PS Vita at E3 2012, Minor System Software Update v1.69 Incoming

Another useless update from Sony.

Why dont they just release a fix for the demo instead of a full firmware release?

Following up on their PS Vita Firmware v1.69 update, Sony has now released PlayStation Vita System Software update version 1.69.1 for those with the handheld console.

Download: http://dus01.psp2.update.playstation.net/update/psp2/image/2012_0620/rel_6075c28175518a84eb47de7e84b30eb2/PSP2UPDAT.PUP?dest=us / http://djp01.psp2.update.playstation.net/update/psp2/image/2012_0620/rel_6075c28175518a84eb47de7e84b30eb2/PSP2UPDAT.PUP?dest=jp

According to reports, the PS Vita v1.69.1 update only fixes some stability issues and problems when playing the Escape Plan demo and weighs in at 97MB in size.

To quote: "Earlier today a new firmware update for the PlayStation Vita was made available. Firmware 1.69.1 can now be downloaded via wifi, PC, or PS3 to your Vita. The update is 97MB in size and takes about 2 minutes to download, followed by a minute-long install.

Firmware 1.69.1 fixes some stability issues and problems that Vita owners have encountered when previously playing the Escape Plan demo, so that explains why the file size is so small.

Unfortunately, still no PSOne Classics support so we'll have to wait a little bit longer for that firmware. So this quick update wasn't bad at all, and I personally enjoy updating my Vita since it's so fast."

In related news PlayStation Vita hacker neur0n has https://twitter.com/neur0ner/status/220892749237469185 that VHBL worked on PS Vita Firmware 1.69.1 with a new exploit (pic.twitter.com/252lqtgL) of his.

He https://twitter.com/neur0ner/status/221105416568979456, to quote: "The exploit is no same as wololo's one. Not released yet. I'm going to talk to wololo after adjusting about it."

Finally, from wololo (via wololo.net/2012/08/16/ps-vita-debug-firmware-spotted-at-gamescom/) to quote:

Our good friends The Z and npt were at Gamescom this week, and found out that the Vita they tried had a 1.69.1 Debug firmware.

In the video below, they are showing us some of the interesting features of the Vita debug firmware.

The Debug firmware is clearly aimed at developers who work on the Vita, and offers features to efficiently test games and apps. According to the video, these features include a Package Installer (this apparently needs to run through CMA in order to copy packages), which, as the name implies, allows to install (unsigned?) packages.

The firmware also apparently offers a way to download content to the console without having to go through CMA, a feature that, honestly, even retail units should be offering.





The debug firmware also lets you choose which server to download Updates from, an option to fake a 3g network from wifi (to test 3g functionality), a possibility to fake lots of parameters (such as free disk space, etc...), options to change key bindings (in particular X and O can apparently be exchanged), a feature to change your region settings, and, did I spot a way to switch user accounts easily?

For people who are eager to actually "test" this, it is interesting to note that the Vita debug firmware seems to ship with an interesting security feature:

It requires to be activated with a new key every 90 days. This is probably to mitigate the impact of a potential leak of such a firmware, as Sony most likely don't want to see a new "convert your console into a debug unit and play games for free" situation anytime soon! It is assumed that if you fail to re-activate the console within 90 days, it will refuse to boot or to run anything.

Another interesting feature of the debug firmware is the possibility to investigate the Ram in case of a crash, with the possibility to retrieve core dumps. This is clearly aimed at game developers, but it something I'm sure lots of hackers would like to see too

So, there you go. Lots of interesting features, on a firmware that, even if leaked, will most likely refuse to run on your devices. Nevertheless, cool info in my opinion Thanks to rafael707 for the tip!



More PlayStation 3 News...

So the update just wipes out the vhbl for the present exploits and the next game, from what I have read is not available on North American PSN.

I still haven't updated my Vita past the first update. Wish I knew more coding.

I doubt we'll see aggressive updating from Sony unless the system gets completely hacked. It could certainly do with better audio/video codec support. Adding optional button controls for the menu, that would be a useful update.

Seems like VHBL is still working: wololo.net/2012/06/13/vhbl-on-1-69-check/

VHBL on 1.69? Check!

I mentioned a few days ago that we still have a few exploits available for VHBL. I decided to update to 1.69 today and see if these exploits still work, and, as you can see in the video below, they do.

In this video I am running Super Street Fighter 2 on snes9xTYL, the famous SNES emulator.

No promise yet on a release, the exploit is not mine, and I am still investigating other exploits and see if they can be ported to VHBL as well. As I explained before, even though we have lots of user exploits, not all of them are suited for a VHBL port, so unless we have several valid options I’d rather keep this one for a “big” firmware update, such as the one that should bring us PSX compatibility in a few weeks...





(yeah, I suck at gaming, stop telling me)

Stay tuned.

Forgot to mention this, that's NOT the Super Collapse 3 exploit, which you will lose if you update.