23 places to get free PSP content (legally!)

As Civilization taught us, money makes the world go around. But it can't have taken long after the introduction of gold pieces way back when, for someone to realise the simple universal truth – free things are better.

It still holds today, and thankfully there are plenty of ways of making your PSP weightier without making your wallet any lighter
Official Sony freebies You might be surprised to see what free goodness has the Sony brand stamped on it. From official movie clips to game demos, there's a lot out there that they won't charge you a penny for.

Playstation.Com Shop – Ape Escape and Killzone demos, WipEout Pure music downloads and a whole host of other freebies await in Sony's main downloads base.

Sony Pictures – The home of Sony's silver screen endeavours has plenty of PSP-formatted clips and wallpapers from a great lineup of films.

PSP Connect – A huge collection of films syndicated and formatted from all over the web – comedy, horror, animations and more.
Free films, music, TV and radio Not everything has the Sony seal of approval, of course, and the PSP plays host to a number of great websites that give your PSP some sound and vision for free.

Atom Films – Free film downloads that are a little different to what you might find on Sony Pictures. Mini-documentaries and art-like montages are just a few of the movies available to download.

PSP Playlist – A movie archive of lighter, shorter clips, as well as some game and movie trailers you might not see elsewhere.

Heavy – A YouTube-like mix of strange films, popular clips and bizarre videos of cats. Some sponsored channels fill the site with some regular features, too. FeedYourPSP – A magazine designed especially for the PSP, with interviews, short films and other extras available to download directly from their site. BBC Online – Still experimenting with online content, the BBC have some shows offered as podcasts including regular newscasts, Radio 4's The Now Show and many of Radio 1's music programming.

Virgin Radio – Virgin Xtreme pushed a number of unsigned bands in their podcast, The Edge, which you can access online, but the podcast is set to return soon too.
Gratis graphic novels and e-books The portable, digital nature of the PSP means that you can pack a lot of images and text onto a little stick and cart it around with you. Already many budding artists and authors are converting their work and making it available for free.

NYC2123 – One of the earliest comics the came to the PSP, the dark sci-fi plot and strong visual styling of NYC2123 are spread across six issues, all free and all PSP-sized. Komikwerk – A collection of six comics, all with different plots and artists. The comics are syndicated from the main site's collection. Ctrl-Alt-Del – One of the web's bigger comics born out of the gaming scene has been especially formatted for the tinier screens, with frequent updates and more freebies from the comic on the main site.

PSP Image Sequencer – If you want to add your name to the list of PSP Comic publishers, this handy application will help get images to display and package properly on the console.
Have it for nothing homebrew To really squeeze the most out of the PSP without paying for it, you'll need to get into homebrew, and open up your PSP so you can run home-coded applications on it. Some Pocket Gamers will already have got into the DS Homebrew scene, and PSP homebrew is just as rich and varied.

The downside is you need to mess about with your firmware to run homebrew, which is not to be done lightly and can impede your ability to play new games. The good bit? Most homebrew coders offer up their efforts for nothing.

WorldView – A Google Earth-like map browser, whose beta PSP version is now available online. iPSP – Superb media management software for both Mac and Windows platforms, which help organise and update media on your PSP, as well as making running homebrew applications even easier. ZX-81 – A prolific coder who's written everything from a scientific calculator to a game of Mancala. YAHP – Yet Another Homebrew Pack includes a huge collection of emulators, from full platforms such as the SNES down to individual games like Doom. PSP Rhythm – "A complete music workstation in the palm of your hand" – a neat music-creation package with an impressive collection of features. Webserve – Quick and easy filesharing between PSPs or your PC. There's no security on the connection in the current build, but it's an easy way to manage your PC with your PSP. PSPRadio – With a dedicated team coding and supporting it, PSPRadio is well-updated and continues to support a great range of web-based radio. SimpleAmp – Streamlined and stable music playing and management on the PSP. Java4PSP – A co-operative project set on bringing the Java Micro Edition platform in its entirety to the PSP.