A member of the GameTrailers forum has revealed some of the (rumored) features of upcoming PlayStation 3 Firmware, version 2.70. The member, who claims to have a friend who works for the R&D department at Sony, revealed a number of changes including changes to the gamer card layout, faster retrieval of trophy information and gamer cards, quicker XMB loading times and more. The list includes a number of significant changes gamers will be please to see, however, the list has not been officially confirmed, and so it falls under the rumor category for now.
Changes include:
- Friends List
- Voice Messaging is now available as an alternative to text after selecting a user on the friends list. Voice message recordings are capped at 30 seconds.
- Home Integration: Saved PlayStation Home avatar photos can be selected as photo ID for Gamer Card/Friends List.
- Trophy number and Gamer Level are listed under Friend names for quick reference.
- Gamer Card & Trophies
- Gamer Card layout has been changed to more closely resemble the PlayStation Store aesthetic.
- Past Trophy information can be viewed in detail by selecting "Recent Trophy History" option.
- Newly acquired trophies auto-sync in the background
- Server infrastructure for Trophies has been optimized. Resulting in faster retrieval time for Gamer Card and Trophy information.
- In-Game XMB
- Loading time for In-Game XMB has been drastically reduced, resulting in a more seamless in-game experience.
- "Theme settings" options while in-game is now available, allowing custom themes to be applied to the In-Game XMB.
- Internet Browser can now be accessed while in-game.
- Voice messaging and voice chat options can be used while in-game.
- Options that cannot be used in the XMB during game sessions are grayed out (but still selectable) to eliminate user accessibility confusion.
- Misc
- Other slight UI tweaks and enhancements.
[Source]