As promised, PS3 firmware 2.36 is live. This is a precursor to the very desirable firmware 2.40, which will include in-game XMB. Firmware 2.36, on the other hand, will only improve "system stability when playing select PlayStation format software titles."

PlayStation Network director of operations Eric Lempel has posted an exciting item on the PlayStation Blogs. He has announced that the PlayStation 3 Firmware 2.36 update is coming soon and he dropped some confirmations about the much-anticipated Firmware 2.40.Lempel wasn't quite clear on what exactly Firmware 2.36 does, but he did mention that it stabilizes software performance for some select PS3 titles. What he had to say next, however, was a lot more exciting. It reads:

We’re also happy to officially report that the 2.40 system software update for PS3 will include “XMB” access in-game. The update will also include “trophies,” an exciting new feature that we’ll be providing more details on soon, as well as some other new enhancements. We’ve talked about some of this on the blog previously and know that many of you can’t wait to get your hands on these features. You can expect us to share all of the official details shortly.Sounds awesome. The good times for the PS3 just keep on rolling these days. We'll give you more updates as they come, so stick around.