New PSP Firmware with Built-In Web Browser

Volksport writes "Sony has released a new major firmware update for the PSP, bringing it to v2.00 (This link points to the install file). This new version offers updates such as a built-in web browser (User agent says it is Mozilla/4.0) and Korean language support. Although it was only released in Japan so far, it installs normally on US PSP systems." This version apparently breaks all hacks so far too.

Comments

summary is correct: no homebrew yet!

[The Other White Boy]

if you're still sitting on your 1.5 bios psp and enjoying emulators and source ports of old games, you may want to hang on for a while before the upgrade. sure you'll get a browser, but until someone comes up with a work around for 2.0 (no hints so far) you may be stuck for a while.

but hey i'm sure somebody will figure it out eventually. hopefully before new games start forcing you to upgrade to 2.0 to play.

Early adoption

[GoRK]

As no one seems to have pointed out yet, it's likely that someone will release a modified 2.0 that will give you all the new features AND let you run homebrew apps.. But if you upgrade to 2.0 now, you'll lock yourself out of the ability to run the upgrader for any hacked version. This is pretty typical of 'softmod' style hacks; being an early adpoter is not the wisest course of action.

Unless of course there is a vulnerability in 2.0 that will let you run homebrew... If you want to bank on that, be my guest.

Re:Early adoption

[GoRK]

Perhaps you did not already know this, but at least someone understands how to decrypt the PSAR files containing the firmware as it's possible to disassemble the update application. (Also the decrypted firmware images of 1.51 and 1.52 firmwares have been floating around, so it has been done.) It's also known how to write to all of the flash memory in the PSP.

While it would not be possible to reencrypt the PSAR and re-sign the updater PBP so that it would run like the original, it would be possible to modify the decyrpted firmware then write an application that flases said modified firmware to a PSP in order to create a PSP with 2.0 firmware features that can still load unsigned code.

However, as I said before, the ability to do this to your own PSP means that you will have to begin with a PSP capable of executing unsigned code in the first place (currently 1.0 or 1.5) in order to run the hacked flashing utility and write the unencrypted and unsigned hacked-up firmware image to flash. Thus, if you update to 2.0 now you will perhaps not be able to install a hacked 2.0 that can run homebrew code IF such a thing is created and IF no exploit is found in 2.0.

List of Features and New Ceramic White

[Xeo 024]

Network Features:

        * Internet Browser - Probably the biggest thing yet to come to the PSP, a web browser. The browser supports standard 4.01 HTML, but will not support Flash streaming. Although some minor bugs, you will be able to connect to any website through your wireless hotspot.
        * New Network Menu - This is the new icon that will be installed on your PSP, it will act as the shortcut to the web browser.

Video Features:

        * Jump Function - Jump function added (UMD Video & UMD Music)
        * A-B Function - This allows you to repeat one portion of the clip.
        * 4x3 size - A new size to watch videos in
        * Mute - Mute function added for videos, even though a general mute function came with the original system.
        * MP4 (AVC) playback - New playback format.

Music Features:

        * ATRAC3plus playback - Now you can put ATRAC3plus files on your PSP.
        * MP4 AAC & WAVE Support - This version will allow you to play MP4 audio (MP4's AAC format) as well as Linear PCM WAVE files.

Photo Features:

        * Wallpaper Feature - Another big feature for the PSP, can you guess it? You got it, a personalized wallpaper feature.
        * Photo Sharing - You can now share images with a friend using the wireless ad-hoc connection (local)
        * New Formats - The PSP can now read TIFF, GIF and BMP files.

Setting Features:

        * New Character SetTheme Setting
        * Internet Browser Restriction Setting - Set security settings for your web browser.
        * WPA Support - Don't like WEP? isn't secure enough for you? you can now access the net with WPA-PSK (TKIP.)Web Support on Keypad

Source

Sony also released a ceramic white version of the PSP.

Re:Browser?

[mackman]

I've been using it for a couple hours now and I have to say I'm extrmely impressed. It's not the fastest nor can it handle large images (only has 24MB RAM to work with), but it looks wonderful, renders most pages well, and provides a few special page layout options to better fit the screen. Also, the text input is quick -- it uses a modified cell-phone keypad interface with shortcuts for typing common computer terms "php", ".com", etc. It also handles HTTP authentication and SSL correctly making it fully capable on most web sites. I don't think it does flash though.

Re:Region encoding

[radish]

The PSP has always enforced region coding on movie discs, never on game discs (and they have publically stated in the past they will never enforce it on games). I've not seen anything to suggest such a change in 2.0 - do you have any links?

Re:fxpsp

[thatguywhoiam]

If the browser is really the only new feature, why doesn't someone just port a decent browser [getfirefox.com] to the PSP?

Well first off the slashdot write-up is incomplete.

This update includes other features, such as ability to swap backgrounds and change themes, and some other sundry items, but there are THREE major features:

Web browser
AVC video support on MemoryStick
AAC audio support on MemoryStick Photo sharing via wireless

The web browser was never going to be Firefox, thats just not how Sony operates. Besides it would probably be very inappropriate (although using the rendering engine is a different story). From what I hear, it is pretty much HTML 4.01 compliant, has CSS support (not sure what level), HTTPS, and Javascript. That's pretty good. It also has some sort of pseudo-tabbed thing where you can keep 3 pages in saved state at once. You can pan around the page with the analog stick, and the bookmarks are kept in a regular HTML file (which I would suggest loading up on your comp in TextEdit or whatever to save your thumbs).

The AVC support is HUGE. This codec (H.264) is the basis for nearly everything coming out and the quality jump from the previous H.263 'simple profile' MP4 has to be seen to be believed. I would conservatively say a threefold increase in resolution - its that good. Also should result in smaller files. One hitch is that the format is still 320x240, so for widescreen content you are best to make an anamorphic clip. The PSP provides an anamorphic mode for unsquishing the picture and it interpolates very well. A shame to not use the 480x272 but I suspect many people would find out pretty quickly that at that rez, you're going to max even a 1GB stick really quick (doubt it could hold a 90min DVD at that; UMDs are 1.8 gigs I believe). Also note that AVC will take a lot longer to actually compress clips unless you have a fairly modern computer.

AAC audio support is huge as well for those of us with half their iTunes collection in AAC. No I have never bought anything from iTMS, I just like AAC. I had to set up a smart playlist that picked from my (much smaller) MP3 collection previously.

The photo sharing thing is just cool.

There are some other odds and ends, like GIF/TIFF/BMP/WAV support, some additional wireless security, etc. On the whole I'd say the upgrade is worth it unless you are *really* into your homebrew (which some are).