Life with PlayStation was an online

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradit ...

application for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

on the PlayStation Network. The application had four channels, all of which revolved around a virtual globe that displayed information according to the channel. The application also included a client for

Folding@home Folding@home (FAH or F@h) is a volunteer computing project aimed to help scientists develop new therapeutics for a variety of diseases by the means of simulating protein dynamics. This includes the process of protein folding and the movements ...

, a

distributed computing A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed computing is a field of computer sci ...

project aimed at disease research. the service has been discontinued.

History

In August 2006, Stanford University in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

, announced that a

protein folding Protein folding is the physical process by which a protein chain is translated to its native three-dimensional structure, typically a "folded" conformation by which the protein becomes biologically functional. Via an expeditious and reproduc ...

client would be available to run on the PS3. On December 19, 2007, Sony updated the Folding@home client to version 1.3. The update allowed users to run music stored on their hard drives while contributing to Folding@home and automatically shut down their console after existing simulation work was done. The software update also added the

Generalized Born Implicit solvation (sometimes termed continuum solvation) is a method to represent solvent as a continuous medium instead of individual “explicit” solvent molecules, most often used in molecular dynamics simulations and in other applications of ...

implicit solvent model, which broadened the PS3 client's computing capabilities. On September 18, 2008 the PS3 version of the Folding@home client became Life With PlayStation. The application became available for the PS3 in March 2007 and became a channel on Life with PlayStation when it was released. This update also provided more advanced simulation of protein folding and a new ranking system. Following the release of

system software System software is software designed to provide a platform for other software. Examples of system software include operating systems (OS) like macOS, Linux, Android and Microsoft Windows, computational science software, game engines, search engin ...

version 4.30, the Folding@home PS3 client and all other services under Life with PlayStation were discontinued on November 6, 2012. Life with PlayStation was then removed from the

XrossMediaBar The XrossMediaBar (pronounced "cross-media bar" and officially abbreviated as XMB) is a graphical user interface developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The interface features icons that are spread horizontally across the screen. Navigation m ...

for new users.

Channels

Life with PlayStation featured five channels which were updated frequently with new information. The application provided the user with access to information "channels", the first of which was the ''Live Channel'' which offered news headlines and weather through a 3D globe. The user could rotate and zoom into any part of the world to access information provided by Google News and

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather foreca ...

, among other sources.

Live Channel

Live Channel was a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. N ...

time zone A time zone is an area which observes a uniform standard time for legal, commercial and social purposes. Time zones tend to follow the boundaries between countries and their subdivisions instead of strictly following longitude, because it ...

and

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmos ...

feed, which provided users with information from Google News and

organized by city. The content included live camera feeds and cloud data, similar to Google Earth. Live Cameras was provided by

earthTV earthTV Network GmbH is a German satellite television network, which airs live broadcasts from its camera network around the world. Cameras are located in well-known cities as well as lesser known locations. EarthTV cameras usually feature beach ...

and the Webcams.travel website. The application only supported certain cities of the world, with limited coverage, such as with the continent

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, with only four cities covered by the Live Channel.

Folding@Home

Life with PlayStation also hosted an application for

, a

project for disease research that simulated

and other

molecular dynamics Molecular dynamics (MD) is a computer simulation method for analyzing the physical movements of atoms and molecules. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a fixed period of time, giving a view of the dynamic "evolution" of t ...

. Users were able to contribute to the project by leaving their client to run Folding@home while not playing games. The application displayed a live rendering of the protein being folded and some statistical information in front of a

virtual globe A virtual globe is a three-dimensional (3D) software model or representation of Earth or another world. A virtual globe provides the user with the ability to freely move around in the virtual environment by changing the viewing angle and posit ...

background.

PlayStation Network Game Trailers Channel

For users in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, the PSN game trailers channel allowed direct access to the streaming of the

PlayStation Store The PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital media store available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The store offers a range of downloadable conten ...

's game trailers. It also allowed the ability to purchase titles from the store, without having to leave the application.

United Village

United Village, provided by its respective website, and hosted by Frontier International Inc., was a cultural documentary-like project that gathered stories, interviews and articles worldwide. It targeted

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

stories from largely from

developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

with some rural parts of other countries. The contents of the channel include culture, development, education, social issues and tourism. The United Village channel was discontinued on March 30, 2011.

World Heritage

World Heritage, by α Clock, showed

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

-selected locations of special cultural or physical significance around the world. These

World Heritage sites A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

linked to their respective articles on

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

. Each location included the introduction directly from the Wikipedia articles.

Features

In addition to the channels, the PlayStation 3's also featured photo slideshow viewing, music & video playback. Also Life with PlayStation had a virtual globe that was periodically updated from servers to ensure that cloud, weather, live camera feed and news update data were all up to date. All channels except for the Live Channel included a static representation of our planet Earth, while the Live Channel itself showed day and night time effects. Additionally, the Folding@home protein folding could be disabled.

References

{{PlayStation 3 2008 software PlayStation Network PlayStation 3 software Virtual globes