Sony says 5.01 PSP firmware update will fix Memory Stick problems

Sony got a lot of things right with its 5.0 firmware update for the PSP, with the PlayStation Store and its direct downloads making a long awaited appearance, but it looks to have caused a bit of a problem for folks with high-capacity Memory Sticks -- namely, it was reporting that 8GB or 16GB cards are full when, in fact, there's plenty of free space left on 'em. Ever the one for a do-over, Sony now says that it's aware of the problem and that the 5.01 firmware update will sort everything out when it's released "soon."
[Via: PSP Fanboy ] [Tag: firmware, firmware 5.0, firmware 5.01, firmware update, Firmware5.0, Firmware5.01, FirmwareUpdate, psp, psp firmware, psp firmware 5.0, psp firmware update, PspFirmware, PspFirmware5.0, PspFirmwareUpdate ]

PS3 + SSD = faster load times, shattered budgets

Sitting idle while your new PS3 game installs is painful, but since it's all in the interest of reducing subsequent load times it's worth the wait, right? Not for the impatient sods at ExtremeTech, who tried to speed things up further by swapping out their original 60GB PS3's HDD with Intel's hot new 80GB X25-M SSD. The result? Sadly, those multi-minute installs from disc were largely unaffected, since the limitation here is Blu-ray drive speed and not disk speed. However, installs of downloaded demos were upwards of 30-40 percent faster, as were post-installation load times in most games. That's an impressive boost, but at a cost of about $600 for the SSD itself you'll be spending about 50 percent more than an entire PS3 of the 80GB spinning disk variety. In other words, this one's not for the frugal modders, but it is so choice if you have the means.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: flash drive, FlashDrive, intel, ps3, sony, ssd, x25-m ]

Sony says goodnight to PSP Extended Life Battery Kit

Sony, where's the justice? How could you mercilessly kill the nine month old PSP Extended Life Battery Kit -- capable of boosting the PSP's play time by up to 80% -- while UMDs continue to be the preferred method of distribution for the system's games and video content (thereby also heavily contributing to the device's juice-drain)? Worse still for Sony, why are we not surprised?

[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: psp,psp extend life battery kit,PspExtendLifeBatteryKit,sony ]

Nyko's Media Hub for PS3 inelegantly adds USB ports, multicard reader

Nyko's got a knack for delivering some of the ugliest, most preposterous third-party peripherals on the planet, yet -- for whatever reason -- we can't help but love 'em. The latest abomination from the outfit that begins to grow on you almost immediately is the Media Hub for PlayStation 3. For those that went cheap on the 40GB PS3 and missed out on a multicard reader and the full array of USB ports, this here adornment presumably connects to one of those USB sockets and adds three more while tossing in the card reader you've so dearly missed. Thankfully, Nyko's only charging $19.99 for this, so you should be okay even if your ship has yet to come in.

[Via: Joystiq ]
[Tag: Media Hub,Media Hub for PS3,MediaHub,MediaHubForPs3,multicard reader,MulticardReader,Nyko,peripheral,playstation 3,Playstation3,ps3,sony,usb hub,UsbHub ]

Keepin' it real fake, part CXX: Sapido NAS apes another Xbox 360 KIRF

Okay, so it's one thing to copy Microsoft on its Xbox 360 design -- and yes, Amigo did so shamelessly with its R622AG WLAN router that we peeked about this time last year -- but it takes some serious cohones to copy a copycat. Nevertheless, Sapido has done just that with its latest NAS. Yeah, we could tell you all about its SAMBA / FTP / BT compatibility, but we'd rather point out that for all intents and purposes, this enclosure is the exact same one Amigo used when showcasing its own device last year. So apparently there's a universally accepted method for ripping off Redmond's console -- who knew?

[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: keepin it real fake,KeepinItRealFake,kirf,nas,Sapido,xbox 360,Xbox360 ]

Next-generation ATI Radeon cards to pack GDDR5 memory

A full six months after Samsung took the wraps off of GDDR5 memory, along comes word from AMD that the next-generation ATI Radeon graphics cards will boast said technology. Apparently AMD will be tapping Qimonda for its supply of GDDR5 modules, which should boost gaming performance as well as benefit stream processing, "where GPUs are applied to address complex, massively parallel calculations." As Hot Hardware points out, the release comes just weeks away from the rumored debut of the Radeon 4000 series, so if our deductive reasoning is sound, we'd surmise that the looming Radeon 4800 will indeed feature GDDR5.

[Via: Hot Hardware ]
[Tag: amd,ati,GDDR5,gpu,graphics,graphics card,GraphicsCard,Qimonda,radeon,radeon 4000,Radeon 4800,Radeon4000,Radeon4800,ram ]