When many of you are done playing games or watching videos for the night, you chose to give back by launching Stanford University’s Folding@home application on your PLAYSTATION 3. Whether you do it to benefit society, or just because the visualizations look cool, over a million of you have found the experience to be rewarding. Now it’s Folding@home’s turn to be recognized.

Earlier today, the Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization awarded Sony Computer Entertainment the “Good Design Gold Award 2008” for our support of the Folding@home project on PS3.

Folding@home is a distributed computing project which aims to understand protein folding and misfolding, and how they are related to diseases such as Alzheimer’s and many forms of cancer.

We take special pride in the words said by the judges of the event, which gave the Gold award to only 15 projects out of over 3,000 nominees. In their words:

“Analysis of proteins for the purpose of shedding light on diseases is just one example of solution design for social issues, a stance that indicates the direction that design should take in the future. Motivating the people who will be involved in these studies will be the key to success, but the program functions well as an idea for making participation in this project visible on a global scale.”

Many people have worked to get this application working, both in Sony Computer Entertainment and in Stanford University, but all of this would not be doable without the participation and the donation given by you- the active community. So allow me to extend my thanks and hope to see you all continue to contribute to this important project.

If you’ve ever wished you could find everything you need to start your day on your PLAYSTATION 3, Life with PlayStation give you one more reason to do so. This free service delivers a new way for you to utilize your PS3 to instantly access real-time news and information like weather updates from over 60 cities around the world.

Life with PlayStation provides a stunning interactive globe, a 3D world map that you can twirl around to see live cloud movement courtesy of the University of Wisconsin, combined with up-to-date weather information from the Weather Channel, top news headlines provided by Google news, and live web cam images via the Earth Television Network — all localized to the select city. And why not have your favorite soundtrack playing in the background while you go through your morning ritual (just think, no TV commercials and teasers to find out if you need to bring an umbrella to work)? You’re on your own for your morning caffeine fix.

For those following the progress of Hurricane Ike throughout last week, we were able to track the storm’s real-time movement from Life with PlayStation. (See the screenshots below)

We’re also really excited to share that this new lifestyle service is running in parallel with our Folding@home project. Essentially, this means that while you’re taking a stroll on Life with PlayStation, you’re automatically helping Stanford University to work towards curing diseases such as Alzheimer’s and various types of cancers. For those familiar with Folding@home, we’ve made some enhancements for more advanced simulations of protein folding and support for wider variety of simulations, in addition to adding a unique ranking system showcasing top contributors from around the world.

I’ve also put together a quick video demo to make sure you’re checking out all the new features here:

Life with PlayStation is now available for download by selecting the Folding@home icon under “Network” on the XMB. Give it a whirl, we look forward to reading your feedback.

I’ve got some good news and some okay news. We’ll start with the okay part. We’re still pushing some paperwork on Life with PlayStation — so hold tight just a bit longer. Now on to the good news, the Life with PlayStation application is looking great and to quench some of the curiosity around what it’s all about, here’s what I can share today.

We’re going to offer this as a free service that will be easily accessible directly from the XMB. Life with PlayStation will feed live content to your PS3 with updates on news and weather on a visually stunning and interactive global map. Imagine being able to wake up to your PS3 to see if you need to pack an umbrella for the day. Or just relax as you listen to your favorite tunes while reading up on top news from around the world.

We’re also very excited to share that Life with PlayStation will be combined with our Folding@home project. What does this mean? While you’re tuned into Life with PlayStation, you’ll also be helping Stanford researchers cure diseases like Alzheimer’s and various types of cancer while Folding@home is running in the background.

We know you’re eager to check it out for yourself, so we’re working hard to get it in your hands. Stay tuned.