Following Electronic Arts' press release yesterday about their video game for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being delayed to summer of next year, an SEC document reveals some info on how much the company stands to lose. Since the game won't be released this year, their projected forecast for the 2008 fiscal year report would be US$ 120 million short!

Homebrew developer NameTaken33 has come up with uPSP that promises users to provide remote access and control to PC download via the PlayStation Portable. The program is currently in beta phase.

To know how to fully utilize this program, click the "read more" link below. It should take you to the full article for other details.


Visit: QJ PSP Development Forum

We know you're all still dazzled with the monumental development from homebrew heroes (and now PSP unit saviors) Noobz, Team C+D, and the rest of the minds behind the Prometheus project and Pandora Battery unbricker for PSP. The whole process is simple enough, and the good developers got all bases covered, even instructions on installation.

However, as with any community, it's expected that a flock of total beginners are bound to hear about this. It's not hard to imagine how difficult it'll be for them to understand even some of the simpler things (at least for all of us) homebrew-related mentioned in the process. Of course we just can't let them try to figure things out on their own, it's a good thing there are guys like Freeplay who are willing to extend a helping hand to those who need assistance.

What we have here is a very detailed step-by-step procedure aimed at PSP newbies. Freeplay's got everthing down pat, every single action you need to create a jigstick battery, a magic memory stick, and the actual unbricking process. What's really great about this guide, is it's from someone who created the tutorial on the same time he's doing the whole process himself. It's plucked right from the heart of the PSP community.

Thanks to Spikertk for sending this in!

The full tutorial awaits after the jump!

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. has revealed that it has received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This according to Reuters.

The Wells notice indicates that charges may be filed against Take-Two by the SEC concerning the stock options debacle that hounded the company in the past. According to Reuters, Take-Two revealed in an SEC filing that the company was informed by SEC staff who planned to get authorization from the Commission to file charges as well as go after a civil monetary penalty.

This is the latest blow against Take-Two. Earlier this month, the company announced that it will be delaying the release of Grand Theft Auto IV (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360). The release date for Manhunt 2 (Wii, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2) has also been changed. Take-Two still has one final chance to try and convince the SEC not to file charges.

Appearances can be deceiving. And even though AhMan's status is ticked as "Retired PSP Developer," you must know that that can't entirely be true. Especially since he's just fueled up the homebrew scene once again with yet another public release of his latest version for iR Shell.

Now pegged at iR Shell v3.1, there's been some bug fixes and a whole slew of enhancements to the said shell program. Let's cut the chase, here's the list of new features and tweaks:

• Universal Infra-Red Remote is now working under firmware 2.71 mode of iR Shell.
• Support direct launching of Devhook 0.51.
• Enhance nethostfs & UMD compatibility which will allow WiFi keypad redirection to work with almost all UMD games that are supported by firmware 2.71. This should bring the compatibility of nethostfs to about the same level as usbhostfs. Please note the nethostfs is only enhanced under firmware 2.71 mode, nethostfs under firmware 1.5 is unchanged.
• Plugin suffix extension has been changed from 3 characters to 1-4 characters.
• Bundled a HTML Viewer plugin by Dark_AleX which means you can open HTML documents (suffix as HTML or HTM) directly from iR Shell file browser.
• Bundled an updated ISO plugin by StoneCut which has Devhook launching capability built-in. This is for use with legally owned backups only.
• Bug fix: When running iR Shell under firmware 1.5 mode of Dark_AleX 2.71 SEC, if you exit iR Shell when "Allow Adhoc PC Connection for Homebrew" is enabled, your PSP will crash.
• Bug fix: The "Free Space" under directory view can't display anything larger than 2GB.
• Bug fix: Can't choose plugin # larger than 10 under iR Shell Configurator.

For those who are asking, here's a note from AhMan himself: iR Shell 3.1 supports firmware 1.5, 2.71 with HenD, Dark_Alex's 2.71 SEC, devhook firmware 1.5/2.71 emulation.

Download: [iR Shell 3.1]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

Don't you just love it when things get fixed at once? Like this one right here. It's only been three days past since we posted the updated version for xautob. - 2.71 SEC Autoboot PRX and we now have its version 0.3.

Yup, mov over at our forums sure has been busy fixing whatever bugs may have been existing in v0.2. Well, you can say bye-bye to them now as he's done some general cleaning of the application.

The changes for this version include the elimination of that particular problem, which was causing the last config entry to be ignored when not newline-terminated. That is now fixed. Also, he's added support for loading UMD games. You can check out the sample config in the file, which you can download right here.

So there. Without further ado, we present to you mov's xautob - 2.71sec Autoboot PRX v0.3.

Download: [xautob - 2.71sec Autoboot PRX v0.3]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

We'll quote fellow writer Jex H. on this one: "And so the SE-C mania continues." Over at our forums, mov just released xautob, an autoboot PRX for Dark_Alex's 2.71 SE-C. v0.2 fixes a small bug from the prior version that led to 2.71 applications being loaded under 1.50, mov explains.

Let the Readme explain this homebrew best:

This is a plugin for autostarting eboots under firmware 2.71se (tested only under se-C)

Features:

• cheesy fix allowing cpu speed changes (amongst other things?) for autostarted iR Shell 3.0 under 2.71 kernel (not sure if the problem affects apps besides iR Shell haven't checked - but the workaround is enabled for all 2.71 apps anyway).
  
• support for associating the following buttons with apps: triangle, circle, cross, square, left/right triggers, up, down, left, right, select, start, home, hold & the wlan switch state (on/off).
  
• config file support (psp/system/xautob.cfg); format: `button=ms0:/path/to/eboot'. includes basic comment support (lines prefixed with #), kernel specification, pretty loose button/kernel reading (ltrigger is the same as LtRiGgEr is the same as ltrig, 150 cross = cross_150, etc.). blank or invalid path entries in the config are interpreted as "load the XMB"; if multiple entries for the same button are found the last one is used.
  

example config:

# wlan switch on? start irshell under kernel 2.71..

wlanon=ms0:/psp/game271/irshell271/eboot.pbp

# wlan switch off? start irshell under kernel 1.5..

wlanoff_150=ms0:/psp/game150/irshell150/eboot.pbp

# load xmb

ltrig=

Instructions for installation are also at the Readme file.

Download: [xautob - 2.71 SEC Autoboot PRX v0.2]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

The Unique Warrior has today released a new PRX for all the 2.71 SE-C users that will allow you to reboot or power off your PSP in the blink of an eye - circumventing the need to use that sometimes irritating power button which takes so long to switch off a PSP.

After installing this PRX, all you have to do is press HOME + Select to shut down (you'll be powered off in 0.5 sec), and press HOME + Start to cause the power LED to flash 4 or 5 times to reboot the PSP. These hot keys work whether in game or in the XMB, so make sure you don't press them by accident or you could lose your place in a game as it doesn't ask for confirmation.

To install this PRX, all you have to do is run Coldbird's Universal Module Flasher and install the module, or you can copy the files in se_plugins in the MS_ROOT/SE_PLUGINS to ms0:/se_plugins, then activate the PRX from recovery mode. If you are a developer and are interested in this PRX, here's what The Unique Warrior said about this release:

• Uses 24 bliting. (not always seen as every thing goes fast)
• Functions PRX uses to reboot and shut down PSP are:
• sceSysconPowerStandby(); //For shutting down
• scePower_0442D852(50000); //For Reboot
• The source code will be released soon

Just make sure you have Dark_Alex's 2.71 SE-C firmware installed as a few members from our forums have already found complications when installing this PRX on Custom Firmware 1.5. TUW is currently working on a 1.5 compatible version to be used soon.

Download: [2.71 SE-C Power Off and Reboot PRX]
View: [Forum Release thread]

Allow us to use a little simile here; weltall's homebrew application, CWCheat, could be likened to a bottle of good wine - it just gets better with age. In case you just have no idea what this app is, CWCheat is the first general purpose cheat device for devhook. weltall claims that it can cheat every devhook-compatible game under firmware emulation.

According to him, this works through raw-relative cheat codes like action replay, codebreaker, gameshark, xploder, etc. Other than those mentioned, it has support for other function which are useful for cheat finder and normal users.

Before using this app, it wouldn't hurt if you would read first the readme.txt (which comes in English and Italian) and the provided manuals, although the manuals weren't updated, it still is a big help. If you have suggestions, opinions and other what-nots, please do share them in the comments section. For now, here is the changelog.

[CORE PRX]

-now cheats are applied every 1/10000 sec (before was second*cheat delay)
-cheat delay is now control delay which mean how much seconds to wait  before checking the keys combinations
-now priority is 0x64, before was 0x1 (this means less priority)
-now when entering the cheat selection it waits for the X buttons to be released (this caused the always Y first cheat when entering the menu)
-now the buttons which are keep pressed will be repeated also in the main menu
-now usb autostart is correctly handled and usb is enabled when the prx is loaded
-corrected some graphic glitchs on the bottom of the screen of the main menu
-cheat DB format update: now the db can store also the enabled/disabled status of every cheat so it will automatically enable the cheats you choose. Now the old database format is deprecated: it still works but the support for it will be dropped on the next version. The new format changes only the _C (Cheat) entry now it's _C# where # is a 1 (enabled) or a 0 (disabled). If another number is found the cheat
will be disabled, if a space is found (only this version) the cheat will  be read as an old format cheat. To update your DB just replace the _C with _C0 (or _C1)
-now it's possible to edit on the go directly from the cwcheat menu the value field of a code.
-now the 32bit multi write code works correctly also if the adress isn't a power of 4. So condensed codes which didn't work before will work fine
-Now it's available a cheat search function from the game
-The cheat search function supports 8/16/32bit fixed value search
-Found adresses in the cheat search function are written to progressive file (pass0.txt, pass1.txt, etc.)
-You can return to game and then continue your search for codes.
-The resume fixed value search function shows the first 10 adresses found in the precedent search with the value of these adresses in hexadecimal and decimal format (usefull to avoid another search when  you have only a little number of adresses)
-some optimizations here and there

[INSTALLER]

-changed the restore icon to a restore/update icon to avoid mistakes

Download: [CWcheat v0.12]