US PSP 2.00 update released

Huzzah! Sony America has finally released the 2.00 update for PlayStation Portable, giving owners of US versions of the handheld the chance to take advantage of an Internet browser, improved video and audio playback, photo wallpaper and image transfers, and some other less exciting benefits. You know, like the ability to not play any user-developed content off the Memory Stick any more.

Full details and upgrade instructions for US PSPs can be found on the American PSP website, so those of you planning to upgrade should head there. Japanese PSP users should stick to the Japanese version of the update, which is available from the SCEI equivalent of the PSP upgrade page.

And, of course, those of you planning to buy a European PSP when it launches next week in Europe (priced £179) can rest easy; the European PSP comes with 2.00 pre-installed, meaning that you can take advantage of all the features detailed in the US and Japanese updates right out of the box. We'll let you know about future updates as and when, and it's entirely likely Sony will bundle said patches on future game UMDs as it did when 1.52 was the new code in town.