Playstation Firmware v3.40 Available Now; Playstation Plus Today

I do not get to play as often as I'd like.

I never knew the days of yore when the Playstation Firmware was updated on a, what seemed like, at least bi-weekly basis. Now it seems to happen on a bi-monthly basis and the update process is quicker - no one is complaining.

The main highlights of firmware 3.40 are Playstation Plus, a five-star rating system and a photo and video uploader (to Facebook and YouTube). Other features are a photo gallery where you can look at your Picasa and Facebook photo albums (again you can upload to both of these services as well) and a new power save functionality that sets your consoles default inactivity shut-down at 2 hours.

So yeah, nothing that exciting but coming along with this update is a more robust Playstation Facebook app. It allows you to add friends to your friends list that are on Facebook and vice versa. One step closer to social networking domination.

Playstation Plus coming June 29th

You can stop holding your breath the Playstation Network still holds its roots in the free realm. Playstation Plus is like something that you can stack on top of the Playstation Network to make it the service that it was always meant to be. Again, this is not saying that your PSN experience will not be everything it once was, this is saying that those willing to pay will be greatly rewarded.

With a pay service comes a hefty amount of exclusive offers and features. Here is what Playstation Plus has to offer:

• discounts on randomly selected DLC (much like Microsoft's Deal of the Week)
• free DLC (that cost's money for non-subscribers)
• exclusive early access to demos and betas
• the digital Qore magazine - free
• free full game trials for any game up to one hour before you have to make a purchasing decision
• auto downloading (which downloads patches, select demos and game videos, etc. all without ever having to think about it

To me it seems as though Playstation's service is worth the asking price because it brings a lot of the oft requested features (that Xbox already has). Perhaps cross game invites and party chat will become Playstation Plus features, should they ever come down the pipe.

Playstation Plus is 50 dollars a year and if you purchase a subscription at the outset you get 15 months for the same price. Seperate three month packs are available for 18 dollars.