David Carnoy of CNET recently published a column about how to improve Sony’s PlayStation 3. Number three on the list was “Improve the browser – or scrap it altogether in favor of something else.” And he’s right. Anyone who’s ever used the PS3 browser knows its limitations. Browsing to any web page that includes some kind of rich content (special Javascript or embeded Flash videos, for example) causes a prompt to appear asking if the user would like to run external scripts. If you say yes, very often the browser then complains it has run out of space and will not load the page. I’ve gotten into the habit of just saying “no” each time it asks.
But what makes Carnoy’s column especially interesting to us is that he specifically mentions the Opera browser:
A lot of folks would like to see Sony move to an Opera-based browser, which runs on Linux (and the Wii uses). Whether that’s the right solution or not, Sony can do better in the Web-surfing department. Heck, if the iPhone can have good Web browser, why can’t the PS3 and the PSP have good ones?
As a PS3 owner myself, I would, of course, love it if Sony moved in this direction. And for those worrying about Flash content, Haavard makes a good point that Flash Lite 3 would surely work on the PS3.
The ball’s in your court, Sony!
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using
As much as I would also love to see the PS3 (and perhaps even the PSP) make a move to Opera, that will NEVER happen.
one single reason:
Sony is a Japanese company, and so is Access Co, who make NetFront…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetFront
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Co._Ltd.
Japanese companies would rather fall on their swords than admit a Japanese product is in any way inferior to anything else..
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Isn’t Nintendo also a Japanese company?
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@Mark this still doesn’t explain why Opera is on some of sony’s phones.
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Opera is on Sony phones, TVs, media players, etc. Sony even openly admitted that their PSP (Netfront) browser was “nothing special”.
And Nintendo is Japanese. So is KDDI, a major customer of Opera, and the second or third largest operator over there.