You can learn more about what you didn’t realize was wrong with your PS3 from reading these updates. Did you know the browser couldn’t play Flash videos? The system couldn’t be set to turn off automatically after a given period of inactivity? You couldn’t print to network printers? That the mini panel for music playback didn’t have a pause icon?
Neither did I. I also had no idea what “mosquito noise” was until I looked it up. Actually I knew what it was, I just called it something else. You’d know it as “fuzz” around the edges of objects in a compressed video or picture. It’s technically a subset of the sort of general artifact degradation that can occur when complex data gets dropped or misplaced during an aggressive compression process. The update adds a feature to reduce it on videos saved to the hard disk or played from other media.
Wait. Stop. Back up. What I meant to say, was the last few updates added all that stuff. Seems some sites are confused about what’s new and what isn’t. In the v2.53 update, due out tomorrow, the only change is apparently this one:
An update to the PS3™ system software was released on November 26, 2008. You can use this update to upgrade your system software to version 2.53.
New for 2.53: The Internet browser now supports full-screen mode for Adobe® Flash® Player content.* Support for Adobe® Flash® Player 9 has been added to [Internet Browser].*
* “Adobe” and “Flash” are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
Update: Looks like Sony just pulled down that text, which explains the from-the-future part. In any case, chances are good you’ll see the above update happen tomorrow, and here’s where to watch for it.