Skype functionality coming to the PSP?!

Posted Feb 9, 2007 at 9:17AM by QJ Staff Listed in: Firmware, Hacks & Exploits, Rumors Tags: MaTiAz, Mylo, Skype, Sony, VOIP

0

You might think I've gone bonkers. But bear with me here, I'm not kidding. A lucky find by my friend MaTiAz seems to point towards some form of VoIP functionality in upcoming firmwares. This reference to Skype is hidden in the decrypted version of vshmain.prx from Firmware 3.10, basically the latest firmware if you don't count 3.11. Nobody has yet checked the presence of its reference in the latest firmware (3.11) but it's most probably there since not much has changed between the two firmwares.

Anyways, I did get a look at the decrypted version of the prx and as expected, this string pointing to a non-existing prx was present. To save you guys the hassle of having to do it yourselves, I've taken a screenshot which shows the same. If you're interested in finding it yourself, the reference is present as a string at offset 0x000344C4 in the decrypted vshmain.prx.

Checking the dump, there was no actual PRX by that name which means that the actual functionality is still being worked upon at this stage. And I don't think anyone's bluffing either. There have already been cases of Camera, GPS, and POPS PRXes being in the firmware long before the functionality was opened up. In the case of Camera and GPS, references can be found as far back as Firmware 2.70. POPS references were found in Firmware 2.80 dumps.

While this is all good to hear, the question begs to be asked - "What happens to the Sony Mylo?" You know, the PSP's sibling which came out a while ago with features like VoIP and Google Talk support. Is Sony thinking of burying the Mylo and making the PSP into "a lot more than a handheld" whose main functionality until now has been gaming? After all, the Mylo never quite took off in the same manner as the PSP, which itself has been lagging far behind the DS. We don't have any figures to back us here, but the Mylo was, in my opinion, a complete failure.

So while killing off the Mylo might not sound so good, it's probably a good move by Sony to move over a lot of its functionality to the PSP which still has a firm ground to stand on with over a few million users. It's all speculation since Sony hasn't announced anything yet, but then again, would you expect an official announcement from Sony about this?

The hardware in the PSP is good enough to handle the extra additions and the feature set of the Mylo was pretty much a subset of what you found on the PSP, plus a few additions. As for the firmware features, my opinion is that you should see some of the Skype functionality coming out in Firmware 3.50 or thereabouts. This would give Sony at least a couple of months to fine-tune everything and integrate it with the rest of the stuff already there. Stay tuned, we will have the latest on this as soon as we know more! A big thanks to MaTiAz for telling me about this find!

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Comments

# First! — Guest 2007-02-09 04:23

Sounds good. Hope this comes to life...

# YAY — Guest 2007-02-09 04:24

YAY Skype

and First POST

# moo — Guest 2007-02-09 04:25

cool

# Whoops — Guest 2007-02-09 04:26

Oh well 2nd Anyway

But um Skype on PSP WOW!

# wow — Guest 2007-02-09 04:27

man, that would own.

Now only if i had a microphone

# Now Upgrade — Guest 2007-02-09 04:29

I am sony . I say Upgrade to use this! Forget your homebrew when we release this. why wait 1 Week for DarK_AleX to crack the firmware Upgrade NOW!!!!

LoL

# Yep! — Guest 2007-02-09 04:30

Yep, this is cool but how Its gonna work?

I think PSP need constant WiFi connection with internet and headphones with microfone

But how we can get permament WiFi internet?

Thats no way until the hotspots wiil be on every corner...

# .. — Guest 2007-02-09 04:50

if only the screenshot was a bit bigger so we could actually read the stuff ._.

# Skype NO, Keyboard YES — Guest 2007-02-09 04:51

I don´t want skype. I want a Keyboard and MSN!!! I want to be able to write (fast) on Web Browser and on MSN/ICQ!

# Ummm — Guest 2007-02-09 04:57

What's Skype?

._.

# lol — Guest 2007-02-09 05:05

Try clicking on it. lol

# yay — Guest 2007-02-09 05:11

This sounds promosing. Surely sony wouldnt put it in way before its released because it would give away everything long before everyone is supposed to know.

# well... — Guest 2007-02-09 05:39

Using AFKIM and the infrared keyboard that has been developed and being updated, you'll get your chance. voIP is definately sweet, so don't change the subject. I'm not the one who rated you down so low.

# how do you do this? — Guest 2007-02-09 05:43

I searched my vshmain.prx and can't find it... maybe I'm looking in the wrong place... mines directly from 3.10 oe...

# sinus — Guest 2007-02-09 06:05

vous etes des trou de cu. des petits cons! moi j'ai deja skype sur ma psp et ca marche tro mal. lol

# skype — Squallshomeboy 2007-02-09 06:06

skype is a program that allows you to use your computer sort of like a phone and call other peoples computers who also have skype... go to www.skype.com and download it and try it out they have some games now u can play with your friends while talkin to them like checkers and stuff

# great — Guest 2007-02-09 06:11

so now its a *****ing laptop

# .. — Guest 2007-02-09 06:21

did that, only gives me a 102% version of the thumbnail

# nope — Guest 2007-02-09 06:51

nope you were second!! HAHA

# PSP, Skype and a microfone. — Guest 2007-02-09 06:53

1st - PSP ROCKS

2nd - Skype... not so rocks, but it's a fine app to use with voip functionality

3rd - YOUR PSP already has a microphone, try activating the camera while your psp is plugged to the PC and you shoul see it will say USB PSP audio device, the chotto shot doesn't have a mic built-in but uses the one on psp

# omg.,. ... — Guest 2007-02-09 06:57

psp isnt console.... its a mini PC!

# Microphone? — Guest 2007-02-09 07:23

Then tell me where the built-in microphone on the PSP is. There is no built-in microphone. You would need a camera or a headset compatible with the PSP.

# PSP mic — Guest 2007-02-09 07:26

Dude, are you sure that the Chotto doesn't have a mic built in or are you guessing. I've never heard anything about a mic being built into the PSP and a million people have gone over the hardware mm by mm.

# psp mic — Guest 2007-02-09 07:50

yes the psp has a buit in microphone if you look below the psp screen there are 2 small holes. if you play music no sounds comes from it and im sure those holes are there for a reason.

# lawls........... — Turbocat777 2007-02-09 08:05

ok, first off, the psp doesn't have any built in mic at all, hence why you need to buy a headset to talk in socom ftb 1 and 2

and 2nd i have a chotto shot camera and it has a mic, it's on the side, it even says mic

that being said, i dunno, but when they released the chotto shot they mentioned something about skype video or something, kinda cool, though it might lag like hell

# to ks4life — Guest 2007-02-09 08:05

umm.. no. those are NOT mics. im pretty sure of that. and, for the microphone part, you can just use the SOCOM HEADSETS.

# This is how you do it — Guest 2007-02-09 08:23

You have to decrypt it. Dump the PSAR with PBP unpacker or something and then use C+D's psardumper mod to decrypt the files.

# ... — Guest 2007-02-09 08:34

Yeah, their there to let air in behind the speakers, because it would sound terrible if the sound was just coming out of the two little holes with no air output.

# huh — Guest 2007-02-09 08:56

How do you get AFKIM working on 3.03OE-A' I cant get it to work..

# .... — Guest 2007-02-09 09:03

i would prefere SIP support instead of the crappy proprietary protocol from Skype

SIP is free (as in talk)

Free software rules

# skype — Guest 2007-02-09 09:05

skype is free genius

# TopMenu 3.10 — Guest 2007-02-09 09:16

if you have 3.03 OE-C and have a dumped copy of 3.10 OE-A, try throwing the 3.10 OE-A topmenu_plugin on your OE-C. notice how there is now TWO network icons instead of one. adding a new place to scroll to with no name or sub-icons within the list. maybe there will be more than just Skype if they made an entire new section of network. (this also explains why we cant customize the icons in 3.10+)

# i use skype — MickMog 2007-02-09 09:20

i use skype to send texts (sms) messages, but without a voip telephone its just like msn from pc to mobile....thats how i reckon this will turn out.

i got that with ebuddy link as my online manual plugin ;-)

# sigh — Guest 2007-02-09 09:21

Hey, mister genius.. Tenshu didn't mean free as in money. He meant free as in closed/open source. Like Firefox is free, and Internet Explorer isn't. Both don't cost any money, but one of them, Firefox, is free.

Implementing SIP would mean that practically any PC with any OS, and any hackable device with enough hardware and community support (as in coders working on an implementation of SIP on any given device) would be able to talk to the PSP. With Skype instead of SIP, this won't be true...

Next time, Cube, think before actually typing something..... Sigh...

# ... — Guest 2007-02-09 09:44

Incase some of u didnt know, skype is no longer free (after dec 31 06) Its now $15 a year.

But skype on psp...

# ...... — Guest 2007-02-09 10:43

i think skype to skype calls are still free

# it's amazing how many things become possible when thinking stops — Guest 2007-02-09 10:45

Won't happen for 3 reasons

1)$ony cant port Skype to the psp b/c the Mylo has it...If you know $ony then you will understand why they wont do it.

2)Skype wont do it. Lets face it, if $ony released the Skyped fw, it would most likely be decrypted in a matter of hours. Skype cant have that. The idea of an at least 40k member community getting free skype mins scares them like DAX scares $ony.

3.Skype is a complicated program. The several antidebug threads+I/O+wifi+codec= a technological nightmare.

# Reading too much into this. — Guest 2007-02-09 11:18

It's likely that PSP and Mylo share some codebase. It wouldn't make much sense to code all the features they have in common twice. So this probably doesn't mean anything at all.

# Or Maybe?? — Guest 2007-02-09 12:10

Maybe Sony and Their Other a**wad execs thought it would be funny to type in one little thing like skype.prx or linux.prx or w/e they feel they can get a thousand posts on 100 different threads... cmon guys skype is gay big deal u can talk to other psp or pc owners ... u noe only prob is u have to be within a wi-fi connection which is stupid cuz y dont u just use a house fone lolz stop giving sony so much to laugh about if it does come 1. it'll be hacked in one way or another 2. it will most likely suck but hey Dark_Alex to the mother****in rescue

# @Armez — Guest 2007-02-09 12:16

The security checks happen on Skype's side, not on your computer or your psp... your point 2) doesn't make sense at all. Decrypting a plugin doesn't mean you'll be able to get free calls, otherwise people would have tried to descramble the skype executable file for windows. It is obvious that the checkes are done on a server owned by skype, not on your PSP...

# 3.11 — Guest 2007-02-09 12:47

This is true for 3.11 also. I just decrypted 3.11 and opened "vshmain.prx" with a hex editor and it does have something for Skype.

# Yeah about that.... — Guest 2007-02-09 13:41

Oh I guess you didn't hear, the cracked 3.5 will be out tomorrow.

# voip — Guest 2007-02-09 13:41

Maybe Sony will release the US version of the Chotto shot camera bundled with voip software and perhaps even video, vvoip. Now that would be awesome. Hey I wonder if one of our great homebrew programmers could come up with something like this?

# Skype minutes? are you retarded — Guest 2007-02-09 13:50

Skype is free to call other Skype Users FREE if your calling phones from skype you still have to pay for the skype minutes Decrypted FW or not numbnuts

# o rly — Guest 2007-02-09 13:54

@ frwololo

You're a *****tard

# wtf? Kill yourself, save the planet... — Guest 2007-02-09 14:09

@frwololo

A lot of the anti-debug security things happened on the program side, not the server side and yes, number 2 makes sense because skype is incredibly afraid of piracy and the idea of them getting to together with sony and releasing a firmware to over a 40,000+ hacking community seems kind of stupid and yes, someone could easily hack the skype plugin. Also, I have to agree with Juney because sony would put something like skype.prx, or linux.prx, or godmode.prx just because they're *****sticks and yes, it will mostly likely be hacked if it was released...o rly?

# microphone... — Guest 2007-02-09 14:14

The reason it says USB PSP audio device when you activate the camera is because the *usb driver* for the camera is on the PSP firmware itself and not on the camera attachment. Its only your PC finding the driver on the PSP and not the actual microphone. Go ahead and try recording something with it.

Why do you think games like "Talkman" come with a USB mic?

# SIP — Guest 2007-02-09 14:24

"Implementing SIP would mean that practically any PC with any OS, and any hackable device with enough hardware and community support (as in coders working on an implementation of SIP on any given device) ....."

You mean a hackable device like the PSP?

Why not let Sony do all the hard work and put Skype on our PSPs, release the required hardware, get everyone using it, and let the homebrew guys work on the SIP?

Do you really think a company like Sony, that imposes its standards in every form of media it's involved in, would go for an open protocol?

# ..... — hooger 2007-02-09 14:45

once u click the image. there is another small button you click for a full screen.. version

# Practicality — Guest 2007-02-09 16:13

So in all seriousness, you can only use the PSP inside a Wireless network whereas a good proportion of Skype users actually use Satalite.

Unless games implement it specifically, I can't see Skype functionality comming to games unless Sony decides to get off their arses and produce a dashboard and solid gameroom system instead of the pathetic excuse that PSP owners put up with now.

Also, another thing:

Will users have to wear daft headsets with mass wires? Bluetooth?

Either way, something has to give.

# Good Good Good — Guest 2007-02-09 17:39

Wow thats interesting to hear

# psp mic — Guest 2007-02-09 17:42

i do use chotto and i can confirm you that it has mic on it

# sweet — Guest 2007-02-09 19:36

i like skype

# Flash 0 Space.... — Guest 2007-02-09 21:42

Hey well as you all know as we go up through the firmwares the amount of Flash 0 Space decreases because of new prxs being added etc, i think there is only something like 456KB left in 3.10 how are you going to be able to fit the whole of Skype into 456KB? Unless the prx file is going to be in the flash and then a disc is released with all the GUI and stuff?

# Get your facts right — Guest 2007-02-10 00:55

What's that little thing on the side of the Chotto Shot? By any chance, is it a little mic, with the letters M, I and C by it? Please research this kind of thing before posting anything like that again

# Jesus — Guest 2007-02-10 02:31

You dont have a clue what you;re talking about do you?

# duh — Guest 2007-02-10 04:54

just use your headset

why use a built in mic

it would be like a speaker phone

thats dum

you could just put your headset on and talk

i just wsh there was just one bg hotspot over new york

or better yet over the US

but back on topic

i saw a plan for a voip on the sony calender in march

it was planned to be relased in november but notin

thought it was squashed

got kinda sad cause i was really looking forward to it (the only person)

glad i hearin bout it again

# sweet — Guest 2007-02-10 08:46

if the psp got free skype, id for sure consider updating from 3.10 OE to it, it'd be sweet if it got some online chat type thing like the ds, but so you could go on infrasturcture with it, id love that.

# here — Guest 2007-02-10 09:51

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=56769

# hmm good point — Guest 2007-02-10 14:52

but on the other hand its a plugin not the whole Skype program and in addition to that PSP has 2 hidden flash partitions flash 2 and 3 that even the PSP Hack GODS DAX, NOOBZ have no idea of what theyre purpose is

# skype — Guest 2007-02-10 15:51

ORLY? Sure you already have it on psp, maybe the reason que "ca marche tro mal." is that youre Lying. its one thing copying the skype exe to your memorystick, its another actually running it.

# ur and idiot — Guest 2007-02-14 01:04

How can you think your first when your clearly in second???????? God your an IDIOT

# hi — Guest 2007-02-22 22:23

nothing to say!

ha ha hoe ha

# wow ! — Guest 2007-02-28 05:28

OMG! nice ^^

# 80000002 — Guest 2007-03-04 01:52

80000002

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