Season's greeting's PSP folks, courtesy of Auraomega. The developer has informed us that Project4's Beta build has been released, and is now ready for installation on your Sony handhelds.

For the guys who weren't around during the initial announcement, here's a recap: Project4 is homebrew application that's being developed as a complete replacement for the PSP's XMB browser. Auraomega clarifies that Project4 works from flash, and is not a shell (ex. iRShell). Project4 Beta has been succesfully tested on a PSP Slim, and should be able to handle the following firmware versions (quoting the readme):

All current custom firmwares 3.10 and above are supported currently by a custom patch, or the "Dirty Hack", when/if 3.80M33 is released I'll work on another patch if its needed, otherwise I'll just allow the installer to use the "Dirty Hack" too if its supported.

Before you get started, we strongly advice users - especially firt-timers - to view the readme before installing the app. Given that Project4 writes to your PSP's flash0 and flash1, mishandling it may lead to brickings. We've also posted Project4's currently functional and non-functional features to help you along - be prepared in case updates are announced:

* 7.1. Working
o ISO loading.
o CSO loading.
o ISOFs NoUMD mode.
o Editable GUI.
o 3.XX Kernel loading for EBOOT, PRX and ELF files.
o 1.50 Kernel loading for EBOOT, PRX and ELF files.
o PNG loader.
o JPG loader.
o HEX reader.
o UMD loader.
o Internal keyboard (soon to be replaced by Sony keyboard).
o File Copying.
o Change config and flash writing.
o Theme flashing.
* 7.2. Faulty
o MP3 Player.
o Text Reader.
o File Deletion (Does not delete folders if there are files or folders inside).
o NoUMD compatibility (M33 driver and NP9600).
* 7.3. Broken
* M3U loader
* USB transfer
* XMB Loader
* 7.4. Future
* Complete Image Viewer
* Complete Music Player
* Movie Player
* PSP Config Menu
* Wireless Transfer
* PiKey Compatibility
* Replace current font with intraFont style