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Sony released a major update of the PSP firmware today on the Japanese update page, for those with a Japanese PSP it's also available with the Network Update option on the PSP, which requires a Wi-Fi connection to Internet.
Read on for detailed information about the upgrade.
This 16 MB update includes a lot of new features that are actually useful, instead of mainly security updates as the earlier upgrades. I upgraded to this version earlier today and have been trying it out now and then during the day and thought I'd give you an explanation to most of the new features. There's a lot of new features in this upgrade, but the really big one is the Internet browser. Because this is more or less a complete application I've decided to write a full review of it instead of filling this article with a detailed description. There has been a couple of changes to the Video player: a Go To option, A-B Repeat, 4:3 Video Mode, Audio Options and finally support for AVC Video. The Go To option is a quick jump feature where you can enter a specific time in the video to jump to, this is definately more practical than skipping ahead trying to find the right place. The A-B Repeat function is something I've never understood the need for, but for those who do I guess it's a nice addition. The Audio Option seems to be changing left, right or both audio channels. I haven't been able to try out the 4:3 Video Mode or the new AVC support yet, but the latter should be a real treat, since it allows video with better quality and less size. The Music player now also has support for MP4 (AAC) and WAV (LPCM) audio files and it's possible to play UMD Music discs from the Music menu. Viewing Photos has also had some new features, first of all it's finally possible to view GIF, PNG, TIFF and BMP images as well as JPEG. At last there's no longer any need to convert images to JPEG just to be able to view them on the PSP. Another cool feature is the ability to transfer images directly to other PSP's in the vicinity, but since I only have one PSP I haven't been able to try this out. Finally it's possible to set the picture you are viewing as a background image for the XMB menu on your PSP, when you're tired of the colorful animated swoosh you can just set any picture you like. Other new features include WPA encryption support for Wi-Fi, which is good since it is more secure, Infrastructure Mode Network Settings has been revised for easier use, Input Modes for on-screen keyboard (more or less language settings for character input), Korean language and finally a new Theme setting. The Theme setting allows you to select the background color instead of having it change every month. That's it for the upgrade. It probably also add's more security changes to make it even harder for homebrew applications to be run, so if these new features aren't important to you and you run the 1.0 or 1.50 firmware you don't need to upgrade. This upgrade is finally something useful, and I upgraded as soon as I could. Except for the Internet browser there's only small changes, but there's quite a few changes and some of them are very practical. I would rather have seen a text or e-book reader, a notebook application and calendar instead of the browser, but the browser has it's uses too. The fact that Sony does release these upgrades is great, hopefully they will keep updating the firmware adding some of the features I'm missing. |