It’s in the Nikkei so it’s news: first Sony Dips Into the Red, then Nintendo Logs Two-Digit Decline in Sales and Income.

Regarding Sony’s results for the 1Q of 2005, in short they are in the red, apparently because they didn’t sell enough TVs and MemorySticks. The good news is that the game segment is up 64% compared to last year, but they are still losing even more money than last year in that department too. Sony says this is due to an increase in the advertisement and R&D expenses.

Nintendo’s 2005 Q1 is not that good either, actually it dropped 14% compared to the figures last year. Sales of the Nintendo DS exceeded 1.38 million units during this period, but it’s still much lower than the 5.27 million units of the first four months. But they are still hopeful, and apparently Nintendogs is selling well. Sales of the Game Boy Advance and the GameCube dropped 60% too. Nintendo says they are not too worried because the Holiday season should balance it all nicely.

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Surfing happily on the trendiness of all possible memes of the moment, some PSP fans have created a video podcast about hacking the PSP. The video is 10 minutes long and covers what you need to set up homebrew apps on your PSP. (They point out that it is not for the people out there who already know about what’s going on with the PSP scene). If you liked “Wayne’s World”, you will love this video! Except the two hosts are way more nerdy than the movie… This is classic, even if you don’t plan to even have a PSP. :D
Download the video here.

Disclaimer: We are not saying doing things on your PSP like what they talk about in the video is a good thing nor that it is not illegal. All we do is reporting the news that someone has done it.

During their last event, Sony announced the launch a white PSP, called the PSP-1000KCW, which will be available in Japan from September 15th. The value pack (PSP, headphones, a memory card sleeve etc.) will be the same price as the black PSP. No word on whether or not it will be available internationally at the same date.

Via IDG News

It’s Macworld who announced it: Sony will release next week a system software update for the PSP that will add several new functions, including web browsing and video download abilities.

No need for homebrew tweaking anymore, as far as web surfing is concerned, the web browser will be accessible straight from the PSP’s main menu, and it supports HTML 4.01.

The PSP already has a wireless LAN for online gaming and for downloading software from the Internet, but SCEI hasn’t officially allowed users to browse the Web. However, users quickly found a way to exploit a Web browser included in the “Wipeout Pure” game to enable access to Web sites. Instructions for doing this can be found easily on the Internet, but the software update will make Web browsing both official and much easier.

Also introduced in the demo in Tokyo last Thursday, was the download and playback of video in the MPEG4 AVC format. A new PSP portal site will be launched next week by SoNet (Sony’s Internet service provider in Japan), which will offer downloads of TV programs and other content. No info on the price for this service yet.

Other new features include transfer of photos between two PSP via wireless LAN, and support for Apple’s/iPod’s AAC audio format. It seems Sony has learned from the MP3 vs. ATRAC lesson, and they’re going one step further by supporting even more formats now, even Mac users’ favorite one…

This version 2.0 software update will be available via the PSP’s built-in update function and on UMD from July 27, but it is not clear if the update will be available to users outside Japan just yet.

Up until now, when you where looking on Google for “PSP web server”, you where getting a message that said “Did you mean: PHP web server?” and you knew you made a typo. Not anymore. They did it: the PSP is now totally hacked. What’s next?

Someone at Microsith has coded “PSP HTTPD”, a web server for the PSP. What it does is letting you access the memory stick and internal flash devices on the PSP via a web browser. In case tou want to try it out, the website (where you can download the binaries) warns us that there are still many security holes and advises not to make your IP address public. Also note that this release only works on Infrastructure mode (no DHCP).

Yes, this is very nerd, sorry…

(via Waxy)

Yet a new cool homebrew piece of software for the PSP, “PSP Kick” is a drum machine / sequencer for the PSP with 12 drum sounds and a grid. Output is available in 44khz 16 bit stereo sound .wav files directly to the memory stick.

The PSP Kick official website will be live soon, meanwhile you can read more and download it at PSPUpdates.com.

via Music thing

We don’t want to encourage anyone to steal nor cheat, nor copy illegally. This is not about piracy really, but rather about the size of the developpers community gathering around the PSP. It is almost like Sony wants this to happen, to boost the sales of the device and win the Nintendo DS vs PSP war.

There is a theory out there that one reason of the success of the original PlayStation was that CDs were easily copied. This seems to apply again to the PSP and the use of MemoryStick to copy games and movies and everything. Sony makes money when a blank CDR is sold, and the same applies to MemorySticks too…

Anyway, there are a lot of articles out there about what is happening, and if you are into what is already possible or not, it is amazing to see what people are doing with their PSP a few months after it was released.

PSP Launcher released for Lumines
So the PSP Launcher for running homebrew code on your PSP has been out for a couple of weeks, and now the commercial cat appears to be out of the bag.

Latest PSP firmware apparently cracked
A video file released to a Web site for PlayStation Portable independent developers, appears to show an independently developed “Hello, World” test application running from memory stick, on a newer model PSP with firmware version 1.5.

KXploit (Direct Loader!) v1.50 RELEASED!
As promised once again by the PSP-Dev Team; they’ve now released their non-swap 1.50 homebrew loader entitled KXploit!
This method DOES NOT require you to swap memory sticks.

HomebrewPSP Converter
RnSKSoftronics, the makers of iPSP, have put together a Mac program capable of getting all these homebrew games working on your PSP without having to swap memory sticks: HomebrewPSP Converter. It is free.

xmame for PSP
Arcade emulator for the PSP :)
Only works with Omega Fighter at this time. Left and Right on Dpad is OK :)
(The SlashDot post)

Game Boy Advance emulator for PSP
Next on the block just so happens to be a Game Boy Advance emulator. Sure, it won’t play roms larger than 16MB, but damn if every time a new emu comes out it isn’t a Nintendo console generation more advanced than the last.

PSP UAE v0.1 released
A port of the UAE Amiga Emulator for PSP! It runs at about 75-80% of a real Amiga 500 speed, but some games are definitely playable such as E-Motion and Rick Dangerous. The source code is included, and future versions may include such features as a menu, sound, disk selection, and keyboard emulation.

Oh, and in case you were wondering if you can get into trouble when buying a PSP overseas, don’t worry: apparently not. According to Engadget, Sony is going after the grey market resellers, not the buyers.

Sony is expressly denying the rumors that they’re pressing those online retailers to give them their customer data so they can find out who exactly who has bought one.

Again, it is Sony’s best interest that a few get the device before everyone else, and make street-level viral marketing buzz about how cool it is. Prove me wrong, but I think they would certainly not want this to stop…

1UP.com has this cool feature on videogames emulators by Nich Maragos, titled “Afterlife“, which is an interesting read if you’re into video games.

What looks like a game system, plays like a game system, and yet isn’t a game system? The answer is an emulator, which is a means to make one piece of consumer electronics behave like another. Whether they’re hardware add-ons or clever pieces of coding, emulators have been a part of videogames almost as long as the medium itself — but they’re decidedly the black sheep of the gaming family, for a variety of legal and ethical reasons. (More…)

(Always via Waxy)

Phillip Torrone, over at the Make: Blog, published a complete and detailed “how-to” on running emulators, games and homebrew applications on a USA PlayStation Portable PSP. It’s got pictures, screenshots as well as video to watch explaining all the steps. As he writes:

This is really a big deal, we’re all going to be able to play thousands of games, run hundreds of cool applications all for free and all from the community of tinkerers out there looking to do more with their PSP.

Via Waxy

The Nintendo DS has been outselling both PSP and PS2 combined during the first week of Nintendogs release. Nintendo’s handheld still on top a month later, GameSpot reports.

After the punch in the face Nintendo got from the introduction of the PSP, this is very good news for the people on the Mario side. According to the GameSpot article, the DS has been the “best-selling piece of gaming hardware in Japan since the release of Nintendogs on April 21, outselling both the PlayStation 2 and the PSP” (with the exception of the week of May 9, just after “Golden Week”). When Nintendogs was released, the Nintendo DS sales exploded to 96,191 units, almost 5 times the figures from before the introduction of the game. Nintendogs is scheduled to hit the US market late August.