 28th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
cool, i’ll try that
November 27th, 2008 at 11:49 am
might be a good time to mention this little bad boy:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10425
needs a travel plug adaptor to get it to plug into uk but it’s a well cool little unit that gets “oooohs” and “aaahhhs” from all who see it.
keeps those nasty front ps3 ports clear and you’ll never be cursing your luck when you have to sit 1 foot from the screen cause a sixaxis has run dry.
only downside is the fact i got a white one….
bigwhiteyeti Says:
December 1st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Looks great, except it’d be mostly empty. This is for the people who can afford 4 dualshock 3’s, right?
November 27th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
How much power will it use up ? In the long haul it might be less worthwhile , leaving it on charge overnight , burning out the battery life of your £34.99 controller ( unless of course your Eco-friendly , are you ? Hmmm ? )
deepmenace Says:
November 27th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
usb power is amazingly tiny.
i just ran a cost calculator on the link i posted for the 4 port charger and it came out at 79p a month.
point taken about killing the battery early though - i might unplug it every so often overnight.
November 27th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
So this is just a Sony branded charge-convertor? I wonder how massively overpriced it wil be given that Maplin sell this:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=115319&doy=27m11&C=SO&U=strat15
November 27th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
What I find odd is how much of a difference there is in charge sucking between games. It doesn’t really seem to depend on vibration or use of the motion sensing either as you would expect. Playing GTA, MGS or Warhawk it seems to last longer than something like NBA Live, GRID or a number of other games. That said I have no problem connecting to my ps3 or pc for a charge.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Great idea, I’ll be getting it 100%
November 28th, 2008 at 4:48 am
meh. my powered USB hub seems to work perfectly fine.