PlayStation Portable update

In the vein of being geeky at the moment, I decided to try and connect my PSP to the WiFi network and see what happens.

The WiFi network is secured using WEP to reduce the chance of people randomly connecting to it (not that I wouldn't mind people using spare bandwidth, just there are major issues with liability etc.).

So on the PSP I create a network connection, unfortunately the key entry system in in Japanese but that was only for the connection name (I think you can change it), but since there was a default, not a problem. The select the SSID - luckily this has an English keyboard and it wasn't too difficult, WEP was the same, everything else was left on automatic (such as IP address, netmask, etc). It's odd the PSP wouldn't scan for a network.

There's then a test connection, which happily connected.

It was then possible to upgrade the unit (there's an upgrade option), which worked flawlessly. It just pulled a new image from Sony and stored it on the (supplied 32MB) memory stick. The firmware is then copied from the memory stick to the internal Flash memory. You need to make sure you have sufficient battery power and that unit should be plugged into the mains and then it all runs smoothly.

I haven't yet noticed much of a difference in actual operation, apart from the OS reporting v1.5 instead of 1.0.

It looks as though there is a lot more functionality in the unit than Sony have made publically available yet, there are reports of people having got web browsers, IRC clients and other Internet applications running on the units.

I do believe Sony are on to a winner here and that the PSP really has the possibility of becoming a sophisticated portable media hub.