It turns out those leaked shots of a supposed new firmware for our beloved PlayStation 3 consoles were real. Firmware 3.10 has officially been announced, and includes some nice social networking functionality as well as general UI improvements.

Built-in Facebook functionality will include automatic posts to your account’s feed when you earn new trophies or make a purchase/download from the PlayStation Store. Of course if you are anything like the even casual PlayStation owner this would mean a lot of new posts inundating your Facebook’s wall, so you are asked if you want a purchase broadcasted onto your network of friends. This update will also allow games to automatically update your Facebook with in-game events, much like Uncharted 2 does with Twitter. This is all at the user’s discretion, of course.

Other than Facebook functionality, firmware 3.10 gives users a new grid-based view of photos saved on the console. This allows for an easier way to find the photo you are looking for. The friends list on the XMB has also been tweaked. Only the currently highlighted PSN ID will have a colored background, the color of which is determined by the actual owner of the ID. What are your thoughts on these changes and new features? Stay connected with PlayStation LifeStyle for this and other PlayStation news.

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