FW 2.00 Coming Next Week?

Firmware 2.0 is allegedly coming next week – Kotaku say the 30th of October. There’s a huge stack of really cool features, but sadly this isn’t yet official from Sony, so we’re having to take this list with a pinch of salt, although it does all look pretty reasonable, and there’s some micropayments in there that we hadn’t expected – themes, customisation etc. Anyway, here’s the rundown:

1. Turn your PS3 on and off with PSP Remote play
2. A new PLAYSTATION Network category
3. A TV Category for those who install PlayTV into their HDD (SCEE only).
4. Playlists for Music & Photo
5. Content groupings for Video & Game
6. XMB customization (Custom theme & background color setting) *
7. Information Board – like an official RSS feed but built into the XMB.
8. Trend Micro Web Security – parental lock.

* This will come with one alternative custom theme. Addition generic themes will be available for download via www.playstation.com with game title themes to follow on Nov 20th, distributed via the Store (PS/PC). The cost of the game themes haven’t been decided yet. Guidelines for users to create their own Custom Themes will be distributed via www.playstation.com shortly after the firmware hits.

Source: Kotaku.

Update: we don’t actually think this is true. We can’t understand why there would be the TV category when the PlayTV isn’t out until next year, and the lack of any mention of in-game messaging or custom music seems odd. We’ll see, but best to wait for something from Sony.