Earlier today, Sony exec Kaz Hirai announced that it was preparing a new service for PlayStation 3 users, which they've dubbed Life with PlayStation. Similar to some other services on the Wii, Life with PlayStation will launch with news and weather information channels, but will expand to other services in the future.

The basic interface is a globe of the earth that could be spun to show different world territories, with major cities marked on the map. With each major city, you could view news headlines and weather conditions for each, all while listening to user-defined music from your PS3's hard disk.

It also appears as if the news headlines link to internet webpages, so we could probably expect Sony to make partnerships with specific news-gathering companies, and perhaps other companies as well to subsidize the cost of using Life with PlayStation through advertising or other means.

Details are still scarce as to when the service will go live, but it's an exciting prospect, to say the least. In the meantime, you can view pictures of the basic service in action by following the source link below.