PSP does Web tricks

It plays games, dishes up movies and music and serves as a fine mirror replacement for impromptu grooming needs. But that's still not enough for some folks, who won't be satisfied until their PlayStation Portable will let them search for diet pills on eBay.

Sony has more-or-less promised the WiFi-enabled Web gadget will be equipped for Web browsing at some point, but details are still be worked out in the United States. South Koreans, however, can look forward to full Web functionality from Day 1 when the PSP goes on sale there May 2.

The Associated Press reports that KT, the leading telecomm provider in the broadband-saturated country, announced a deal with Sony to provide Web services for the PSP.

KT will sell a "PSP Nespot Value Pack" that combines access to public WiFI hotspots with a UMD disc loaded with software for Web-browsing and other Internet tasks.

No word on when such capabilities will make it stateside, but impatient PSP owners can experiment with a few new hacks that rely on the racing game "Wipeout Pure," whose content download feature happens to do just enough HTML parsing that it can be tricked into serving as a Web browser. Roto has more details than you probably care to absorb, while Absurd Genius has a fairly simple exploit.