Sony has released a new firmware update available now for the PSP, bringing the version up to 3.7. The new update can be picked up automatically through the Network Update Wi-Fi connection on the PSP.

Some of the updates with the new 3.7 version include revisions to increase security and an increased number of Playstation network titles that can be played under “Game”. The system will now also let users set custom theme settings in the Themes menu and a number of features for viewing media have been added.

Among all the noise of Apple iPod releases today Sony made some news of its own by announcing the availability of a PSP pack featuring the next generation PlayStation Portable device. The Daxter PSP Entertainment Pack is priced at around $200.

The Daxter PSP Entertainment Pack, which comes with a Daxter game, Family Guy UMD video and 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, is part of several packs promoting the new PSP Sony is putting out. This particular pack finds the PSP in an “ice silver” color, sporting features like a more streamlined form factor and a video-out port.

Sony has announced that they’re going to start offering Go!Explore, a new GPS navigation system add-on for their handheld PSP game console starting this holiday season. This is great news for those living in UK/Ireland, Iberia, France, Germany/Austria/Switzerland, Italy, Benelux, and Scandinavia where they will initially have maps available, but the rest of the world is going to have to wait a little longer.

The system includes a some GPS receiver hardware that will mount on the top of the PSP and UMD based software for the maps. The navigation software is provided by NavNGo and the maps will be from TeleAtlas providing navigation along with 3D city and landmark rendering on the PSP.

Go!Explore will come in languages of English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and will support updating the POI via WiFi.

via TrendyGadget

Targus has been well known for making computer bags, backpacks and other small computer accessories such as mice and keyboards. Today the company announced the SoundUP, designed to work inline with your headphones to improve the sound quality of compressed audio media.

The SoundUP device itself measures about the same size if not bigger than many MP3 players with dimensions of 3″ x 1.5″ x 7/8″ and a weight of just under 2 ounces. Targus says it uses a High Definition Sound Enhancer to “separate and reprocess digital music files, providing a three dimensional sound envelope from your MP3 player”. The device promises to improve the overall sound of files that are compressed for size, bringing out instruments and music that normally would not be heard otherwise.

The device plugs into any standard 3.5mm headphone …

If you’ve been holding out on buying a PSP because you’re waiting on the new slimmer PSP 2000, it’s now finally available for pre-order through Amazon.com. In case you missed it, Sony officially announced in July that they would be coming out with a new slimmer and lighter PSP adding on some new features including a new video out port, the ability to charge through USB and faster loading of games.

The PSP 2000 is going for $169.99 on Amazon and will ship on September 10.

It looks like PSP owners in Europe will be getting a new video-on-demand service through a new joing venture announced today between Sony and Sky. The new company will be Europe’s first official PSP video downloading service and is expected to be put in place by early next year, initially in Europe and Ireland.

There aren’t many details yet regarding the service offerings but reports say that there will be a wide variety of entertainment videos available to download to the PSP, with everything from movies to sitcoms to sporting events.

No news of this service going outside of Europe but such talks are underway. Sky is also looking at making a similar deal with Nintendo to bring videos to the DS handheld game console.

GuardianUnlimited

In addition to the three colors we get here in the U.S., today Sony made it known that those in Japan will get 3 more metallic pastel-looking colors to select from for the PSP lite. The three basic colors available are black, white and silver, with the additional “lite” colors being pink, purple and blue. No word on these colors officially coming our way but you can bet that some of them are likely to make it to the U.S. one way or another.

Source via Engadget

When the new slim PSP launches on September 20th, those with 1seg digital TV available in their area will be able to pick up television signals through their handheld game console.

The PSP-S310 1seg antenna will mount on the top of the PSP similar to how the EyeToy does and according to Kotaku will bring in so-so reception until they get some kinks worked out. Good reception or not this is both really cool and almost meaningless to us in the U.S. where 1seg just isn’t available.

Sony has officially come out to say that they are going to replace the original version of the PSP with the newer, slimmer PSP when it launches in September.

“The newly designed PSP will replace the original PSP design starting in September with the $169.99 PSP Core Pack and the $199.99 Daxter PSP Entertainment Pack.”, said Senior Public Relations Manager for Sony Computer Entertainment America, Patrick Seybold in an interview with IGN.

This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone since the newer one is basically the same product. It’s a little bit lighter and thinner, has a couple new cool features such as the video out port and it will go for the same price. Of course if you like your things a little on the bulkier side then this will come as bad news, but I’m going to …

Today Sony confirmed rumors of a new PSP Lite and announced the release of a slimmer, lighter version of the PSP handheld game console. The changes to the PSP are not drastic by any means, but it will come out 33% lighter and 19% thinner.

In additional to it’s new svelte profile the new PSP will include a video out port which is something many had hoped for. Now movies, pictures and games can be seen on a screen larger than the 4.3 inch LCD on the console (yep, this stayed the same size). Sony also added the ability to charge the PSP through a USB cable from your computer, and added some internal memory to help speed up the load times for games.

The thinner PSP will start shipping in September in colors including the familiar piano black along with newly …

Any of you that own a Sony PSP and don’t own an iPhone can still manage to get a little of the iPhone juice on you, even if it’s not the real deal. iPSP is some software you can download and transfer onto your Memory Stick and then use on your PSP. It provides a menu system that looks very similar to the iPhones, and is actually functional providing access to things like email, photos, IM’s and other apps.

It doesn’t look quite as nice as the real iPhone, and of course there’s no fancy touch screen, but it does look pretty cool to try out before someone takes it down. Also, instead of the iPhone switching from portrait to landscape when you rotate it, the directions instruct you in just the opposite …

When Sony released the version 3.5 firmware upgrade at the end of May the big talk was the new Remote Play functionality that was added through the update and little else. Lightly grounded rumors had been floating since the firmware release that it may have also increased the processor speed of the PSP, but it’s pretty hard to tell since all the games running on it are at the 266 MHz speed.

When the PSP was originally released the processor had more speed potential but it was capped due to what most assumed was to prolong battery life, but now Sony has confirmed that the 3.50 firmware upgrade did indeed increase the processor clock speed from 266 MHz to 333 MHz.

Increasing the speed lets developers create games utilizing the faster processor, but could also cut short the battery life. Current …

For a few weeks there has been a fair amount of talk about a new PSP design coming from Sony. Now Kotaku is reporting from inside sources what they believe to be the final specs for what they are calling the “PSP Slim”, although an actual name hasn’t been released.

The new PSP2, or whatever it will be called, isn’t a total redesign and will be using the same hardware from the existing PSP, but it will sport a “much slimmer design”. The battery life is expected to quadruple partly due to a more power efficient LCD screen, and they’ve also found a way to make the UMD games load a little faster.

The new PSP design will have some built-in internal memory with it instead of having to rely on an external Memory Stick. In fact it will house …

Sony has now released a new version of its firmware for the Playstation Portable (ver. 3.50) that enables the Remote Play capabilities through a wireless internet connection from your PS3 sitting in the next room, the next town or the next country.

The Playstation 3 firmware was updated recently as well in order to support this feature and the PSP upgrade closes the loop to allow you to control your PS3 using your PSP. The Remote Play feature to me sounds a little better than it is. Remote Play almost implies that you can actually “play” your PS3 games on your Playstation Portable, when in fact you can’t. You can however play videos, music and view photos that are stored on your PS3 through your PSP, but that’s it, at least for now.

You can upgrade your PSP to the …

Well that didn’t take long. Just last week Sony announced their PlayStation Eye for the PS3 and now they’ve told European PSP owners to expect their own ocular add-on in just over two weeks.

The Go!Cam will street on May 16 and cost about 35 pounds (US $70). It can take up to two-and-a-half hours worth of video/audio (it’s got a built-in mic) or about 40,000 photos with a 4 Gig Memory Stick PRO Duo. Best of all, thanks to the PSP’s wireless abilities you can transmit those files without the need for cords and clutter. The tiny chrome camera has a 180 degree vertical range but no horizontal movement. The Go!Cam will come bundled with Go!Edit software which allows you to edit and store your video and audio files.

So far Sony has only issued price info and a release date for its European customer …