Sony’s updates for the PlayStation 3 have been coming fairly frequently since the system launch, offering everything from small performance tweaks to major functionality upgrades. Now the company seems set more on adding extra features, with a promised firmware update set to bring in-game XMB and Trophies to the system, matching two of the Xbox 360’s most popular features. But it looks like Microsoft isn’t the only place Sony is drawing inspiration.

Dengeki Online (via Kotaku) reports that Sony Computer Entertainment overlord Kaz Hirai presented "Life with PlayStation" for the PlayStation 3 today. As the picture shows, the feature shows the Earth and lets users scroll around to view news and weather from around the world. It will also allow users to select background music to listen to as they read headlines and check whether it’s raining in Zimbabwe.

The new interface and functionality seems strangely familiar, but added (free) features are hardly worth complaining about. No word on when Life with PlayStation will go live, but we’ll keep you posted when we hear more.