mercurious

Sony tells us that they will deliver the firmware upgrade that features the web browser we’ve been promised that should have been there in the first place. It is already available to our counterparts in the mother-country, and apparently even works fine on North American versions, as long as you’re willing to forgo the warranty. Since that didn’t cover dead pixels very well, should it matter? If you think the upcoming Boards of Canada album has been riddled with controversy, reading the forums over at a typical PSP enthusiast site may put things in perspective. At least the firmware will address two out of ten things one guy hates about the PSP. Hacking evangelist Phillip Torrone of Make says don’t upgrade to 2.0 if you want to enjoy the flourishing cottage industry of homebrew applications. Already, a vigilant fact-checking commentor has noted that this really only applies to those to who haven’t already updated their PSP from its initial 1.50 state. Indeed, Sony and its team of proprietary enforcers already locked out homebrewing with the 1.51, and 1.52 “security updates.” Sony has done a fine job of making a great handheld media device. They’ve been downright shitty about making sure a truthful and consistent message gets out there about updates and policies, not to mention their hostile policy on user generated content and applications. You either have to get a Sony rep on the phone and get one of several conflicting “official lines,” or comb through pages of absurdly argumentative blog and thread comments to get any information. Is this entry only adding insult to injury? Prolly… Why is this relevant beyond the inevitable mudslinging of compulsive updaters? Because someday the PSP will support Flash. Sony needs to get their policies on firmware updates and user generated content and applications sorted out.