The new Vita firmware brought some behind the scenes “features”
April fools is over, we all had our laughs, but it’s time to move on.
On this subject I want to discuss what hidden “features” and “stability improvements” the new Vita firmwares 3.10/3.12 brought to the table and my overall rant about them from both a hacker’s perspective and a user’s perspective.
Most of you are probably expecting Day two of the 8 Days of Gaming series, but to be honest, I write articles when I have feel enlighten to do so, and right now I feel more enlighten to write about the new Vita firmware.
Over the past years we’ve released countless PSP exploits, both usermode and kernelmode. Up until now Sony’s reaction has been clear: pull the game and patch the exploits in a new firmware update.
Normally when we talk about VHBL exploits the next firmware we get is an infamous “stability improvement” firmware, which we all know means they fixed the exploit. But when kernel exploits are released, Sony usually brings more than one new cool feature to the table, ensuring more people feel entitled to update, but what does the new Vita firmware 3.10 brings on the table that would make most users want to update? and more specifically, why did it take so long to arrive?
I cannot answer the second question easily, as god only knows what the devs behind Sony’s closed doors do when they are assigned the job of updating the firmware. And when it comes to software, doing one thing can be either extremely hard or extremely easy, depending on how the base code has been implemented.
This is a list of the new official features firmware 3.10 brought to us:
– You can now display up to 500 applications on the home screen.
– A Calendar application has been added for PS Vita, allowing you to set up gaming events with your friends. Sync your Google calendar to have all your events with you on your PS Vita. You can also share your favorite events by using the Messages and Email applications.
– A new “Manage Content on Memory Card” option has been added to the Content Manager application. You can now view the data on your memory card, making it easier than ever to manage content on your PS Vita. You can now view memory usage by content type, and delete content and applications.
– You can now send and receive voice messages using the Messages application on PS Vita. Exchange voice messages with your friends and players on PS4 and PS Vita.
– We have enhanced the parental control features. You will be able to restrict PS Store access, and with a children’s age guide for each level it is easier to find the right level for your children. We’ve also added an information guide for TrendMicro web security.
– Adjust Daylight Saving Automatically has been added.
– 30 minutes has been added in Enter Standby Mode Automatically.
– DualShock 4 and PS Mobile support for Vita TV.
Alright, being able to have up to 500 apps is cool, some users that were blessed with enough currency to buy the overly-expensive 64GB memory card were complaining that they had to delete apps to be able to have more content on their system. The new memory card manager feature seems cool, but it’s not really an über awesome feature.
Every other feature there is minor and the overall package doesn’t live up to the expectation some of us had after 4 months of waiting for a response from Sony, other than the usual pulling the game stuff.
A priori, it doesn’t seem like this firmware could have taken them 4 months of work, until hackers made some interesting discoveries when it comes to the pspemu.
You can no longer open files bigger than the game itself, at least for minis, normal PSP games seem not to be affected. it’s common sense, some PSP games make data installs and some have DLC, there’s a possibility that one of those games have problems.
The question as to “why do that?” is obvious, they are desperately trying to patch TN-V, or ISOs at least.
But I have a better question, are they f*cking retarted?
First of all, we are talking about the same people who made the PS2 and should have LEARNED from the PS2 scene.
How does one play PS2 ISOs on the PS2? by either using the internal HDD (Fatty ones) or an external HDD, either way they both have to be formatted in FAT32.
FAT32 you say? need I remind you that FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit? PS2 ISO loaders had to work with ISO files split into different parts.
Did they even think about this? did they even think how easy it would be to just split the files into different parts and modifying the ISO driver would be?
But that’s not even the top of it all, let’s go to the PS3 scene.
The PS3 also uses a FAT32 filesystem, and much like the PS2, it can’t have files bigger than 4GB.
So how do they rip games on the PS3? they just dump the files into a folder in the PS3 and mount that folder as the blu-ray drive.
This brings me to the point I want to make.
Why waste R&D money on something that barely has an impact on the scene?
I want to answer with something my good friend Coldbird once told me: they just want to annoy hackers.
That is find with me, from a developer perspective these sort of things post new challenges and it keep us entertained, but from a user perspective, I can’t stand this anymore.
Instead of making the Vita experience better, adding more feature to an already good-looking but dull OS, improving what’s already there or opening game divisions to bring fun games to the Vita, Sony is wasting the little money they get from Vita sales on annoying at best, useless at worst, security measures rather than investing on trying to bring new people to the Vita world.
We seem to be using this image way too often than we should, which is sad.
We want more games like Tearaway or Little Deviants, games that make good use of the touchscreen and back panel without making them look like annoying gimmicks. We want games that really look like PS3 games, not Uncharted Golden Abyss that looks like Uncharted 1 without all the things that made Uncharted 1 epic.
We want big budget games as well as low budget innovative and fun titles. We want a real and complete portable experience. The PSP was innovative due to having all the games that made the PS2 great and a roundup of features that no other portable system had, nowadays even the lowest budget smartphone has more to offer than the Vita.
I want a firmware update that forces me to update because I like it rather than because it forces m., that is the one and only strategy they should follow against hacks like TN-V, otherwise most people in this forum can happily live with PSP homebrews and some hidden PSP jewels still waiting to be discovered, all filling the void that Sony’s brilliant minds can’t seem to fulfill.
This is another scenario of mismanagement and misuse of the money all Vita owners have invested in a machine that only does another useless firmware update, another useless VHBL patch, another useless “security measure” and another useless feature.
With the Vita Sony was able to fix all the problems that made the PSP a flop. It has good controls, it has excellent graphics, it has better media capabilities (compared with the PSP).
Now it’s the time they have to bring their bug guns, all the games that made the PS2 and PS3 sell.
But focusing on fighting hackers rather than creating content that make most people be up to date with the firmware is not the right way. I can only hope to god they realize their mistake before it’s too late and this nice piece of hardware becomes another flop.
Hi!!! I sorry to bother you with stupid questions but I just bought a ps vita (I’m new in the ps world) because I found a really good deal.
I’d love to install daedalusx64 in it, these days I’ve been reading a lot about all the VHBL how to install it in a saved psp game…
The problem is that I have the 3.12 firmware and I don’t know if there is still any psp game that I can buy in order to be able to install the emulators.
Can someone help (please)? As I said I’m new and I just bought the ps vita I don’t want to mess with lots of software things just want an “easy and safe” way
You will have to wait till someone, at some point or some time release an exploit game title and the exploit itself. until then, rss feed this site, hope and wait that someone will release an exploit.
sadly your device is on the latest firmware and you’re pretty much sc*** for now.
If You cant hack the native vita let it rest then.All this things are already there on psp and are pretty much lame now ,,,
I love that the people who beg for games are the ones hacking! and im not even joking. I love my vita, There are a few gems that made buying the vita worth wile but after playing those I always question why i still have it. If they make more games for it ill buy them and the only reason ill still have a vita when they finally come out is because i hacked the damn thing to keep me interested.
If Sony is smart, all they should focus on is blocking Vita isos (so that you cant play Vita Roms for free). They should just let people unlock it and be able to install homebrews and emulators. Why do they care if people can play NES or SNES games on the Vita? They’re not loosing any money, and people who wanna play those games will buy a Vita instead of a 3DS. How much money will the lose if they let people play PS1 games on the Vita? They’re not selling that much PS1 games, and they’ll make way more money from extra Vita sales than PS1 games. And the Vita can’t play PS2 or PS3 games so they don’t have to worry about that. The only thing they need to worry about is protecting the Vita games. So many more people will buy the Vita if it’s unlocked
Has anyone mess with the Sony Xperia Play? Its like a psp but a phone. I had one and it was awsome. It came out before the PS Vita. Its had a touch screen, 2 trigger buttons, 2 circle pads for joy sticks, all the same buttons as the vita without the rear touchpad. And it had good *** games, i played dead space, modern combat 4, need for speed, and all kinds of emulators. I wish the vita was open source like the sony Xperia Play. Imma buy another xperia play to go with my psp and ps vita.
I really love this console, it has TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL!!
But, the lack of true AAA experiences has led me to make a decision: I’m waiting for Borderlands 2 to come out, and if it sucks, I’m selling my Vita right away.
If it’s good, I might still keep it for a while, and also get Football Manager 2014 when it comes out, but in all honesty this is just a PROLONGED DEATH SENTENCE before I eventually sell it off.
The fact that I have TN-V installed doesn’t really help either, it’s a nice distraction, but not much more (doesn’t let you use second stick, touch controls, etc).
I believe $ONY has REALIZED THE VITA HAS LOST TO the mass deployment of inexpensive alternative devices (PHONES, TABLETS), and they don’t really care about putting all their weight behind the console. PS4 remote play in an extra feature for the PS4, but not something that will sell more Vitas to newcomers.
LACK OF AAA GAMES = DEATH OF VITA = ALREADY HAPPENED
Post Hoc ergo propter hoc
It has been proven that Sony does not need hackers to keep putting out useless updates for stability and to make hacking difficult. In the end hackers were respectful of Sony’s business and trying to keep ISO loading from hitting the vita. Meanwhile Sony created a beautifully expensive paperweight and got at least one user, me, on ouya. psx emus, n64, snes, amiga, nes, etc., that’ll hold me over until I get the ps4 in 2015. Got no rush for it. Not just that but Sony seems to know how to limit or sandbox, carefully chosen word, our environments in the systems, so most of what they have been doing to limit hackers in the Vita, is patching every single exploit release. As such R&D into preventing hacking is null, and if they allowed one simple hack to continue, I tried it with monster hunter a while back, then people would just stick to the psp sandbox rather than trying to further hack the kernel. Murphy’s law with a big red button saying don’t press this.
This is what Sony isn’t understanding. HEY SONY SPIES READ THIS: WE WANNA HACK THE VITA TO GET THE CAPABILITIES AND FEATURES WE PAID FOR, AND NOT FOR PIRACY, WE ARE PAYING FOR OUR GAMES, BUT WE WANT FEATURES. The same way the calendar app was added, you should add a calculator, stopwatch, weather, compass, memo, those types of utilities. What about themes, copying & pasting text, and smileys in messaging? Those are very basic features that should come with any OS, & aren’t on the 2-year-old PS Vita yet…
Sony make very little profit on every Vita sold. The games are the main cash cow and Angry Birds is a good example of their indifference to the market. 30 odd euros for a game which is practically free on Android. Apart from a few examples most of the Vita games are side scrolling ***. These have existed in one form or another since the days of the Sinclair Spectrum. Knightlore was a simple sprite driven game which ran at about 4 Mhz on an 8 bit Z80. Never bettered in my opinion. Even Elite (41,000 kBytes !) had more depth than the current crop of Vita games. What has been achieved with a portable machine running at 600 – 1000 Mhz is frankly f*****g dreadfull. I’ve yet to find a comparable game to BBC/Spectrum Elite. I’m talking about game depth, not graphical power. Which brings me to my main gripe. If I write a small piece of code, using the PS Vita dev kit, I can run it, on MY Vita, for a mere 24 hours. After that I have to sign in – again. It’s my code, my copyright, yet I have to get Sony’s approval once a day to run it. If it wasn’t for people like TN, my Vita would have become an expensive paperweight. Having spent over 120 euros on what I thought would be good games, I finally called it a day. It’s unbelievable that there is only one chess game on the Vita. No names but it is the worst chess program ever written. A blind three legged donkey could beat it. But, it’s a graphical masterpiece. I bought it like a fool. Oh well. (deep sigh…). Thanks to TN I have Doom, Quake, ROTT, Heretic, Hexen, DOS games, Windows 3.1 (I know – sad), 100s of speccy games, Amiga, Atari ST, Atari 2600 etc etc. AND…I can create C software using the pspsdk and a psp emulator running on the PC. I’ve got more 32 x 32 sprites running across my Vita screen then I know what to do with. If I have any more fun…well, you know what I mean. Thankyou TN and everyone else involved in keeping the Vita alive against all the odds. Sony seem heck bent on killing it.
I own 3 psvita currently.
one is updated to the last firmware and linked to my euro account. This is were I buy most games
the second one is linked to my japanese psn, I mostly use this psv to play phantasy star online2
the third one is the homebrew one. Here I play with emulators and ISOs all the games that they dont let me buy with my euro account, most of them I own them originals for my psp but I want to experience them on my oled vita