XBL, Sparta, and a Tool

News in from the front lines, or at least from the dev team behind XBL. As long as Live has been around there has been one thing that has been constant, you have a limit on the number of friends allowed on your buddy list. Currently that limit is set to one hundred but word has it that will soon change. Greenberg reported this change himself at the Consumer Electronics Show. No official word on exactly when the change will take place or how big of a jump the limit is being bumped up to.

Seems that Braid developers are not too happy with Microsoft. The dev team wanted to release a dashboard theme for free to everyone. Apparently Microsoft didn't want to do that and has slapped a two hundred and fifty Microsoft Point price tag on the theme. Braid developers say that if we choose to buy the theme...we can rest assured it is one of the few that doesn't have any sort of advertisement.

Time to settle down and pull one of my closest little friends for a nice...wait, you thought I was going somewhere else with that didn't you? I was talking about my PSP, what the hell were you thinking I was talking about? Bad jokes aside...I wrote that I would update as news trickled down from the PSP homebrew developers when news of the Gripshift Sparta exploit saw some of its first homebrew on the PSP-3000. That time is now, Gamers. With this new development, PSP-3000 owners who have a copy of Gripshift are now allowed to do the next logical thing after running a Hello World app. You are now ready to run...get ready for it!

You can now run Pong using the Sparta exploit. No, I am not joking. This is just step one for homebrew on this new model so be patient....meanwhile enjoy a nice game of Pong while you wait.

One more morsel of PSP homebrew news for you to nibble on. PSP Tool has been updated to version 0.8. Don't know what PSP Tool is? Well it has to be one of the most convenient packages dreamed up. If that doesn't do it for you, read this directly from the PDF documentation:

“PSP Tool is a multi-purpose application designed for the PlayStation Portable console to perform various general management functions with the console. One of the main benefits of this software which is not available in most other homebrew applications is the ability to extract the IPL from the Memory Stick, this is useful if the IPL is not obtainable through a file and you wish to make a full backup of your Magic Memory Stick. An example of when this is beneficial is extracting the Datel Action Replay PSP IPL which comes pre-injected with the Memory Stick included with the product. This application allows the user to extract that IPL and use it with another Memory Stick or for backup in case the Memory Stick becomes corrupt. ”

And what can it do you ask? Well, my dear reader...have a look at the feature list:

• Backup and Restore the IdStorage of the PSP

• Check the IPL injected on the Memory Stick or a file located on the Memory Stick

• Check, Backup, Restore and change the battery EEPROM

• Connect various devices through a USB cable

• Create a checksum of the IPL injected on the Memory Stick or an IPL located on the Memory Stick

• Create a variety of different Magic Memory Sticks

• Erase the entire IPL space of the Memory Stick

• Extract the IPL injected on the Memory Stick to a file

• Format the Memory Stick

• Inject a variety of included IPLs or an IPL from a file to the Memory Stick

So that is PSP Tool, a useful update but for now I will stick with my tried and true method. I do plan on testing this software out personally at a later date. If it works better then I'm sold.

That's about all the news I have for you at the moment, keep your reflexes quick and your eyes sharp. Game on.