Talk Playstation 3 News

The next Playstation Portable firmware update 5.00 will add a host of new features. Eric Lempel, Director, PlayStation Network Operations has informed readers that firmware version 5.00 will add the ability to to sign up to the Playstation Netowork, manage your account and access the Playstation Store using your PSP. This will all be accessible through the Playstation Network icon on the XMB.

This update will add a sleep timer option that can be used while you are playing music on your PSP.

In addition, we’ve added a full screen keyboard option for text entry and have redesigned the background of the XMB.

For more information, check out the Playstation.Blog.

Eric Lempel, Director, PlayStation Network Operations has informed readers on the Playstation.Blog with information on the next Playstation 3’s firmware update 2.50. Here’s the lowdown.

• Support for the PS3 Official Bluetooth Headset
• PlayStation Trophies interface enhancements – This update makes sharing and comparing your trophies with your friends even easier.
• Friend status – Offline friends on your Friends list will have information below their avatars that will indicate how long it has been since they were last online.
• Video – This update adds the Scene Search feature similar to the feature on the PSP.
• PlayStation Store – We’ve added a redeem codes option right on the store to make it easier to redeem your PlayStation Network Cards and promotion codes.
• Power Save Settings – You can now set your PS3 and wireless controllers to turn off automatically after set periods of inactivity.
• Background Downloading – You now have the option to set the PS3 to turn off automatically after a background download or installation of content has completed.
• In-game Screenshots – this tool will allow everyone to capture, share and in other words, immortalize their favorite gameplay moments.

No word on a release date yet, Eric says ‘coming soon’.

Sony just released firmware 2.43. The firmware brings nothing new, and it’s to help with stability issues. You are not prompted to download it, so you can still log in the PlayStation Network. But if you would like to download it, you can do so by going to Settings, then System Update. Now it’s a region specific update, meaning that Japan is the only country that has to download it. If we hear of anything else, we will let you all know.

PS3 System Software Update Firmware Version 2.42 is now live. Official word from Sony:

Just wanted to give everyone a quick heads up that a PS3 firmware update (v2.42) is now available for download. This update improves the playback quality of some PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation format software.

Apparently it appears that Trophies have been optimized and are loading far quicker than before.

Early today the 4.05 firmware for the PSP was announced to be released soon.

It would contain some new visualizers for music playback.But we all know how Sony is with firmware updates for the PSP and PS3, there are always a few hidden feaures as well. We’ll see what we bump into.

Update:

playstationlifestyle.net Announced that 4.05 is live, so get it will it’s hot.

Update 2: Seems playstationlifestyle discovered something else. The 4.05 support page has been updated with another feature which is included in the firmware. Seems it adds support for PLAYSTATION®Store Movies and TV video service. This shoudl be interesting.

The PS3 System Software Update Firmware Version 2.41 is now live. Eric Lempel reported this on the Playstation.Blog:

“Hi, everyone. As many of you know, we released PS3 firmware update v2.40 last week, but had to take it offline temporarily because, for a limited number of users, the XMB wouldn’t display after the update was installed. We’ve been able to fix the problem, and I’m happy to report that firmware update v2.41 will be released shortly.

We want to extend our apologies to the PlayStation community for any inconvenience. Now we’ll be looking forward to seeing everyone online and racking up those trophies!”

Here’s the changelog for firmware 2.40, i’d imaging its similar, its just a quick fix to the problems that happened.

So yes, for those of you that didn’t update to 2.40 can now update to 2.41. What are you waiting for, start collecting them Trophies!

As you may know the Playstation Network is going to be down today for ‘maintenance’ but we think firmware 2.41 will be release and agree with the latest 2.41 rumors.

We’ve tried contacting relevant people, asking them if its anything to do with firmware 2.41 and one responded with an answer that looks promising:

“you will have to wait and see, we’re are taking PSN offline to do some testing and maintenance. If its not right we won’t be releasing anything.”

Looks like they will take Playstation Network offline to do some form of ‘testing’. Are they testing firmware 2.41 before they release it?

[UPDATE] Received the email from my source while i was asleep, didn’t realise 2.41 is out. Firmware 2.41 is now available.

Playstation 3 System Software Update Firmware Version 2.41 is rumoured to be coming as early as this Wednesday the 9th of July 2008.

According to CVG:

According to customer support, firmware version 2.41, which should be clear of all errors, will out “midweek”, although Sony is yet to make an official announcement to confirm that.

Lets hope this is true. In case you’ve forgotten or dont know whats been going on, Sony pulled down firmware 2.4 because a small number of users reported that 2.4 bricked their PS3. No one knows whether this was true.

Want to know all the details and changes that PS3 System Software Firmware 2.4 did?

Here’s the full list:

The latest System Software Update is now ready for download for the PLAYSTATION 3. Here are the details of what this firmware accomplishes:

• Displaying the XMB™ screen during gameplay
  You can now access the XMB™ screen while playing PLAYSTATION®3 format software.
• Searching the Internet from the XMB™ screen
  You can now perform an Internet search directly from the XMB™ screen.

Other new or revised features in version 2.40 after the jump:

Overall

• You can now see the system clock on the XMB™ screen. The date and time that were set under [Settings] > [Date and Time] are displayed.
• When using a keyboard, you can now clear the entire text entry field at once.
• The icon is now displayed when you press the PS button for an operation that cannot be performed.

Users

• You can now turn off the PS3™ system from the XMB™ screen using the [Turn Off System] option.

Settings

• You can now set the PS3™ system to turn off automatically after updating the system software.
• [Reassign Controllers] and [Controller Vibration Function] have been added as options under [Accessory Settings].

Photo

• You can now print images from a playlist.
• You can now sort items that are grouped in a folder by month or year using the
  [Film Date ] or [Film Date ] options.

Music

• You can now use a mini-size control panel while playing music.
• You can now play music content encoded in MP3 Surround format.*
  * MP3 Surround can only be used when playing music content in Linear PCM format.

Video

• You can now use the [Frame Noise Reduction] and [Block Noise Reduction] settings for video content that is saved on the hard disk or storage media.
• You can now play upscaled video content that is saved on the hard disk or storage media. When the video content is played, it is upscaled automatically to match the screen size.
• Upscaling of Blu-ray Disc (BDAV) video content is now supported.
• For DTS playback on DVD-Video and Blu-ray Disc media, DTS-ES and DTS 96/24 for DVD-Video and DTS-ES Matrix for Blu-ray Discs are now supported.*
  * “DTS” is a trademark of DTS Inc.

Game

• The procedure for quitting PLAYSTATION®3 format software has been changed.
• You can now collect trophies in games that support the trophy feature.

Network

• [Search] has been added as an option in the browse mode menu of the Internet browser.

Friends

• The number of Friends who can be added to a Friends list has been increased from 50 to 100.
• The [Information] screen has been redesigned and renamed as [Profile].

Source.

If you havent already turned on your Playstation 3 to download PS3 System Software Update Firmware Version 2.40, get downloading it now!

Firmware 2.4 is finally live and you can start earning your Trophies and playing with the new in-game XMB.

Below is the list of final features in Playstation 3’s firmware 2.4 update that is due very soon. CVG have managed to get their hands on the final list of features.

“full 2D trophy support will be in the XMB update and there will be four types: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.”

The platinum trophy is only awarded to you when you’ve got the other trophies (bronze, silver and gold). There are no gamer points, instead its done by a levelling up system.

Below is a list of Xross Media Bar features you’ll be able to access in-game.

• Friend category
• View, send, receive messages
• Manage downloads
• Set the vibration feature of the controller
• Sign in to PlayStation Network
• Register friends
• Manage Bluetooth devices
• Terminate the game
• Music category
• Use the system BGM
• Work the system BGM operation panel
• Settings category
• Assign controllers
• View profiles
• Game category
• Set audio devices
• Use the voice changer

And there we have it. We’ve mentioned before that eventually you can probably access all aspects of the XMB through future firmware updates.

Moving on, you will be able to play your own music while in-game from the music category.

“It’s unclear whether this feature will be compatible with all games or just new titles created with more recent development tools.”

I guess we will have to wait until its released in a few weeks time.

Thats right, it has been officially announced well not exactly but an announcement will be made on the 30th of June 008. A video walkthrough will be available on Monday.

Thanks to this Neogaf post confirming it.

Official Playstation Blog have posted a little update on the Playstation Portable’s next firmware update which will be version 4.01.

The following are fixes:

• Display of search results under Internet Search has been improved for certain languages.
• Playback of video content under Video has been improved for certain file types.

This is just a minor update and will be available in the next few hours.

According to this thread over at GameFAQS quite a bit of information has been revealed. A member called ‘Knight613′ claims that he works for Sony Computer Entertainment working in the “Foster City” area.

If you take a look at the thread you will see that he’s talking a lot about Firmware 2.4 saying that it was meant to be released on the 18th of June but now has been delayed until the 1st,2nd or 3rd of July.

“2.40 was supposed to come out June 18th actually…till they found a pretty bad error with the XMB and had to fix it. New date is supposedly July 2ndish, maybe the 1st or 3rd. The RC release for 2.40 is already out though so it’s just a matter of time.”

But does this guy work for Sony? He says he does:

“I actually work for Sony unlike all the people here that say they do.”

Ok maybe he does, he even provided a name badge to proove it:

“The last memo to come in was on June 12th, that pushed back 2.40 from June 18th to July 1st-3rd. I would say to expect it then unless they were to find something wrong the with RC version that is out right now.”

So there we have it, insider information. By the looks of things it will be released at the beginning of July 2008.

It seems that Firmware 2.4 development is complete, its just getting ready to launch. How do we know this? Sony’s Noel Silva has said it. In the comments section of this post on the Offcicial Playstation blog, a user called ‘Stunt’ asked a question regarding firmware 2.4:

“Noel, my friend, do you know when we will be updated on the v2.40 update Eric Lempel mentioned in the v2.36 post? I hope we don’t have to wait until next week.

Thanks!”

Noel responded with:

“Eric’s working hard to get everything set for the launch of Firmware 2.40, including a video walkthrough.
I can’t comment on when (as I don’t know the exactly date!), but I’m just as excited as all of you for it.
Trophy Support + In-Game Messaging FTW!”

So this basically tells us that firmware 2.4 is complete but Sony is getting everything ready for the launch that will include a video of how to use the new features. Its got to be sometime soon though.

Source.