Team GEN has just released the latest and greatest in the custom firmware world, 5.50 GEN-D. This update stabilizes the previously buggy 5.50 GEN-C release, and so far we haven’t heard any complaints from the community. The only known bug is a problem with speeding up the MS read speed, which is being worked on for a future release.

Download: CFW 5.50 GEN-D
Download: CFW 5.50 GEN-D2 Quick Updater

This release, like GEN-C, utilizes the new XGEN installer. If anybody has trouble with it, please feel free to leave a comment and we will do the best we can to help you out. Remember this is for PSP-1000 and PSP-2000 (V1 and V2) only. The 5.03 HEN-A will be updated soon for everyone else.

Official Changelog:

• All features previously in 5.50 GEN-B are now available.
• You can now run OFW 5.51+ games without having to patch the UMD or ISO.
• You can now run PSN demos requiring OFW 5.51+ without having to patch them.
• You can now connect to the PlayStation store by using the MediaGo software.
• You can use XGEN updater to install OFW 6.10 (and use PANDORA XGEN to return to 5.50 GEN-D).
• 480 x 272 videos play again.

Update: There seems to be some confusion in the community, relating to your PSP’s post-installation state. You must format flash1 after the update is complete, otherwise you will be operating under somebody else’s settings. You can do this by entering the recovery menu (hold R-Trigger on boot-up), selecting ‘Advanced’ and then selecting ‘Format flash1 and reset settings’.

Update 2: GEN D2 was released a few days ago (sorry for being late!). This update fixes the CFW check for Evangelion, fixes the WLAN TKIP bug in certain games, fixes video output with OFW 5.55+ games, and fixes the recovery menu problems some users were reporting with Pandora. You must be on 5.50 GEN-D before updating to GEN-D2.

[via pspgen]

Although CFW 5.50 GEN-C was just released, it seemed to have caused more problems than Team GEN anticipated. Because of this Yoshihiro and GEN are working together to resolve the issues, and they hope to have CFW 5.50 GEN-D available for download soon. Most of the problems users are having involve decrypting the newer games, and that is what is being focues on with the next release. There are however, two common issues you may come across that can be solved on your own:

Update: The update has been released, download it here.

[Via pspgen]

After a seemingly long awaited weekend, Team GEN has released their custom firmware 5.50 GEN-C. This latest update allows users to play games requiring OFW 5.55 and 6.00, without having to patch the ISO. Please note that this is for PSP-1000 and PSP-2000’s (v1 and v2) only, the 5.03HEN-A will be updated here soon for everyone else.

Download: CFW 5.50 GEN-C

Here is the official changelog:

• You can now run 5.51 and higher games without having to patch the UMD or ISO.
• You can now run protected games such as Soul Calibur.
• You can now launch PSN Demos without having to patch them.
• Can connect to PSN Media Go! without having to install the utility.
• You can use XGEN Updater to install OFW 6.10

And here are the known bugs:

• There are some issues playing videos at 480×272
• IRShell can no longer launch ISO Patch.
• Option to increases MS reading speed has been disabled.

UPDATE: There have been reports of some freezing issues after updating, and it is recommended that you format flash1 (via the recovery menu) immediately after you update to avoid this issue.

Hacker FreePlay has released word of a hack not too long ago the works with new PSP Go! Sony’s latest attempt at blocking out homebrew seems to be a failure, previously stating the system was indeed unhackable. Even more interesting, above is a video demonstrating that the hack is indeed compatible with every PSP model to date. So can we look forward to seeing a homebrew launcher, or perhaps a custom firmware come from this? Well no… FreePlay is not releasing the hack to anyone, and has decided not to develop it any further. Apparently it was only done to prove that it could be done. Still, it’s good to confirm that nothing is impossible to hack. Nice try Sony…