PSP Firmware Hits 3.90

Remember back when the PSP was really only capable of playing games and watching UMD movies? Well, those days have long since passed, as Sony’’s trendy little handheld has slowly evolved into a veritable Swiss Army knife of gadgetry. PSP owners can surf the Web, listen to Internet radio, catch their favorite podcasts, watch television, and as of today, make phone calls to friends.

That’’s right. In the wee hours of the morning today, Sony set the latest firmware update, version 3.90, out into the wild. With the new update, the PSP is now capable of making Voice over IP (VoIP) calls via the popular Skype program. Announced at this year’’s CES, the PSP Skype will allow players to make free calls over the Internet to other Skype users anywhere in the world, while also having the ability to make calls to traditional landline and mobile phones using credits purchased from the Skype Web site. Skype also gives PSP owners the ability to send and receive voicemail to over 200 million Skype users worldwide. The downside of the new service? Due to memory and processor requirements, it’’s only available to those of you who own the more recent slimmer model (PSP 2000 series). However, those of you with the older model PSPs aren”t being left out in the cold.

The new firmware also adds an icon for Sony’’s own Go!Messenger service, which is set to go live sometime in February. This service will be available to all PSP owners, regardless of which model of the device they have, and will offer theability to send and receive video and voice chat, as well as numerous other features that will be available at the end of February. The new Go!Messenger icon not only serves as a placeholder for the pending service, but also allows users to obtain more information about the feature from a dedicated Web site, accessed via clicking on the icon. Sony promises more information about the release of Go!Messenger will be announced soon.