Custom Firmware on a PSP-3000

A couple posts ago, I showed you guys how to put Custom Firmware on most PSPs. Now, I am going to show you how to put Custom Firmware on PSPs that are not m33 capable. This will even work on PSP 3000s.

Before we begin, I would like to state that I am not in any way responsible if anything happens to your PSP. No matter what you do, there is always a chance of bricking your PSP. Please read through the whole tutorial before starting it.

Step 1: Update your firmware to 5.03. It MUST be 5.03 or it won't work.

Step 2: Use ChickHen r2 to enable homebrew. Place the h.bin file directly in the the root of the memory card, and place the folder with the pictures of eggs in the PHOTO folder. To use ChickHen, just go to photos on your PSP, go into the ChickHen folder and go to the bottom image which is a .tiff image. Your PSP's screen should flash in a different color and reboot into ChickHen. If it doesn't, keep trying again and again. Turning of UMD autostart and UMD cache speeds up the process. Having no images other than the ChickHen folder also helps.

Step 3: Connect your PSP to your PC and unzip 5.03 Gen-A.

Step 4: Open the LAUNCH-ME.exe file.

Step 5: Choose either PSP-2000 or PSP-3000 (PSP-3000s are the ones with the microphone next to the PSP logo below the screen) and choose mode FULL.

Step 6: Choose PSP install option YES, and press START.

Step 7: After the files are copied to your PSP, disconnect your PSP from your computer. Connect your PSP to its charger as a precaution.

Step 8: Launch the EBOOT.PBP/ loader from your PSP.

Step 9: Once the app has loaded, press L or R to flash the firmware to your PSP. You only need to do this ONCE!

Step 10: Press () to reboot into the new custom firmware.

Congratulations, your PSP should now have custom firmware!
For more information, visit this website.

Apple's WWDC 2009

The new iPhone 3GS was announced this morning at Apple's WWDC. It now has an auto-focus 3 megapixel snapper, 3G that is twice as fast, a faster processor, video recording, voice control, Nike+ support, Bluetooth 2.1 (rather than 2.0), a new oil and water resistant finish, and headphones with an inline remote to control your music. Another cool new feature is a magnetic compass. So now, you can tour remote areas without paying international roaming charges :P. But, the iPhone 3GS weighs 2 grams more than the iPhone 3G. The 8gb iPhone 3G is still being sold for just $99. Oddly, the babble on the lower end of the back of the iPhone 3G is gone (only in the pictures and 360 degree view)!

The unibody Macbooks are gone, but new 13-inch Macbook Pros are here, so there is not much to say, except that the 15 inch Macbook Pro does not have a removable battery anymore. We also get SD card slots and lose Expresscard slots in 15-inch Macbooks. Also, is it just me, or has Apple given the plastic Macbook Audio-In and excluded it from the 13-inch Macbook Pros? In my opinion, Apple should not have gotten rid of the black Macbooks. They were much classier than the white Macbooks. Also, Snow Leopard costs just $29 to upgrade to.

Custom Firmware on a PSP (without Pandora)

We all want custom firmware on our PSPs, but none of us want to shell out 40 bucks for a Pandora Battery. Here are the steps to avoiding this.


Before we begin, I would like to state that I am not in any way responsible if anything happens to your PSP. No matter what you do, there is always a chance of bricking your PSP. If you have a PSP3000, do NOT continue, as you will BRICK your PSP!!!

Step 1: Update your firmware to 5.03. It MUST be 5.03 or it won't work.

Step 2: Use ChickHen r2 to enable homebrew. Place the h.bin file directly in the the root of the memory card, and place the folder with the pictures of eggs in the PHOTO folder. To use ChickHen, just go to photos on your PSP, go into the ChickHen folder and go to the bottom image which is a .tiff image. Your PSP's screen should flash in a different color and reboot into ChickHen. If it doesn't, keep trying again and again. Turning of UMD autostart and UMD cache speeds up the process. Having no images other than the ChickHen folder also helps.

Step 3: Use PSPident to check your motherboard version. Here is a chart of which motherboards support custom firmware:

Step 4: If you are completely sure that you want to take the risk, continue to step 5.

Step 5: Use Hellcats recovery flasher to flash custom firmware onto your PSP. Remember, you need to have an OFFICIAL firmware eboot of firmware 5.00. Rename the EBOOT.PBP to 500.PBP. Then, place it in the RECOVERY folder (the one in PSP/GAME/RECOVERY, this is the folder for Hellcats recovery flasher).

Step 6: Connect your PSP to its charger, boot the Recovery Flasher, and follow the onscreen instructions.

Step 7: Congratulations! You now have a homebrew-enabled, ISO-running, themeable PSP

For more information, here is a website which you can visit.

A New Wii

A new black Wii has been released in Japan. It looks sophisticated and seems to take a styling cue from our good old PS3. Black was also the color of the Nintendo Revolution concept, but it was changed on the production model which was deemed the Wii. Unfortunately, we have no news on it ever being released in the USA.

Build the ultimate thumb drive!

Update: Here is a link to my video tutorial: Ultimate USB

This next post is about making the best thumb drive ever. You can be the envy of all the geeks around you! Here are a bunch of easy steps to build your awesome thumb drive.

Step 1:
note: If you are a Windows user and have no access to a Mac, skip this step. If not, continue with this step.
First, partition your thumb drive so that you have at least about 100mb as a Macintosh formatted portion. The rest should be in good old fat32.
Step 2:
Install Linux. I recommend using Slax, for it is lightweight and powerful. You can build your own release or just download the main build. Install this on the fat32 partition.
Step 3:
Portable Apps. Go to this link and download the portable apps suite for your thumb drive. Install it to the fat32 partition. The standard suite is for thumb drives with more storage space. But, the lite suite is powerful enough. Windows users, you are done. If you have access to a mac, here's where the other partition comes into play. Visit this link and download all the apps you want and have the space for. Place the unzipped folders directly on to your Macintosh formatted partition.
Wrapping up:
Place all your media and docs on the fat32 partition in the folders that Portableapps created for you. To boot into Linux, change the BIOS to boot from the thumb drive. Now you have a very cool USB drive that you can use anywhere. It can help you out when you need to work on a document at a library or anything.

E3 2009

E3 2009 was a huge event for Microsoft and Sony. Here's the scoop on these companies:

Sony:

Sony's Playstation is on top with its new motion sensing controller. A few years ago, Nintendo made a huge innovation with its oh-so cool Wii. But now, it's motion sensing controller seems like a thing from the past. The new Playstation controller has much more accurate sensing. Here is a link to the video about the Playstation sensor. Another new innovation for Sony was the PSP Go. Personally, I don't see the PSP Go as much of an improvement over the original PSP. It has bluetooth, 16gb of internal space,and a slide up screen. With the original PSP, you can get 16 gb of memory with a memory stick, and the slide up screen makes the controls much less easy to play games. So that leaves bluetooth. But seriously, $80 for bluetooth? And, PSP Go probably won't be hackable, so bid good bye to Mario 64 on your PSP.

Microsoft:


Project Natal. The words instill fear in all those Nintendo stock investors. Just looking at the videos gives you another reason to buy an Xbox 360. Project Natal is a cool new way to play your games and media without a controller. The thing works by uing 2 cameras and a microphone. Now give us Halo 3 compatability, and we're good to go. Check out the Xbox website for more info. Unfortunately, Natal is at least a year away, so don't buy an Xbox just yet. A lot of new games were previewed, including a new Metal Gear Solid, that's right, Metal Gear Solid!

My First Post

Hi everyone, this is my blog which is all about technology. Check back about every week for brand new posts on all the hottest tech news. See you soon!