From just about day one, the holy grail of the PSP homebrew scene has been PSX emulation, and while much has been accomplished on this front, the spiffiest emulator yet happens to come courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment Itself. Of course, that emulator entails a pay-per-download scheme, limited catalog and requires a PS3 to make it all work, right? Not so much anymore, thanks to hacker extraordinaire Dark_AleX and his new Custom Firmware 3.02 OE-B, which lets you convert your very own PSX ISOs and run them at full speed on the PSP. OE-A worked as a hack for Sony-released download titles by stripping the DRM, but it sounds like OE-B is the real deal here. Sure looks like those PSP fanboys are going to be having some happy holidays this year. Keep reading to spy an incredibly blurry vid of the hack in action.

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Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will lower the price of its PlayStation Portable gaming device by $30 to $170 amid intense competition among game console rivals, particularly Nintendo Co.

It’s the first time Sony has officially lowered suggested retail prices on the PSP since its debut in March 2005. Video game publishers and financial analysts have been urging Sony to slash hardware prices in recent quarters.

The cuts come two months after Sony’s gaming unit posted a third-quarter operating loss of $443 million, largely due to hefty costs for the launch of its PlayStation 3 video game console.

Although Sony promised business at the gaming unit would improve by the latter half of the fiscal year, the company said declining sales during the October-December period of Sony’s predecessor console, PlayStation 2, as well as the handheld PlayStation Portable and PSP game software, hurt quarterly profits at the gaming unit.

Sony’s PSP competes mainly against Nintendo’s Game Boy and DS. Despite being launched in 2004, the DS — which some retailers sell for as little as $130 — outsold every other console in the United States in February, registering 485,000 units sold, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Nintendo has also been a formidable player in next-generation consoles, traditionally a Sony stronghold.

The Nintendo Wii, released in November, sold 335,000 units during the month, followed by Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 with 228,000 units and Sony’s PlayStation 3 with 127,000 units.

With its diminutive “Wiimote” — a motion-sensitive, wrist-mounted remote control — Nintendo’s Wii has been a surprise hit among kids, women and older players, catching on far beyond the “hardcore” gamer niche of young men. The Wii sells for $250, far less than the PS3, which starts at $500.

Jack Tretton, president and chief executive of Foster City-based Sony Computer Entertainment America, said Sony’s price cuts were an effort to make the game more affordable to young gamers.

“We have recently seen a steady rise in the number of teens adopting PSP as their primary handheld entertainment system, and we expect the new price will accelerate that trend,” Tretton said in a statement.

Sony, which also lowered the price of its higher-end PSP Entertainment Pack 20 percent to $200, will launch a print and online advertising campaign targeted at teenagers.

In late November, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. slashed prices on the PSP to $170. Although world’s largest retailer didn’t release sales numbers, analysts said the promotion was a success, and they were encouraged about Sony’s official new prices.

“We expect a modest step-up in PSP unit sales during an otherwise seasonally slower period for the video game industry,” Colin Sebastian, senior research analyst at Lazard Capital Markets in San Francisco, wrote in an investor note.

It has been announced that Sony Corp. will launch a slimmer model of its PlayStation Portable handheld game player in September, in its latest attempt to ignite demand for its game hardware and compete better with Nintendo Co. Ltd.

Both Sony and Nintendo released their handheld gear, the PSP and DS, respectively, late in 2004, but sales of the PSP, which can play movies, music and games, have recently been outshined by the DS.

“From a distance, this PSP might not look very different from the current model … but when you have it in your hand, the difference becomes quite clear,” Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said. “It’s actually 33 percent lighter than the current PSP. It’s also 19 percent slimmer.”

Hirai, who replaced Ken Kutaragi, known as the “Father of PlayStation,” as head of Sony’s game division earlier this year, made the PSP announcement during a presentation at the E3 video game exposition, the industry’s biggest event.

Nintendo sold 23.6 million DS units in the year ended March 2007, outpacing PSP shipments of 8.4 million.

Underlining its lead both in the console and handheld markets, Nintendo last month zipped past Sony in market value and bumped the Tokyo-based electronics conglomerate off the list of Japan’s 10 most valuable companies.

A Sony spokeswoman said the slimmer PSP would retail for about $170, the same as the current PSP. Nintendo’s newest DS model, the DS Lite, sells for $130.

Like Sony, Nintendo last year launched the lighter version of the DS, accelerating already white-hot demand for the handset. The DS Lite has two screens, opens like a book and allows gamers to control play with a stylus, instead of manipulating a keypad.

Nintendo executives said on Wednesday that portable sales made up 50 percent of its hardware sales in 2006, compared with just 30 percent in 2002.

PRICE CUT

On the console side of its game business, Sony this week cut the U.S. price of its PlayStation 3 by $100 after seeing the PS3 far outsold by Nintendo’s Wii.

“This new price went into effect on Monday. Since then sales of 60-gigabyte PS3 have doubled at top five retailers,” Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said during the E3 presentation.

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and the Wii have outsold the PS3 by several times in the crucial U.S. market, leaving Sony, which has dominated the game industry over the past decade, in the unfamiliar position of playing catch up.

Its high price and scarcity of attractive titles have been cited as main reasons for the PS3′ slow start.

Even after the price cut, the PS3 costs $20 more than the most expensive version of the Xbox 360, and twice that of the Wii, whose $250 price and motion-sensing controller have made it a best-seller despite its lack of life-like graphics.

In a bid to send a message that strong PS3 titles are in the pipeline, Sony showcased some 50 upcoming games at the presentation, including the latest installments of blockbuster fighting game “Metal Gear Solid” from Konami Corp.  and popular in-house racing title “Gran Turismo.”

During the presentation, it was indicated that “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” will not be available until early 2008, giving hard-core gamers one fewer reasons to rush to store shelves.

Following the announcement, shares in Sony were up 0.3 percent at 6,350 yen by midday on Thursday, roughly in line with the benchmark Nikkei average.

1. Get a Memory Stick for your PSP:

Before you can load any data onto your Sony PSP, you must have a memory stick to store the files onto. The PSP comes with a tiny 32MB card that is only big enough to store a relatively small amount of files. If you plan on watching video clips and installing lots of games on your PSP, you will need to purchase a larger Memory Stick Pro Duo card. These cards come in several different sizes. Exact sizes vary depending on compression rates and quality, but on average, you will need about 5MB for every 1 minute of video. Before you can use a brand new Memory Stick with your PSP, you need to reformat it. If you don’t know how to do this, here’s a quick tutorial on how to format a PSP Memory Stick.

2. Format your Memory Stick on your PSP:

Before you can use a brand new Memory Stick with your PSP, you need to reformat it. If you don’t know how to do this, here’s a quick tutorial on how to format a PSP Memory Stick.

3. Download this test video clip and thumbnail to your computer:

Right + Click (PC, Mac) or Option + Click (Mac) to save each of these two files to your Desktop. Joe Vs. Wade (ZIP file, 32MB)

4. Connect the PSP to your computer:

If you haven’t already, you need to connect the PSP to your computer with the USB cable that it came with and put the PSP into USB mode. Press the HOME button located on the bottom left of your PSP and then scroll left to the SETTINGS column. Scroll down to USB CONNECTION and press X. The Memory Stick inside your PSP will now mount on your computer.

5. Copy the video onto your PSP:

In order to playback video files on your PSP, you must copy them into the proper folder. The correct file path is MP_ROOT > 100MNV01. If you place video files anywhere else on the Memory Stick, they will not playback properly. If the MP_ROOT and 100MNV01 folders don’t already exist on your PSP’s Memory Stick, then you need to make two new folders and name them in ALL CAPS. Just a reminder, the 100MNV01 folder goes inside the MP_ROOT folder. The PSP requires video (M4V) and thumbnail (THM) files must be named starting with M4V and ending with five random numbers ie. M4V12345.

The following two diagrams should help explain where the video files need to go:

MEMSTICK.IND

MP-ROOT

MSTK_PRO.IND

PSP

100MNV01

(videos)

6. Watch the video on your PSP:

Once the video file has finished transferring onto your Memory Stick, you can disconnect the PSP from your computer. Scroll over to the VIDEO column on your Sony PSP and you should now see the video file. Press X to watch it. Enjoy!

2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, today announced that Ghost Rider, the action-packed combat and motorcycle video game featuring Marvel Comics’ iconic supernatural superhero, is now available in North America for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, the PSP (PlayStationPortable) system and Game Boy Advance. The title will be available in Europe as the movie releases in different regions. The Ghost Rider video game reflects the stylized action of the successful Marvel comic series and Sony Pictures’ upcoming Ghost Rider movie.

-PSP offers new gameplay including game sharing, and Wi-Fi multiplayer racing for up to four players.

Capitalizing on the latest high-tech trend, PSP Blender pspblender.com is providing the owners of Sony PSP with something irresistible—free PSP movie downloads.

“We have given extensive study to this rapidly growing market. These are the same people who download music and games. They do not like to pay for downloads one at a time, so that is why we have created PSP Blender. They want to pay once and then come back for downloads as often as they like,” explained Michael Stevens, creator of the site.

The company, which also owns a PSP Blender Blog site has found great success offering PSP games, music, and now movies through a one-time membership.

“We carefully studied what the consumers of PSP products want, and what they do not want. Our study revealed that they want a download site with a huge selection, a simple download process, and like most Internet shoppers, they want a good price. We studied market trends and realized that consumers would rather pay a one-time fee than pay monthly subscriptions or pay-as-you-go,” said Stevens.

The result of the market analysis is that pspblender.com delivers on all counts. Consumers can pay a one-time fee and then have access to over 100,000 movies, television shows, and other entertainment downloads.

PSP Blender members can even get a combination membership to download unlimited movies and games as well. The marketing approach seems to be paying off.

Gamers who purchased a PSP to enhance their gaming have discovered there is now much more for them to enjoy. The demand for PSP movie downloads is expected to grow rapidly as more and more consumers purchase the device.

In a recent survey by Ziff Davis, 36 percent of gamers said they plan to buy a PSP in 2006. Foss said that trend will increase, and the demand for all forms of downloads will increase as well.

PSP Blender provides access to the largest PSP DVD quality movies collection with over 100,000 updated movies available for members. With millions of games and music selections as well it is no surprise that traffic to the site is increasing daily.

Sponsored By PSP Blender

Give Sony credit for this one. The PSP now sports VoIP capability, and it’s not from industry standard Skype.

No, Sony has gone with JAJAH on this one, and the result is something that you can get right now on your PSP, with just a few clicks and no software to download. That’s right, the browser handles everything, including taking what little money you’ll have to pay for this service.

As you can see from the photo, the interface is rather familiar-looking and all you have to do is type in the phone number for the call process to initiate.

What’s more, Sony is promising to retrofit its other gaming consoles to reflect the JAJAH partnership.

Sony reveals new details for BD-Live Interactivity.

It is recommended that PSP Blender members do not update their firmware to 3.10 for the time being.
Sony released their PlayStation Portable firmware update, 3.10 and now makes demos even easier to check out.

Sony announced the release of the Sony PSP firmware 3.10. It includes Conserve Memory to optimize your Internet browser to see more data while using less memory. Also included with this firmware update is Dynamic Normalizer in the sound settings allowing automatic volume adjustment settings for playback of music and other audio sources with variable output levels.

Sony is also making it easier to check out their demos. Demos are downloadable at the official Sony PSP site as well as at the PlayStation site.

Some of the demos that can be downloaded are Killzone: Liberation which is a third-person shooter putting players into 16 intense missions to rescue hostages from the evil Helghast. Other demos include Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2, both of which are set for release in the next few weeks.

If everything goes according to play, eyeVio — the new video sharing service launched by Sony — will get bought out by Google, just like YouTube before it. Then again, I don’t think Sony is as willing to sell off portions of its business.

The eyeVio service is scheduled to launch in Japan (only) today, providing users with a space where they can share “my life, your emotion.” Whatever that means.

Videos can be remotely uploaded via portable devices (like cell phones and web-connected PDAs) using the mobile version of the site (m.eyevio.com). On the flip side, videos can be downloaded in PSP-compatible formats for later viewing. They’d probably work on iPods too, but Sony wouldn’t say.

Will this be another PS3? Powerful but with no one caring? Or will it be the killer app to revitalize interest in the PSP? Considering that Japan is currently Nintendo-land, I think it’s pretty safe to draw certain conclusions.