Wow. It’s only taken them two years to get it, but the in-game cross media bar (XMB) is officially coming to firmware 2.4.
PS3 launched on 11.17.2006 in the US (and a day earlier in Japan), and without these features, you actually had to leave your games to see any messages your friends sent you. That may not seem like a big deal, but most of the time those messages consist of “Wanna play <some game>?” The inability to read those invites without first quitting your game pretty much kills any chance of ad-hoc online gaming sessions.
Also notable: custom game soundtracks. I don’t use it often, but when a game’s included soundtrack starts to get on my nerves, this is a welcome feature.
Edit: I forgot to mention XMB access to Google. This’ll be handy for access to FAQs and walkthroughs. Nice :)
I would thank and congratulate you Sony, but the fact that it took you 21 months to bring it out tells me that your priorities lie elsewhere and makes me feel unloved.