Hacking the PSP Blog

Microsoft working on plans for portable gaming device

In a very timely article (considering the recent news concerning Nintendo) BusinessWeek online brings us some insider information on a possible Microsoft branded portable digital media device. Sources inside the company suggest that Microsoft has put together a team that's considering the business end of an initiative to unseat Apple's iPod. Based on previous commentary by Xbox boss Peter Moore, the device would play games alongside music and videos, in an attempt to differentiate it from the multitude of "iPod beaters" (and failers).

If Microsoft goes ahead with such a device, it'll have to ask itself whether or not it wants to include it as part of the Xbox family. As BusinessWeek puts it, "If the new device comes with the Xbox brand, most consumers will view it as a game player, like Sony's PlayStation Portable. That might limit its appeal, since the portable gaming market is much smaller than the one for digital media." In the past Sony have confused us over the intended purpose of the PSP, so it's likely an Xbox-to-go would suffer similarly. Trying to simultaneously master the portable music and video player market alongside the portable gaming market is not an easy task.

If Microsoft decides to go ahead with a portable games machine (we mused about this possibility a couple of months ago) the next few years will be very interesting indeed for portable gaming.

[Image credit goes to Playbomb]

Source: Joystiq

PS3 XBox Live-killer to be called "PlayStation HUB", PS3 due in September

Next Generation has the scoop on Sony's upcoming Xbox Live-killer. What you need to know:

• The service will be called "PlayStation HUB" and it will support "chat, downloadable demos, independent games and online play."
  
• It will also serve the PSP. Will the seldom utilized infrastructure mode now be called PlayStation HUB mode?
• Good things don't come cheap. The service will be a "subscriber service," similar to Live now. No more free Socom guys. No word on what the details of the subscription will be, but expect equal to or less than Live.
• Sir Howard Stringer, Sony's big boss man, wants the service to dish out media content, like movies and music, positioning the service as an alternative to Apple's wildly popular iTunes store.

Looks like the ambitious plans for a Live-killer may be coming to fruition. There will be many a surprised gamer--and more than a couple surprised suits in Redmond--if Sony manages to pull this off. There is one more thing that Next Gen managed to dig up from their "well-placed industry sources": namely, the anticipated console launch date!

The early word is that the system will see a near-simultaneous launch in both Japan and North America; September 16th in Japan and September 21st in North America. This date is, of course, subject to change, but an earlier fall launch may help them work out any manufacturing kinks several months before the vital holiday buying season.

It is not clear if the HUB service will be Live (pun alert!) when the system launches in September. Here's hoping!

Source: Joystiq

New Web-Based AIM Client for PSP

Wish you could send IM's to your AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) buddies from your PSP?

Now you can.

An enterprising group of individuals has come up with AimOnPSP, a "web-based AIM client that can be used in almost any browser that supports JavaScript (such as the one included in the new PSP firmware)."

The service is free-of-charge. To use it, just point your PSP's web browser to www.aimonpsp.com and input your AIM username and password. You can send and receive IM's just like you can while using AIM, although certain features are unavailable (such as file and image sharing).

Source: PSXextreme

EA to PSP Fight Night players: Pay us or we'll spam you

If this were a job where I had to show up at an office I would imagine working at a desk where a pretty woman hands up news updates for me to comment on in a post. I would look at this dispatches from the internet, and then sigh, because like Uwe Boll or Jack Thompson, certain names or companies are going to consistently come up and do something stupid.

Hello EA, this post is about you.

It appears you have a choice when you try to play Fight Night Round 3 online through your PSP. You either cough up some money, US$2 in fact, or give them your email and address. Not a good choice, even though most of us can make up an email address and mailing address. The whole thing is fairly ominous though. EA is basically saying "Pay us or we'll spam you."

Of course, they'll realize quickly that we're faking them with bullshit information. When that happens expect them to start emailing codes to you that are required to play online. Fun, huh?

Oh EA, how will you screw gamers next? I'm looking forward to going to the store to pick up next year's Madden and having an EA employee punch me in the face before I go. 

Source: Opposable Thumbs

Homebrew Releases for February 19, 2006

Laboko announced their new game save editor, and NeoGeo CDZ was updated again, but Sundays are usually slow...

Utilities
Laboko v1.00.00 - Game save editor.

Emulators
NeoGeo CDZ v0.1.6 - Updated!

Review: XCopy 9 DVD to PSP Transfer Utility

I bought this program to more easily transfer DVDs to my PSP. While I have written a number of tutorials and, umm, a book on how to do so, the market is being flooded with programs that "rip" DVDs for "backup" purposes. Since XCopy sold me on its "DVD to PSP" feature, that's the only portion I tested.



The first time I ran the application, version 2.0, it copied the wrong audio track, opting for the track with commentary instead of the primary audio track. Version 2.01 fixed this problem and I haven't had issues since. It would be nice if the application let you choose which audio track you prefered. The PSP transfer portion very bare-bones, but it has worked without a hitch with every transfer, which is exactly what I want :)

What's interesting is right after you install the software it prompts you to download a plug-in that is basically DeCSS. The web site warns you to only download it in a country which supports DVD decryption - do any of them? I own my DVDs and don't believe in piracy, and I hope you believe the same. Piracy hurts everybody, but you should still have the right to use *your* DVDs on any media player, whether it be a DVD player or your PSP.

The video quality is very good, and a 101 minute movie in "high" quality mode uses about 600-700 megabytes on a Memory Stick. I have not used the lower quality settings yet. It takes about the movie's duration to transfer the movie, so a 101 minute movie takes about 101 minutes to transfer. For the most part, that's pretty quick. The program does state a half gig Memory Stick as a minimum system requirement, which I feel was a good idea.

Overall, this program did what I asked it to do and appears to have done it well. I would ask the XCopy / Bling Software team to add some more customization to the PSP portion of the software, which is the only piece I use. I take good care of my DVDs, so I haven't needed a backup; but if I do, at least I have the other program which came with this product that accomplishes that task.

For those having issues using this product from the store, please make sure you update to version 2.01 or higher from the company's web site. The software is intelligent enough to tell you (when you launch it) when updates are available - quite the commendable feature, since many products still don't do that task well.

My rating: 4 stars for the PSP portion.

Price: About $30
Available: Pretty much anywhere, including Amazon.com and Fry's Electronics. I haven't checked Best Buy and CompUSA yet.

Click here to get XCopy 9 at Amazon.

-Auri