Playstation Vita Firmware 3.50 is now live! – Patches the Custom Bubble trick & more!
We have told you that Sony is going to release the new firmwares on the 26th March, and here we are.
The PS Vita system software 3.50 is now available, and it is mandatory for using the Playstation Online services (such as the PSN Store).
Official features:
In terms of official features, does the PS Vita firmware 3.50 offer you similar features that the PS4 firmware 2.50 just got.
You are now able to swap the funtionality of various buttons, e.g. swap X with O, but keep in mind that this will be system-wide (including games!), which seems to be a good idea, but in the end does not solve the problem a lot of people have with their imported PS Vita’s.
It would be nice if one would be able to restrict the button swaps to the homescreen (and its apps) only, instead of it also applying to games.
Next to the new button assign feature, you have a whole new category inside of your PS Vita’s Settings application, which is called Accessibility.
Accessibility offers you a Zoom function, which makes it a bit easier to read things on the PS Vita’s screen. It also offers you an ‘invert colors’ function, the ability to make texts bigger & bold, and also a ‘high contrast’ mode, which adjusts the colors a bit, to improve the clarity of things on the screen.
These functions are very nice for the few people that are handicapped, or simply prefer these helpful features, to improve their experience while using the Playstation Vita. It is also possible to quick-switch the ‘invert colors’ and ‘button assign’ features via the PS-Menu (the menu that appears when you keep the PS-Button pressed).
The firmware 3.50 has removed the Maps application from the homescreen, which offers you one more space for games (instead of system apps), and has heavily neutered the Near application. They just could have removed it too, in my opinion.
Unofficial ‘features’:
While the previous firmwares have seen quite an amount of released exploits by qwikrazor, it was pretty safe to assume that the next major firmware is going to patch all of them.
Firmware 3.50 does indeed patch the usermode exploits in Patapon 2, Arcade Darts & Numblast (other games were not tested, but are expected to be fixed as well), and also appears to patch the (somewhat wonky) kernel mode exploit by qwikrazor.
This would leave us with the Custom Bubbles as our last hope, since the game exploits & the kernel exploit got fixed, right? Well… It appears that Sony has fixed their (logical) flaw inside of the PS Vita’s PSPemulator, and Custom Bubbles are not working anymore. They instantaniously crash upon launching them.
Firmware 3.50 pretty much fixed everything that had been available for firmware 3.36, and it will take some time to get things back to a working state.
About the Custom Bubbles, those seem to be patched for good… It had been nice while the fun lasted, but Sony had to play fun police and fixed the Custom Bubble’s functionality.
To top it off, they also strenghtened their security in terms of being able to modify files inside of ms0:/PSP/, but those should be easily circumventable.
Source via FWUpdateBot.
First 😀
Maps was removed but youtube?
Youtube has never been a “default app”.
Sony stopped offering YT as of february, and YT ceases to work as of mid april.
Just tested the High quality(60 fps) remote play it’s smooth as heck, smoother than my own TV can show, now i can’t stop remote playing on my PS Vita. I don’t know how they made it but the game that was streamed to my PS Vita via remote play(High quality) seems to run smoother like it was below 60 fps or something while the game itself on the system is 30fps. And remote play button response is getting better and faster
Technically, the game you are playing could be a 1080p game but since the Vita screen is only capable of 544p (960×544) I guess the game could be rendering at a lower resolution in order to increase framerate. But it seems unlikely somehow. More likely the video is just downscaled from the same resolution as on your PS4, but that wouldn’t explain why it feels smoother on your Vita.
Anyway nice to hear that it works so well 🙂
button swap …NICE! I think it’s a very very helpful feature.
In my opinion this is a good idea to take note that this is a good way to test a hackers knowledge. Of course if i was one , i would tackle the challenge without question, but i don’t know anything about hacking the vita and writing code. But trust me if i did i will tackle it in a heart beat.
Well looks like I’m sticking to 3.36 for now as I’m waiting to see if the “unpatchable” exploit thing takes off soon.
ahem ahem read properly… that exploit was also patched
and also appears to patch the (somewhat wonky) kernel mode exploit by qwikrazor.
I believe they were talking about a different KME as I don’t remember the ‘unpatchable’ KME ever being announced.
Yeah the exploit hasn’t been announced yet, just strong rumors at this point.
Don’t you love when some ahole doesn’t know what are you talking about and tells you to read properly? Haha
So we shouldn’t update?
Update if you want to play online, use the PS Store, and use any other online functions. Don’t update if you don’t. Seriously, why are you asking such a pointless question…
You have a week or two to access the PS Store (and probably other online functionality) on 3.36 via Vita Update Blocker proxy, after that you’ll know enough to be able to make an informed decision.
I would seeing how there’s an “unpatchable” exploit being released soon. 😛
If Sony did what they did to their console, betraying their costumers, they should leave hackers alone to do whatever they want in terms of homebrew, at least that type of community has better support than their *** indie games (not all but many of them).
Dang some of the features look useful. I’ll have to update to 3.50 if any of my buttons ever break. What I want to know is if psgm:play? got blocked for package installer.
Remains unblocked.
Good to hear. I am more worried about hidden features disappearing than official ones.
Now I just need a decision which psvita I want to update xD . My slim lime green(16gb mc) psvita or my phat psvita (64 gbmc) :/
I’m divided into 2 worlds now, to update or not to update 🙁
I actually have 2 vitas with ARK-2 so you could say “hey, why don’t you keep one on 3.36 and update the other one” but something in me decided it was a good idea to give one to my mom so she could play all the NES/SNES mario games on it 😛
Now Google Maps is gone, later youtube. Something i saw is the update download without pick download. :/
I hope that livetweet ans playstation mobile had not touch
Are you trying to promote Germany?
Because of 2 screens with german layout? *** it …go and die! *facepalm*
So does the button mapping apply to remote play too? It doesn’t seem like it but i guess it can’t hurt to ask.
I have a PS Vita 1000 with 3.01 and 101-in-1 Megamix. I do not use it much and it is well taken care of scratches on the screen and no noticeable damage. Its been on its case since launch day I am interested in selling it if the price is interesting but I wouldn’t want the buyer to have access to my account so the buyer would have to own an exploitable game which is why the system is a hard seller. Is anyone interested, do you think being on 3.01 it has potential to sell or should I just update to 3.50?
Damn, 60fps on Remote Play is like a charm! But you have to dismiss the recording function whilst Remote Playing with high FPS, seems like the recorder hardware stuff is being used to stream it better now :3
Holy *** this is great
Ratchet and clank HD collection had awful controls (lock on was rear touchpad and really annoying to hold down)
Why doesn’t Madden 13 work anymore? It says An error has occurred {******} the system will be powered off
Hi zett, I m now 1.80, are those game that is exploitable still not being patch ? As I m confused as some website claimed the game is not being patch but instead the ofw is being patch render it useless every time ofw is upgraded. But from wololo.it seems the game is taken down, but when put back on, the game is already patch.hence render the exploit useless.any comments?