Sony has once again sent the PlayStation 3 off for testing by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), indicating it has a new stock keeping unit (SKU) up its sleeve.
Sony already has a new
80GB PS3 SKU on the way, but the addition of extra storage would not require renewed testing by the FCC, which deals with testing communications technology.
So, it would seem that the version of the PS3 sent off to the FCC must do something new.
It could be that Sony has worked wireless HDTV functionality into the PS3's guts. As SPOnG told you
last week, Sony, Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung Electronics and Sharp have got together to make the wireless streaming of HD signal between consumer electronics products (including, of course, the PS3) the new HD standard. This testing could be related to such functionality. Without modification to the PS3 itself, Sony would probably have to stream signal via a plug-in USB device.
Another possibility is the inclusion of built-in digital TV reception for the PS3. Sony already has
PlayTV, a TV tuner peripheral, in the works. It could, however, be looking to better compete with Microsoft's expanding multimedia offering by building such functionality right into the PS3's innards.
With the FCC being a U.S. body, of course, there's no guarantee that any modifications to the PS3 will be seen in Europe.