Hackers Add Web, Chat to PSP Video Game Player

Tue Apr 5, 3:08 PM ET
By Ben Berkowitz

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp (SNE.N).'s (6758.T) new PlayStation Portable is turning into a great tool for Web browsing, comics reading and online chat -- and it also happens to play video games, movies and music, if you prefer that sort of thing.

The $249 PSP handheld video game player went on sale in the United States on March 24, and it took very little time before techies added the kinds of functions to the PSP that Sony did not include -- and may never have intended. One man needed only 24 hours to get a working client for Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, an older messaging platform.
"I was on IRC, and someone mentioned how cool it would be to use their PSP on Wi-Fi at Starbucks to talk to people over IRC. I said, 'I can do that', so I began working on it immediately," said Robert Balousek, creator of PSPIRC (http://www.pspirc.com), in an email interview. [Full Story]