There are notifications when friends come or go offline. Check your settings.

The new 3.00 update shows when u have new messages

Does it need to be as easy as LIVE?

a little trouble won't hurt our feeble minds too much

@Kowenicki

I believe the EU store doesn't have any Dynamic themes yet.

US store has the LBP theme for $2.99 and if you go onto the Japan PSN store you can get the Afrika theme for free.

1. Agree bigger font ugly, friends list is fugly

2. Moving themes not available yet, prob on thursday update (ps. try though US store though)

3. Its not an app its just a shortcut on the xmb. if its not there restart the ps3

1) Granted.

2) There is actually. It says *insert friend name* is online.

3) Yeah, there is. Again, it says "You have received a message from X. Subject: Y. And with 3.00, there is a permanent mail icon if you have unread mail.

4) Again, granted.

I believe there are only two dynamic themes at the moment. One is the Little Big Planet one and costs $3 on the NA store and the other is the Afrika one and it's free and avaialble on the Japan store. I hope that there will be lots of free ones or the tools will be available to users to create custom themes because I'm NOT paying for themes. I'd rather just use my non animating custom LBP theme instead.

I don't mind the what's new thing, but I do kind of wish that the text can be changed in size because I didn't have a problem with the way it was on my TV. The gray blocks for the friends list are a little weird at first, but whatever I don't mind it.

I'm not sure about the BBC player though since I'm in the US. Shouldn't there be a new icon somewhere on the XMB for it? Doesn't it just launch into the web browser anyway?

i just change the font to POP
but i have LCD set to 1080p things looks small. on that.
and people there is a "classic" theme if u don't like the changes.

i have to disagree with a few things.

the bigger font makes screen much more clear to view

freinds list is better, as they are perfectly clear no matter what background you use. i think in future updates there will be trophies displayed on box hence the reason the grey boxes are larger than you would have thought of.

the whats new things, gives you preview of whats new in store or new game info, works very slick you just click in and out. its similar to the live version ie. preview tiles. its actually much easier to use than the live version and looks better.

regarding bbciplayer, you will have to reboot again and it appears between videos and games tab. its a tremendous service, contains bbc radio channels also.

theres 1 free theme at the moment, its in the jap store. you wont belive how good it is. i dont know how they have managed it but try it out it looks neat.

I read half of your first reason... and I got to tell you I think I'm going to enjoy this thread. I think you have matured a lot. Basically what I gathered from the first reason was... "yeah, I can see why people say Gold membership isn't worth the money to them... But hey, I'll still get use of it so I don't have a problem paying. Everyone has different needs" And I can't agree with you more. Some people make it seem like 360 is leaps and bounds better than the PSN because of all the bells and whistles and don't understand how people don't see much use in them. And seem like they can't grasp how people can game without live. It may be of use to them but PSN suits my needs just fine.

For number 3. I completely agree. I got in a little debate about achievements with Twest once about them. The reason he said he didn't like them was because he doesn't know what they mean. He said something like... how was he suppose to relate his level to a friends. And I said "Exactly like you do with gamerscore. How do I know how good a friend is with a gamerscore of 5000? The answer is because I played and know how hard it is to get there. So by comparing my experience with his score would give me an idea of how well he is doing compared to me"