2.50 Firmware Update!

[Sqez]

PSP System Firmware Version 2.50 is Out!

We got a news tip just minutes ago from a guy called Niklas saying that the 2.50 firmware update was now available via the “Network Update” feature on the PSP.

We are guessing that the 2.01 update was a ‘hotfix’ to clear the exploitable toc2rta libtiff exploit in the PSP’s photo viewer. Expect this 2.50 fix to be a more stable wall against letting hackers run homebrew applications and games on their PSPs in many ways. On the other hand, it's easy to speculate that 2.50 could be easier to hack than 2.01 now that copyright video can be played on a memory stick, and the location free player has been added. Those two programs could open up potentially exploitable loopholes. Expect future games to require the 2.50 update to play, and the rest of the usual hubbub we’ve seen with previous security patches.

UPDATE: The Japanese PSP homepage has been updated to include the 2.50 update. So like with the 2.0 update, it is available only to the Japanese first, though loading the 2.0 JP update on US PSPs had no negative effects.

UPDATE: Final Changelog is in:

FEATURES IN 2.50 INCLUDE:

- [LocationFree Player] has been added as a feature under [Network]. (Click Link for more info)
- [Auto-Select] and [Unicode (UTF-8)] have been added as options to [Encoding] under [View] in the [Internet Browser] menu bar.
- [Text Size] and [Display Mode] settings of the [Internet Browser] can now be saved.
- The input history of online forms accessed through the [Internet Browser] can now be saved.
- Copyright-protected video can now be played under [Video]. (This applies to video data saved on Memory Stick.)
- [Set via Internet] has been added as an option to [Date & Time Settings] under [Settings]
- WPA-PSK (AES) has been added as a security method under [Network Settings].
- Korean input mode has been added to the on-screen keyboard.

UPDATE: Get the 2.50 JP eboot file [here]. Note that updating your PSP's firmware above 2.00 will result in the inability to run homebrew on your PSP.

UPDATE: The North American Official Playstation site has been updated [here]. You can get the North American 2.50 eboot file [here].
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Thanks Niklas and Toxic-snipe for the heads up. Thanks to Lupin for the changelog.

If you still have a 2.00 PSP and wish to access the sweet homebrews on your PSP, please be sure to [Downgrade] your PSP to v1.50 first!