Now that the U.S. might be getting the white model of the PS3 the folks in Japan always need to have something a little more and have added a Satin Silver Playstation 3 model to the lineup. This makes a total of 3 colors available in the original black, white and now the most recent silver.

This model is also the 40GB version with the lack of PS2 game playing capabilities, card reader and fewer USB ports, but nevertheless seems to be helping out sales for Sony. The satin silver model will retail for ¥39,980 (about $374 USD). Sony will also release to Japan a matching DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller (not included) which will be in the same satin silver color. Sony has the controller retailing at 5,500 yen (about $52 USD).

Here’s another cheap Chinese knock-off that fell off the back of the truck recently. I thought the PX-3600 was bad…These ripoff consoles are just getting stranger and stranger. This one may look like a PS3, but that’s where the similarities end.

First, it’s tiny and comes in clamshell packaging. You don’t even plug it into a television, and it’s got a little screen that pops out of the side. Yes, just like all of the other knock-offs, this one has the personality of a wet fart trapped in a paper bag. Check out a video review after the jump.

The folks over at T3 did a pretty nice job with a mock up of a Wii Phone last year at about this time and this year they’re creating another stir. They’ve posted images today of what they envision as a lighter, slimmer Sony Playstation 3 which is reportedly heading for shelves as soon as this fall.

Sony does have a history of slimming things down just like they did last year with the slimmer PSP but it seems like an unlikely move from a company that’s trying to cut costs and increase the market for their latest game console, but maybe with Blu-ray pulling ahead they feel they have it made? T3 also is speculating that this new slimmer model would have the rumored 160GB hard drive in it as well, and of course a slim Blu-ray player.

I’ve seen a ton of screwed up knock off consoles, but this one has to be the strangest. Is it an Xbox, PlayStation 2, 3, or something else? What can you say about a modern console that sports the classic 9-pin controller ports of an Atari 2600 or Vic-20? I can only surmise that crackheads are now included in the design process.

Notice the Bat-wing controllers. It’s made by Cheer-Tech Industries of Hong Kong and includes visual elements from several modern consoles, tweaking them just enough to keep them safe from copyright infringements. It will play a handful of built-in games and comes with two controllers, only one with a rumble feature. Right now, no one seems to know if it plays games from recent consoles, but I doubt it.

XFPS has created a nifty little gadget that allows you to connect a USB or PS2 keyboard and mouse to your Playstation 3. The question is, will it be PlayStation 3 authorized only, or are we finally going to be able to use any keyboard and mouse on those integrated USB ports as long as the game supports it?

A company representative said that you will be able to play games such as Unreal Tournament 2007 with the keyboard and the mouse, which might mean the end of auto-aiming that is now have on Playstation 2. More details are sure to come. We will try to get more info on this one for you.

According to some leaked information from a Best Buy employee, the retailer sent out an internal memo that the 80GB Playstation 3 is scheduled to be “going closeout”, which basically means they will sell what’s on shelves and not stock anymore. The internal communication states that this is expected to take place as soon as January 28.

It’s been apparent that the 80GB model of the PS3 hasn’t had the selling power of the smaller and cheaper models, but since the removal of the 60GB models this leaves the shelves with nothing that is backwards compatible with PS2 games. It also limits consumers to the scaled down PS3 without the memory card reader and fewer USB ports.

We knew some upgrades were coming for both these devices and today both the PSP 3.80 firmware and the PS3 2.10 firmware upgrades are available for download.

We haven’t seen the PSP 3.80 version available online yet but it is available through the Network Upgrade menu option directly on the PSP bringing streaming internet radio directly to the handheld device. In fact, I’m listening to the ShoutCast player on my PSP while writing this. You’ll need an Wi-Fi internet connection of course, and after installing the update there is a new menu option in the network settings for Internet Radio. Selecting it brings you to an “About” page that shows two different but similar players available for download to your Memory Stick, one from ShoutCast and the other from IceCast, each having 50 genres to choose from once downloaded.

Sony has announced today that the 40GB Playstation 3 that was recently announced for Europe and Japan will indeed be coming to the US this fall as well. The new 40GB PS3 will retail for $399 and start selling on November 2. It looks like it has the same configuration as the other releases as well including the lack of backwards compatibility for PS2 games, no memory card reader and two USB ports short. No word on a white version of the console for the US, but the 40GB PS3 will also come bundled with Spider-Man 3 on Blu-ray disc.

Sony states in the press release that those wanting backwards compatibility should look to the 80GB model which is also receiving a price cut effective immediately. Sony has given the 80GB PS3 a $100 price drop from its original launch price of $599, pricing it a $499 today. We can never complain about price drops but even with the cut the PS3 is still the most expensive latest-generation console on the market compared to its rivals Wii and Xbox 360.

Today Sony announced they will be launching a 40GB PS3 in Japan on November 11th, a year to the day after the console was initially launched in Japan. The new 40GB PS3 will have a few changes changes from the units currently available including no memory card reader or backwards compatibility and will be short two of the four USB ports, which sounds just like the model recently announced for the UK.

Sony today released an announcement confirming rumors and FCC leaks of a less-expensive 40GB PS3 launching before the holidays. According the the announcement this model is currently only going to be available for Europe but it wouldn’t make sense for Sony to only release it in one area where PS3 sales are suffering. Hopefully it will be making its way to the US soon.

The new 40GB model will retail for €399 in the UK and aside from the drive size the new PS3’s will also lack 2 of the four USB ports and will have no memory card reader in order to cut some costs. It will also not be backwards compatible for PS2 games which isn’t too big of a deal for Europe models since software manages the backwards compatibility but for the U.S. it kinda’ stinks. We’ll have to watch this holiday season to see if this helps Sony take a bigger bite out of latest-generation game console sales and we’ll keep our eyes peeled for a U.S. targeted 40-giger.

The Nintendo Wii again has lead the game console sales in Japan selling 245,653 units in the first four weeks with the Sony PS3 trailing at 81,541 units. That’s about a 3 to 1 lead that Nintendo has over Sony’s console sales which is actually good news for Sony as that ratio has been shrinking the past couple months.

In June Nintendo sold around 6 times as many Wii’s compared to the Playstation 3 in the Japanese market, and in July that ratio dropped to about 4 to 1. The PS3 with its Blu-ray player has been behind Nintendo in console sales since they were introduced last year, likely due the PS3’s higher price and lack of popular game titles, but Sony’s plans for the coming months may help keep this trend going. The company is planning to add a number of games towards this holiday shopping season to hopefully entice more PS3 sales, including the very popular Gran Turismo 5 which will go on sale in October.

If this doesn’t tell the Sony executives that they better get a killer app game out for its PlayStation 3 sooner rather than later, we don’t know what will. Over at the North Carolina State University an associate professor of computer science went out and bought eight PS3 units and then clustered them together to combine their processing power. Apparently the demos for “Resistance: Fall of Man” wasn’t enough to impress Dr. Frank Mueller about the PS3’s gaming ability, but he can get a decent level of supercomputing processing power out of …

So you’re a Japanese gadget guru, what do you have in your house? A 200-inch theater screen of course. Even wonder what a PlayStation 3 would look like on a giant screen TV? Well here are the amazing pictures.

From the English version it appears that the only down side was that the text in the game was hard to read. This is probably because even the game designers didn’t have a 200-inch monster TV. The PlayStation 3 was connected to …