According to a friend of QJ, Undiluted Platinum (the world's first PSP modchip) could be here very soon, so its time to start thinking about placing your Pre-Orders! For those still in the dark, Undiluted Platinum was announced to a skeptical audience on May 26th, boasting features such as: bringing a bricked PSP back to life, open source development, button-press firmware selection, along with many more features.

Accompanying the good news of a near shipping date, joins the news of the soldering involved. Don't expect to install this without some work, as there will be "23-24 wires to install." If you wish to do this install yourself, be sure you have (or know someone that has) advanced soldering experience. If you're a soldering pro, expect the project to take a good 45-60 minutes. With how small the space to work inside of the PSP is, it will likely be very tricky fitting that many wires inside of such a cramped area.

Word is starting to gather about various international stores where you can purchase Undiluted Platinum, but we're glad to bring you news of the first and only North American outlet for UP, ModChipStore, will not only be shipping Undiluted Platinum from the U.S., but will be offering several professionally installed packages:

• Buy the modchip and do-it-yourself (or have a friend help out)
• Have it professionally installed by ModChipStore.com
• Buy a pre-modified Black PSP with Undiluted Platinum already installed
• Buy a pre-modified White PSP with Undiluted Platinum already installed

Although initial supplies may be limited, ModChipStore will be frequently restocked as the need arises. Additionally, they will begin shipping Undiluted Platinum the same day they receive their first batch. If you want to send in your PSP for a professional install and be first in line, they are already accepting shipments. While you're there, you might want to see what other PSP accessories you might need in anticipation of Undiluted Platinum - their prices for 1GB and 2GB Pro Duo memory sticks ain't too shabby, especially if they'll be shipping you Undiluted Platinum anyways!

Whatever you choose, please be aware that there is a chance of breaking your PSP in some fashion any time you open it up. Add a soldering iron, wires, and your open PSP, the chance that something could go wrong is very high. For your PSP's sake, it is best to have someone else install the Undiluted Platinum if you have limited or no soldering experience. We at QJ.net take no responsibility for any damage done to your PSP while trying to install this modchip.

And be sure to stay with QJ.NET, as we will have hot images, video, and install diagrams in the near future!

For those of you who have been following the PSP since day one, you will know the name pochi. Pochi, simply put, is one of the most talented icon/application background artists to date for homebrew programs. His art has been featured in numerous programs, such as Snes9x TYL, File Assistant, and many more. So, being said, this is a thanks to pochi for his dedicated hard work throughout this past year, and a reminder to all to change your bookmarks to: http://www.riotsgraph.jp/pochistyle/

Thanks for the heads up and your dedication pochi!

While many places in the world take piracy very seriously, there are countless other locations worldwide that do not. Many people know this fact already, but it is hard to understand just how much piracy really goes outside of the internet unless you see it for yourself. Recently, I had the opportunity to browse one of the malls in the Philippines (which is a beautiful country), which definitely does not operate the same as any mall in the United States would, but is still fun to visit. Aside from many other things you can buy there, my mission was to get the underground story of the PSP, namely: the services offered to upgrade/downgrade your PSP, the service of loading ISOs, pre-formatted PSP movies, mp3s, and installing PSP wallpapers, which of course, is all done for a price.

More after the jump.

magiK has released his own mod to PMP (PSP Media Player), which plays a variety of video formats for the PSP including XviD and DivX. Originally ported by JiniCho, with the reigns taken by jonny, the community has definitely pitched in to released their own mods to the very popular media player.

With mods from Optixx, miemt11, plus others, magiK has compiled them all and added his own features. To get a video to play, you must first convert your video to a .PMP formatted file. This mod from magiK includes the compiled modifications of a better GUI with skinning support, position memory (which is also shown in the GUI), better length calculation in the GUI, nice OSD while playing, and most notably: brightness control!

Download: [PMP Mod v1.02 mm2]
Download: [PMP Mod and Muxer v2.00]

Sony Online Entertainment have announced a new contest heralding the release of Field Commander for the PSP. The contest is not open to everyone, however, and is only extended to those in the armed forces currently (and actively) serving overseas far away from their home. Luckily, Sony will also allow submissions from relatives and loved ones of the avid gamers who may not have the time (or means) to send submissions.

The contest is simple, and the prizes are well worth the sub-250 words that must be typed. To enter, simply take 10 minutes out of your day, and write a short essay (of no more than 250 words) including your current role in the military, where you are stationed, and what your gaming habits include.

What's the loot you ask? From the tons of submissions they receive, there will be a total of 5 winners, each fitted out with a $500 gift certificate to Sonystyle.com, and 2 copies of the following PSP games: Field Commander, Untold Legends Brotherhood of the Blade, Untold Legends The Warrior's Code, GripShift and Frantix, and 2 spiffy Field Commander t-shirts.

The contest will start this May 10th and end on May 20th (Armed Forces Day), with Field Commander releasing on May 23rd. Send your entries to [FieldCommanderPromo_at_soe.sony.com]. More details on this contest can be found [here].

You know what really grinds my gears? That this game isn't on the PSP already. According to 1up, developers 2K and High Voltage are producing a new game for the PSP, PS2, and Xbox, based on the Family Guy TV series. You will be able to play as Peter (Pea..tear..Griffin), Brian, and Stewie, each with their own plans of taking over the world. Peter's goal is to prevent Mr. Belvedere from taking over the world, while Stewie matches wits with Bertram and continues his neverending goal of world domination. Brian meanwhile, will have to escape prison, and naturally take over the world. The game will be based on combat, of which we would like to hope for fighting giant chickens as Peter. Like a Guy Ritchie movie, you will watch the storyline of each character, overlapping neighboring storylines to an end goal.

1up also let loose that there will be over 200 cameos throughout the game, including Quagmire, the old pedophile stalking Chris, Opie, and even the evil monkey will have face time. The latest on the release date is towards the end of this year, but no final day has been given. We'll definitely be on the watch for this title and any other smurf-tacular news regarding it.

It's that time again, Team PS Pro have released a new magazine to the public, bringing their mag-count to numero three. Although you will have to brush up on your German skills to read this magazine (including myself), this issue touches base with games such as: Super Monkey Ball, Monster: Freedom, Stacked, along with many other reviews and information that 75 pages can sum up. There is also a deluxe edition weighing in at 39mb and containing various movie trailers and PSP formatted wallpapers. Of course, if you can't read german, you could at least stare at the pretty pictures.

Download: [Standard edition]
Download: [Deluxe edition]

Far be it for us at QJ to put up any fake news, but when sifting through the daily sand dune of emails, a nice gem gleamed in the rough. We have received these (very convincing in my opinion) images of the upcoming PSone emulator for the PSP, created by none other than Sony themselves (as Ken detailed himself). The emulator will allow users to download games onto their PSP's memory stick and run them via the "Game" menu on the PSP (which sounds just like what we do already.)

For example, (according to the images,) Gran Turismo 2 will support both ad-hoc (2 players) and infrastructure modes (2-6 players.) The cost on the (I will again iterate convincing) image will be at $15, which although pricey, is much cheaper than current PSP UMD games, and brings us the youthful joy at a reasonable price. But you don't have to take my word for it, I'll let you read the news tip as well and decide for yourself, because we can never be too sure:

"My friend who is a designer at sony gave me these pics, he said that this is what the psone emulator for psp will look like. he said that the games will be downloaded by a program shown in the screenshots and will be played under "game". I think this is true because he showed them to me from his camera which doesn't show ANY edited images."

Thanks for the newstip Al!

Edit: Ok, $15 is expensive, but it's better to pay $15 for a game with probably no loading times and better playability than most of today's UMDs. (Although $5 would definitely be much more reasonable, and to their benefit in sales of antiquated games.)

Just over a month ago, Blue2k released his first development build of his shell for the PSP written in C. Today, he has released MbShell Artillery v0.05 with a whole list of upgrades and additions.

Artilery 0.05 features:

• New theme
• UMD loading + return to shell function
• Slideshow application (reads png and jpg)
• Jpg image support up to 1280x960
• Graphical MP3 player (under construction, but functional)
• USB connection
• Detailed battery indicator
• Icon and windowing support with drop shadows

The graphics have been done by Affinity and the programming as usual by Blue2k.

Download [MbShell Artillery v0.05]
Official Release Thread [here].

Curt Self aka Modsyn has released yet another intriguing application for the PSP, following his DVD to PSP media converter jMEnc2. This time he's created a demo version of an XML podcast retriever for Woxy.com. With it, you can get online with your PSP and browse through Woxy's independent music offerings, choosing which songs you want to download straight to your PSP's music folder. This is a must have for music lovers everywhere. All I have to say is that for a DEMO version, this works pretty well already.

This program will download the WOXY.COM podcast XML file, parse out the links to the lounge acts and let you choose to download on straight to your /PSP/MUSIC folder. It's made specifically to do only that, so no illegal file sharing requests, please. For anyone who doesn't know, WOXY.COM is an online radio station that supports independent musicians. The lounge acts are just an example of the good stuff you'll hear there.

Also, this is my first socket-level program to write, so have mercy on me. Support independent music, listen to WOXY!!!!

Download: [Woxy Loungeacts Grabber]