Okay, FreePlay's been busy putting together a minimal SKD for BD-J development, and he's generously shared it to the rest of the young PS3 homebrew community.

What this release brings you is basically everything you'll need to get started, save for a couple of things:

1. a working installation of JDK, the Java Development Kit (get that from http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp - currently, the latest version is JDK 6 Update 7)
2. a copy of bdj.jar, the BD-J API. I can't provide this, since you need a license to use it; however, if you have a PC program capable of making or playing Blu-Ray discs - like Nero or PowerDVD - you can get this file from there. (In Nero 8, the file is located in C:program FilesCommon FilesNeroNeroBLCBDJjl ib .)

There's also an included sample Hello World application as well as silenoz's RSS reader and a build.bat file for building, packing and signing the programs. He says that the batch script is pretty universal, that is unless you need to add in other JAR files for your compilation.

While this brew is looking pretty good, there have been found some pretty strict limitations on the PS3's implementation of the BD-J:

* You cannot read or write local files.
* You cannot list the contents of a directory.

Well, it could be that it just didn't work for him when he tried it, but that's why you'll have to give your feedback when you try this yourself. Maybe you'll have better luck.

Oh, and do take note that for this to work properly, you MUST copy it to the root of your C: drive - that is, to C:bdj-ps3. DO NOT rename the folder.

There are more instructions and details to be learned, so make sure you do read and understand the readme as soon as you download the file, and before you try it out. Thanks, FreePlay!