Perfection, rightly so, is pretty much unattainable.  That means that there is always some improvement to strive for.  Games consoles have been with us now for over thirty years and their functionality has been expanding at an ever-increasing rate. When Sony’s original PlayStation introduced the Compact Disc as the storage format for its games, games consoles suddenly became devices that we could use to play back our other entertainment media.
Another generation on and Sega clearly had the imagination to see where the addition of online functionality could take consoles when they created their ill-fated Dreamcast. Â Now consoles sport a vast range of capabilities beyond simple gaming and doubtless PC gamers sit smugly pointing out that their general purpose machines have been doing it all for longer.
While there will always be more features that can be added, for example there is a vocal group who believe the PS3 is missing a key one, what about the features that are already there. Â There is room for improving, or tweaking, those.
So to give you something to think about on a Sunday this is the start of a series of posts asking you how you would improve the existing features of something gaming-related.  To kick things off this week let’s take a look at the PlayStation 3’s feature-laden GameOS which should give you plenty to talk about with all the features you can currently access via the PS3’s XMB.
Here are the top three tweaks I would like to see:
1) Streamlined in-game XMB
Sony capitulated to the demands of gamers and added the ability to access the XMB while in-game way back in the short-lived  firmware 2.40.  However I rarely use it because being identical to its out-of-game incarnation it is just too slow. Loading all the icons takes too long.  That fact that so many of those icons on it cannot be used in-game itself suggests that Sony need to slim it down. Presumably slimming it down could also reduce the amount of memory the GameOS requires in-game, so that could help developers too.  It needs to focus on just the essential features needed in-game, load instantly and be quicker to navigate, just like the Xbox 360’s in-game equivalent as it happens.
2) Backup to NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives
Being able to backup the contents of the PS3’s hard drive is a great feature.  For me though it would be much more useful if it was not just restricted to backing up to USB-connected drives.  My NAS drive has much more storage available than any of my USB drives and it is always available so it would be great not to have to connect up a USB drive when I want to make one of my regular backups.
3) Auto-set time and date when connecting to PSN
On the time and date settings menu on the XMB is the option to set them via the Internet. Â If you connect to PSN on a regular basis you should never have to hit the update button, as a part of the PSN login process could and should be to perform that update for you. Â It is not just a matter of keeping your PSN messages in sequence; you may not know that often servers for online games will not allow you to join if your time and date is significantly out. Â The Xbox 360 does this and even goes one step further by preventing you from changing them manually if you are connected to Xbox Live.
Those are my picks, two minor changes and one much more significant one, so now it is over to you.  How would you improve the existing features of the PS3’s GameOS?
hazelam
i hva e few ideas.
a new browser is needed, the one the ps3 has is handy, but it crashes and it’s slow, and it really needs an update.
custom soundtrack support needs to be universal.
i don’t know why sony didn’t make this a standard feature of the console from the start, they had plenty of time to see that feature at work on the 360 before the ps3 launched.
but they waited, what was it a year or two?
anyway, if they can’t do it this gen it needs to be a standard feature from day one for the next console to ensure that every single title supports it.
i pretty shocked that the time doesn’t auto update when you’re connected to the internet, i though setting the set via internet setting to on would mean it always stays synced, not that it syncs it then, and just then.
like you said, it should check when you sign on.
on a similar theme, the trophies need to update automatically whenever you get a new one while you’re signed in.
not just update the entire list in one go at some later time when you check the list.
make it seemless and do it in the background so we don’t have to worry about it.
one feature that would be cool is a game independent screenshot feature, like double tap the home button, or press the home button and another button like select at the same time, and it saves a screenshot.
i just discovered by accident that the touch can do this and it got me thinking that it would be a cool feature for the ps3.
also video recording would be awesome, but probably impractical for this generation, it’s something they could build in from the start with the ps4 and then every game would support it, combine that with the already present ability to upload to youtube and that could be a great feature.
also, i would like to see the comic reader app on the ps3, partly because i’d like to view the comic on my hdtv, and partly because i’d like to see the comic store return with new titles, but sadly i fear the comic store is going to be exclusive to sony phones in future.
Deathbrin
The new browser can as well wait for PS4?
Deathbrin
Surely you would know that the time is “then and just then”, cause otherwise it would auto-correct daylight saving?
hazelam
i never really gave it any thought before, i have to change all the other clocks when they go forwards or backwards so i guess in my mind it became part of that process and not something to do with the ps3.
i think maybe i overstated it when i said i was “pretty shocked”
kinda surprised would have been more accurate. ^_^
FluBBa
An option to copy all save files to USB/cloud backup.
Enable the software only PS2 and (full) PSP emulators.
Better browser (they are working on a port of webkit)
https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-jobs/2011-April/000055.html
http://products.sel.sony.com/opensource/source_webkit.shtml
Deathbrin
Gotta agree that the XMB is S*** slow. If someone sends a blank message with just a topic though, you don’t need to open the XMB to read it, but if you want to reply… XMB, scroll, wait till it loads, click messages, wait till it loads, click inbox, wait till it loads, click message… – the Japanese must be of a very patient sort; needs the Xbox system where you hold the PS button and it auto-jumps to the notification.
freezebug2
Probs been mentioned but rather than reading back through all the posts on here, I’d like to see an avatar creator/editor onboard ;)
freezebug2
The only problem to that though would be censorship of unsuitable avatars.
Xoralundra
I would like a notification to appear when friends that i choose earns a trophy. Sort of like the notification that a friend is online.
Foxhound
New web browser would be nice….
stueeeee
http://share.blog.us.playstation.com/ If anyone wants to put forward these ideas to Sony there’s a way u can, and u can support other ideas already suggested. Although theres no saying Sony will implement the ideas there have been a few on there that have been done already.