PS3 firmware 4.30 coming tomorrow

It's been a while since we've seen one of these, hasn't it? Tomorrow, the PS3 is getting yet another mandatory firmware update. Version 4.30 is a minor update which focuses largely on PSN trophies.

Firstly, Trophies will now appear under "PlayStation Network" on the XMB (instead of "Game"), and will show both PS3 and Vita trophies.

4.30 continues the Sony tradition of slowly removing features, too. The Life with PlayStation app will no longer be downloadable, and the app will be discontinued entirely by "the beginning of November 2012." That means PS3 can no longer participate in the Folding@home distributed computing initiative.

"We'd like to thank the more than 15 million users that have participated in the program since it started on PS3 in 2007. PS3 users have donated in total more than 100 million computation hours to the Folding@home project to date, and as a result, contributing greatly to Stanford University's Alzheimer's disease research. Considering the contribution PS3 has made to the project, we decided to retire it as a result of discussions with Stanford University," a statement on the PlayStation.Blog reads.

Vijay Pande, Folding@home research lead at Stanford University, says that it appears the combined computing efforts may lead to a treatment for Alzheimer's. "I'm very excited that the directions set out in this paper do appear to be bearing fruit in terms of a viable drug."