Accessing Intant Messanger in Your PSP

Sites Optimized for Mobile Devices
Many Web sites have versions of their content optimized for mobile devices. These optimized
pages lack the extranneous graphics and scripts and just show the images and text you need,
ideal for a device like the PSP, which doesn’t have a lot of RAM or screen real estate to display
all the images, ads, and so forth on pages. If you can find a mobile version of the site you want
to browse, use it—you’ll find browsing the site is much more responsive, and you’ll spend less
of your PSP’s processor and battery life rendering pages because you can leave the wireless
power-saving option on.
AOL Instant Messenger
Even thought America Online is not likely to release a PSP Instant Messenger version of AOL
soon, you don’t have to be without your buddy list. Using your PSP’s Web browser you can log
on to WebAIM at www.webaim.net, type your username and password, and access your
buddy list, send and receive instant messages, and more
in action in a regular PC browser).WebAIM even has a login page made especially for PSPs,
with an on-screen keyboard to save you time entering your username and password—just head
over to http://dev.webaim.net/psplogin.jsp.


WebAIM in action in Firefox

WebAIM in action on my PSP using Sony’s Web browser, which is enabled
in the Firmware 2.0 update. Of course, you can still use the Wipeout Pure Web browser hack
from Chapter 6, “The Web on Your PSP,” so you don’t have to upgrade to Firmware 2.0 and
lose the ability to program your PSP and run homebrew applications.


WebAIM in action on the PSP
WebAIM’s free servers are often pretty crowded, so getting one can take a while. I opted to pay
for their premium service, which guarantees me access any time of the day, for around $4 per
month or a scant $17 for six months.
Accessing Most of the Messenger Services for Free
Instead of using WebAIM, you can also use the free service Meebo, available
www.meebo.com. Meebo lets you access your AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), MSN
Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Jabber (Google Talk uses Jabber) accounts from a single
interface.Try it out on your PSP.