The PLAYSTATION Network folk (why is that in capitals?) over at the PlayStation.blog (and why the dot?) have revealed that version 4.00 of the PSP’s firmware is going to be released ’soon’. Despite the completely new version number, there don’t seem to be many huge changes to the PSP’s range of features.
More on this at that link down a bit, and to the right.
The main showcase feature of v4.00 appears to be a Google search function, available directly from the Network column of the PSP’s Xross Media Bar. You’ll click the icon and type in what you want, and the PSP will load up a Google page with the search results, saving you the 30 seconds, or so, it’d take you to boot up the internet browser and type in ‘google.com’. Think about it though: imagine those two or three times you’ve actually used your PSP to conduct a Google search; this new feature will save you that minute, or minute and a half to do other things!
The other feature made public is another gimmick, since Sony must really be running out of features to add to the handheld. Video playback speed features will let you slow down or speed up the playback of videos. Quite why you need this with a slow-motion and fast forward function already available, I don’t know. If it makes characters helium-voiced or sounding like the end of the latest podcast then it’ll be amusing for, oooh, about 20 seconds. Still, it could be useful when you’re not listening to music, actually watching a video or playing a game from the console’s relatively large library of ports.
That’s the latest news from PSP Land, and the first news to have emerged from there in quite some time. Still, it’s nice to see some attempt at keeping the console’s repertoire of features constantly expanding. At least with pay-per-view TV (courtesy of Sky Broadcasting) and satellite navigation (Go!Explore) coming soon, PSP can keep progressing further and further away from being the games console it originally was. Ah well; as a portable entertainment console, it’s a pretty intriguing device. Albeit a pretty intriguing device with a small battery life.
Source: PSP v4.00 update - PlayStation.blog
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Sean "Rothbart" Workman // Jun 17, 2008 at 2:28 pm
One thing people need to realize is that Sony associates no “additional” emphasis on a major version number. If you look back at both the PSP and PS3, arguably the biggest and most impactful features NEVER come on a major version number, but on some piddly mid-version revision.
While it’s unimpressive for a 3.x->4.0 release, I might be tempted to use the Google Search a few times (actually, I’d probably like that feature better on the PS3… even moreso if the search engine was configurable… and yeah, I’d still pick Google, but I like options.)
The movie playback… I’m thinking it’s probably like the PS3’s… you’ll be able to watch at 1.5x with pitch-adjusted audio… so it sounds “normal”, you’ll just be able to watch your video 50% faster/slower. That’s just a guess though.
All in all, _very_ minor update… nothing I’ll rush out to get.
2 Kiltman67 // Jun 17, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I’ve seen a lot of people making fun of how disappointing this update is but the question that keeps coming to my mind is what is the PSP actually missing that could be fixed with a firmware update?
The only two things I can think of are DivX support and a browser that doesn’t suck. The browser I can’t really say much about as I don’t know much about what’s cutting edge with NetFront, although I do know that some of my complaints about the browser are related to the PSPs memory.
As for DivX, unless it’s memory related as well, I can’t see why it’s not been implemented. I’ve heard some people suggest it’s because they don’t want to encourage people watching their own videos, when they could be watching things from UMDs, but that doesn’t make much sense since Sony have their own software for converting your own files into suitable formats.
Ultimately, I’ve given up on PSP firmware updates, not because I’ve lost faith in Sony, but merely because I can’t see what they have left to do, other than offering niche features like this.
3 Ratchet8clank // Jun 17, 2008 at 6:11 pm
i agree partly with Kiltman. btw i don’t think the google feature going to be on the xmb. It’s not like i care much about the browser, but AVI or DivX support would be great! i mean seriously, what else could they add to the PSP?
Suggestions, anyone?
4 tomyg // Jun 17, 2008 at 8:32 pm
What you seem not to be getting is WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT THEM TO ADD? seriously they have almost every form of electronic media on the little thing, movies, video, music, games, photo, internet. Do tiny little things that are FREE matter? If it’s free then it doesnt hurt, if google isnt your thing, dont download it. They cant add anything monumental every update and they already have so much, if your going to complain that they arent giving you enough when they gave you a console, video ipod, and internet browser all in one? What do you want them to add, cell phone service? A built in camera? a touch scree? Well they cant (and those would all reduce the already bad battery life.)
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