PSP-2000 Part 4 - Chat and System Update 3.93

Well, this is probably not as exciting news for the rest of the world, but PlayStation.com finally released firmware 3.93. The main update for Japanese users is Skype, and I think they released 20 new internet radio player plugins and updated network play. I'll check out the radio players later. You have to use a specific microphone, which may or may not have been the cause of this delay, but I doubt I'll ever get it (~$40). If you already have one from some language software or whatever, you're in luck. They are also selling two-packs as a deal. No idea what I can do with a nonfunctional voip client, but I got the update anyway just to see. I hope they add an instant message function to it... not a frequent Skype user.

On the other hand, I thought Go!Messenger would have some potential for instant messenging. Unfortunately it doesn't even work right in the U.S. or Japan and you have to have people registered with their account on PSP. Whyyy Sony?? This angers me... but I won't go into it. Registration is easy but you have to cheat the system at this point if you want to use it in the U.S. When I tried it their server was busy all night. The interface looks pretty smooth, but I just decided it wasn't worth the trouble. Basically I find it useless if I can't talk via regular AIM or google or whatever popular clients out there. Even MSN. Anyway, more info is on the pspdemocenter site.


Two alternatives that I sometimes use. aimonpsp is a web-based client, as well as ebuddy. Just keep these URLs in your bookmarks and they're straightforward to use. As you can see in the picture, you have the option of using an oncsreen keyboard on aimonpsp, as well as a hide-able buddylist, and 10 words you use often to store as buttons, right on the screen. I found this very convenient.. not having to go to the standard PSP typing menu which takes up the whole screen. However, I now use ebuddy because I think it is much more reliable (and no ghetto looking ads). They are both somewhat slow but sometimes aimonpsp doesn't even actually send messages to your buddy. That is lame - I recommend ebuddy. It takes MSN and stuff too if you use it.

This is it for now but I'm still watching out for better clients out there...