Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

PS3 firmware 1.9 tomorrow

Sony stamps officialdom on it.

Sony has told Eurogamer this lunchtime that PS3 firmware version 1.90 will be released across Europe tomorrow.

It will add numerous bits and pieces, the most obvious being customisable backgrounds and emoticons - perfect for all you chatterboxes.

Under the hood there's tweaks to CD output, Blu-ray HDMI output, more settings for backwards compatibility upscaling, and the nifty ability to remotely eject a disc. Although you still have to walk over and put it back in its case. Or a different case if you're one of those types.

An official list of changes is expected to arrive tomorrow, but Kotaku's rough translation of the Japanese list goes as follows:

  • Ability to rearrange games on the XMB
  • "Eject Disk" added to the Options menu
  • Pressing triangle in the XMB now ejects disks
  • XMB backgrounds added
  • Folder classification changed
  • Emoticons added
  • Option to change CD output to 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz added
  • Forced 24Hz output for Blu-ray over HDMI added
  • Option to change PS3 video settings in-game added
  • "Bit Mapping" added to the "Music Setting" options
  • AVCHD-type animations can now be saved from a Memory Stick
  • Upscaling settings can be changed while playing PSOne and PS2 games
  • Bookmarks added
  • Web browser security function added to the browser's tool section
  • Avatars now move during audio visual chat