I agree with just about everything you said toastboy. That is why I usually buy online multiplats on my 360. But PSN isn't horrible IMO.

Chat features- XBL clearly. Cross game chat & parties just aren't happening until PSN 2.0 (ie, PS4). I have no clue what Sony are doing or in this case, why they aren't doing it.

Updates/patches- Usian Bolt vs fat dude with hepatitus.

Marketplace/Store content- Both good, the Store's only real failing is lack of demos across every title.

Stability/smoothness- I have gotten less disconnections with PSN but on the whole both have been fine for me. PSN gets marginally more dedicated servers than the service which costs £40 p/y. So thank you for not much at all, MS.

Other features- Home, internet browser, BBC iPlayer/4OD, Vidzone, Mubi, remote play vs Sky player and stuff I can't remember. I don't use any of this extra stuff much but PSN seems to have more of it.

I won't say I like the PSN itself more than Live but I'm not renewing Live next year after paying for 3 or 4 years. I do prefer PSN's way of unlimited online gameplay without thinking about subscriptions or renewals.

What is your psn ID? Add me. Mine is power_hungryfool. I have never felt alone in psn and my psn does not randomly drop. Actually it used to, but I changed my router security settings to where I do not need a password to access it, and now it works perfectly. You may want to try that if you have an internet password. Live is a better service(or so I am often told), although, the $60 price tag is not worth its current features imo.

I prefer PSN because its free and is the same as live. You get 16 player cross game text chat on the PS3 and with a keyboard hooked up(you can get a USB keyboard for $10) you can chat with 15 people in ANY game, even MW2 which you can't on xbox 360.

Communication is communication. Text chat is actually awesome on the PS3 because very few people have mics, this way we can communicate with everyone. Its also easy to use as well, but not as easy as voice chat in the 360. But at least you don't get kicked out of your chat room.

And another awesome feature is you can have three rooms simultaneously. All cross game, I believe.

PSN also offers much more freedom than XBL because of which games like LBP are possible, because of which UT 3 has mods on the PS3, because of which Portal 2 is the best on the consoles on the PS3, because of which Oddworld is NOT on the 360(exceeds 2 GB limit).

I mean, $50 60 and we don't even get cross game text chat for people who don't prefer voice chat.

About the speeds: They are the same. Only while downloading certain updates for some games have I felt the speeds a little slow. Demos and stuff download very quickly on the PSN.

The integration of marketplace in XBL: That's a convenient feature on the 360, that's true. How many times do you purchase something anyway? Its there on many PS3 games as well though, but it makes you quit the game unfortunately, unlike Xbox 360.

Everything on XBL costs money. Everything, including avatars, themes, and even some videos. The only things that are free are demos and some videos. And trailers of course.

On PSN you don't have to pay for at least 100s of themes, wallpapers are also given for free, and GUESS what? You can make your own theme as well. The only themes that cost money are premium and dynamic themes, and as far as I can tell Dynamic themes are totally worth it. Flash themes are greater than any theme on the 360. 

All this for free. That's right folks. 

Then there's Playstation Home, which has improved dramatically since I last visited it. Its at least 10x better than game room when I used game room, because game room didn't even load for me.

Then there's PS plus for anyone who's interested. I don't have it but that's because I am not interested. You can get dynamic themes for free if you have PS plus, avatars for free, some PS one games, and every once in a while a huge update always comes through. Like for eu PSers there was fallout DLCs all for free but for one week. The US one's got MAG for free along with some others which I don't remember.

Without PS plus, I consider PSN to be a superior service than XB live. With PS plus, it definitely is.

I still like Live better, I get annoyed when no one has mic on PSN. It's like playing with CPUs, when I played Resistance and I play Fat Princess only one or too people have mics. Sony should start bundling PS3s with mics, I'm tired of hearing the one fat man with a mic screaming about "tactics" to a little kid using the voice changer...

mine is Concerned_Salad

i dont have a mic, no online games except for uncharted 2 and little big planet (Rarly ever works though)

u can add me but i dont think ill be on until i get little big planet 2

You and toastboy both hit it right on the head for me.  Only other big reason I prefer live over psn that you guys did not mention is the ridiculous amount of time it takes to download things on psn or to update the psn network. Mine has even dissconnected on me at times for no reason when simply searching through the psn marketplace.

Mine is PolkStKilla...I currently have both Resistance and Killzone 2 as far as online games go for PS3.

I have to pay....to send text messages & long distance phone calls on my cell phone, for the internet, for my WOW subscription, for premium cable TV channels, etc.

But God forbid that I have to pay for XBL..what a cruel world!

/sarcasm finished