Despite being what Sony called “the worst kept secret of E3”, the PSP Go grabbed the spotlight at the Los Angeles based gaming convention with its sexy, compact design, and slick new hardware features. And as it turns out, the new PSP Go will be shipping with brand new firmware, and sports some interesting new OS abilities.
A pre-release sample of the new PSP Go came installed with a preliminary version of Firmware 5.70 (the PSP is currently running on version 5.51), and the folks over at Digital Foundry were able to hunt down every single addition and tweak to the handheld’s OS they could find. Here are some cool facts about the firmware’s capabilities, and how it relates to the Go.
- Power Save Settings no longer have the “Backlight Auto-Adjust” option.
- System Settings now has an option to list your birth date.
- System Settings also has a “Display Panel Close Option”. Choosing “Standard” will show a clock on the screen, while “Enter Sleep Mode” will ensure your PSP is saving power while it’s clamped shut in your pocket.
- Network Update has been rebranded as the “System Update”.
- The UMD-related toggles from Video Settings are appropriately missing.
- “Bluetooth Device Settings” lets you switch the bluetooth wireless on and off, as well as manage your bluetooth devices.
- New “System Storage” folder gives ability to save data onto the system’s internal flash memory.
- Total storage available is 14.74 GB, just a hair more than the 16 GB iPod Touch (14.64GB).
- USB data transfer is 7.4 MB per second.
- Almost no difference between Memory Stick and Flash Storage transfer speeds.
- Now uses the Memory Stick Micro (M2) format, rather than the Memory Stick Duo found in the original PSP models.
