As most of you probably now by now, the new firmware for the PS3 is out. It is probably one of the most significant updates. Now you can access the XMB while playing games. You can also message your friends, and check the trophy progress of your friends.

The picture are showing the XMB while playing a game. Just press the PS-button, and the XMB is up and running. This particular image shows the friend list. The ability to access the XMB ingame, is quite useful. You can check your download progress, or you can message your friends. But remember to pause the game, that wont happen automatically.

Here are the full changelog:

Overall

* Displaying the XMB™ screen during gameplay
You can now access the XMB™ screen while playing PLAYSTATION®3 format software.
* Searching the Internet from the XMB™ screen
You can now perform an Internet search directly from the XMB™ screen.
* You can now see the system clock on the XMB™ screen. The date and time that were set under [Settings] > [Date and Time] are displayed.
* When using a keyboard, you can now clear the entire text entry field at once.
* The Users icon is now displayed when you press the PS button for an operation that cannot be performed.

Users

* You can now turn off the PS3™ system from the XMB™ screen using the [Turn Off System] option.

Settings

* You can now set the PS3™ system to turn off automatically after updating the system software.
* [Reassign Controllers] and [Controller Vibration Function] have been added as options under [Accessory Settings].

Photo

* You can now print images from a playlist.
* You can now sort items that are grouped in a folder by month or year using the [Film Date date down] or [Film Date date up] options.

Music

* You can now use a mini-size control panel while playing music.
* You can now play music content encoded in MP3 Surround format.*
* MP3 Surround can only be used when playing music content in Linear PCM format.

Video

* You can now use the [Frame Noise Reduction] and [Block Noise Reduction] settings for video content that is saved on the hard disk or storage media.
* You can now play upscaled video content that is saved on the hard disk or storage media. When the video content is played, it is upscaled automatically to match the screen size.
* Upscaling of Blu-ray Disc (BDAV) video content is now supported.
* For DTS playback on DVD-Video and Blu-ray Disc media, DTS-ES and DTS 96/24 for DVD-Video and DTS-ES Matrix for Blu-ray Discs are now supported.

Game

* The procedure for quitting PLAYSTATION®3 format software has been changed.
* You can now collect trophies in games that support the trophy feature.

Network

* [Search] has been added as an option in the browse mode menu of the Internet browser.

Friends

* The number of Friends who can be added to a Friends list has been increased from 50 to 100.
* The [Information] screen has been redesigned and renamed as [Profile].

One of the more useful features is the clock. Anytime you access the XMB, a clock will be there, showing you the time and date. I really missed that earlier. And now you can finally have your own playlist of songs that are stored on your hard drive, and play your music ingame. That is, for those games that support this feature. If you want to do a google search, a searchbar is now integrated in the XMB. That might be useful sometimes, but I don’t really need it. It is nice to be able to do a search easy though.

The trophies are a neat feature in my opinion. It is something similar to the achievements one the Xbox 360, for those of you who are familiar with that. You need to do certain things in games to recieve your trophies. There are not to many games that support trophies yet, but most likely, most new games will support them. Also, it is possible to include trophies in a patch for a game.
One of the games that do have trophies, is Super Stardust HD. However, you need to install a update for it to work properly.

The trophy list for Super Stardust HD:

Bronze Trophies

* Hero of Lave - Complete planet Lave
* Hero of Coventina - Complete planet Coventina
* Hero of Nemain - Complete planet Nemain
* Hero of Taranis - Complete planet Taranis
* Hero of Segomo - Complete planet Segomo
* The Tokenizer - Collect 5 tokens with a single boost in Arcade
* Scrooge MacBoom - Get 10 bombs in Arcade
* Extra Ships Optional - Survive 7 minutes without dying in Endless*
* Close Encounters - Survive 45 seconds without shooting or using bombs in Survival*

Silver Trophies

* Token Hoarder - Collect 15 tokens with a single boost in Arcade
* Well Prepared - Get 20 bombs in Arcade
* Shield Blaster - Collect 5 shield tokens while already having a shield
* Scenic Route - Complete a planet without using boost
* Late Boomer - Get 15 bombs in Bomber*
* Shock and Awe - Destroy 10 nukes in Endless*

Gold Trophies

* Multiplier Hero - Get 10x multiplier
* Split screen Co-op - Get 3 minutes of continuous Co-Op weapon boost on Segomo*”

I now have three bronze trophies for Super Stardust. Congratulate me! I miss the opportunity to find out what the different trophies are in each game though. It would be nice to have a list of some sort. And it is absolutely possible that I just have missed that part.

I really like the new update. There are a lot of new features, that are both cool and useful. The downside is that some sources say that the new update actually have bricked some PS3s. Gamepro says a bunch of consoles have been bricked, but keep in mind that this is just a rumor. However, Sony have temporarily withdrawn update 2.40.