HTML Keyboard Page For 2.0 Browser

- Zoverlord, a member of ps2dev.org, has put together an HTML page with a JavaScript keyboard which people may find much easier to use than the Sony input method in the new firmware 2.0 browser for entering web addresses.
- Access it at this link: http://www.testing.onlytherightanswers.com/pspkey2.htm

Firmware 2.0 Roundup

- Lots of information has been flying around about this firmware update, so I'll try and summarise here for you all.
- Obviously, Sony says you should not update unless you have a JAP PSP:

"CAUTION: This update is only for customers who obtained PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) for Japan which model number is PSP-1000 or PSP-1000 K. Upon completion of preparing, we will announce update information for the other countries/areas customers via SCE Group Web Site or other channels . For theses customers who obtained PSP® in the other countries/areas, please DO NOT update PSP® through this web site."

- The WPA WiFi compatability works for the web browser, but not for games so far released.
- A big test of the Audio and Video enhancements shows that AAC files from iTunes are playable. From AV Watch, translated on PSPUpdates.
- It has been confirmed that the browser and all new functionality is available in English as well as Japanese.
- A quick instruction manual for the web browser controls is available here.
- The Portable TV service works fine with US PSPs too. There is a great guide with step by step instructions on how to register on the Japanese p-tv.jp site, (so you can download media.)
- Reviews on the firmware can be found here and here.
- Download from Sony's site (translated).

Interesting Tools Roundup

- ExportPBP - Creates 1.5 EBOOTs from 1.0 versions. Click.
- DJSP - MP3 Player with funky visualizations. Click.
- Button Settings Swapper for JAP 1.5 PSPs - From WAB, it swaps the O and X buttons so a JAP PSP's buttons act like US ones. Click.
- Virtual Keyboard - Does what it says. Click.
- Firmware 2.0 JavaScript Homebrew Portal - A website to host locally on your Memory Stick that helps you to easily get at those online hacks, such as JavaScript Games, and AIM. Click.
- GMail as 2GB Remote Storage for PSP - Use Gmail as a 2GB remote hard drive using the Gmail shell extension and a PSP web browser. Click.
- PSP ISO Launcher v0.8 - Only a rumour right now, based off of video "evidence", of a new loader that will hopefully do what WAB have been promicing with their v3 Launcher that has not arrived yet. Click.
- PSP Hook Boot Launcher v0.91 - A launcher that is attempting to be a one-size-fits-all solution to launch all Extracted UMD ISOs. Click.

More WipeOut Pure Content Released

- WipeOut Pure has another addon pack out now for the JAP version of the game. Delta Pack 1 can be found on wipeoutpure.com and includes the following treats:

2 Themes:
- Team Asegai
- Team Harimao
2 Circuits:
- "Iridia" Length: 2680M, Altitude: 290M
- "Anorufasupasu" Length: 5097M, Altitude: 170M

New Game Ported - Hexen

- PSPUpdates reports that Hexen has now been ported to the PSP and is ready to download. There seems to be a bug with the sound in the commercial version, but shareware works just fine.

Web Browsers

- The Firmware 2.0 update may have a web browser in it, but that means you can't run any homebrew apps anymore. So whats a hacker to do?
- Fukko-papa has released one web browser but it seems to only let you visit http://www.2ch.net/.
- Another release is a browser ripped from the game Tenchi no Mon. delta-hawk and inja are members of the PSPCrazy forum and seem to have found the information necessary to rip the browser from the game so it works as a standalone browser. The game is obviously Japanese, but you can make the keyboard swicth to English by pressing select. Download from PSPCrazy.

PlayStation Magazine Offer

- Right now, signing up for a PSM (PlayStation Magazine) subscription for three years is only $36. This is a great offer, saving over $100 off the cover price. You also gets you 10 days of GameFly (the mail order game rental service, kinda like NetFlix for games,) for free plus the chance to win "The Ultimate HDTV Home Theater System" from Sony.
- If you want to take advantage of this, why not sign up through FreePSPs.com which also gives you the chance to earn a PSP by telling your friends about the site.
- More instructions are here for help with FreePSPs.

Memory Stick Data Recovery Software

- If you somehow manage to screw up your precious Memory Stick, help may be at hand. Xanadu has posted a thread on the PSP Updates Forum about his experience with Memory Stick Data Recovery Software, PhotoRescue, for PC and Mac.
- The poor guy dropped his PSP and the battery fell out, corrupting his MS. In his own words:

"I downloaded a demo version of a program that recovers photos on a corrupt stick here. This little program will analyze your entire stick (I even did it via psp with a usb) and locates photos and puts them in a folder called FOUND. Now it won't let you get these photos out unless you pay for the full program, BUT it will let you save everything else!! I recovered all my homebrew, all my savegames, music, and videos!!! I did a format of the stick afterwards and put it all back on and it all works!!"

Firmware 2.0 News

- After yesterday's announcement of the v2.0 firmware, a video has appeared on IGN's PSP site showing the included Web Browser in action. Go and watch it.
- And the P-TV (Portable TV) service appears to be ready to launch for Japanese users too, another feature of the firmware upgrade.

Emulator Updates

- NeoGeo CD emulator, NeoCD, is now at version v0.5u1 which adds memory card support.
- PSP Wiki has a compatibility list up, which PSP Updates translated into English as a GIF image.
- Meanwhile, PacManFan has been busy on his PSX emulator. He has posted some images of his software running Driver and Spiderman on the PS2Dev Forum along the following update:

"I meant to post that "Progress" message to this thread last night, looks like I missed. Well, anyways, for those who missed it, I managed to get some games (Driver, Dragon Ball Z Final Bout) to work with my emulator. I've got .BIN/CUE support working now. The Driver.Bin file was about 650MB, and the DBZ bin was about 150. My mem stick is only a 256 MB, so I had to test on my psp with DBZ.

Now that I've got .BIN support working nicely, I'm going to add compression through zlib so that the .bin files will be compressed to .gz files. After a few tests, It looks like most Bin's can be compressed by 50-65%. I'm going to work on a resource tool to remove/stub psx movies to help shrink things a bit. But for right now, I'm still working on my recompiler...

After replacing just a few file i/o routines with thier zlib equivalant, I now have .bin g'zipped files working. I compressed DBZ Final Bout from 158 MB bin file to a 70MB .gz file, and it actually loads faster! I think this is beacuse the i/o is so slow on the PSP mem stick.

If you want to know more about GZip , Google for it and find youself a nice windows frontend for it. GZip is basically a program like zip based on the ZLib source."