As reported last week, Sony's highly anticipated 2.40 firmware update for the PlayStation 3 caused many systems to unexpectedly become 'bricked,' meaning that the systems stopped functioning and were basically as useful as a large, black, shiny brick.
Today Sony is fixing its firmware mistake with the release of firmware update 2.41. The 2.41 update does everything that the 2.40 update was supposed to do, without the annoyance of making your system completely useless. That means PS3 fans can now enjoy all of their trophies and the in-game cross media bar in brick-free bliss.
Personally, I didn't experience any problems with the 2.40 update on my own PS3, but I downloaded 2.41 just to be on the safe side. I played some test rounds of Super Stardust HD, and I'm pleased to report that everything seems to be working just fine with the new update.
What I'm wondering though is why it takes Sony two updates to get it right. The 2.40 update was a long time coming, and I just naturally assumed that the update kept getting pushed back to make sure it was completely bug-free, but apparently that wasn't the case. Although maybe the minds at Sony drifted to other plans, and E3 coming next week distracted its bug testers.
Why are we moaning all the time. When Sony wasn't releasing the firmware we were crying. Now they have released it, we're still crying. Come on guys, leave them alone. At least they have tried to sort it out and hopefully have managed!
As a SW engineer who works on a very large application for a fancy piece of HW it is understandable that some mistakes could happen. You try to test every case you can but sometimes you are forced to stick to a schedule. I'm sure the programmers knew it wasn't perfect yet, but those up top tell them to release the firmware anyways.
The devil is in the details as they say. In this lame excuse for a study, copying is blithely assumed to be theft whereas I quite often copy a rented or purchased DVD so I can enjoy it on my PC or iPod but not to give it away or "share" via P2p etc. By the terms of this "study" they assert this act equals theft when in fact I'm simply watching the content I paid for.