It's only been a couple of weeks since we last heard from PlayStation Portable homebrew developer sakya and one of his projects, LightMP3. Today, we've got a new build and it's finally out of the Alpha phase.

In case you haven't seen the previous releases of this homebrew, here's a briefer. LightMP3 is as the name suggests, an MP3 player (supports MP3, OGG Vorbis, ATRAC3+, and FLAC) with an extra sweet feature: it drains minimal power so it saves you battery life for those long trip. This release, version 2.0.0 Beta, is an entry to this year's NeoFlash Spring Coding Competition, under the PSP applications category. Anyway, here's the changes made since version 2.0.0 ALPHA4:

* *libMAD is now streamed, no more file size limit (based on Ghoti MusicEngine.c in pspStacklessPython).
* *Added FFWD and REW to libMAD
* *Added volume boost to ATRAC3/ATRAC3+ format.
* *Added volume boost to MP3 format via Media Engine.
* Added "Browse dy rating" in Media Library
* Added: Coverart from folder.jpg and albumTitle.jpg
* Fixed: USB connection
* Fixed button autorepeat time.
* *Fixed many crash (hopefully!)
* Fixed minor bugs...probably...I don't remember :P
* * = version 1.8.0

Check out the readme (contains additional info and installation instructions) that comes bundled with the LightMP3 download below. After giving it a once over, enjoy!