December 18, 2006 (Revised September 21, 2007)

Developer: Nullriver Software
Price: Shareware $15, limited demo version
Requirements: Mac (with OS X 10.3.9 or later) or PC (with Windows 2000 or later), Sony PSP with Memory Stick, USB cable

PlayStation Portable owners have a rich-content device capable of not only playing games, but watching movies, viewing photos, listening to music, and browsing the web. The PSP can use media in AVC, JPEG, MP3, and MP4 formats — but it can be an awkward process to correctly format and manually transfer content so the PSP recognizes it for playback. Sony offers PSP Media Manager to simplify the tasks, but it is a Windows-only utility. Fortunately, Mac users have PSPWare for backup, media conversion, and syncing.

Installation

In the tradition of Mac ease-of-use, PSPWare is installed simply by dragging the software to the Applications folder. Launch PSPWare, select Registration from the PSPWare menu, and enter your registration number. Without a valid registration, the number of files that can be synced with the PSP is limited. Registration is emailed after payment with either PayPal or a credit card. For those running both Mac OS X and Windows, it should be noted that the registration number is OS specific. A Mac registration number will not work with the Windows version of PSPWare, and vice versa. Because of this limitation, we were only able to test the Mac version.

With PSPWare running, choose the Advanced tab to bring up preferences. Select the PSP's correct firmware version (available by choosing the System Settings and viewing System Information on the PSP). Other settings, such as auto-syncing and showing PSPWare in the Menu Bar, are also available.

Connect the PCP to the computer via a USB cable, then use the PSP and navigate to USB Connection. The contents of the PSP's Memory Stick will appear on the Desktop. If previously selected in preferences, PSPWare will automatically open when the PSP is connected. The PSP's connection status will appear showing how much space is left on the Memory Stick. Several features for handling content are available above the status display.

Features

Backup is invaluable for archiving saved game data. Once the data has been transferred to the computer, it can be safely deleted from the Memory Stick to free up space. When it's time to play a game again, that game's data can be selectively transferred back to the PSP.

Users running PSP firmware version 2.0 or higher can sync browser Bookmarks with Safari, Firefox, Camino, or OmniWeb. This is a welcome tool, as anyone can attest who has tried to enter URLs using the PSP's web browser.

The Movie feature is very useful, since video must be both encoded and named properly to playback on the PSP. PSPWare offers several settings to convert MOV, MPG, AVI, WMV, VOB, and FLC movie files to MP4s, including options for display ratio and quality. There are options for converting video in either 4:3 or the widescreen 16:9 format. While the MP4 video created by PSPWare plays nicely, higher quality AVC video has been playable on PSPs for months. It is disappointing that AVC video output is not an option.

Music syncing transfers iTunes playlists and Podcasts to the PSP. PSPWare automatically updates iTunes library changes, so modified playlists will be transferred to the PSP when synced. Unfortunately, music that is encoded with the Apple Lossless, Advanced Audio, or Protected Advanced Audio Codecs will not play on the PSP. This limitation has nothing to do with PSPWare, but is instead a common issue that affects non-Apple music players. Any music in ALC or AAC formats must be converted to MP3 before it can be used on non-Apple devices.

PSPWare provides Photo syncing. Mac users can transfer content from iPhoto (included in the iLife suite), and photo albums can be selectively transferred to the PSP. PC users have integration with the Windows Pictures folders instead of iPhoto. Any photos synced can be displayed on the PSP individually or as or slideshows.

Results: Not Recommended
(Revised September 21, 2007)

When we first reviewed PSPWare in December 2006, we had been using it to manage our PSP content for several months. While everything worked, there was room for improvement. We wished the software would encode movies not just in MP4 but also in AVC format. We also were disappointed that PSPWare erased existing media every time a new sync was performed, making the process more time consuming and annoying when only a few files needed to be transferred. Overall, we still found PSPWare to be a very useful tool for PSP media management.

Over the last few months we have had significant problems with PSPWare running in Mac OS X 10.4.10. It no longer works correctly for backing up PSP game saves, especially for games that require PSP Firmware 2.82 and higher. Attempting to use PSPWare to backup that game data results in the software freezing and affecting other active applications.

The last public release of PSPWare was on March 14, 2006, and there have been no subsequent updates to accommodate the later 2.0+ and 3.0+ PSP Firmware releases. Because the last PSPWare update was over 18 months ago, it is now obvious the software is no longer being developed.

With the current bugs and incompatibilities, we advise users to find alternatives for their PSP content management. If your only needs are transferring music from iTunes and converting movies, PSPWare still works for those tasks.