Sony of Japan dropped a press release today to date the upcoming PS3 Firmware Update v1.60. Everyone has been looking forward to this “big” update that has long been promised, so let’s see what they had to say…

The new firmware will be released on March 22, 2007. The press release mentions it’ll be released in the afternoon, which I’m assuming is just for Japan.

Details of the firmware update are as follows (from Babelfish translation):

• Folding @Home: Now you can participate in the worldwide distributed computing protein folding experiments from Standford University, in hopes to further understand human genetics. You can access the Folding @Home application under Network on the XMB
• Internet Browser Pinpoint Zoom and Resolution Settings: You can now choose to zoom into a portion of a website if you have a huge display and can’t read things, or you can set the browser resolution to a different size so everything can be viewed easier
• Full size on-screen keyboard: Makes it easier to type messages and web addresses with the controller
• Remote Play via Wireless Access Point: People with a 20GB PS3 can now utilize the Remote Play feature with a PSP by using any wireless access point. (No official word if you will be able to use the PSP to access your PS3 at home from anywhere, maybe in a future update)
• Background Downloading from the PlayStation Store: This one is cool. It’ll make a big difference when downloading things on the PS3. No longer do you have to sit and wait at the download screen forever. No official word if you can queue up downloads, or if you can load games from disc while downloading.

Overall, not a very impressive update. Sony talked up a big March update to the system, and they really aren’t adding much, other than the background downloading. I’m assuming v1.60 will also include backwards compatibility data for PAL consoles without the PS2 hardware.

So, Sony, where’s the rest of the big updates? This one just brings an “eh” from me.