Seybold says firmware announcement coming early next week

[BornOfFire]

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.ps3fanboy.com/media/2007/07/playstationblog.jpg (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/07/20/playstationblog-e3-recap/#comment-10131)

Patrick Seybold, Senior PR Manager for SCEA, has replied to a comment on the latest post on the PlayStation.Blog (http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/07/20/playstationblog-e3-recap/#comment-10131) with some information on when we can expect the next firmware update. He states that "early next week, we'll have something on the firmware." We have also heard that a member of the Sony customer support staff has let on that the 1.90 update will be happening on Tuesday the 24th of July.

We have no idea exactly what the update will bring, but we're hoping that it'll be something substantial. Gamer's Creed (http://gamers-creed.com/?p=83.) has a list of suspected features that are due to be added, however this is all currently just speculation. One of the features listed is "XMB is now accessible during gameplay." If this is the case, we might actually explode with excitement. We'll keep you updated with any developments.

[BornOfFire]

As hinted at last week firmware version 1.90 has been released in Japan, with reports (http://threespeech.com/blog/?p=507) that it will arrive in English speaking regions within the next day or so. But what does it do? We're glad you asked. The following is a list of confirmed features that are worming their way around the internet. We'll let you know when the full patch notes become available.

Ability to rearrange games on the XMB
Option menu now includes "eject disc"
Press triangle on the XMB to eject the disc
XMB backgrounds
Change the folder classification
Emoticons
Change CD output to 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz
Force 24Hz output for Blu-ray over HDMI
Change PS3 video settings in-game
"Bit Mapping" in the "Music Setting"
Save AVCHD type animations from a Memory Stick
Change settings like upscaling while playing PS and PS2 games
Add bookmarks
Web browser security function in the browser's tool section
Avatar moves during audio visual chatOverall, pretty nice indeed. That'll keep us going while we wait for the fabled 2.00 patch. XMB backgrounds and the ability to organise XMB content are things that we've seen requested many times. As for us, we're loving the ability to eject the disc from a distance, saving us precious seconds of seat-time before having to actually walk towards our PS3. Yes, we're that lazy.