While the PS3 has been around for quite a while now, it's still an upgradeable machine, Sony's engineers constantly working on all sorts of software solutions that will improve the gaming console's stability, usability and, ultimately, the users' experience. Today, Sony has made available yet another update to the PS3's firmware, update v2.60, which brings some pretty interesting innovations to the table, including here a very useful Photo Gallery application.

First announced yesterday by Eric Lempel, Director for the PlayStation Network Operations, in a post on the Playstation Blog, the firmware update has now become available for download, although still not everywhere around the world (just the Japanese version seems to be working, for now).

Anyway, before the first user reviews start pouring in, here's what Mr. Lempel promised for the v2.60. First of all, he did mention that the main goal of this update was to enhance the PS3's media capabilities, and for this reason, it grants access to a whole new feature called Photo Gallery. This feature grants users access to a collection of tools for sorting through and displaying one's digital photo collection, for example, organizing digital photos in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the photos, the event date and time, colors in the photos, as well as the number, ages, or facial expressions of the people pictured.

Furthermore, one can also make “multimedia presentations” by creating slideshows from the photos and also adding music via the very user-friendly interface. However, in order to enjoy all of these features, users will also have to install the Photo Gallery separately, directly from the Photo section of the XMB.

Besides these photo-related features, the new updated will grant users access to the PlayStation Store, allowing even those gamers who haven't yet joined the PlayStation Network to browse through the storefront to check out the latest games, demos, videos, etc. Moreover, the update will also bring with it support for DivX 3.11 videos, thus enhancing its multimedia capabilities.

Before we go, we leave you with a video walkthrough of the features brought about by the update, and we're waiting for your feedback regarding just how it works.




 
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