Get more from Sony's PSP

Tip 2: Photos and Music

Simple Transfer
Unlike the user-unfriendliness of video transfer, getting music and photos onto the PSP is easy. Your formatted stick will have folders called 'Music' and 'Photo' in the PSP directory, and all you need to do is drag your JPEG images or MP3/ATRAC3 PLUS/AAC files into the relevant folders. Bear in mind that most photos will display in a 4:3 aspect ratio when shown on the PSP.

Advanced Functionality
There have been some really interesting things to emerge from the relatively simple photo functionality already. The clear highlight for us comic book fans was the release of a PSP-specific novella entitled NYC2123. Still being released across six issues, the pages of the comic have essentially been converted into JPEG images. Using the shoulder buttons to flick through the pages, it's a gritty futuristic graphic novel that's wonderful to behold in handheld form.

If your tastes are more traditional, you can also seek out the magazines that are produced about the PSP, for the PSP. The PSP Mag is a monthly amateur US magazine -- not quite as nice to look at as NYC2123, but it's out there pushing boundaries.

Skin your PSP
The PSP's main background colour changes from month to month, and you can get a preview simply by changing the internal clock. As nice as it is, if you see it every day you might get bored.

Luckily, a number of home designers have been on the case, creating lots of cool desktops that you can save on your Memory Stick. The best collection we've seen is available at Screenshots.tv but you can find plenty more if you put 'PSP wallpaper' into Google.

Get podcasts
Podcasting, which is radio shows made into MP3s, isn't just for iPod owners. The BBC makes nearly all its shows available for download after broadcast, and you can download MP3s directly, set up automatic RSS feeds via Bloglines or just use iTunes to download your favourite shows automatically. We like listening to Mark Kermode's film reviews so we know what to watch at the cinema -- head to his website and you can use your PSP to be as film-literate as we are.

Go to TIP 3 : Get Wireless