I have homebrew on my psp, and an snes emulator, and I can download any playstation game and play it (thanks to the psx emulator sony already has on the psp, it was just hacked to play all playstation games). I do know where I could download new psp games, and I could under stand that being a problem. But realy for super nintendo, or playstation games, if you go and buy the acual system and games, game companies and developers arent seeing that money. The only person seeing that money is gamestop, or the guy on ebay. The new psp games that are still in stores I can understand, but come on 10 year old games? let it go.

notwhoyouthink

Dear Mr. Dan Nosowitz,

I am sure that as a member of the gizmodo team you are REQUIRED to be unfairly biased towards apple, and at times, even required to have sexual intercourse with certain apple products.

Being a reader who is not biased, I would like to point out that Sony had a much more valid reason to update their psp firmware in an effort to curve piracy. Apple on the other hand, a company notorious for their closed up naziism was simply trying to stop homebrewers. To me sir, the unbiased reader; that seems like much more evil to me.

Gizmodo staff = shameless apple fan fags.

takn

@cipotefello: Your iPod has a cartoon apple on it. There's your money's worth right there.

OMG! Ponies!

windows 2000 SP4. Damn near bricked my compy when it came out. I still run on SP3 for my win2k box.

Darascon

Microsoft didn't quite make it that easy, they made it harder from version 1.5 and up, Though I'm surprised you didn't mention iPod linux being blocked, or toshibas bios updates making it impossible to run linux, microsoft's slipups wth a dashboard update that would brick your xbox if you didn't get the previous update, or even nintendo trying to stop the twilight hack, or firmware updates making dvd drive hacking on consoles impossible, and significantly slowing down dvd-rom playback to make ripping slower on PCs.

njgtechguy

My touch just crashed PLAYING MUSIC. Are you serious apple? The fuck happened to paying premium for better software? Im on 2.0.1. btw.

cipotefello

the worst was by far the apple 1.1.1 update
they bricked so many iphones and it took a while before apps were back on the iphone

jozen

"while the update did work for some, it bricked a lot of PS3s"

i'm no fanboy but at the same time i'll only accept words like "small" "medium" or "high" when actual numbers have been quoted. for all i know, 3 ps3s were bricked by the update. now if you want to call that high since there should have been no bricked ps3s, i'll accept that. but to just pull a judgement? the deeper question here is does gizmodo know roughly how many were bricked?

also...i bought a samgsung yp something or other (why cant they just give them names) a while back. great little mp3 player, but it had the worst software in the world for putting music onto the machine itself. you could only put one song on at a time and you couldnt do anything else while the software was transferring music.

the psp is probably the worst culprit ever for this stuff. Its great that people have managed to get their way around the blocks and have created some very interesting software for it. I find it especially interesting/neat/cool that people have actually managed to turn the psp into what is really a low end computer.

however there will always be guys like me who, despite the fact that if i follow the instructions correctly it will probably work, are just too afraid of bricking their 250 dollar investment. If sony had made their machine open to the the general public to do whatever they please, they would not only have much happier customers (aka me) but they would have a much more successful product

yes i know there are arguments back and forth for this...i'm just putting in my 2 cents (and yes, that is a cop out)

jrghoull

Is it just me or were the updates for iPhone and the PSP basically the same...only Apple's transgression is rated as middle and Sony's as high?

To be honest, the PSP was more for self-preservation, IMO, than Apple's...I mean, Sony was trying to stop game piracy and homebrew got caught in the crossfire, while Apple was trying to stop homebrew...

More evil, in my eyes...then again, I'm not iPhone-biased =\

HenryRayker

When Apple released the iPhone (1.0.0), it was easily jailbroken. Then the 1.0.1, 1.0.2 and 1.0.3 updates came out, but they didn't touch the SFTP server nor the jailbreak "gate". That was the last time I remember Apple not being a faceless corporation. Short time after those updates, Apple released the 1.1.1 update that put a lot of iPhones in the baseband graveyard, so forth Apple's being playing the "mouse and cat" game, the same way Sony is doing with their loyal homebrew community.

Dennis Raver

My wife sansa c200 would corrupt all of the songs on it with the firmware updates. we had to delete everything, reformat the microsd card and start over everytime a new firmware update hit. Needless to say it only took twice to completely remove sandisk updater from that computer.

jeepingeek

I usually wait 2 weeks (if not more) to install any updates on my computer. I'd rather let everyone else be the beta tester first.

Zarian

i dont care about updates, now that i finally have an app that tells everyone how wealthy I am... i am staring at my red jewel screen as we speak...

...

Braff

Not to come across as too in favor of Mister Softee, but you left off the greatest hack of all-time - the cracking of the iPod to allow make it Windows-compatible. The iPod was originally Mac-only and part of the foundation of the (failed) Apple "Switch" campaign. The thinking was that people would see how easy it was to use an iPod from a friend, want to buy one, and then plunk down the money for the iMac to go with it.

The problem was that the iPod was already significantly more expensive than the other PMPs on the market and adding $1200 to the price tag was just plain petarded. So Apple relented an released official Windows compatibility.

Microsoft, on the other hand, had it right with the XBOX. People were modding their XBOXes and Microsoft, seeing this, said "Hey, you paid for it. It's yours. Just don't come crying to us if you break something".

The "It's yours" philosophy is usually the best route.

OMG! Ponies!

Just wait until our bionic augmentations of the future are given firmware updates over the global network. People will be flailing limbs and maiming old folks involuntarily. Yippee...

Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans

@OMG! Ponies!: I think you'll find that their actual reaction was "Fine, but if you even think about putting it on our network, well ban you for life."

Dunny0, Highlander with a Tuba

Dear Shameless Apple Fan Fag Mr. Dan Nosowitz,

niiiiiiiice

Sincerely,
Anonymous

parliamentpoet

Yeah, at work I had a mandatory firmware update for my Thinkpad. It was early, I was just reading giz, why not let it run, eh?

Well, apparently I missed the warning saying not to run it while on an external monitor. BSOD, no booting at all, and according to the tech guy it NUKED my system board. What? Is that even possible?

Ironic thing was that it was an update to address BSOD issues in this model. If it ain't broke, don't fix it...

zimzombie

@Dan Nosowitz: As a fellow person that has not suckled the Kool-Aid from Jobs's teat, could you answer why Gizmodo seems to be ignoring that Apple is locking phones again with 2.0.1?

BanMeAgainBrianLam

@atrus123: I don't have anything against my PS3. It does a very good job of playing Blu-Ray movies and has a great upscaler built in. I'm also amazed that the user-upgradeable hard drive is still a feature.

Unfortunately, it lacks the robust online play of the XBox which is usually a deal breaker when I'm choosing which version.

OMG! Ponies!

@takn: "...required to have sexual intercourse with certain apple products."

That's hilarious!

kalenoble

@Sora57: *heroine. Sorry. Too much heroin.

Sora57

I chose to update my iPhone to 2.0.1 instead of jail breaking it. No improved stability, I just can't pown it. Thanks, Steve.

beardedkid

@Dan Nosowitz: "Firmware updates should... not be a license to shove an unfinished product out the door." Excellent thought!

BTW, The PSP Firmware updates were mostly to block pirating, but the iPod update was simply to block homebrew. Correcting your post should be easy, but you'd also have to change your graphic of the evil PSP chasing down our herione in distress. I don't see that happening. Oh well...

:/

Sora57

Damn, now I feel stupid for updating my sons PSP. Same with my iPhone at 2.0.1

xcharliemx

There was an Apple upgrade on the G3 mac that prevented upgraded G4 CPUS from working - I'd have to say that was pretty nasty.

notfred

Pretty easy to tell sometimes that there's very little Sony PS3/PSP love among Gizmodo staff. As has already been stated, Sony locks the PSP and Apple locks the iPhone, and for some reason, Sony ends up more evil. I mean, the last several PS3 specific posts I've seen on Gizmodo have all been negative. Getting tired of it.

atrus123

@Dan Nosowitz:
U
R
A
HERO!!!
KUDOS
TO
U

Ariel_Wollinger

@takn:

OFF TOPIC.

I once saw in Dallas Fort Worth Airport, a guy with a Dell laptop with an Apple logo over Dell's. WTF??

Ariel_Wollinger

Dear Mr. Takn,

I am one of a whopping three people on the Giz staff who doesn't use a Mac, and am the only one to own exactly zero Apple products. Did you not notice how I referred to Apple as the White Devil?

Sincerely,

Shameless Apple Fan Fag

Dan Nosowitz

@takn: AGREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!

Ariel_Wollinger

@notwhoyouthink: agreed!

Ariel_Wollinger

And Sony did know better. Anyone who's PS3 was bricked, Sony was willing to replace them for free. Didn't they.

FIRST!!!

You really ought to encourage the people that embrace the new updates as soon as possible... They're the ones that find the bugs so we careful types don't have to!

keronian

I lold @ moon octopus. In my cubicle. :( For shame.

Substance_D

if a motherboard isnt dual bios then i try to avoid it as much as possible.

urbanturban666

Yeah, throw me in with the "How are PSP updates worse than iPhone updates?" crowd. PSP updates are, as you glossed over, ostensibly to curb piracy. As you mentioned, homebrew got caught up in that -- since it relies on the same firmwares that make piracy both possible and easy. Apple updates were ostensibly to curb unlocking, which isn't quite the same as piracy. Homebrew got caught up because it relied on the same hacks as unlocking.

Which is less evil, killing homebrew to stop (illegal) piracy or killing homebrew to stop (legal) phone unlocking? I'd like to see an actual defense that the former is "more evil" than the latter, rather than a few glib lines about "harshing buzzes" versus "self-preservation and circumstance".

Scoops

I don't get it? When you start messing around with firmware, especially to add features that delve significantly deep into the core operating system of the device, it's inevitable that sooner or later there will be a problem. I don't see the mention of all the firmware updates that go perfectly smoothly and do exactly what they say they do?

What's the proposed solution here? Revert to the old days where what you get is what you get and if you want additional features you can wait for the next model and buy that? SOMEONE has to be the guinea pig for new firmware...

And it's not like they don't try to get these things bug free the first try (and succeed for the most part). You think Sony WANTS to be fixing machines that were bricked by a firmware update? Clearly not. They take on that risk to offer us new features that we've requested.

A better story might be to find out how well these companies are handling those who actually did have a (legitimate) problem with a firmware upgrade, and maybe go one step further and ask everyone if they would still upgrade to get new features if they knew there was a risk of having problems.

pj_rage

"Degree of Evilness: Nintendo can do no wrong. (And Steve Jobs is perfect.)"

Indeed. Just the other day, I had my MacBook spookily close to my brothers Wii, and an eerie wind swept upon us, making us realize how they looked quite like eachother.
Not to mention his DS sitting atop my MacBooks lid... *BRRR*

Eruanno

well Sony had a valid reason for the psp updates based on the market that they designed it for. They designed and marketed the PSP as a console.

If they had simply marketed it as a powerful handheld (a la clie, which it shares more than you might think with), then firmware updates would have been irrelevant.

what is going on with the iphone is simple stifling of innovation, contrary to design and marketing. There is no real justifiable reason other than the walled garden for what they are doing. Also since they do not sell actual games products (in any real way) then comparing the iphone methods to the psp methods are quite disparate. For instance, Verizon updates their servers but it has to be pulled from their client phones. on an as needed basis. Smartphones can get updates (from windows or palm depending on flavor) but rarely do they actually disable certain features. occasionally they enable certain things, or stabilize others.

x40sw0n

It gives me a raging hard-on every time I hear about Apple getting humiliated, embarrassed, fumbling, making a huge marketing mistake, losing stock value, or pissing off a large number of people. I especially hope that Steve Jobs eventually gets his own pie-in-the-face moment someday.

I think the biggest reason Sony was so angry about the Homebrew situation with the PSP was that Sony was selling these marvelous little systems at a loss (or close to it) and were counting on the people buying it to also purchase several overpriced and laughably shitty games to go with it (isn't that called tie-in or something? Help me out.) Sony had the same plan with the PS3 and now both systems are at the bottom of the heap.

I have never seen more mundanes buy a system and mod it than with the PSP. Random people I talked to at work, friends of friends, at swap-meets, they've all either used custom firmware at somepoint, or had heard of it and were planning to. I'm pretty sure that at least 65% of all PSP owners over 16 are at least in some way aware of the Homebrew community. That says a lot. It means a lot of people are buying the PSP so they can play old SNES games on it. And I think, secretly, Nintendo execs find this very amusing.

markarian

@takn:

Dear Takn:

You just got yourself banned. Bet your ignorant ass will never guess which part of your offensive e-mail triggered the hammer.

W

Wilson Rothman

@pj_rage: But what if you have a robust community of hobbyists who, by and large, know what they're doing. Linux and other open-source software is evidence of "the wisdom of crowds".

Sony and Apple take issue with homebrew because they want to "monetize" the "revenue stream". The App Store is a revenue stream; why give it away if you can sell it?

OMG! Ponies!

@markarian: There is nothing (ok, almost nothing) on this site that gives me even a mellow, serene hard-on. But I'm happy for your ability to avoid the blue pill solution just by reading Giz.

@Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans: Got the best comment out early this time. Oh, one thing: "maiming old folks involuntarily" - as distinguished from now, when maim them voluntarily? I mean, I'm OK with that if that's what you're into....

My story was a good news/bad news/good news thing:

Good News: Acer laptop BIOS Update! Whoo Hoo! I applied it...
Bad News: Bricked my laptop. Called Acer support - guy actually said "What did you do that for????" which I thought was hysterical.
More Bad News: Bricked laptop out of warranty by two filkin' weeks!
Good News: Acer fixed it anyway, along with some minor things like the hinge was a little sticky - under warranty.

They made a fan for life, that fateful day...

ps61318

@OMG! Ponies!: Right. These companies are trying to make money. I really can't see how you can complain when a completely unsupported and frowned upon feature that you've hacked a device to achieve is broken due to a firmware update?

They aren't (purposely) selling you a platform on which you can do whatever you wish. They are selling you a device with a specific purpose that fills a specific need. If they find a way to make more money on said device, of course they'll take it.

The only time anyone is entitled to complain about a firmware update breaking anything is when the feature it broke was an advertised one. IMO, companies have every right to kill "features" that have become "features" through hacking and otherwise unsupported activities if they believe it to be in their best interest.

Does it suck for those of us who want these extra "features?" Yup, it sure does. I just don't think we have a right to complain about it.

pj_rage

The worst update of all time...the XBOX 360. Yeah it was an update to the XBOX...And sadly...almost half of the people that updated ended up with a RROD. I'm gonna go ahead and call that a High Degree of Evilness.

And also...the worst update for Sony so far was 2.40 which I didn't have a problem with that yet...but I'm betting that when Home comes out there will be an update that will probably brick it.

It's only fair that my Sony system should break...to try to even things out a bit.

Bring on the fanboy comments from both sides!

valekeyes46

@rcast1986: iTunes isn't just a windows only virus I'm afraid...

Xavoc

@Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans: I'm just waiting for some developer to forget to comment out the auto-erotic asphyxiation sub-routines he's written for, erm, 'testing purposes late at night' and a patch causes a a few hundred strangulation deaths Wayne Brady style.

Xavoc

Don't know if this has been mentioned already, but what about the iPods that were sent from the factory with the windows-only viruses?? That's beyond evil.

rcast1986

These incidents only highlight the laziness that is rampant these days, rather than actually test the updates they just ship them and let the poor hapless consumer test ti for them, and if the test results are catastrophic, then all you get is a big "Oooops! Sorry" untill they ship another untested update. Let's all thank Bill Gates for setting such a shitty precedent.

VideoVampire

I don't mind getting most updates asap, partially because I like people who use my programs to get updates asap, but moving on... I spent yesterday listening to Pandora on my iPhone because iTunes wouldn't let me sync anything... Which only happened when I tried to update to 2.0.1...
There's a fun update story, eh?

The iPhone from Apple-It just works. (When we want it to)

The Amazing Ant

Did anyone else get the urge to go try and play their Wii with their genitals after reading this article? I think that's what I'm gonna do when I get home from work... =D

Imho, I think apple software updates are pure evil. Every damn time I have to update Quicktime, Apple attempts to install their evil iTunes and Safari on my comp. PISS OFF APPLE, I LIKE MEDIA MONKEY AND MOZILLA FIREFOX! Grrrr...

Duckspwn

... 99% of ppl's ps3 that were "bricked" just needed to be re-booted..
just.. in case you think that's really worth making 5+ giz articles over (talking about how shitty the ps3 is and sony in general)

let me walk you through the steps needed to fix the bricked ps3's.
1) switch of button on back of ps3
2) switch back on previously said button
3) ps3 now works again.
... tricky I know..

SeventhExile

@VideoVampire: These incidents don't display any kind of laziness. They speak to firmware upgrades removing features, and blocking out hackers.

Televiper

My standard advice for firmware: Only update firmware if it fixes a specific problem you have with your device. If your device works, you don't need to update the firmware. You should always be able to find a change log, or release notes on every firmware upgrade.

Televiper

@Duckspwn: Doesn't it just ask? I've been upgrading QT on the Dell for a few years and it's never just done it without my permission.

Kaiser-Machead's BSDM Shenanigans

@Xavoc:
lawl, good call.

rcast1986

triple kill, you forgot vista's Service Pack which made it impossible to OPEN MORE THAN ONE WINDOWS EXPLORER WINDOWS WITHOUT THE WHOLE SYSTEM CRASHING GRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

the.schimmi

@SeventhExile:

but that means i have to get up from the couch

the.schimmi

@Dan Nosowitz:

i is one of those non apples that you speak of

the.schimmi

Completely biased article, as is the usual from Giz.

How's about you write an article of good firmware updates that expanded a products capabilities greatly. I bet you'd have to try really hard not to put Sony near the top of that list.

berribrand

I've avoided upgrading the firmware on my Metal Gear PS3 bundle because I just KNOW a future upgrade is going to jack my console up.

AngryEwok

@markarian: I'm sorry, bottom of the heap? You obviously haven't been paying attention to world wide sales figures have you? The PSP has been dominating in a lot of markets and the PS3 isn't far behind it. Sure they both had laggy starts, but they are doing much better nowadays. Also, look at recent software sales figures, EA announced a 969% increase in PS3 software sales from last year. 969%!!!!

About the PS3 2.40 firmware update...I think I've read several hundred posts regarding the update and only 1-2 people who were negatively affected, it certainly wasn't a large number of people.

One last thing, Apple is more evil than Sony for stopping homebrew.

thegreatpablo

a Wii firmware update deleted all my save files for twilight princess. I was none too happy. why couldn't it have deleted my red steel saves instead?

kathartik

i wish there was an update for the Wii that would make Pong Toss the fun game it sounded like it was originally going to be...

Braff

@thegreatpablo: The PSP has seen a nice resurgence, but the fact is that it hasn't lived up to any of its promises, such as being a media player or the UMDs being anything like decent. Memory Stick prices are still ridiculous in comparison to SD or CF. My argument is that a significant percentage of the people who bought one use it almost exclusively for homebrew. I myself love my PSP and DS. I bought both on launch day. But I only have a small handful of PSP games, whereas I have over a dozen DS games.

And yes, the PS3 is doing a fair bit better, but it's still in last place, which is startling for the company that didn't just dominate, but pwned the last generation. I will admit it seems the PS3 doesn't seem to have the build quality issues the 360 does (we're on our second one) and I'm even considering buying one, now that its not as cost-prohibitive.

I totally agree with you on the Apple front. Sony seems to have either toned down or given up entirely its arms race with the homebrew community on the PSP.

markarian

@Wilson Rothman: tell us how you really feel...

Eat a third and drink a third and leave the remaining third of your stomach empty. Then, when you get angry, there will be sufficient room for your rage.
--Cordfucious

Cordfucious v 2.0.1

Slim Devices (Logitech) released the Duet network music player that included the new WiFi-based Controller earlier this year. The Controller has an audio-out jack and high quality DAC on it that wasn't activated in firmware at time of shipping. Us users have been patiently waiting for it to be activated through firmware updates since release but still no audio-out.

Not necessarily a nightmare situation but it would really be nice if Slim/Logitech would get off their duffs and release the freak'n firmware!

EnochLight

ok what ever editor wrote this should know this,99% of people have no problems whatsoever with firmware updates. this is just clicking fodder.

otis123

PS3 updates have been causing some strange problems lately, as some people on PS3 forums have been posting about bricked PS3 after updating to 2.42.
It's quite annoying having so many updates, since you can not play online without the latest update. This is why I always have to update immediately.
Since everybody is updating at the same time, downloading sometimes costs me a whole day without playing online, which is quite annoying.
Please Sony, only update once a month, tnx!
It'll make sure you have more time to stabilize the new firmware, and we don't have to interupt playing online so much

sander_dutch

@sander_dutch:

Right on, I agree fully.

dinb

I love the last one. I'll bet there are plenty of people out there who salivate at the thought of an Apple videogame console.

kzooguy

Another thing that makes PSP firmware updates even more evil is that they're mandatory if you want to play the newest games released. I originally hadn't planned on updating mine, but I had to do so in order to get a game demo working. I decided afterwards not to update again. Then I bought a new game for the system, and I had to update to the most recent firmware in order to play it.

I mainly use my PSP for playing the games released for it, but it's quite frustrating that if I want to add homebrew apps to it, I'll have to run the risk of bricking the thing.

Splintered_Cell

You forgot that Sony bricks your PSP if you try to downgrade it. That's pretty evil.

Desipride

It's pretty useless updating any iPhone firmware with Apple right now, especially since a lot of great programs are still on 1.1.4. Give us something we can use Apple (mms, video, FLASH, copy and paste) anything more than bug fixes and bs and an appstore to commercialize on what jailbreakers have been giving away for free.

meebz

The Wii's last firmware update killed he ability to make a homebrew "Twilight Hack Channel" though it was probably unintentional, it altered tthe Mii channel that the hack based the channel off of, and if you already did it it still works.

metaslugx