News on the go with the PSP RDF channel: a tutorial

As gamers, we know how important being up to date on the news and trends of the gaming industry is. With the proliferation of RDF Site Summaries (RSS) such as 1Up and QJ, this is now easier than ever before.

If you own a Playstation Portable, a guide over at  Playstation.blog reveals how podcasts can now be accessed on the go whether you're in a WiFi hotspot or not through the PSP's RDF channel, which was instituted in firmware v2.60.

We've dug a little deeper though, and come up with a basic connection guide you can use to get a QJ.net RSS up on your PSP.

To get started, you must first add an RSS channel to your PSP. To do this, you must have:

• A PSP with 2.60 system software or later (You'll actually need v2.0, but to get the RDF, you need v2.60 or later)
  
• A wireless network (WLAN) internet access point.

With this in hand, you must first set-up an infrastructure mode on your PSP before you're able to add the RSS channel. This is how you do it:

• Make sure that the PSP's WLAN switch is turned on.
• Highlight Settings from the home menu.
• From there, select Network Settings, then access it by pressing X.
• Afterwards, select Infrastructure Mode then press X.
• From there, select New Connection and press X.
• Give the new connection a name by using the on-screen keyboard then press the right arrow button to continue.
• To set the Service Set Identifier (SSID) to the access point, you must select one of these:

              1) Scan - Searches then displays a list of access points/wireless networks and
                                displays the SSIDs.
              2) Enter Manually - Allows the user to enter the SSID using the keyboard. Chose this
                    option if you know the SSID and the access point.

If you've chosen Scan:

• Select the access point to be used then press X.
• Confirm the SSID then press the right directional button.

To enter security information for the access point, choose one of the following:

• None - Doesn't set security information.
• Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), WPA-PSK (TKIP), WPA-PSK (AES): all set security information. Press the right arrow button to move to the screen for entering WEP or WPA (WiFi protected access keys) keys.
• After entering the security information, press the right arrow button to continue.
• To select the address setting method, chose on of the following:

              1.) IP address settings - Automatic
              2.) DNS settings - Automatic
              3.) Proxy server - Do not use.
              4.) Internet browser - Do not start.

• After selecting the address setting method, press the right arrow button to continue.
• Check settings by using the left arrow button to return to previous screens to make necessary corrections.
• Press X to save the new connections
• Test the connections by pressing X
• If the connection is successful, information about the network connection will appear.
• Press the circle to end the connection test.

Once you've finished this, you can now add the RSS channel to your PSP:

• Turn on the WLAN switch on the left side of your PSP.
• Start the PSP browser by:

             1.) Highlighting Network from the home menu.
             2.) Afterwards, select Internet Browser then press X.

• Then, open a web page that contains RSS-distributed content such as news video, commentary and radio.
• From the web page, select the RSS-distributed content then press X.
• When the confirmation screen appears, select yes and press X.

Once you're done setting all of this up, here's a step-by-step guide on how to get started on navigating your PSP's RDF channel with QJ.net as an example specifically for browsing podcasts:

• Point the PSP browser to http://www.qj.net while connected to the Internet via Wifi.
• When asked if you wish to save the channel, choose yes.
  
• Choose RSS under Network.
• Simply press X on Quick Jump to access the site or press the triangle button to save.

There you have it. It takes a bit of work to get everything set up, but once you do, you can actually check QJ on your PSP. Of course, you could always just use your computer for that, but if you're that excited to see when Team M33 will release their latest firmware, this seems like a nice alternative on the go. Enjoy!