Saturday, November 24, 2007

PSP Installer App

I've been spending a lot of time hacking my iPhone. One of the greatest things about the hacking scene in that community is the installer.app

Why has the psp community not yet written an installer program like this for the hundreds of psp releases? Or is there one that I'm missing? I still dig through ads on pspupdates to download my apps to the pc and then sync to the psp.

Labels: PSP Installer.app

posted by LiquidIce at 10:33 AM 1 comments links to this post

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Control things from your PSP

This blog still gets a ton of traffic from the PSP Home Control Post, so I guess if you found your way here you want to know more about how to control things from your PSP.

Well one of the commenter's on the blog found this:

It is a great open source project called :
PSP WifiController
It consists of an app for the PSP paired with an app for the PC that hooks into PPJoy. This means any application that you can have on your computer that will respond to joystick presses will be able to accept control signals from the PSP over wifi.

Check it out at:
http://imk.cx/psp/wificontroller/

Labels: psp control, psp wifi controller, wifi remote

posted by LiquidIce at 6:53 AM 1 comments links to this post

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Downgrade any version PSP firmware to 1.5

The holy grail of PSP hacks has been released tonight. You can now downgrade any PSP firmware to version 1.5 thanks to the dedicated hackers of the PSP scene.

to pull this off they actually figured out how to reverse engineer the process of putting the PSP into service mode and overwriting the filesystem with the original 1.5 firmware. The process involves changing the state of the battery and some copyright free code that does the filesystem operations. This works on any PSP even if it has been bricked or has the latest firmware. The best part is, it doesn't look like any firmware updates can fix this one.

So this should open the floodgates for PSP hacking and homebrew once again... now every single person who owns a PSP can play the great homebrew games and applications available for download for free from sites such as PSPUpdates.


It is still unknown if this method will work on the new slim PSP's, but not likely since the new hardware probably requires firmware newer than 1.5.

To get started with unbricking or downgrading your PSP, you need a friend who already has a hacked PSP, and an extra PSP battery is preferred. The download and instructions can be found here:
http://www.noobz.eu/joomla/news/pandoras-battery.html

Labels: psp firmware downgrade, psp unbrick

posted by LiquidIce at 9:06 PM 2 comments links to this post

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Run 3.x firmware while retaining 1.5 homebrew

It's been a while since I've played with my PSP. Recently I got my hands on the Sony Location Free Base station and decided to try out the LF Player on the PSP. To do this I needed to upgrade my PSP's firmware, but I did not want to lose my homebrew, otherwise all of my LUA apps, and other software would stop working. I've decided to figure out how to use DevHook to emulate a new firmware, and while I was expecting a long and complicated process, it was actually really simple to do on my PSP.

This is due to the hard work of a lot of developers, and I applaud their efforts for making it to this point. A user on PSPUpdates has posted a simple tutorial detailing the process. What it does is pretty slick... You need to download 3 things. The normal PSP Update PBP, DevHook, and a script that will extract the update file and make it usable in DevHook. In less than 5 minutes I was running an emulated PSP Firmware 3.01.

I was able to get the locationfree base station streaming to the PSP after manually linking the two using Sony's Setup mode button. When the base station is streaming to the PSP, the LF LCDTV just goes black. No message is displayed to let you know what's happening and why the video signal has been lost. Apparently you can only stream to one device at a time. Pretty Lame.

The video quality to the PSP wasn't great, watchable, but not for a long period of time. The sound wasn't very good, but I think that was because the sound on my cable box was too low. I cranked the PSP to it's max volume and it was not loud and sounded very tinny.

Bottom line, the LCDTV + Sony base station works great, but the PSP player is not very useful, and the 1 stream limit needs to be increased, I'm not sure if slingbox has the same limitations, but I think I'm going to give that a shot next.

Also, you may want to take a look at PMP, which will allow you to stream media from your PC to your PSP. It works quite well, and the video quality is not bad. They have just released version 1.02 which includes even more GUI improvements and lots more. This is a much better streaming solution for your media.

Download PMP - the PSP Media Streamer/Player Solution here

Labels: LF player, location free, locationfree, sony. psp

posted by LiquidIce at 7:10 PM 6 comments links to this post

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

PSP 3.01 Firmware Emulation using DevHook

The latest version of DevHook supports PSP Firmware 3.01 emulation. This means that if you one of the lucky few to own a PS3, you can now stream Playstation games to your PSP while still retaining the ability to run your homebrew applications! This is amazing progress made by a lot of different developers of the PSP Homebrew Community. Kudos to Bolster for releasing this so quickly!

You can find out more information about PSP 3.01 Firmware Emulation from:
PSP Updates

Someone also created a video tutorial on how to install the needed pieces to get this to work.

Labels: psp firmware 3.01 3.0 hacked downgrade

posted by LiquidIce at 9:07 AM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

PSP Firmware 3.0 Released

The latest PSP firmware has been released. All you have to do is access Network Update and download the file. Of course you will lose all hope of running any homebrew for a while. So make sure you have 2 PSP's.... :-) Here is what's new:

• [Remote Play] has been added as a feature under [Network].
• [Online Instruction Manuals] has been added as a feature under [Network].
• Timed recording has been added as a feature under [RSS Channel].
• A visual player has been added as a feature under [Music].
• 3-speed fast forward and fast reverse has been added as a feature under [Music].
• [Camera] has been added as a feature under [Photo].
• [UMD Auto-Start] has been added as a feature in [System Settings] under [Settings].
• PLAYSTATION Network titles are now supported under [Game].

If you do not have wifi on your psp you can download the update from joystiq.

posted by LiquidIce at 9:58 PM 0 comments links to this post

Monday, November 20, 2006

PSP Firmware 3.0 supports PS3 syncing

Here are a few of the new features that will make it into the 3.0 release of the PSP firmware:

Remote Play - Remote play is a new feature in Firmware 3.00 that allows you to remotely control your PlayStation 3 from your PSP. This also includes the display of PS3 content on the PSP. "You can display a PLAYSTATION®3 system screen on a PSP™ system and play content that is on the PS3™ system. To use this feature, you must adjust the necessary settings on the PSP™ system and the PS3™ system." Using this new mode of playback, one can control the Photo, Music, Video, and Internet Browser features of the PlayStation 3 from a remote location via their Playstation Portable.


Video Compatibility - In this updated version of the Playstation Portable firmware, you are also able to play a few new video formats. The Motion JPEG format (M-JPEG), is an "informal name for multimedia formats where each video frame or interlaced field of a digital video sequence is separately compressed as a JPEG image" (Wikipedia). The PlayStation Portable plays both the Linear PCM and the μ-Law versions of the Motion JPEG video format. In addition, you will now be able to access the Camera (functionality) from the photo option menus, for quicker easier access when taking photos or video. Another nifty function is the ability to finally turn off Auto Play for inserted UMD Discs via UMD Auto Boot. (Thanks zerojay)


PlayStation Games - Here's the big tip you've been waiting for. Finally, Sony is going to drop their highly anticipated PlayStation One emulator onto the PSP. From the manual however, there seems to be a unavoidable catch. If you don't have a PS3, your not going to be enjoying PlayStation One games emulating on Sony's PlayStation One emulator for PSP anytime soon. From the manual it states that you must connect to the Playstation Online store with your PSP connected to the PlayStation 3 in order to download and play the games. In addition, they mention that you can in fact share the games, but you must activate the other system in the Friends menu as a PS3 Network Account.

More info can be found in the PSP 3.0 Firmware manual:
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/psp/current/

posted by LiquidIce at 7:20 PM 0 comments links to this post

Friday, November 17, 2006

PS3 to PSP Sync - Use PSP to control PS3

I'm looking for someone who has a PS3 and a PSP to test something for me. If you have it please contact me.

posted by LiquidIce at 7:33 PM 5 comments links to this post

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Time to preorder a PS3? How the PSP will Interact with PS3

The Playstation is just days away from being released. If you have not gotten a pre-order yet, getting a PS3 now would be like winning the lottery. With such low shipments, and such high demand, people are going to be willing to pay 3 and 4 times the $ for these things when the holidays roll around.

So how will the PSP play with the new Playstation 3? Sony has been pretty tight lipped about this one. Here are some good guesses:

Sony will follow in Microsoft's footsteps, and do a video distribution channel. Now that the PSP can talk wirelessly to the PS3, it will be easy for the PS3 to download high def movies for your home theater and also down convert it's high def video on demand to make it playable on the PSP screen over wifi.

It may also all tie in with Location Free. If anyone has not seen this before, you hook up a base station to your cable box and you can stream it to these nice Wireless LCD panels, your PSP, or to your PC by using software for windows XP to watch the live streams. Does anyone else notice how the new LocationFree Player Hardware looks similar to the PS3's case style?

The PSP may also be able to act as a remote control to the PS3 to make it easy to preview and queue up videos and music wirelessly throughout the house. I'm sure Sony has been itching to outdo my PSP Home Control Setup when I did that over a year ago.

I am going to try, but I don't think I will have a PS3 when it comes out. Nevertheless I'll be watching the scene to bring you the latest and greatest in PSP hacks and soon PS3 hacks. I've opened a new ps3 hacks blog called: LiquidIce's PS3 Hacks. Be sure to bookmark it and check back after launch for all of the ps3 hacking tips.

posted by LiquidIce at 9:17 PM 0 comments links to this post

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Stream Live TV to your PSP using TVUPlayer PMP and VLC

Wow, this is really cool! This video demonstrates how to get live TV on your PSP over the wifi network.

posted by LiquidIce at 9:57 AM 8 comments links to this post

PSP controls PC via WiFi

This kid rigged up his computer so that the PSP can act as a controller for the PC. He is playing a Zelda N64 emulator on his PC using the PSP as the controller via WiFi. Pretty Slick kid!

posted by LiquidIce at 9:50 AM 5 comments links to this post

Thursday, November 02, 2006

PSP Touchscreen in the Works

Looks like the firmware guru's are taking a break from creating the latest PSP firmware hacks, and actually putting their efforts into creating a PSP touchscreen. I have long waited for the day I could use my PSP Home Control Software with a PSP Touchscreen. That day is getting closer.

The touchscreen will not work with any games, it will only be for modded PSP's with custom homebrew software that has been coded specifically with the psp touchpanel drivers.

Check back for more information on the touchscreen overlay for PSP soon.

Speaking of touchscreens, does anyone know of good touch screens that will open a browser in Kiosk mode? Can't get it working with the Nokia 770, and I'm not yet sold on the UMPC devices. Tablet Kiosk makes some nice panels, but I'm still not sure if it's worth the $$. Please contact me if you know of a good touchpanel solution.

posted by LiquidIce at 7:40 PM 1 comments links to this post

Saturday, October 28, 2006

XBOX Remote Interface .5 Mod for PSP

This is a flash interface that will run on your PC or on PSP that can control Xbox Media Center (XBMC).

It pulls album art, and is a fast way to manage your playlist wirelessly from the PSP

Download it here

posted by LiquidIce at 7:37 AM 0 comments links to this post

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Easily Stream Digital Media to PSP, XBOX, 770 and more

I've been playing around with uPNP and TVersity. It is a central server that will allow you to easily access your digital media from other devices on your network.

It is PSP compatible.
It is free
It also works with XBMC
It streams music to a Nokia 770

It's compatible with LOTS of other devices. Definitely give it a try:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/www.tversity.com/screenshots.html

posted by LiquidIce at 1:44 PM 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

PSP Wifi Bot

Check out this PSP Controlled robot with Video Feedback!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4FlGPHW-q4

posted by LiquidIce at 6:57 PM 1 comments links to this post

Monday, August 07, 2006

Web Browser for PSP Released

A New version Of Links2 PSP Browser has been released. This is based off the Linux browser.

From PSPUpdates:

The creator of PSPRadio, Raf, has once again updated his Links2 Web browser PSP port which can be used as either a standalone application or as a plugin for Raf's PSPRadio application. The Links2 web browser for PSP is based the open source browser for Linux which is also being constantly updated. This new version is now based on links2.1-pre23, whilst the previous version was based on links2.1-pre22; bringing various upgrades along with it. Here's the changelog:

New features:

* Cookie save/restore patch from cvs.pld.org.pl/SOURCES/links2-cookies-save.patch?rev=1.2 applied.
* Merged to 2.1pre23 See Changelog.orig
* Made psp_bb_to_fb_factor a configurable parameter in links.cfg (default=1, set to 2 to enable zoom mode)
* Also changed default font to 12 from 24. (Change to 24 in html.cfg if want to use zoom mode)

Bug Fixes

* Reverted UP/DOWN behavior (user requested). (R+UP/DOWN still does page up/down, though).

I know that many PSP users are happy using the 2.0+ firmware browser and DevHook, but the advantages of this browser only become clear when you actually use it. Controls are smooth, and as you can tell, this browser loads the PSPupdates homepage with no trouble. It certainly gets rid of that annoying 'Not enough memory' error while using the firmware browser. No, it doesn't support flash, but for everyday surfing it's much more efficient.

posted by LiquidIce at 8:24 AM 0 comments links to this post

Saturday, March 11, 2006

PSP Controlled Car

Looks like someone took a Honda Civic Hatchback and installed an electric motor. With some relay controllers and a wifi access point these guys can also drive the car from a PSP. Gas, brakes, steering, and control of the 21 lcd screens.



So I guess now if they go out drinking, and they're too drunk to drive home, they can just walk home and have the car follow them with the help of a PSP controller.

posted by LiquidIce at 9:31 AM 2 comments links to this post

XBMC Remote Music Interface v0.2 for PSP

Since this site comes up at the top when searching for PSP control I thought I would add mention of a Xbox Media Center Controller for the PSP. It allows you to browse through files and network shares of your xbox media center and send commands to start playback or switch tracks. Another great example of using the PSP for controlling devices over a network.

It was written in Lua and has a pretty slick interface. The latest version also download album art. If you have XBOX media center on your xbox and the ability to run this program on your PSP, then definitely give it a try:
http://dl.qj.net/XBMC-Remote/pg/12/fid/4677/catid/189

posted by LiquidIce at 9:18 AM 0 comments links to this post

PSP Flash SWF Player

Check this out:
http://files.psphacks.net/details.php?file=93

It's the start of a Macromedia Flash player for the PSP. It will play most flash movies up to Flash 7/8. It's still early beta, but it looks promising. I can't wait for the networking functionality to be added to this so it will be easy to make mini flash pages that can download additional content to your psp or play multiplayer flash games with other psp users over the wifi.

Also intresting is they have teamed up with RK Digital.net, Heavy.com and Newgrounds.com which shows some commercial intrest in this project. It would be sweet if Sony took this and ran with it. I could definitely see it being a nice addition to Firmware 3.0, but they're Sony and they don't listen so you will probably never see an official flash player from sony any time soon.

1.5 forever!

Great work on this guys, keep it up!

posted by LiquidIce at 9:02 AM 1 comments links to this post

Friday, December 09, 2005

Location Free TV

I was just reading some information about the latest PSP firmware and noticed that it now supports LocationFree TV. I have seen this in action with a 12" panel and the interface is really nice. The stream is good quality, and considering it's wifi, there is not much delay when switching channels.

I am curious to try this on my PSP, but not quite ready to upgrade my firmware from the beloved 1.5 firmware which supports Lua.

What I am even more curious about are these LocationFree Base stations. They appear to be using standard 802.11 protocol to connect the base to the display.

I was wondering if anyone has looked at the data being sent over the LocationFree WIFI connetion to see what codecs it is using for the stream. Is it some standard H.263 / H.264 codec that could be replicated on the PC to stream video from your PC to the PSP?

It would be very cool to be able to wirelessly broadcast your own TV stations to your PSP using the software already built in to the PSP firmware.

posted by LiquidIce at 1:36 PM 11 comments links to this post

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Commercial PSP Home Control Product

So it looks like someone finally decided to market my idea.

A company called SkipJam who makes these little media centers is building a webpage into their unit that is formatted for a PSP.

Check out an article on them here:
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/1391/skipjam_announces_psp

Funny how the screenshot shows a mouse pointer. Does the PSP browser have a mouse?

Those of you who have visited this page before may remember my PSP Home Control 1.0 Project that I did back in April.

I don't want to make any promises, but since then I have made several improvements to my Home Control System and I'm hoping to share some more pics and video with everyone soon. I promise you it is much crazier than anything that skipjam is doing. Stay tuned.

posted by LiquidIce at 4:14 PM 10 comments links to this post

PSP 2.0 Downgrader

Sweet! Congrats to all of the 2.0 users out there. Welcome to the wonderful world of PSP homebrew! For all of the related files pspupdates.com usually keeps a nice database of goodies in their file section.

I'm curious if there are any side effects to dong this. I wanted to try upgrading to 2.0 so I can use the browser, then downgrade back to 1.5. I'm sure in a few more weeks they will have diffed the two firmwares, and 2.0 psp's will be fully hacked- no downgrade required. Time will tell.

I am simply amazed at the amount of combined knowledge that has gone into bringing this little machine this far, with no dev kits or documentation. Much respect to MPH and the others involved in making this happen.

Remember kids, it's all about the homebrew. Don't do bad things with the knowledge you gain in the dark corners of the internet.

posted by LiquidIce at 4:05 PM 4 comments links to this post

Monday, September 26, 2005

South Park Robotron 1.0

SP Robotron is ready for download at:
http://pspupdates.qj.net/2005/09/south-park-robotron-v10-for-psp.html

posted by LiquidIce at 4:19 PM 2 comments links to this post

Monday, July 25, 2005

PSP Homebrew Web Browser Released... Finally

Beating Sony to it, the homebrew devs have released a web browser for the PSP. There are now several ways to browse the internet using the PSP. There are actually a few browsers out right now, but you'll have to search for them. The one that I know of is a browser for 2ch.net a japanese site. By default the browser goes to their website, but with some clever hex editing there should be a way to set your homepage to anything you want.

Download the PSP web browser for your PSP 1.0 or 1.5 here:

2ch Stand Alone Browser for the PSP

posted by LiquidIce at 5:53 AM 6 comments links to this post

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Lua - Game Scripting for the PSP

I've been spending some time understanding how to program in the programming language Lua. There is some soure code on PSPDev from skippy which provides a shell for people to program games for the PSP. Instead of needing to compile the entre PSP toolchain, all you need to do is edit a text file. Modify the script, drop it on to your PSP and you've got a game.

It's something like this that sony should pick up sign with their key and put on a UMD with a nice graphics library. Then they give the ability to allow people to create their own games allowing homebrew to thrive without feeding into the piracy of their commercial games.

I'm looking forward to the PC player and the next release of Lua with GU lib. I have not ran into any major bugs, but it was difficult to understand some of the syntax. It helps to learn by example, and so far there are only 2 games out for this. I will be releasing the source code for my game when it's ready.

One thing that would speed up the development process is the ability for Lua to activate the USB on the PSP so you can modify the script while still in the game, then just hook the start button to restart the script when it's finished loading.

Skippy is hard at work making this a viable tool for game developers to use. For more information visit this thread:
http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=2682

posted by LiquidIce at 7:14 PM 1 comments links to this post

Monday, July 11, 2005

Lots of new PSP I/O

Recently all new ways of getting input and output from the PSP have been popping up. It is great how there will be so many options for the PSP interfacing with other devices in the world.

Some of the latest cool things happening in PSP I/O:

Control Sony devices using the SIRCS protocol
PSP to PSP IRDA file transfer programs
WiFi code that connects to web services to get weather
a pVNC client to give remote desktop access from your PSP
Using the PSP headphone jack as a serial port -link2-

posted by LiquidIce at 7:06 PM 0 comments links to this post

Sunday, July 10, 2005

A Deeper Look into BOOT.BIN

A PSP ASM Dumper program has been released which will let you look into a BOOT.BIN file for function names and to get other information on how the program operates. This, I'm sure, will be very helpful to the PSP programming gurus. I discovered some new function names I want to try.

http://www.pspupdates.com/2005/07/psp-asm-dumper-v1001.html

I could not find any forum links to this, and the article on pspupdates.com only has one comment. Anyone care to explain what is going on with the data that comes out of this program? What can I do with this assembly code besides get function names?

Here is what the output looks like:

128: 2484f5cc addiu a0,a0,-2612 (string param = "CheckExitGame" )
12c: 24a500d0 addiu a1,a1,208
130: afbf0020 sw ra,32(sp)
134: 0c07fb33 jal 0x1feccc --> sceKernelCreateThread
138: 3c080020 lui t0,0x20
13c: 00402025 or a0,zero,32
140: 04800003 bltz a0,3
144: 00002825 or a1,one,32
148: 0c07fb35 jal 0x1fecd4 --> sceKernelStartThread
14c: 00003025 or a2,zero,32
150: 8fbf0020 lw ra,32(sp)
154: 03e00008 jr zero,zero,32
158: 27bd0030 addiu sp,sp,48
15c: 00052880 sll a1,a1,34
160: 00852021 addu a0,a1,32
164: 03e00008 jr zero,zero,32
168: ac860100 sw a2,128(a0)
16c: 27bdffe0 addiu sp,sp,-32
170: 34090001 ori t1,zero,1
174: ac8900d0 sw t1,209(a0)

posted by LiquidIce at 10:44 PM 1 comments links to this post

Friday, July 08, 2005

PSP WiFi Multi Test Code

Lately I have not wanted to post anything here because there has not been much going on. There are new emulators released every day, and the pspsdk keeps growing with new samples, which is great!... But most of what i've been reading on the other psp sites is a bunch of drama over who came first and bad people who abuse the 'scene'.

This site is not about adding to the drama, only being informative and a good source of news for the PSP. With that said, I am proud to announce the release of PSPPet's WiFi Multi Test Code 002.

It still has a few issues, but it should make it much easier to implement the PSP WiFi code in any application. This version not only allows you to type text to your PSP, but has several other tests as well. Here are the new features:

* Picker for net conguration (DHCP not supported !)
* Picker for one of four tests
* Connect timeout logic and other improvements
* More fleshed out "sockets.h"-like header (getting better, not complete)
* Sample build with the PSPSDK (version 522 or later)

New Tests:

* Test#1: mini-telnetd like app. Telnet to your PSP and it will display on the screen. Similar to the original version but now allows larger display. [TCP/IP with the PSP as the server]
* Test#2: wireless photo frame. UDP send a JPG to your PSP and it will display on the screen. [UDP/IP with the PSP as the server]
* Test#3: AiboCam/Scope viewer. Run RCodePlus or AiboLifePlus on your ERS-2x0 Sony AIBO robot dog. Shows AIBO camera image and color detection grids on the PSP. [polled TCP/IP protocol with the PSP as the client, custom video codec]
* Test#4: CLIE SpyCam Watcher. Run ClieSpyCam (URL) on your Sony CLIE PDA. Shows the camera image on the PSP. [polled TCP/IP protocol with the PSP as the client, JPG image data]

Source: http://aibohack.com/psp/wifitest.htm

posted by LiquidIce at 7:05 PM 2 comments links to this post

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

PSP Wifi Hacked

PspPet has released source code and EBOOT files which demonstrate usage of the WiFi on the PSP. His example sets up a telnet server on the PSP. you can telnet into it from your PC and type characters which appear on the PSP screen.

The fun begins!

http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?p=17291#17291

posted by LiquidIce at 6:44 PM 6 comments links to this post

Saturday, June 25, 2005

PSP WiFi Functionality - PSP Web Browser

Since day 1 with my PSP, I have dreamed of the ability to use the WiFi network connectivity of my PSP to connect to other networked devices. Everything in my house is IP controlled, my lights, my TV, my DVD player... All of my media (movies & music) is shared on the network. All of my websites, email accounts, and RSS feeds are accessable through the network.

The PSP to me is basically a very slick looking LCD screen with WiFi. By gaining access to that WiFi connection, developers will be able to make the PSP do crazy things. A few of the ideas I've had were:

-Adding netcode to games to make them multiplayer
-Adding 2 player network mode to the emulators
-Video/Audio/Game Download Applications
-EBoot Auto-Updater (dangerous, i know...)
-Integration with Web Services - SNMP Management
-Control and monitoring of other electronic devices (may require additional hardware)
-PVR Remote Scheduling
-PSP Web Browser
-Email App
-RSS Reader
-Video Confrencing / Video Chat (If Sony ever releases a camera, or if we can hack our own to use the USB port)
-Skype / VOIP
-Net Stumbler - Wifi access point finder / strength tester

So as you can see, getting networking functionality from the PSP is a major accomplishment for the homebrew community, and will bring a whole slew of neat applications to PSP users.

If you are a developer, there are some threads on ps2dev where some people are talking about how to get the Wifi to activate and connect to an access point. If you can add some insight please check out:

http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=2211

All of the networking functions are already built into the PSP firmware as you can see here:

http://pspdev.ofcode.com/api.php?type=2&id=186
http://pspdev.ofcode.com/api.php?type=2&id=190

Hell, if Sony added some of these things themselves or gave homebrew developers access to it in the first place, these programs would already have been ported over and Sony could be making some nice $$ off the hardware accessories sales, memory stick sales, and paid downloads. I'm sure all of this is in the works, but frankly, your being too slow. The technology is there... use it!

posted by LiquidIce at 4:30 AM 6 comments links to this post

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Forced PSP Upgrades Rant

I like to use this site as a way to vent my frustrations with Sony. I dobut anyone from Sony actually reads this but in case they do I have a few words for you.

Unless it is absolutely required for a game to utilize a newer version of firmware in order to operate as it was intended, users should not have to update their machines.

If users have to choose if they want to use their PSP for playing your games or using it for homebrew, the answer is likely going to be homebrew. Please don't deny us the ability to use both. I am more than willing to pay $$ for your games if it does not run the risk of ruining my hobby, and making my PSP less useful to me.

posted by LiquidIce at 4:56 AM 4 comments links to this post

Friday, June 17, 2005

My First PSP Homebrew App

I did it! I've successfully installed the pspdev toolchain, modified nem's hello world code, and even added in some controller functionality to listen for button presses. Once I had some workign code that compiled, I was able to test and tweak it using pspe emulation software. After I was happy with the results I used psp homebrew 9 to automatically make swap exploit files and upload them to my memory sticks. I did the swap trick and like magic I had my first program running on the PSP.

My next trick is to figure out how to import some of the functions and modules. I've played around with stubbing in the functions within the startup.s file, and I'm pretty sure i've got the sceCtrl libs implemented properly in the program.

If anyone knows more information about the sceNet functions please send me some links. I've been looking everwhere to try to figure out how to start the network and make a socket connection. This data would be invaluable to me at this point. Meanwhile I have a lot of work to do to make a standalone version of PSP Home Control 2.0 a reality.

For detailed instructions on how to start writing your own PSP programs, follow the directions on the following URL to install the psp toolchain and eboot conversion tools:

http://staff.philau.edu/barberej/psp_dev_guide.htm

posted by LiquidIce at 12:53 PM 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

PSP 1.5 Crack - Confirmed Working

Yes, it is true. The PSP has been hacked. 1.5 users can now run homebrew PSP software. The discovery comes from the guys at psp-dev. The concept is pretty simple, I am suprised that it actually works, and amazed nobody found it sooner. It requires 2 memory sticks.

You put a hacked eboot on one MS, and the actual ELF executable on the second MS with the same name. When you launch the hacked eboot, you quickly swap the memory stick for another one and it runs th eunencrypted file. For some reason it does not recheck the header and it just runs the execuatable from address 0. Very strange indeed.

Meanwhile, now I finally have a way to start working on getting a web browser on the PSP. I have a lot of work to do. If anyone is intrested in setting up a project to get a browser running or if you know of an existing project, let me know.

posted by LiquidIce at 6:09 PM 2 comments links to this post

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

PSP 1.5 Crack - Release in less than 24 hours

Well, once again it has been reported that the 1.5 PSP has been hacked. This time it is coming from a Spanish group called psp-dev. Normally I would have dismissed this as a fake, because so far, little proof has been released. I hope someone will prove me wrong, however, several sites such as Engadget, ps2nfo.com and psphacker.com are all confirming that this looks legit.

Others are claiming that this could be a virus that will wipe out PSP's. So if you see something claiming to be the loader be careful and make sure it is from a reputable source before you run it.

Time will tell if this is the real deal or not. I will be sure to update this post when it is released on June 15th at 9AM EST

Here are some links to check out related to this subject:
http://www.only4.info/psp-dev
http://www.ps2nfo.com/
http://www.ps2nfo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2245 (must register)
http://www.psphacker.com/2005/06/psp-dev-launcher-video-2_14.html#comments
http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=2068

Video 1:
http://www.xente.mundo-r.com/cybblade/psp-dev/psp-dev-1.5.avi

Video 2:
http://personales.ya.com/pawstick/psp-dev_launching.avi

posted by LiquidIce at 2:19 PM 1 comments links to this post

Previous psphacks

• PSP Installer App
• Control things from your PSP
• Downgrade any version PSP firmware to 1.5
• Run 3.x firmware while retaining 1.5 homebrew
• PSP 3.01 Firmware Emulation using DevHook
• PSP Firmware 3.0 Released
• PSP Firmware 3.0 supports PS3 syncing
• PS3 to PSP Sync - Use PSP to control PS3
• Time to preorder a PS3? How the PSP will Interact ...
• Stream Live TV to your PSP using TVUPlayer PMP and...