iR Shell v2.2

"You read it right, this is the final release of iR Shell. As in nature, everything has a begin & an end, iR Shell is no exception. I've been working on this project since January this year and it's now the time for me to move on and say goodbye to you all. I won't be doing any other PSP homebrew projects and I will probably find some other non programming hobbies for my spare time. I may pick up those radio control airplanes again which I had given up a few years back after a couple of crashes.

Some of you may not aware, the whole iR Shell project started as I tried to look for a PSP homebrew to control my Pentax camera via IR, but couldn't find one. I then decided to make a simple universal remote over a weekend and this gave birth to iR Commander. Later on, iR Commander evolved into a multi-tasking iR Shell and more & more features are added to it. If it's not for my Pentax, iR Shell wouldn't even exist.

From the way I look at it, iR Shell is a pretty stable & mature software under fw 1.5. Although it may not meet everybody's expectation, it certainly took me a lot of time & effort in development and I personally enjoy using it very much. Besides full support for fw 1.5, iR Shell also provides some basic support for 2.x firmware emulation under devhook with ability to multi-task with 2.x UMD game and play your favorite mp3s. This support has been introduced since 2.0 official release, but I didn't mention it in the official release note due to many of other iR Shell functions haven't been fully working under devhook environment. Since this is a final release, I've attached a copy of instructions "devhook.txt" which I had posted in my forum for those who wants to enjoy playing your favorite mp3s under devhook. Pls be warned iR Shell isn't too stable under devhook and it may crash your PSP if you choose an unsupported function. In order to make iR Shell running perfectly under Devhook, a lot of hackings still need to be done in higher firmware, such as support on kernel mode homebrew. When 2.x firmware is fully hacked, I may return back with a few more iR Shell updates to make it more complete.

Finally, I would like to thank you for all your support, especially those that has actively contributed to the project, like AnonymousTipster for his Zip & Rar plugins and redesigned the iR Shell website. Various beta testers for their valuable suggestions and stress testing to make iR Shell as stable as it is now. StoneCut being my favorite and professional tester. His test reports are really impressive and well written. Sometimes it makes me wonder whether he spends more time in writing the reports than the time I spend in development. StoneCut is also very dedicated in helping moderate the forum and help out newbies. Torpie13 for his generous donation for the www.irshell.com domain and free T3 hosting service. All those talented graphics artists, including Triable, Skydew, Terdinglage, Numeror, PSPHax0r9 and other skin makers for giving iR Shell a face lift from the original dull looking interface. And also different plugin makers and their original authors to make full use of the iR Shell plugin system. Their contributions are highly appreciated.

So, enjoy this final release; and as usual, here is an update summary on iR Shell 2.2 Final:

New Features:
- The Homebrew directory can be customized under iR Configurator. You can change it from original /PSP/GAME to anything you like. Pls note if you relocate the homebrew directory, XMB won't be able to launch them.
- You can now organize your homebrews into various sub-folders, such as:
Emulators
Games
General Utilities
WiFi Applications
This will help to organize your homebrews and make it easier to locate a specific one easier. It also helps to speed up the APP view. The sub-folder must be in the syntax of "$name$". The 2 dollar signs are used to signify this is a folder which contains various homebrews.
- The File Manipulation has been updated for the APP view, so that you can create, rename, delete directories as usual. Pls note when you create directory under APP view, you don't need to put dollar signs and the system will add them automatically.
- A new PMP Mod AVC plugin by Magelo. In order to avoid conflicts with the original PMP Mod 2.02. This new AVC plugin will use extension name "AVC" which means you'll have to rename your pmp avc files to name.avc. The original PMP movie files will still be name.pmp.
- A new beautiful skin "Vista Clarity" by PSPHax0r9.

Bug Fixes:
- Fix a bug which cause the inability to launch a 1.5 UMD game from iR Shell.
- There was a bug in the previous public release which caused "hide splash screen" under iR Configurator not working. It's now fixed.
- A log file "debug.txt" in the root directory has been accidentally left in the previous public release. You can manually remove it."