This is a huge step for bringing the PS3 on par with the Xbox 360 in terms of features (additionally with the inclusion of trophies), but there are still a few features that leave the PS3 really far behind.

There is still no cross game invites. If I’m playing Warhawk (not that I actually do) and someone else is playing GTA4, I can’t send them an invite to join me and they instantly join my group. This is a killer feature that the Xbox 360 offers to ease online gaming. According to Joystiq, the game invite feature will be left up to the developers, very poor choice indeed.

No private voice chat between games is also sadly missing. This is really great on the Xbox 360 since you can talk to a friend and decide which game to play, or keep the connection going while in a game so no one else can hear you.

There is also no universal way to block or mute players. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to mute the TV or remove my headset due to a 12 year old screaming since there was no way to mute the voice chats.

So here’s my beef. AT&T is solely determining whether or not you are an existing iPhone customer based upon whether or not you have an iPhone data plan. If you read the iPhone Terms and Conditions, you’ll notice that a data plan is not even required.

You may ask, why not just restore your iPhone, activate it again and get the data plan added back on? Sure, I could, but I shouldn’t have to. The fact that AT&T isn’t basing it upon whether or not you have a 2-year contract from activating your iPhone is just stupid.

What if someone got their iPhone stolen or it broke and they cancelled their data plan and is using an old phone now? They are still under a 2-year contract from activating their iPhone, but according to AT&T they are not an existing iPhone user. Super lame.

Regardless, I’ll be adding my data plan back on and buying a new phone. The funny thing is I’ll actually be paying the $30/month for a data plan now since it’s fast enough to use.

I previously mentioned how horrible the DRM is on the Xbox 360. This week, Microsoft released the Xbox 360 License Transfer Tool. This tool doesn’t fix all of my complaints, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.

Once a year, a user can transfer their Xbox 360 licenses to another console. In the case of a user replacing their console or upgrading it, this is finally the fix. I must applaud them for not requiring the original console to have an internet connection to do this since there is a good chance it is dead and can’t connect to the net…

This is also really positive since it at least opens up the door to allow licenses to be moved to a future Xbox console. Original Xbox owners may remember them being unable to transfer over downloadable content to the Xbox 360 system (lame).

The PS3 still kills the Xbox 360 in terms of DRM generosity. The PS3 allows 5 concurrent consoles to be licensed for most games and allows for any console to easily remove it’s license. There is also no silly “once a year” transfer restriction. As someone said on a forum, “Welcome to 2006 Microsoft.”

Amazon.com ran a deal for a 40 gig PS3 for $399.99 with the collector’s edition of Stranglehold and the official PS3 Blu-ray remote. I’m throwing the game, remote and packed in controller on eBay… and immediately ordered a Dual Shock 3 from play-asia for $61.60. Why keep a controller with the PS3 that is going to be replaced in 3 months? Add in the 3% back from my Amazon.com VISA, it turns out to be a pretty good deal.

I bought a drive enclosure to put my Apple TV’s old 120 gig drive in and the Nyko Blu-Wave remote to use with my Harmony 880… now Sony just needs to release their DivX update.

Another issue is that DivX doesn’t work when the Xbox 360 is being used as a Media Center extender.  This is just sad.  One of the cooler features of the Xbox 360 has been completely neglected.

So, if someone doesn’t have internet hooked up to their 360 or has a banned Xbox 360 and wants to play DivX on it, what can they do?  Apparently buy a PS3. 

1. Media – I’ve been wanting a Blu-Ray player (recently sold the 360′s HD-DVD drive on eBay, the 360 is too noisy). Plus upscaling DVDs to 1080p would be great. Upcoming DivX support would totally replace my hacked Apple TV.

2. Lower power consumption – The latest 40 gig model may have axed backwards compatibility, which I wanted… but the lower power consumption is pretty cool.

3. More open than the Xbox 360 – Being able to replace the internal hard drive and plug in an external USB hard drive is cool, so is user-created content, like Unreal Tournament III. Sony is also more lenient with their DRM.

4. IR Remote – Nyko’s Blu Wave Remote comes with a USB IR dongle, meaning I can use my Harmony 880 remote to control my PS3 Lack of IR has been a big gripe for me.

5. Rumble, finally – It took forever, but the dual shock 3 is hitting the US this spring.

6. Home – The Home online community is looking pretty cool, plus it’s free. Take that Microsoft.

7. Cool downloadable games – Little Big Planet and some other cool downloadable games are coming out. I’m a junkie for small games.

So, the PS3 might end up being pretty cool. The only problem is I don’t feel like it’s worth getting yet, at least not for me. Maybe by spring they will bundle the system with the dual shock 3 (and maybe Metal Gear Solid), PS3 Home will be out, and the console will have full DivX support. If Sony wants my money, they’ll make it happen

1. Remove the data package via the online site.

2. Call AT&T and have them block all edge and medianet access (your phone always thinks you have unlimited data, so it will get expensive if edge and medianet are not blocked).

3. Have AT&T create a voicemail box for your account. Removing the data plan removes your voicemail box.

4. Call AT&T back again and verify they blocked the above services. You don’t want a $1000 bill if they screw up (you should also receive an Edge subscription error message while going on the net with wifi off).

5. On the iPhone, from the Settings menu, choose General -> Reset All Settings. This is necessary so your voicemail button works to dial your voicemail.

6. If you cannot send text messages after removing the data plan, enter the following number in your phone and call it:**5005*7672*+13123149810# This will set the SMS center number to AT&T.I hope this helps some people… it took many hours of frustration to get it working 100%. 

With the high defect rate for Xbox 360s and users actively upgrading their systems to the Elite version to get HDMI, have you ever wondered what happens to all the purchases you made on your old (and possibly dead) 360?

Let’s step back for a second and look into what happens with all the transactions you made with Xbox Live on your original Xbox when you upgraded to your 360. Oh, that’s right, you had to repurchase them all over again. Brilliant. And how were you able to transfer your game saves? That’s right, you couldn’t. Unless you used a hacked method.

Going back to the 360, this is how purchases work. All purchases made on Xbox Live are tied both to the console it was purchased on and the Xbox Live gamertag that was signed in at the time of the purchase. If your internet connection is down, you can always play the content on the system it was purchased on. Since it is tied to the gamertag, you go to your friend’s house, sign onto Xbox Live on their Xbox 360 with the gamertag you bought the game with and play your purchased Xbox Live arcade game there (if you have an internet connection).

Okay, that sounds cool. So what happens if your Xbox 360 breaks and you buy a new one or upgrade to an Elite? Guess what, you always need an internet connection and to be signed in with the gamertag you bought the content with! If your internet goes down, can’t play your favorite Xbox Live arcade game. If your brother is playing the family Xbox 360 with his own gamertag that is different from yours, he can’t use your purchased content on the new system.

DRM is just terrible and so is Microsoft for ignoring this huge flaw. If you call their support center and mention this to them, they’ll tell you there is nothing that they can do.

So how do Nintendo and Sony handle this? If a Wii is defective Nintendo will transfer virtual console games to a new console. It’s not perfectly clear if they will do this if the console is not defective, but it’s still a step better than Microsoft if a console is damaged. Sony allows up to 5 consoles to use a game purchased from the Playstation Store, so it’s really a non-issue.

Contractors and temps – This seems to be a growing trend in the industry. Either companies don’t value their QA department enough and only keep on contractors (like a lot of HP) or they hire people on as contractors as an extended interview with the intention of making them full-time. The former is typical to a company who really doesn’t care about longevity and experience in their own company and keep QA around simply because it is necessary.

The exploitation of the youth – Some companies are hiring QAs straight out of college or with little experience before the employees know what they are really worth. I’ve personally worked for one of these companies before (Homestead) and they serve the purpose of giving people experience before moving on to a better job. Much like the first type, these companies do not value longevity and obviously don’t value their QA departments or they would compensate them as fairly as they compensate developers. The best QAs are those we are capable of being developers after all.

Companies that value quality – The third and most difficult to find is a company that actually values quality. You can find these companies by noticing QA engineers who have been around with the company for many years and who are fairly compensated.