Reportedly, Sony  officially released PSP Firmware 6.30 recently, which also adds the PlayStation Plus service to block recent PSP Hacks.

It should be noted for users who are using Firmware 6.20 system or below that Firmware 6.30 has already patched the save data exploit in Patapon 2 Demo, meaning no more HBL. When users load game, it will notice failed. So we suggest players who wait for hack should not try to update.

Now, PSP Firmware 6.30 official system has been formally released, OFW users  should pay attention to the upgrade.

Attention: As PSP update Firmware 6.30 is official system, CFW users (especially PSP3000/2000V3 system) should not easily to try update, or else the self-made software, games and ISO/CSO will go nuts.

The latest management simulations game “the portable convenience store” will head to the PSP handheld console. The portable convenience store is supposed to be released on Jul 8, 2010.
“Convenience store” is the masterpiece in PC management game series, and the accumulating sales volume has arrived 1.45 million since the first generation. The content of convenience store is to increase more stores by managing stores, selling goods and attracting investments.
The latest portable convenience store will contain three models including story, challenge and teaching. The game flow is in the same way in this series: Open store → storefront design → employ clerk → advertise → Open new store

Since I have introduced the way of removing the LCD screen in previous article, now, I’d like to talk about how to remove the mother board, the memory stick and other parts of PSP.

First you have to remove the PSP LCD screen. Related article, please read Replace PSP slim LCD screen. 

Now, let’s begin our task. Remove the screws in this picture. The red triangles are behind the battery. Put all the screws in the plate to prevent them from loss.

Pry the LCD housing out of the PSP with a flat head screwdriver. When the tabs are out, open the UMD door. 

If you want to remove the motherboard, use your pliers to remove the cable circled in red. If not, leave it alone for now. Disconnect all the other cables circled in the picture and remove the screws.

Lift the clasp holding the cable for the d-pad and remove it.

 Remove the green circuit board .If you’re not replacing the motherboard, remove the screw circled in green and remove the yellow power socket. Leave it attached to the motherboard.

Take the wireless antenna (gold thingy) that the long wire is soldered to and move them both out of the way. Remove the motherboard.

Get out the two screws.

Unscrew these.

Get out the motherboard support.

Get out the black plastic part.

Get out the memory stick reader circuit board.
 

Pry the hinge out and to the right, you can remove the UMD door cover. Be careful not to break the hinge.

Remove the four screws.

Remove the UMD .

Use your flathead screwdriver to pry the door off the UMD drive .

OK, it is done.

1. Why I can not format my Memory Stick? Choose  “Format Memory Stick”.Then appear”Do You Want To Fomat The Memory Stick” .Choose the “Yes”.Then come out:”All data on the memory stick will be deleted.Are you sure you want to continue?” Choose the “Yes” .Then there is “Format falled.The memory stick could not be accessed”.

Answer: It may be your memory stick had been damaged, you can try using the card reader to read and format. Note format to FAT,do not format into other formats, or else the PSP still can not recognize.

2. I connect my PSP to the computer, but can not copy files from computer to the PSP. It displayed as file can not be find, but I can copy the files from the PSP to computer. How to solve?
Answer: It should be your computer problems, not PSP, may also be a problem of your USB cable or a computer USB interface issues.

3. I bought a 1G memory card  but can not format, there appear a mistake as “8022008B”, and also experienced the same formatting erroe on the DC. How to format the memory stick in the computer?

Answer: You buy a low-quality fake assembled memory stick, please change. You must buy card reader when using computers to read Memory Stick.

4. My PSP’s behind UMD cover tight too enough, there will be noise when it was be pressed, how to solve?
A: This is a normal phenomenon, not a machine problem.

5. Unable to install MP4 movies into the memory stick, I made the method according to the introduction, and construct MP_ROOT which is the same levek with the PSP, and then build 101MNV01. Copy the film, but PSP’s slider disappears in the half, the computer has also stopped while showing “can not copy the MP4: can not find the file. Make sure the specified path and file name are correct. ” There is no problem in copying MP3 and pictures, copy a small film about 20M also OK. It will have problems if copy a large capacity, how is this going on? (I use the red 1G HIGH SPEED Memory Stick) .
A: First of all, make sure whether the memory stick is ok, if there is no problem, then the problem may be your computer. Please re-install the system.

6. After I installed 1.5, I can only play games, movies, music. . . but can not get into the system. And hold UMD discs, Boot with the seven kinds of words written in blue: setting information is corrupted. press the O button to repair and restore default settings. How to solve?
A: The system file is damaged, repair the system directly in the circle button.

7. My PSP back cover is a bit loose, holding in his hands is not smooth. Will not affect to read?
Answer: It will not be affected.

8. The right side of the power part got water, can not be displayed, the power could not properly charging, the power lights click off, power is estimated to have burned. Can it be repaired?
A: Of course.

9. CD-ROM read the disk about 10 seconds, it is stopped when bare-head move to the center of CD-ROM drive?
A: The bare-head stuck, please call the professinal for help.

10. I just purchased the PSP with EU version 2.0 system, everything is normal, I buy a memory stick with 512M at the Carrefour supermarket, it displayed 465M in the machine, even worse, connect to computer, copy an mp3, if the computer is to copy the next it will be dead. I change to the original 32M stick, there have the same problem. How to solve?
Answer: 465M? Is sandisk? If Sandisk, then should the 468M before not formatted, after formatting is 467M. SONY original is 480M.  Possible your computer is virus, I suggest you look for another computer to format. Because you said that the two memory sticks are the same problem.

11. I found the PSP can not be lit aftered the PSP power charging finished, either with an external power supply or battery charger, power indicator light is not bright. How to solve?
A: Your part of the PSP’s power has been damaged, need to replace a small accessories.

12. Will it hurt the battery when playing games in charging power?
A: Certainly influential, the impact is not particularly large.

13. I use the assembled wired remote control and headphones, will impact to the host?
Answer: No effect on.

14. There are screen tearing when I playing games. Is it the failure of the machine?
A: The machines themselves failures.

15. How long the first charge of the PSP?
A: It will automatically power off when PSP fully charged.

You can but PSP accessories here.

To allow players to further play PSP, Sony develvop Media Go software to make users further play PSP. Players can more easily transfer a variety of media information between computer and PSP.

However, the latest updated version this software has emerged a number of problems.You will be reminded to upgrade to version 1.2 when you open the PS Store by Media Go. But it still shows that version 1.1 after you have downloaded file and installed the upgrade, and still can not open the PS online store. There is an Internet user said he has upgraded to version 1.2, and the installation program shows also a version 1.2, but he got a installing impediment to a successful when he installing the program.

It seems like that offical suddenly discovered problems after it has released the version 1.2 intallation file, so the emporary installation files will be replaced with version 1.1. But the PS online store did not cancel the validation and still require to upgrade to 1.2.

It is no doubt that Sony must spend time on resolving this problem while the time is difficult to determine. And we still have not seen any offical instructions.I am afraid we can only wait for some time.

Gamescom is a new European trade fair for interactive games and entertainment organized by the Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware (BIU). The BIU (German Federal Association of Interactive Entertainment Software) represents 13 major video game companies such as Activision, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. It was first held from 19 to 23 August 2009 in Cologne, Germany at the Cologne Trade Fair Center (Köln Messe). It is the European equivalent of E3 in Los Angeles and Tokyo Game Show in Japan. It is used by many video game developers to show off their upcoming games and game-related hardware.

Gamescom is the world’s largest games event with 245,000 visitors, more than 4,000 journalists and 458 exhibitors from 31 countries attending the show in its first year. Gamescom 2010 will be held from 18 to 22 August 2010 at the same venue.

Media Coverage

While most press conferences were not available for live streaming, Electronic Arts was streaming their press conference live on EA.com. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe also showcased their press conference on their online community-based service PlayStation Home shortly afterward in the Presentation Podium. They also made their press conference available for download on the PlayStation Store. Various gaming websites, such as IGN and Kotaku, offered live-blogging of the respective press conferences.

Game Developers Conference Europe

The 2009 Game Developers Conference Europe (GDC Europe), a European spinoff of the Game Developers Conference, was held in conjunction with the Gamescom and took place on 17-19 August 2009 at the Cologne Congress Center East. Nearly 1,500 professionals, including 130 speakers, 40 exhibitors, and more than 250 media representatives attended the conference, making it the largest game industry event for professionals in Europe. The GDC Europe will return to Cologne on 16-18 August 2010.

source from:Wikipedia

The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is an optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on the PlayStation Portable. It can hold up to 1.8 gigabytes of data. It is the first optical disc format to be used for a handheld video game system.

The UMD discs offer large capacity and the capability to store quality audio/video content, however, the format’s proprietary nature and the lack of writers and blank media has made adoption difficult. In comparison to Sony’s MiniDisc format, there are a number of features lacking; the sliding shield which prevents direct disc contact on MiniDiscs is absent from all UMDs released to date, though it is an option according to the ECMA specification.The smaller capacity of the UMD discs necessitates that bonus content from DVD releases be removed in large part or entirely before the movie is released on UMD for PSP playback. This has made the UMD movie releases a difficult sell in the face of affordable portable DVD players that can output to TV sets and can play the full-featured DVD releases. UMD movie pricing was also originally higher than DVD pricing, although UMDs have largely fallen to more reasonable prices starting at $9.99 & up at some Authorized Sony Dealers such as Sony Style USA and various promotions to U.S. troops overseas through AAFES. Due to the slow sales of UMD movies, some retailers, such as Tower Records, began offering incentives on UMD purchases, such as “buy one, get one free” deals. A few months after release, PSP users started complaining that the protective case around the disc would develop cracks with normal use. Sony has not considered this a defect under warranty. In response third party companies have produced replacement casings in order for consumers to continue to use the discs and save their investments in the games.

Overview
ECMA-365: Data Interchange on 60 mm Read-Only ODC – Capacity: 1.8 GB (UMD)
•    Dimensions: approx. 64 mm (diameter) × 4.2 mm (thickness)
•    Maximum capacity: 1.80 GB (dual layer), 900 MB (single-layer)
•    Laser wavelength: 660 nm (red laser)
•    Encryption: AES 128-bit

Applications
The primary application for UMD discs is as a storage medium for PSP games, although the format is also used for the storage of motion pictures, and to a lesser degree, television shows for playback on the PSP. The video is encoded in the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format, with the audio in ATRAC3plus.

Sony geared up for the impending launch of Gran Turismo for the PSP by launching a special Limited Edition Gran Turismo pack. The special run mates the older, UMD-based PSP-3000 in silver with a copy of the racing game, a 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, and download codes for the in-game version of the white Corvette ZR1 seen on the cover, a free movie from Sony’s PSN video store and 10 songs from its Mac- and PC-ready Music Pass service.

The bundle will cost the same $200 as Sony’s other PSP packs and will be available on October 20th, a few weeks after the October 1st release of the stand-alone game. A similar promo isn’t needed for the PSP Go, which will let early buyers of the new slider variant get a free downloadable copy of Gran Turismo when both arrive the same month.

Why PSP Go can not be like previous PSP console to replace the battery? Playstation Insider,Sony Computer Entertainment America president John Koller said, “You won’t be able to rip your games and play them on the system, the firmware precludes that.”

“There’s no external battery, so there’s a number of protections put into place on the system.”

Without the ability to install the Pandora Battery, hackers and pirates should have a much harder time modifying their system. At least, that’s what Sony is hoping.

Rockstar Games, the developers behind the Grand Theft Auto series, announced on Monday that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be coming to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch this fall.

The developer also announced that Beaterator, an app that allows users to create “world-class beats and songs,” will also be made available on the App Store. Like the Chinatown Wars title, Beaterater is slated for availability this fall for an undisclosed price.

Chinatown Wars gives gamers control over Huang Lee, a member of the Triad crime syndicate, who travels to Liberty City to investigate his father’s death. iPhone and iPod Touch owners will be able to control Lee as he travels through the streets of Liberty City.

Chinatown Wars is currently available on the Nintendo DS. It’s coming to the Sony PlayStation Portable in October. According to Rockstar, it made perfect sense for the handheld title to make its way to Apple’s mobile devices.

But since it has been ported from traditional handheld game devices, I asked Rockstar if iPhone owners will see much of a difference between the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP versions and the iPhone version.

Rockstar said there will be some textures that will look low-res, compared to the PSP version, but other than that, the game is exactly the same.That comes as a surprise, considering that the typical content featured in a Grand Theft

Auto game has clashed with Apple’s policies against adult-theme material finding its way to into the App Store. Apple denied access to Eucalyptus, an e-book reader application, because it allowed users to find and read the Kama Sutra. Apple even denied access to Ninjawords, a dictionary app, because it contained vulgar words.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars promises a typical GTA experience, complete with the

sexual content and vulgar words that have made it such a controversial franchise. Rockstar told me that it had no trouble with Apple’s App Store policies and that the game will be made available as is.

Rockstar also said that controlling the on-screen character will be slightly different than what gamers are used to with other handhelds. According to the company, the game will display an on-screen analog stick that users will be able to control with their thumb. The developer wouldn’t reveal any more information about the game.