We're letting the PSP owners know that developer Deniska has released the much-awaited version 0.5 of the MapThis! homebrew application. And as the past few teaser vids have indicated, this latest release of Deniska's GPS navigation tool for the handheld carries a ton of new functions:

* Birds Eye mode
* Inverted colors (night) mode
* Voice Prompts / Alerts support. (* see notes below)
* Missing zoom layer rendering (only for gpsfs maps). MapThis! attempts to render a missing zoom layer with shrinked
* tiles fromthe next zoom level.
* Screenshots are saved in ms0:/PSP/PHOTO now
* Icons/sounds can now be located in either a particular map directory or system (system/sounds or system/icons) directory.
* POI and WAYPOINT files can now also be looked up from ms0:/PSP/COMMON
* Geodata can now be shared between maps if geodata.dat file is placed in the same directory as EBOOT.PBP.
* The program will attempt to load geodata.dat file in the current map directory first.
* New tiger line geodata for USA (2006se from 03/2007) compiled and available through gmdl18a and higher versions.
* Edit functionality added to "Configuration" screen. While in Configuration screen, scroll down untill the line that needs to be edited is on top. Press [X] to enter the edit mode. You can use up/down arrows to increment/decrement current character by 1.
* Use [START] to save or [SELECT] to cancel the edit.
* New current position prediction logic, hopefully resulting in smoother scrolling.
* A few rendering bug fixes in graphics routines.
* New parameters added to configuration file: STARTUPFREQUENCY, STARTUPSCREENMODE, NIGHTMODE, SPEEDLIMIT.
* SATINFOFREQUENCY defines cpu frequency on Satellite Info screen (PSP-290 only)
* Timezone parameter removed from configuration, timezone is determined based on your psp date/time settings.
* Localization support (language packs).
* PSP-290 version does not require prx files to run in non-gps mode.
* Attached sorce code adopted to the latest verison of PSPSDK

And in case you're using a Holux GPS, Deniska further added this note:

One of the main compaints of the holux users is the lack of sound, since the plug, required for serial connection, automatically mutes PSP's speakers.
Mr7 just dropped in with this easy solution:
"Chop off the tip of the audio plug"
I tried it on 2 of my cablesand it works just fine..

That's the rough on Map This!'s latest release. We strongly recommend would-be users to view the readme included in the file bundle - most of the information you need is available there. On a last note, the author (via the readme) is requesting users to view Google Map's "Terms of Use" agreement, given that Map This! receives its image data from the said service.