Firmware 2.70 Hits Worldwide
And there's a very cute reason why you'll want it.
Published: April 25, 2006
It's been almost five months since Sony kicked out their last PSP firmware update, the much-vaunted 2.6 release added support for WMA files RSS audio feeds (i.e. the much-vaunted-but-ultimately-underwhelming Podcast). It also rode the release of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, which was then used to crack the mandatory accompanying 2.50 firmware update, and shortly afterward, a 2.60 update.
Surprisingly, Sony didn't respond too quickly. If one were to whip out the tinfoil hat, one could speculate that Sony was all too happy to let their first killer app be used this way, since it sold more copies of the game, and they knew they could just fix it down the road with another firmware upgrade. Sadly for the homebrew (and, yes, piracy) community, that day has come.
As of today, the 2.70 update has been made available and will start hitting the first wave of new releases for the system in a few weeks. The update does more than just patch Liberty City Stories' savegame exploit, it adds the much-ballyhooed Flash update, as well as support for actually saving Podcasts to a Memory Stick rather than just bookmarking 'em. Other, more minor upgrades include a slight tweak to the LocationFree settings, another file extension suppoted for audio files, support for Memory Stick media larger than 2GBs, UMD video interface additions, and Chinese/Traditional Chinese character support has been added.
This is a worldwide update, so you can grab it down via the Network Update option on the PSP if you have a WiFi connection, or you can download the update to your PC and install it via a USB cable, or, well, you can just wait. Plenty of new games will be forcing the update very, very soon -- including the demo for one of the most hotly anticipated games: LocoRoco. The quirky Japanese puzzler offers a one-level demo that you can the second you read this by visiting the official JP game site.
Sadly, demos haven't yet progressed to the point where you can download and play them all through the PSP (yet), but the process is fairly simple. This is the same level (albeit in Japanese) that we played last week, so you can read our preview and follow along. Simple, no? No? Well then feel free to visit the forums and ask for a little help. We're happy to give you a few pointers if you get stuck wading through all that Japanese.
Surprisingly, Sony didn't respond too quickly. If one were to whip out the tinfoil hat, one could speculate that Sony was all too happy to let their first killer app be used this way, since it sold more copies of the game, and they knew they could just fix it down the road with another firmware upgrade. Sadly for the homebrew (and, yes, piracy) community, that day has come.
As of today, the 2.70 update has been made available and will start hitting the first wave of new releases for the system in a few weeks. The update does more than just patch Liberty City Stories' savegame exploit, it adds the much-ballyhooed Flash update, as well as support for actually saving Podcasts to a Memory Stick rather than just bookmarking 'em. Other, more minor upgrades include a slight tweak to the LocationFree settings, another file extension suppoted for audio files, support for Memory Stick media larger than 2GBs, UMD video interface additions, and Chinese/Traditional Chinese character support has been added.
This is a worldwide update, so you can grab it down via the Network Update option on the PSP if you have a WiFi connection, or you can download the update to your PC and install it via a USB cable, or, well, you can just wait. Plenty of new games will be forcing the update very, very soon -- including the demo for one of the most hotly anticipated games: LocoRoco. The quirky Japanese puzzler offers a one-level demo that you can the second you read this by visiting the official JP game site.
Sadly, demos haven't yet progressed to the point where you can download and play them all through the PSP (yet), but the process is fairly simple. This is the same level (albeit in Japanese) that we played last week, so you can read our preview and follow along. Simple, no? No? Well then feel free to visit the forums and ask for a little help. We're happy to give you a few pointers if you get stuck wading through all that Japanese.