Did you read the rest of the article on what "sharing" means?

The new PlayStation 4 is also highly focused on offering social experiences. You’ll be able to stream your play sessions to allow input, including your friends taking over control to help you out with a rough patch, for instance. You can also quickly share video clips to friends and the PS network.

Gaikai’s technology is also behind the spectating feature of the PS4 which allows you to share your gaming session with a button push and allows friends to jump in and take over control to help you. Some games will allow people to give you items that will help you in game play like ‘health potions’.

Having friends take over sounds pretty cool to me.

That being said I liked Andy Levy's Tweet.

I hope I'll be able to turn off all of these social features on the #PS4. If I wanted to be social I wouldn't be playing videogames.

You joke, but "Record that awesome thing that just happened" is a button video games have been needing for a long, long time.

Yea, I actually loved this feature with OnLive when I was accepted into the beta. And they had the full VCR controls on it.

I really liked this controller as it had the bulk of an xbox controller but with aligned sticks.

http://cdn.arstechnica.net/OnLiveController.jpg

The future does not look like more buttons for increasingly specific functions.

The evidence suggests it does. How much of this belief do you base on your ideals and how much is based on reality?

There used to be just game buttons (joystick + one button on Atari, for ex). There there were start and select. Then there was a console-specific power button (the "XBox" button and the "PS3" button on the Xbox controller and DS3 respectively). Now there's a share button. I dunno dude, it looks like the arrow of history is actually pointing the opposite direction from what you said in this comment.

The Xbox button and PS buttons are not "specific" since they have several functions - they pop up a menu where you can access a long list of functions. Having a single button for sharing to your network is borderline stupid, since it will flood the social networks with useless crap nobody cares about.

twitch.tv and Machinima claim that more than nobody cares about sharing of video game clips.

Game streaming is popular because of the personalities and explanations. Without narration, the vast majority of videogame clips are just cold and sterile, and not at all 'social'.

"Look at this cool thing I did" is the go-to example in this kind of demo, but in reality nobody cares. We want a human voice.

You don't think they'll capture the mic in multiplayer? That would surprise me.

Mic capture and narration is different.

?? Mic capture is all that's needed for the narration like what happens on twitch.tv.

Power buttons are somewhat special just from a hardware point of view; I don't think they are especially useful for this question.

You can't navigate a menu to reach a power-on function. A competing power button service will never come out to replace the currently popular power button service. Every single Xbox or PS3 owner will use the power button(s) with regularity.

He's referring to the center button on PS3 and XBOX controllers that goes to the xbox dashboard or PS3 dashboard, or the home button on the Wiimote, etc... at least, that's what I assumed. That button does count.

But that button also powers up the Xbox from a cold boot. The dashboard part is just adding some extra functionality to a button you already have.

Are you sure it's not the other way around? Or, perhaps an intended dual functionality?

Pressing the power button on the physical machine, as far as I remember, does not load the dashboard.

Sure it does. So many things happen in cycles. Contiuums are really the trace of a penduluum.

We may still be swinging toward "programmable" buttons, but trust me, things will start swinging back at some point, though perhaps not for the reasons we might think.

Agreed. User-assignable buttons or touchpad gestures however...

Yes, or just shouting "Save that!"

The great thing about the 360 isn’t beating the games, it’s showing everyone online that I did.

OnLive has that button (combination).

Honestly, the headphone jack is the coolest thing on there. If it's not a custom MSFT headset style thing, that rocks! I would much rather play with headphones on than my crappy speakers.

You can have that with any console or TV by getting a pair of wireless headphones. I can recommend Sennheiser, they aren't cheap but worth every penny if you ask me. Excellent sound quality, build quality and UX. (I've got a pair of RS 170s, they've been serving me well for two years now.)

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/wireless-stereo-headphones-home

I tried Sennheisers and couldn't get them to work satisfactory. Lots of interference, crackle and noises. Tried troubleshooting to no avail and in the end had to return them.

In other words, keep in mind that there are setups where even the best wireless headphones don't work.

My father-in-law has a pair for watching TV. They are pretty awesome. Great sound quality and you can wander around the house and still hear the TV without cranking it.

The headphone jack on the pad ! Finally someone noticed the excellent idea of the 3DO back from the early 90s. Why did it take so long to copy this feature??

The 360 controller has the same jack on it.

I did not check the PS4 specs for the jack, but the Xbox controller jack is a 2.5mm one, while the standard headphone jack is 3.5mm.

The one they showed in the PS4 presentation looked exactly like the XBox one. I suppose it could be the same shape but be 3.5mm instead of 2.5mm.

The only thing I kept thinking was that it's gonna cost me $99 bucks instead of $50 each time I throw my controller at wall with my bad temper.

Yes, I'm a sore loser, maybe the share button will make me think twice.

Still missing a "like" button though.