With the code for Sony's official PlayStation Portable Firmware 4.0 already decrypted, it's only a matter of time before the next custom firmware finds its way into the community. To prove this point, homebrew developer Mathieulh recently revealed some of the new features that will be added into the upcoming Custom Firmware 4.00 that Dark AleX and team M33 are already working on.
One of the new features include an in-XMB recovery mode, which will allow users to change their settings straight from the PSP's main menu screen. This is definitely beats rebooting your PSP and entering recovery mode the normal way.
The other feature is the inclusion of savestate support for UMD games. Users will now be able to save their progress at any given time during gameplay and be able to load their game at that point after restarting. It has not yet been confirmed if the savestate feature will be integrated directly into the firmware or will be released as a separate plugin.
That's all the info we have for now on Custom Firmware 4.00, but we'll be sure to post more updates as we get them.
UPDATE : Dark AleX' recent blog post has clued us all in to a tentative release date for Custom Firmware 4.00 M33, which if met under optimal conditions, will allow us to see the CFW hit the Internet download portals by the end of this week.
But the early arrival of the first 4.00 M33 comes at another condition: the development of the features promised - the in-XMB recovery and savestates - may not be fully functional or error-free.
Dark AleX says that updates would iron out the kinks in the homebrew developer's CFW, and you're likely to see those additions working with M33-2 or later.
And since the Team M33 is now picking up on the firmware that Sony fell short of, the developers are willing to go the extra mile. Now they'll be addressing issues of shell compatibility and internally induced hiccups (homebrew app crashed by homebrew app), and a built-in prx and pbp utility to boot.
