The biggest flaws of the PSP-2000's USB charging feature is the inability to use the system whilst charging. Well, that's no longer a problem with a new homebrew plug-in from N00bz. The PSP Slim USB Charger plug-in will allow you to charge the battery AND use the system at the same time -- an obvious feature for the system to support. There are a few questions on whether or not USB can deliver enough voltage to make that possible, but user comments on N00bz's website seem rather glowing. Yet another great product from the homebrew scene. Hopefully, we'll see this feature find its way into official firmware before long.

For homebrew enthusiasts with TA-082 or newer motherboards, who have a patched idstorage key and cannot upgrade their 3.11 firmware to 3.50 to use the 3.50 downgrader, and don't have access to Pandora's Battery, team N00bz has a solution for your extremely specific problem.

Their new 3.11 downgrader will let you go down to firmware 1.50, at which point you could then do lots of homebrew goodness. You will need a copy of Lumines to pull off the downgrade. Detailed instructions can be found here. As usual, we must warn you that there is a risk of bricking your PSP, so use at your own risk.

The fine folks at N00bz have crafted yet another ingenious work of homebrew. This time, it's a program that can recover lost, "bricked" PSP systems from the void -- an unbricker called "Pandora's Battery." According to N00bz, "It's the culmination of years of behind-the-scenes research and development by some of the top names in PSP hacking, under the name of the Prometheus project."

It appears that the Prometheus project has the top names in the PSP scene: Adrahil, Booster, Cswindle, Dark_AleX, Ditlew, Fanjita, Joek2100, Jim, Mathieulh, Nem, Psp250, Skylark, TyRaNiD. The release of Pandora's battery was supposed to come later, around the time of PSP-2000's launch. However, it appeared that the program was leaked early, and being sold for profit, something that irked the team greatly. "In order to prevent small fortunes being made by leeches, we are giving this unbricker away for free."

Make sure to follow the instructions included with the package carefully. Once you successfully run this unbricker, you'll have a PSP with firmware 1.50 which is ideal for homebrew.

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]

Much to the dismay of Sony, it appears that the homebrew community has finally created a downgrader for firmware 3.50. With almost any copy of Lumines, PSP owners will be able to have their systems revert back to an older firmware. Visit N00bz for the complete directions, but make note of one of the requirements: "Sufficient intelligence and English language skills to be able to carefully and throroughly read the instructions."

Downgrading a system CAN BE RISKY, and MAY CAUSE YOUR SYSTEM TO BE INOPERABLE (or "bricked"). Also, you will be voiding your system's warranty by using this hack. If you're willing to take the plunge, feel free. Once you get to 1.50, we highly recommend that you install one of Dark_Alex's custom firmware packages, to ensure compatibility with current game titles.

[Thanks, ben!]

A public message announcement from the PSP Fanboy team: Stop asking if you can downgrade your system. Currently, downgraders only work for PSPs with firmware 2.80 or below. Constantly leaving comments about downgrading from 3.03 will not get responses.

So, what are you supposed to do then? N00bz, "homebrew without a clue," answers some of your burning questions. They note a few key points: there is a "kernel mode exploit" in all PSPs, up to version 3.03, that seems to be unchanged. Once a "user-mode exploit" can be found, it will be theoretically possible to run homebrew on all PSPs--even downgraders should work.

But when will this happen? Who knows. Certainly, there are hard-working homebrew coders trying to find exploits in all of Sony's latest. However, N00bz recommends that if you're ever serious about switching over to homebrew, you should stop upgrading your PSP altogether. 3.04 or whatever future firmware upgrade Sony releases will most likely address these exploits; and it should be much easier to run exploits on 2.81 versus 3.03. There's no guide as to when the homebrew community will release something, but we advise you: please be patient. Personally, I'll keep upgrading to Sony's official firmware because I actually like playing legal games.

[Update 1: Looks like I offended a few of you with my overly bitter comment. I'd like to apologize to those of you that do actually use your homebrew PSPs in a legit manner. As an acknowledgement of the harsh tone I took, I will not delete the comment. Sorry to those that were offended: you are clearly upstanding in an industry where many people take game developers for granted.]

Some people are wary that the use of downgraders will leave their systems essentially useless, or "bricked" as they say. The process isn't the simplest to follow, and copying over system files is always a dangerous thing. However, the homebrew team at N00bz have created the "safest" downgrader yet. It has built-in security checks, support for TA-082 and TA-086 motherboards, and includes most every file you'll need to revert your 2.80 PSP down to PSP 1.50.

This doesn't mean that it's 100% fool-proof, as the warning attached to the downgrader states. However, there's also a new alternative: by downloading and installing HEN-D to a PSP version 2.80, you'll be able to launch a good deal of homebrew without having to downgrade at all.

[Thanks, Rajat Jain!]