Sony Releases PSP Software Update

Sony of America has announced that its latest PSP handheld system upgrade has been made available online, patching the PlayStation Portable's operating system to version 2.0, patching a number of 'security holes' which allowed unauthorizing executables to be run, and officially opening up Internet browsing for PSP owners. Apart from the major upgrade of the ability to use a built-in Web browser on the PSP using wireless access points, a feature that was only previously available by 'hacking' in-game browsers for other games or downloading the Japanese version of the 2.0 upgrade, the PSP upgrade also includes a number of extra features. In particular, PSP owners can now send and receive images wireless using the PSP's 'ad-hoc' mode, and also set any currently displayed image as wallpaper for the handheld - TIFF, GIF, PNG and BMP have been added as viewable image formats. Additional video formats have also been added, including MP4 (AVC), and a 4:3 screen mode has been added for Memory Stick-displayed media. Finally, audio tweaks for the upgrade include the ability to transfer Sony's proprietary ATRAC3 plus music format to a Memory Stick PRO Duo, and importantly, the unprotected version of the iTunes-compatible AAC format has been added to the compatibility list, as well as the WAV format.