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We haven't heard much out of the PS3 homebrew scene so far, which could be due to the console's delayed popularity, or perhaps because Sony did users a solid out of the gate and included Linux. That said, there's no stopping these hardcore homebrew types when they put their minds to something, and now Dragula96, a well known PSP hacker, has supposedly found an exploit on the PS3 that let him get a little Hello World proof of concept up and running. At the moment he's not saying how he did it, but he does say the hack is working on 60GB and 40GB PS3s, running the current 2.20 firmware. Next on the agenda? Pong. Video is after the break.

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New Features:
-Album art support is now available and is compatible with the Sony PS3 as well as with the HTML interface (PSP, iPhone, Blackberry, etc.) and flash interface (Wii). Album art relies on JPEG files conforming to certain naming conventions that are present in the same folder as music tracks. These files can be created by either Windows Media Player or WinAmp and TVersity will pick them up, or users can add them manually.
-Individual YouTube videos can now be added by pointing the browser to a specific video on YouTube and dragging and dropping the address bar icon to TVersity (or copying and pasting the URL).

Bug Fixes:
-MShare now refreshes as fast as it was in 0.9.11.4.
-No files are periodically added to the Temporary Internet Files folder while the GUI is running (browser caching was turned off).
-Fix crashes when adding/refreshing some FLAC and some MP3 files.
-Flash interface is now more reliable when switching from one live stream to another and then going back to first one.
-TVersity service was failing to start on machines that had a non ASCII character in their hostname.

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If you've been stuck waiting on Sony to get its act together concerning firmware 2.40, you might not have to hang back much longer. According to ComputerAndVideoGames, reps from the console-maker say that an update to the broken, PS3-bricking system software will be headed out to users "midweek." The company hasn't made an official announcement yet, but it certainly is looking like 2.41 will become a reality sooner rather than later, which should be music to the ears of a lot of deeply annoyed gamers.

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The release of PlayStation 3 firmware 2.40 last night seems to have caused a wide number of issues for those who updated to the new release, as we reported earlier. It now appears that Sony has since pulled the newest update, reverting back to firmware 2.36 as the most recent available version. We were just prompted to download version 2.36 after having skipped the most recent pair of PS3 software updates.

This may be a temporary move to prevent more widespread reliability issues. We are awaiting confirmation on the move from Sony and will update when we hear back.

Thanks to Eddie H for the quick tip.

Update: SCEA has gotten back to us to let us know they are "looking into it."

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What's the point?

XLink Kai(info) 7.4 began a few months ago to address the following issues:
1. Internationalization – the existing Kai UI does not support many languages and character encodings.
2. Platform Independence – Linux and OS X client software is no longer feature compatible with the Windows client
3. Unified Development – numerous versions and variants of the engine and client exist creating compatibility issues and fragmented development/support.

Team XLink prides itself as a 'Global Community' of gamers. To us, this means people who speak different languages, who use different Operating Systems, and who live all over the globe should be able to connect with one another and make Team XLink their home. Our year to year userbase growth and concurrent player statistics tells us we've been making excellent strides towards our global ambitions. Still, to truly move forward with the project, we need to address infrastructure and compatibility issues so that we have a solid platform that encourages further growth. Kai 7.4 addresses these issues and provides a solid foundation for future plan that simply would not be possible with the previous versions of Kai.

So what's new?

The biggest change to Kai is somewhat invisible–the code. Kai was designed primarily as a Windows-based system with compatibility for Linux/OS X (and other *nix systems) added later through the Kaid project and numerous third-party clients. This created a rift in development where any features added to the Windows Engine and Client needed to be added to Kaid and the third-party clients needed to be updated. A small change in the Windows client required all the other clients to be updated. Updates to the Windows engine (ex: new PSP MAC addresses) required Kaid be updated. As developer interest in Kaid and the many clients waned, it has become increasingly difficult to add any new features without breaking existing compatibility for those not using Windows. To address this, Kai 7.4 uses a single codebase and non-proprietary libraries so that the same code that compiles the Windows binary also compiles under Linux, OS X, BSD, etc. This required removing all the MFC code from Kai and replacing it with platform-independent alternatives like the Boost and wxWidgets libraries. With this unified codebase, future updates and changes will be made available on all supported Operating Systems at the same time.

The most visible change found in Kai 7.4 is the Client Web UI. Instead of designing multiple User Interfaces for every supported OS and every language we decided to drawn on the strength of existing cross-platform technology: the web browser. The Kai 7.4 engine contains a small web server which serves the client to your web browser (Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer(info), etc.) and communication between the web browser and the Engine is achieved using Ajax programming. Aside from the obvious elimination of platform compatibility issues, switching to a browser-based client has some wonderful side effects:
1. Updates and additions to the client are served immediately without the need to restart the Engine.
2. The client is 'skinable' allowing users to develop and share their own customizations.
3. Kai can integrate other web technologies such as streaming audio and video.
4. Kai can be controlled using embedded systems with compatible web browsers (ex: iPhone).
5. The Kai engine can be accessed and controlled remotely via the web browser ( chat from work/school )

Another notable improvement found in Kai 7.4 is the support for uPnP routers. Most modern routers support uPnP allowing on-the-fly port mapping. When started behind a uPnP router, Kai just works–no port forwarding or router configuration required.

Lastly, all language has been stripped out of both the Engine and the Web UI Client and replaced with language templates. Currently, English and Japanese translations are available; however, support for Korean, Spanish, and many other languages are being added as translation becomes available through the community.