[quote=Xbox.com] Redmond , Washington —Your Xbox Live® friends list is about to get a whole lot bigger. Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Windows Live™ Messenger on Xbox 360™, connecting friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft® Windows®-based PCs and Windows Mobile®-powered devices.  

With this update to Xbox 360, friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts.

Beginning the week of May 7, 2007, the Xbox 360 Spring Update will provide Xbox 360 owners worldwide with access to Windows Live Messenger features, broadening the communication options on the Xbox Live social network.  Connected Experiences
Members of the six-million-strong Xbox Live community currently send more than two million text and voice messages a day and can now use Windows Live Messenger to text chat with up to six people on their contact list at one time, while playing games, listening to music, or watching movies. Text chat adds to the variety of options friends and families already have to communicate with on Xbox Live, including voice and video chat.   Current relationships on Windows Live Messenger and Xbox Live will be unified on Xbox 360 and users will see at a glance if their existing friends on Windows Live Messenger have gamertags, instantly expanding the breadth of connected experiences they can share online.

"Bringing the largest IM community in the world, Windows Live Messenger, to Xbox 360 makes sense, as Xbox Live has really become the largest social network on television," said Jerry Johnson, product unit manager of Xbox Live at Microsoft. "For our growing community of six million on Xbox Live, using Xbox 360 is a very social, connected experience. They are using Xbox 360 to play games, music, and movies while simultaneously communicating with one another through video, voice, and text chat. With this announcement wee are simultaneously expanding the access of Xbox Live users to existing friends and family while introducing Windows Live Messenger users to the benefits of Xbox 360."

Beginning the week of May 7, users of Windows Live Messenger on Xbox 360 can text chat using the virtual keyboard accessible on Xbox 360, or by connecting a USB keyboard to the console. This summer Microsoft will launch a QWERTY text-input device, a new accessory that will connect directly into the Xbox 360 controller to support text and instant messaging.

**********************************Other New Features*****************************************************
Beyond Windows Live Messenger, the Spring Update for Xbox 360 includes hundreds of new features and enhancements including:

    * A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.
    * Enhanced family settings features for Xbox Live communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
    * A new Xbox Live Marketplace blade lets Xbox Live members access the content they seek—whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States)—from one place on Xbox Live.
    * Updates to Xbox Live Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox Live Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox Live members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded "Tell a Friend" capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
    * Expanded "Tell a Friend" capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
    * A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox Live Arcade games.
    * New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace.
    * Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

The Spring Update is free beginning the week of May 7 and will be easily accessible to every Xbox 360 owner through Xbox Live or on Xbox.com.

You may not even notice all the new features, but they are all designed to enhance your Xbox Live experience. Some of the other features in this upgrade include:

    * The name of game in tray is now displayed in the dashboard.
    * When the tray icon is highlighted, a list of achievements, game icon and gamerscore for that game is displayed.
    * Playback progress bar indicates download completion.
    * Improved skip forward, skip back functionality during video playback.
    * Switchable aspect ratio now available during video playback (Auto to Letterbox, Zoom, Stretch, Native).
    * Player and friends lists now quickly show session presence information for quick identification of users that are joinable.
    * Support for streaming WM-DRM protected content from a PC
    * Folder view for video content on connected devices
    * H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
    * Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
    * Show folder hierarchy for video content played from all devices.
    * Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays remembering the users last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio that the user choose for that file.
    * Video trick modes (fast forward, rewind, chapter skip) can now be used while downloading Video Marketplace content.
    * Skip forward and backward functionality has been improved to skip to the next or previous chapter. Each video is divided into 10 “chapters

MikeMax Wrote:Hello guys !

This is the first beta release of my car's 3D engine ... there's no goal actually ... just drive and go go go !  :)  

Sound doesn't render as well as I would like it due to missing sound engine steps (need some good and complete car engine's audio samples)...

Screenshots :












I'm also looking for anyone with 3D modeling knowledges and experience (for modeling and texturing cars,buildings,objects ... etc ...) . This car is a free resource I'm using to test my 3D Engine .  Please PM me if you're the one I'm looking for ! :)

Download the Car Demo here. (edit : link updated)
Simply unpacked the zip archive to your MSROOT (FW1.50) (will unpacked into /PSP/GAME automatically).
For 3.xxOE, next, move the Vertex Origin directories into /PSP/GAME150 (only if your OE kernel configured to 3.XX).

Commands :

• Cross : Accelerate
  
• Square : Breaks
  
• Digital Pad : LEFT/RIGHT to turn, DOWN for reverse.
  
• Analog Pad : Move camera
  
• Circle : Display wireframes
  
• SELECT : Switch beetween two camero modes : "Free" mode and "follows car" mode.
  
• L/R : Zoom

That's all !

MikeMax,
Vertex Origin Team.

- Source: [Maxconsole Forums]

:dl: Download link

Benjami Wrote:

Last year i introduced custom demos, my first pack came out on the PSU Forums, the second was released on PSU,The Dutch Yourpsp Forums and PSPDemocenter, and now, with the 3d one, it was time to introduce it on QJ

For the first time on QJ i will host My Ultimate PSP Demo Pack!, version 3 is the latest, if you never heard of the pack before, here a little description: The Ultimate demo pack contains the latest demos for your psp, they are not only hex edited for 2.8 and higher but they are edited in many other ways too, when you are selecting (on the xmb) a  couple original demos from sony, mostly you only see a boring icon with the demo name next to it, what i do, make a nice background, add music, and if i can find one, i put the moving icon in it too, that looks much better!!

Download pack 3(22 demos) here: http://files.filefront.com//;7179089;/

See the video(it shows how the demos are edited and if you didnt really understand the description this video will clear things up): Source: YouTube

- Source: [QJ Forums]

Quote:
Flaming and penguins appear to be the order of this application wee picked up earlier, appropriately named Who is on Fire? v0.2. This Lua-coded homebrew game is a three-man effort by coders Guyver2, Yan2Yan, and Genevese over at the Xtreamlua site.

The object of the game is for players to rescue penguins trapped in a burning building. Players will also need to douse the fires with water to let the penguins pop out of the windows - the player then places a ladder on the window to bring them down. The game currently carries one level with 20 birds to rescue, with graphics being done by Genevois. The background music may also be changed in later updates - keep alert in case a new version is released. As for game controls:

• L/R buttons: Shoot water
  
• Analog joystick: Aim water
  
• Triangle: Move ladder up
  
• X: Move ladder down
  
• Square: Move ladder left
  
• Circle: Move ladder right
  
• Select: Screenshot
  
• Start: Pause menu
  
• In the Pause menu:
  • X: Resume game
    
  • Triangle: Return to Start menu

There are two files available for download: One is for PSPs running on fw 1.5, the other for PSPs running on SE and OE firmwares. To install Who is on Fire? v0.2, download the appropriate bundle according to your PSP's firmware version. Unzip the bundle, and load the two files found in the GAME folder into your PSP's corresponding GAME folder. Enjoy the game.

:dl: Download 1.50 version | OE version
- Source: [QJ]

Don't ask me what the difference between the two packages are.  I guess one's KXploit'd and the other isn't

Mexico City looking into citywide WiFi

Mexico has already dipped its feet into the wide world of expansive internet access before, but now Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is looking into hooking the 8.7 million residents of Mexico City up with citywide WiFi. The plan seems to focus on connecting "schools, government offices, and the city's thousands of surveillance cameras," but wide open wireless internet would certainly elicit smiles from anyone actually able to take advantage of it. Interestingly, it was said that the city government is "giving this project the highest priority," which presumably means that the backlog of free Xbox consoles must be runnin' thin. No word just yet on when the city can look forward to unlimited WiFi, but considering that Mr. Ebrard just signed an agreement with China's ZTE to get things moving, wee'd say things are well on their way.

- Source: [Engadget]

Damn, I wish they had it here - WiFi across the whole city...

Probably won't interest many people, but meh, if you wanted to know the status of the "dead" JISO format, here's probably the final update:

Uncle Jam Wrote:Hi guys

This is my latest and probably last release of my JSO & DAX plugin for Devhook. I don't know if it's of any help for anybody, if anybody but me still uses Devhook. Anyway, for those who do, you might want an alternative to CSO file format, for better compression and/or better speed. This is what my plugin offers. No plan for 3.XX OE FW plugin but, hey guys, the source code is included so help yourself :p .

This is an extract of the README.txt file you will find in the archive.

Install Instructions
====================

Environment
-----------

The plugin works for Devhook 0.46 and 0.52 on a PSP firmware version 1.5.

No support for modded versions of Devhook.
No support for OE firmware versions (as I have no way to test).

Devhook 0.46 and/or 0.52 are assumed already installed.

Instructions
------------

In this archive, you will find the following folder structure

full/

umdciso.prx (Full version with ISO/CSO/DAX/JSO file support, memory footprint about 46 kbytes)
dax/

umdciso.prx (DAX version with ISO/CSO/DAX file support, JSO file support removed, memory footprint about 36 kbytes)
jso/

umdciso.prx (JSO version with ISO/CSO/JSO file support, DAX file support removed, memory footprint about 15 kbytes)
pc/

jiso.exe Compression/Decompression utility executable for Windows.

Devhook 0.46 :

Drop the binary file umdciso.prx in [MS-ROOT]/dh/kd and replace the existing one.

Devhook 0.52 :

Drop the binary file umdciso.prx in [MS-ROOT]/dh/05/kd and replace the existing one.

Usage Instructions
==================

Usage: jiso.exe -c|d [-s] [-a algorithm] [-b size] [-l level] [-t threshold] -i inputfile -o outputfile

  -a algorithm : Compression algorithm (lzo, zlib), default is zlib
  -b size      : Block size (2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768), default is 8192
  -c|d         : Compress | Decompress
  -h           : This help page
  -i inputfile
  -l level     : Compress level (1=fast/large - 9=small/slow), default is 9
  -o outputfile
  -s           : Simulation mode enabled
  -t threshold : Compress threshold (0.0 - 1.0), default is 1.0
  -v           : Show version
  -B           : Block header mode enabled
  -C           : Compression threshold NC area
  -N           : NC area minimum size, default is 2048 kbytes
  -S           : Sound files NC area
  -V           : Video files NC area

General information
===================

JSO & DAX plugin for Devhook is a plugin for Devhook version 0.46 and 0.52 to support DAX and JSO file formats in addition to ISO and CSO file formats.

DAX is a former file format introduced by Dark_Alex in DaxZiso loader.

JSO is a new file format introduced by myself with the following features :
- support of both lzo and zlib compression, lzo is a bit faster than zlib for decomppression but files are about 10% bigger
- support of frame size of 2048 bytes (like CISO), to 32768 bytes for better compression
- support of DAX-like NC areas
- memory footprint is around 15 kbyte

Source code included based on Devhook 0.46 by Booster.

/pctool/jiso

Contains the source code for jiso compressor utility.
/umdciso

Contains the source code for the jiso & dax plugin. Edit makefile to enable/disable JSO/DAX/CSO support. All formats enabled by default.

- Source: [Maxconsole Forums]

:dl: Download (note you must be a member of Maxconsole to download from that link; I am unable to upload the file due to my connection)

Dark_AleX (translated) Wrote:Good I happen to me this way, because they have commented to me that is saying that the 3,30 OE will have a great newness, and now I to me find out xD.

The 3,30 OE in principle will not have any newness except for the fact of being 3.30. It will even take a time by problems mine of hardware.
Right now the priority for the future is to change of radical form OE Core, to eliminate the instability of its programming (that specially note from 3,10) and to gain something but of ram.
But this probably will take enough versions in being finished by the complex of the process.

- Source: [ElOtroLado (translated with Google translator)]

some kid from absolutegadget.com Wrote:While wee are waiting for the PSP2 to come out, Sony, in a bid to compete with Nintendo's wildly successful DS and Gameboy handheld games consoles, is to cut the price of the PSP by $30 to $170.

It's the first time that the company has lowered the price of the console since its debut in March 2005. According to reports in USA Today, game developers and financial analysts have been urging Sony to cut prices for some time.

The price cut happens two months after Sony posted pretty bad losses of $443m, because of the costs of launching the PS3.

But the PSP will still cost more than the DS, which is available in some US stores for around £130. And the DS continues to outsell every other handheld in the country in February.

The company has also cut the price of the PSP Entertainment pack by 20 per cent to $200. It would be nice to see some cuts in the PSP in Europe but there is no word from Sony on this, sadly!

that sounds nice for sure psp sales should rise a bit :)
you can read the source page here