The PlayStation Video Store doesn’t have a fixed weekly update slot so you should really be checking the store everyday for new content. Grace Chen, Senior Manager of the PlayStation Store, has posted a PlayStation.Blog post detailing the new content available. The first update for August adds a number of new TV series downloads as feature films. Since the launch of the video store last month, hundreds of videos have been uploaded to the store for purchase and rental. You can check out what’s new below.

TV:

• Everest: Beyond the Limit
• Family Guy
• Gene Simmons: Family Jewels
• How I Met Your Mother
• It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
• LA Ink
• Land Of The Giants
• Miami Ink
• My Name is Earl
• Mythbusters
• Prison Break
• The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
• Trinity Blood
• Weaponology
• Xam’d: Lost Memories (There’s a brand new episode every Tuesday!)

Movies:

• Fool’s Gold
• King Arthur
• Reign of Fire
• Stay Alive
• The Eye
• The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
• Unforgiven

As you may already be aware, the Video Store is currently only available to the US.

Life with PlayStation is a service that brings you live news, live webcam feeds and weather among other things on your PS3, originally announced at Sony’s Strategic meeting in Tokyo back in June. Earlier last month at E3 Jack Tretton, CEO of SCEA, announced that the service would be available for the PS3 at the end of July. Noam Rimon, Senior Development Manager for SCEA, has announced on the PlayStation.Blog that the service will now be available in August.

The delay in deploying the service is "due to a few procedural matters," according to Rimon. The complete blog post is included below.

PlayStation.Blog post by Noam Rimon:

"We’d like to provide a quick update on Life with PlayStation for PLAYSTATION 3. We know many of you are eager to try out the new service for yourself, but you’ll have to hold tight. Due to a few procedural matters, the new service will make its way to PlayStation fans in August.

Rest assured, Life with PlayStation will be a service that introduces a new way to interact with your PS3. By bringing information from around the world into your living room, Life with PlayStation will offer a variety of interactive content and channels on a visually stunning worldwide map interface.

We’re focused on continuously expanding the world of PS3 through new services and hope to do just that with the upcoming launch of Life with PlayStation."

A big update for the US PlayStation Store this week as the last update for July goes live. The US have received three new playable demos and a range of new game add-on content. PixelJunk Eden is now available to purchase from both store (£4.99/$9.99). Both stores have also received a range of videos and wallpaper. The US store has also received Killzone 2 and PixelJunk Eden XMB themes and a music pack for Soul Calibur IV.

European Additions:

• Demos
  
  • PixelJunk Eden
• Downloadable games
  
  • PixelJunk Eden (£4.99)
• Videos
  
  • E3 – PSP Compilation Trailer
  • Prince Of Persia E3 Gameplay
  • The Last Guy Trailer
  • Linger in Shadows Trailer
• Wallpapers
  
  • Bionic Commando Rearmed wallpaper (15)

US Additions:

• Demos
  • LEGO Indiana Jones The Original Adventures
  • Madden NFL 09
  • FaceBreaker
• Downloadable games
  
  • PixelJunk Eden ($9.99)
• Game add-on Content
  
  • Soul Calibur IV: Customization Equipment 1 ($1.49)
  • Rock Band:
    • Yomp by thenewno2 ($0.99)
    • This is It by Staind ($ 1.99)
    • TheySay by Scars on Broadway ($1.99)
    • Electric Crown by Testament ($1.99).
• Videos
  
  • The Last Guy Trailer
  • Vampire Rain Altered Species Trailer 3
  • Beijing 2008 Track Trailer
  • Beijing 2008 Swimming Trailer
  • Bionic Commando Rearmed: The Making Of – Part 2
  • AST Dew Tour – BMX Progression
  • AST Dew Tour – BMX Rewind
  • AST Dew Tour – FMX Unleashed
  • AST Dew Tour – Skate Highlights
• Themes
  
  • Killzone 2 Theme
  • PixelJunk Eden Theme
• Wallpapers
  
  • Siren: Blood Curse Wallpaper (2)
  • Soul Calibur IV Wallpaper (2)
  • Street Fighter IV: Summer 08 Wallpaper
• Music
  
  • Soul Calibur IV: Downloadable Music (17 individual tracks at $0.99 each, full set $14.99)

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s (SCEE) Darren Cairns and Liam Wickham are in the forefront of PlayStation Home development. While in a developer conference in Brighton, the two took the chance to clarify a common but wrong notion about Sony’s virtual world to come. Cairns and Wickham have stated that Home is not for social networking, but for gaming. "Home is not a social network – it’s focused on games. It’s a visual representation of the PlayStation community," they said in the conference.

The focus, they say, is on creating a virtual representation of the PS3’s online community. More than socialization, Home is geared towards enhancing online play and other facets of PS3 gaming. Home is a service for starting sessions of online play, with features like virtual lobbies and match setup screens while inside Home and the ability to launch games themselves from within the virtual world. Once the game is over, players are returned to the virtual world where they can discuss the events of the last game played.

The closed beta will be extended as new features are added, and the open beta launch is still scheduled for later this year.

PlayStation 3 Firmware 2.42 is now available to download. The official announcement states that the update “improves the playback quality of some PlayStation 3 and PlayStation format software.” The official changelog states the same things, though users have been reporting that Life With PlayStation is now available too. Needless to say, some of you may decide to hold off updating your consoles to avoid the problems that firmware 2.40 caused.

We have yet to update our console, but once we do we will report any additional changed to the system software. If you decide to update your console, we recommend backing up your console before hand (just in case).

UPDATE:

PlayStation With Life was announced at E3 to be launching by the end of July, but was not included with PS3 firmware v2.42. Over at the PlayStation.Blog, Noam Rimon, Senior Development Manager for SCEA, has said that PlayStation With Life will be released in August. The delay is due to “a few procedural matters”.

PlayStation Home Manager, TedTheDog, has announced that Home Beta will be updated to version 0.96.3 this week bring Home closer to the the open beta release later this year. TedTheDog revealed that the update will be available to download on Thursday, July 31st 2008. Existing beta testers will receive a new beta code via email which they will need to enter on the Account Management screen. This will allow them to download the new patch.

The update fixes a few bugs in the software and moves the Home icon from the Games menu to the Network menu. The beta will be extended once current beta testers have had time to play with the new version.

As announced at E3 earlier this month, some of the PlayStation 3’s top titles have been re-launched as "Greatest Hits". The line-up of games retail at a much lower price of $29.99 so now there is no excuse for not owning some of the best selling games on the PS3. The current list of titles include Warhawk, Resistance: Fall of Man and Assassins Creed, just to name a few (see full list below). The packaging has also changed from Blue to Red so the titles are even easier to notice.

Greatest Hits line-up:

• Warhawk
• MotorStorm
• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Call of Duty 3
• Fight Night Round 3
• Need for Speed: Carbon
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
• Assassins’ Creed
• The Elders Scroll IV: Oblivion
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma

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A big PlayStation Store update for both Europe and the US this week. Both stores now have Siren: Blood Curse available for purchase. Both stores have also received a variety of new game add-on content including Siren chapter add-ons, Guitar Hero tracks, and Rock Band tracks. Europe now has Gangs of London for the PSP available to purchase and both stores have a number of new wallpapers, and videos. Check out the complete list below.

European Additions:

• Playable demos
  • EchoChrome PSN Demo
• Downloadable Game
  • Siren Blood Curse Full Game (£19.99)
• Game add-on content
  • Guitar Hero III – Guitar Virtuoso Track (£3.99)
  • Siren Blood Curse Chapter One – The Siren’s Call (£6.99)
  • Siren Blood Curse Chapter Two – No refuge (£6.99)
  • Siren Blood Curse Chapter Three – Nest of Devils (£6.99)
  • Siren Blood Curse Chapter Four – The End is the Beginning (£6.99)
• Video
• PixelJunk Eden Trailer
• Linger in the Shadows Trailer
• Resistance 2 Announcement Trailer
• E3 2008 PSN Compilation Trail
• E3 2008 Compilation Trailer
• E3 family Compilation Trailer
• Wallpapers
• PixelJunk Eden wallpaper – red
• PixelJunk Eden wallpaper – black
• Siren Blood Curse Wallpaper – Characters
• Siren Blood Curse Wallpaper – Hanuda
• PSP Games
  • Gangs of London Platinum (£14.99)

US Additions:

• Game Demos
  • PixelJunk Eden Demo
• Downloadable Games
  • Siren: Blood Curse (3 bundles of 4 episodes @ $14.99/ea & full game SKU for $39.99)
  • 1942: Joint Strike ($9.99)
• Add-on Game Content
  • Guitar Hero III: Guitar Virtuoso Pack ($6.25)
  • Rock Band Add-ons
    • Devour – Shinedown ($1.99)
    • Junkies for Fame – Shinedown ($1.99)
    • Nine Inch Nails Track Pack 02 ($5.49 includes songs below or songs available individually)
      • Last – Nine Inch Nails ($1.99)
      • Burn – Nine Inch Nails ($1.99)
      • Capital G – Nine Inch Nails ($1.99
• Game Videos
  • PixelJunk Eden Trailer
  • Street Fighter IV: E3 2008 Gameplay Trailer
  • Street Fighter IV: PS3 Special Trailer
  • Bionic Commando Rearmed The Making of Part 1
• PS3 Themes
  • Street Fighter IV Summer 08 PS3 Theme
  • Siren: Blood Curse PS3 Theme
• PS3 Wallpaper
  • Killzone 2 Wallpapers (2 for PS3 & 2 for PSP)
  • PixelJunk Eden Wallpaper
  • Fracture Wallpapers (x4)
  • Siren Wallpapers (x5)