Gamespot have got a nice hands-on run-down of the new PSP ‘Slim and Lite’ features, which is well worth a read if you are thinking about buying one to compliment your old PSP ‘Fat and Heavy’.

I won’t repeat everything the reviews says here, but there a re a few key points I’ll comment on:

The system plays the exact same games, but now it has a video output port that lets you connect the PSP to an external display, such as an HDTV, for big-screen playback.

This means that you can hook up the PSP to your TV and watch your UMD movies on the big screen. This removes one of the biggest issues of the original PSP, in that UMD purchases had to be duplicated in DVD format if you wanted to watch the same film on different devices.

The system also has a simplified UMD loading tray, 32MB more system memory, lower power consumption, a smaller battery, and can now charge via USB.

The extra memory should give quicker loading times, which Gamespot tested and proved to work, sometimes with a huge improvement over the original.

We had time to test out only three games, but early results indicate that the additional system memory and UMD caching really do help speed up initial game launches, as well as subsequent level reloads.

The charging via USB is a bonus, if you regularly have your PSP hooked up to your PSP. Because I transfer content to my PSP via a card reader, this wouldn’t be of benefit to me personally, but having the option there is always nice.

Systems will be available in Piano Black, Ice Silver, and Ceramic White. They’ll come in various retail packages with a variety of bundle options that include pack-in games, UMD movies, memory sticks, and, in the case of the white PSP, a Darth Vader silk-screened battery cover.

My only surprise at this is that there are only three colours to start with, given the number of colours that Sony have rolled out for the old PSP. It may be that they will trickle out more colours at set periods of the unit life cycle.

It turns out that our new PSP actually has more background-theme color options, 28 compared to the old PSP’s 13 color options.

Having got so used to being able to customise the look of my PSP with various different XMB icons sets and wallpapers, the increase in standard background theme colours isn’t going to win a huge number of accolades, I’m afraid.

I suggest you pop over to Gamespot and check out the full review, along with a number of photos of the new PSP ‘Slim and Lite’.

It looks like the PSP homebrew scene has lost another one of the greats today – Fanjita, of Noobz.eu fame, and part of the C+D team, has decided to call it a day.

It’s with much regret that I have to announce that I’m going to retire from the sharp end of the PSP homebrew scene. The betrayal of trust that preceded the Pandora release was extremely hurtful, and has left me unable to fully trust the people I’d previously enjoyed working so hard with. And so, I have had to decide to stop working on projects that require that level of trust.

Besides that, life continues to be very busy in the run up to fatherhood, and there are various non-PSP projects that I’d like to play with. Not to mention the fact that I’m tired of the continual pressure and idiocy of the PSP scene – long gone are the fun days of pioneering amongst like minds, in a mutually supportive and gentlemanly environment.

The Pandora Battery therefore marks my last major PSP project. I expect that Team C+D and Noobz will continue to release stuff without me, and I still hope to finish up some of the non-exploit projects that I’d been working on (Installotron, piKey etc.).

It was a fun ride while it lasted.

While its sad to see anyone leave the PSP scene, especially someone who has contributed so much to the development of software that enables so many to enjoy homebrew, I can fully understand Fanjita’s desire to step away from the politics of the homebrew scene.

The events surrounding the Pandora release, and what went on behind the scenes prior to the release of that hack are best left to those involved, but suffice to say that the days of trust seem to have gone for good.

I wish Fanjita the best in whatever he chooses to do, and hope he enjoys fatherhood as much as I do!

Sony have announced a new PSP service, called ‘Go! Entertainment’ that will become available to PSP owners sometime in January 2008, when it rolls out a new firmware version for the device.

The ‘Go! Entertainment’ service will allow PSP owners to use an Instant Messenger service via wi-fi. Developed in conjunction with BT, its reported that the PSP will get a new onscreen keyboard to allow text to be entered quickly (got to be better than the current text entry mechanism), and even a report that the PSP will get a new headset, allowing the PSP to be turned into a Skype style phone device.

On top of this, if you’ve got the PSP Camera, you can use this to send video messages.

‘Go! Explore’ is the branding given to a new GPS based service, which brings navigation to the PSP ala Tom-Tom or similar. The ‘Go! Explore’ package will also include a car kit, allowing the device to be mounted in the car.

There is also going to be a streaming video service as well, announced sometime ago, in association with BSkyB. This should be available first quarter 2008.

All these are announced with a European release in mind, no word as to whether it will spread to the States.