With promises of the PlayStation Home service to begin its open beta phase this Fall, SCEE boss David Reeves admitted that they were perhaps getting a bit too ambitious with some of the planned non-gamer applications for it. He admitted that many of these applications such as blatant sponsorships might turn off many gamers. Check out what else he said in our full article after the jump.

In life, it helps to have someone who can hold you accountable for your actions. In the case of electronics companies, it seems that Greenpeace is their accountability partner. The organization has recently released the current company rankings in its Greener Electronics Scale. To find out how certain companies fared, get "green-minded" and turn to the full article after the jump.

Sony's looking all green as they launch their new recycling program. By next month Sony will be launching a new nationwide campaign where people will be able to dispose of their unwanted electronics in an environmentally safe manner.

The Sony Take Back Recycling Program will be putting up 75 "eCycling" centers throughout the US where people can drop off their electronics.

Once the program takes off, the program is expected to increase the number of eCycling centers to 150. The idea is to have an eCycling Center within 20 miles of 95% of the US.

The program was made in collaboration with WM Recycle America. Sony products will be recylced free of charge while other brands will include a recycling fee. Consumers can either drop if off personally or ship it in through specific WM Recycle America locations.

Stan Glasgow, president and chief operating officer of Sony Electronics, says about the service:

Providing the highest level of service and support doesn’t stop once a purchase is made. We believe it is Sony’s responsibility to provide customers with end-of-life solutions for all the products we manufacture. Through the Take Back Recycling Program, our customers will know that their Sony products will be recycled in an environmentally responsible manner.

Thanks to Surftycoon for the tip!

In our previous post on the Japanese release of PS3 FW1.5, Robert Kelly asked, "What good is playing PS2 and PS1 games if they look as blurry and fuzzy as news reel footage from 1945? " Well Robert, Sony took the hint, so guess what the US 1.50 firmware update has?

Word from Kotaku is the latest PS3 firmware update has finally fixed the the graphical problems present when playing backwards-compatible PS1 and PS2 games. They've noted that Okami and MGS3 are working perfectly, and with the appropriate pretty pictures too, so we're hoping the their graphically intensive games will finally get the respect they deserve.

Of course, there's still no changelog, so you'll just have to update your PS3s and then check to see if your older games work perfectly on your new-gen console. For now, we'll leave you with one question: Why does the System Update icon look like the sign for recycling?

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UPDATE:

PSP767 commented on the post with a changelog for the update. Thank you for that! Funny how it doesn't mention that graphical issue thing though, but oh well. Here's the changelog:

• User can now set an image/photo (off a mem stick etc) for their user id
• Edy support added (for payment via card reader)
• 'operation sound' added to sound settings
• 'delete backup data' added to backup utilities subsetting
• WEP128, WPA-PSK (TKIP), WPA-PSK(AES) can now utilize AOSS
• Can now remember your login password without using automatic login
• Korean keyboard setting can be used

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UPDATE #2:

Just to make sure we dotted all our i's and crossed all our t's, here is Sony's official changelog for their PS3 Update version 1.5.

• Users
• You can now select an image to use as the User icon from [Photo].
• Settings
• [Key Tone] has been added as an option under [Sound Settings].
• [Delete Backup Data] has been added as an option under [System Settings] > [Backup Utility].
• WEP 128, WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA-PSK (AES) have been added as security methods that can be used with [AOSS™] under [Automatic].
  

• If you have already set up for AOSS using an earlier version of the system software, you must perform AOSS setup again to use the security methods listed above.

• When [Automatic] is selected, the security method to be used is automatically set. AOSS is a trademark of Buffalo, Inc.
  

• Friends
• The method for saving your password / signing in automatically under PLAYSTATION®Network has been changed. There are now two separate options.
• Other
• You can now enter text in Korean using the on-screen keyboard.