By Eli Green
Apr 2, 2009 - 19:00
Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) announced the details for the upcoming Playstation 3 system update today. The Playstation 3 system software version 2.70, available for download soon, will deliver a new Text Chat feature which will allow Playstation 3 users to chat with their online Playstation Network friends. To help this out, SCEA is adding in enhancements to the Friends list in the XrossMediaBar (XMB), including the ability to sort friends by their online status. There will also be improvements to the Playstation Store's video delivery service.
The new Text Chat feature will let Playstation 3 users chat with their friends through three different means – the Wireless Keypad, the on-screen keyboard, or compatible keyboard peripherals. The new feature includes the ability to participate in up to three chat rooms at once, with up to 15 friends in each room. The Text Chat feature will also be accessible while playing Playstation 3 games (likely means that it will not work with Playstation 2 games).
The new Friends list features will now allow users to sort their friends by online status, likely to help sort the chat possibilities. Online friends will still be sorted in alphabetical order, while offline friends will be sorted by when they were last online, with the most recent being first. You'll now also be able to attach larger files to messages – the file size limit will be increase from 1MB to 3MB upon update.
Finally, the previously mentioned improvements to the Playstation Store's video delivery service will now allow users to transfer video files purchased from the Playstation Store to an external storage device for backup. They will then be able to restore the video files to the Playstation 3's internal hard drive for playback. Also, videos purchased for PSP also transferable to Playstation 3 for playback. Full details on how to update to system software version 2.70 are available at the American Playstation site.
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