Sony's PlayStation portable (PSP) now has a new version 3.50 firmware update available, letting you access music, pictures and videos on a Sony PlayStation 3 from a PSP wirelessly connected to the Internet. When Sony upgraded its PS3 firmware to version 1.80 last week, one of its key features was Remote Play, giving you media streaming over a network, but the missing link was the ability to receive that content.
In this PSP firmware update, Sony also threw in a RSS Channel Guide for those newbies not familiar with that concept, but the real deal here is that Remote Play trick. It's a bit of a misnomer because it won't let you play any PS3 games remotely on a PSP. Own both devices? Now you can go all-Sony, all the time. Fanboy. – Charlie White
PSP firmware updated for new PS3 features [Computer and Video Games]

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

Just released in Japan, Sony's 3.50 firmware for the PSP should making the global rounds soon enough. That, coupled with the latest PS3 firmware update, means you've just scored "Remote Play" functionality -- access to videos, music, and pictures on your home PS3 running 1.80 -- over the Internet. The update also includes an RSS channel guide but we know it's the remote play you want. We'll update this post once the firmware is available Stateside.

[Via Impress]

Read -- Japan release
Read -- US release (not yet available, still pegged to 3.40) 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Today is a big day for music downloaders, because iTunes is finally offering DRM-free music for your listening pleasure. To sweeten the deal, each also has a lighter AAC compression applied to it, 256kbps instead of iTunes' customary 128kbps.
Called iTunes Plus, it's available now, and all it asks is an extra 30 cents per song ($1.29 for each instead of $.99 for iTunes songs). Is there a big difference in sound quality between those 128kbps iTunes files and these 256kbps iTunes Plus songs? Let's dig into iTunes Plus, grab a few files and compare them to the old-style locked-up tunes.

To access the iTunes Plus songs, a limited selection with only EMI artists thus far, first you must upgrade your iTiunes software to version 7.2.0.34. Then, you simply tell iTunes you'd like for it to offer you iTunes Plus songs whenever they're available.

Then it offers (for thirty cents each) to convert any 128kbps tunes you already have into iTunes Plus files, if t...

Since we told you about Sony's PS3 firmware 1.8 rollout yesterday, there's new information and screenshots surfacing as the firmware rolls out across the world.
Since the announcement and rollout yesterday, what else have we learned about the PS3 1.8 firmware?
galleryPost('ps3firmwareupdate', 4, 'PS3 Firmware Screen Shots');

As Chen mentioned, top of the list is media sharing via DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), so now you can stream your media from it to a Windows Vista PC (or an XP machine running Windows Media Player 11, or a Mac), and view it on your PS3, just like you can with your Xbox 360. Drawbacks: You can't play lossless WMA files, nor can it play back HD transport stream formats (.ts) or DivX/ XviD files yet.
Soon you'll be able to use your PS3 like a Slingbox, that is, if you have a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). It'll be able to stream media over the Internet to your PSP, so wherever you go, as long as you have an Internet con...

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Portable Audio, Portable Video

The PS3 1.8 firmware is out and making its way global in Sony's typical rolling release cycle: APAC, Europe, then the Americas. We'll be testing it ourselves later but we thought you'd like to peep the first screen shots of DLNA-enabled media sharing in the PS3's XMB interface. In this case, Hardcoreware turned on media sharing within Vista (Home Premium or Ultimate, we presume) and voila, their updated PS3 detected and played music, pictures, and video stored on their networked PC -- just like their Xbox 360. Of course, this should work on any DLNA-supported PC (yes, Macs too) or media device including PSPs when the firmware update is released next month. A nice shot in the arm for the Digital Living Network Alliance and good news for PS3 owners everywhere. Hit the read link for more pictures. 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinu...

It's not quite the 2.0 firmware rumored to be coming out soon, but this 1.8 firmware for the PlayStation 3 seems to have some nice features of its own too.
Among the sparklers are upscaling PS1, PS2 and DVD movies to 1080p, remote play on PSPs over the internet, and streaming of pictures, music, and video over the network from DLNA3 enabled devices. We haven't heard much about Digital Living Network Alliance before, but it's a bunch of companies that collaborated into making interoperability easier. We're not sure which products support this though. If Sony keeps up this line of fantastic firmware updates, the PS3 may actually be something worth buying by the middle of 2008! – Jason Chen
Press Release [Sony]

Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment
Hot on the heels of an 80GB Korean-bound (and US, too?) PlayStation 3 comes news that Sony is planning on seriously upping the abilities of the PS3 with a forthcoming firmware update. Compared to minor changes that have occurred in the past, this one looks to be fairly substantial, so we'll cut to the chase and give you the skinny. First off, firmware v1.80 will enable "upscaling of PlayStation / PlayStation 2 games and DVD movies up to a full 1080p when viewed on a compatible HDTV set." Of course, that "up to" bit frightens us a bit, but we'll take any progress we can get. Moving on, PSP users will enjoy Remote Play on their PSP across the internet, which will allow them to "access their PS3 anywhere in the world where a broadband internet connection is available." Additionally, owners can now view multimedia stored on a DLNA-enabled media center PC "seamlessly," and there will even be an option to print images stored on the console's ...

Filed under: Gaming, Portable Audio
You lucky PSP-ownin' Brits. BT has developed custom VoIP software for use with PSPs fitted with new Go!Cams (pictured to the right). Using the Go!Cam's mic and camera, PSP punters will initially be able to make voice and video calls to other PSP users and some BT phones across the UK. Eventually, BT will distribute the software globally and allow users to calls PCs, fixed line phones and mobiles from any WiFi hotspot. The new service takes advantage of BT's 21 century network (21CN) designed specifically for IP technologies. Now the bad news: while the Go!Cams are scheduled for release on 25 May in the UK, BT won't be providing any additional detail on the PSP VoIP service until sometime in August. Oh BT you saucy minx you. 
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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

There's two types of "homage" that we usually see from Chinese vendors. First, the Meizu type, who grab the look and feel and some functionality from other products but make them into something pretty respectable. Then, there's the Amycoll PS3.
First, there's the obvious "Amycoll" instead of Samsung's Anycall. Then there's the even more obvious "PS3". They didn't even try with that one. Add to that the PSP-like buttons on the top, which can be used in landscape mode with the D-pad on the left for gaming. Oh, there's more.
galleryPost('chineseamycoll', 8, 'Chinese Amycoll');

Once you start the thing up you see it's "running" Windows Mobile with Direct Push, except it's not. You wouldn't know that from the startup theme and sound effects though.
If you pop open the battery cover, you'll see that it's "Made in Koera", which truly cements the fact that Korean manufacturers like Samsung and LG have made it into the big leagues—who would have thought...

On my recent visits to see the latest TVs, I started to get the sneaking suspicion that the interfaces were getting more user friendly. I mean, that isn't hard: TVs have notoriously bad interfaces, and unless you are Brian Lam or a member of the AVS Forum, you might have a hard time calibrating your TV to exacting specifications. Do I have evidence from Sony, Philips, Mitsubishi and others that they are in fact responding to these silent cries for help? You bet.
Sony is now using the XMB (cross media bar) interface developed for the PSP and the PS3 in its Sony Electronics products, such as the Mylo, a new receiver or two, and most new televisions, starting with the 37-in. Bravia KDF-37H1000 rear-projection LCD. See the XMB interface:

Now see the Bravia's XMB interface superimposed over the PS3's XMB interface (just for fun):

When I was checking out the new Mitsubishi LCDs, I had a look at their NetCommand system for assigning remote control c...