Although PSP has an internet browser with Flash support, one thing it hasn't been able to do natively is run YouTube videos. While free online converters have helped PSP owners out for the past few months, a new piece of homebrew software makes it possible to play YouTube videos directly on the PSP system.

The download is available from Japanese homebrew developer, SofiyaCat. The latest download can always be found here. Obviously, a homebrew-capable PSP is required to run the program. After downloading the zip, move the appropriate folder to your PSP. (For example, 3.52 M33 owners will want to copy the PSPTube folder from 200over into PSP/GAME352, with the firmware set to 3.xx kernel.)

Then, you'll have to edit the psptube.cfg file with Notepad. You'll find a lot of weird looking text and then a line that says dev_id="". You'll have to acquire a YouTube developer account and throw in an account ID there. After that, you can launch the program from your PSP. Unfortunately, we were surprised to see that the program is not compatible with encrypted wi-fi signals, so make sure you go to an open network for best compatibility. The videos will play after a small amount of buffering, and will stretch to fill the entire PSP screen. It's not the best interface for YouTube, but we're still impressed by the results. Hopefully, Sony will see that YouTube support is very possible for PSP, and will include it in a future firmware update.

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]

The PSP scene continues to develop new and exciting ways to use the PSP. Recently, a Japanese homebrew developer by the name of "SofiyaCat" has ported the Nintendo DS emulator DeSmuME to PSP. However, don't expect it to offer anything playable. Framerates are stuck in the single digits in this early, unoptimized code. We're not exactly sure if a virtual touch-screen will be offered in the future, but it appears that this is more a display of coding prowess, rather than an attempt at making something the masses can truly embrace.

We're no advocates of piracy, though. Although we're impressed by this effort, we can't say that this will render our DS systems obsolete. Besides, we have a lot of widescreen, non-touching games to play in the coming months.

[Via Joystiq]