So word on the street is that Firmware 2.5 will enable a print screen ability that will allow screen captures of your favorite gaming moments. This may not seem like a big deal, but many might be surprised at the frequency that they would use this function. How cool would it be to make the ultimate online slaughter you performed on your unsuspecting victim serve as your PS3 wallpaper for all to marvel as you boot up your system? Yeah, pretty cool.

With the advent of the new XMB and PlayStation Home, an improved PlayStation Network rivaling that of XBox Live has had me worried how long this continually improving service would remain free. Eric Lempel, the PlayStation Network Director of Operations, informs Next-Gen and all of us Sony faithful that PSN intends to, in fact, remain free of charge. In the article Lempel states:

I think being free is always an advantage. The fact that it’s free is nice for consumers who want to try out the online experience, those who may be new to it and may not be ready to commit to spending dollars, and that’s a really good message for us. Being free also gives them the opportunity to spend the money that they may have spent on a subscription on online items or online games instead.”

This is comforting news to PS3 owners as PSN becomes more and more relavant.

The buzz is all over the internet, PlayStation comrades. Firmware 2.40 is on the way and it looks like it’s going to be an update worth being proactive about. I usually shrug at my firmware downloads and update whenever I so happen to play a game that connects to the internet, but this is the one that we’ve been waiting for.

The new XMB (Cross Media Bar) will be fully accessible in-game which was a huge advantage for the 360 making the X-Box more user-friendly. But with this download, you’ll be able to toggle between your game and the XMB at the press of a button.

Other features that have been buzzed about are download management, friends, messaging, and a Trophy System. (Read X-Box Achievements.) Granted, the PlayStation Network is taking a lot of cues from X-Box Live, but doing so will make the PSN all the better in conjunction with PS Home that is on the horizon.

With all this, one can’t seem to help but create parallels to X-Box Live, but the most notable aspect of all this is that if the PlayStation Network service continues to be free as well as delivering a competitive product in terms of quality, I think we’ve got a surefire winner on our hands.

The highly anticipated PS3 firmware version 2.20 hasn’t been released yet, but enthusiasts are a buzz with all it will contain.