Original scene coder DeanK has witnessed a few changes when it comes to popularity in the scene. Drama aside though his Multiman Backup Manager remains the most widely used piece of homebrew used on jailbroken PS3's. The latest update brings a new code base which results in a smooth and fast new GUI with much improved filesystem support as well. There is still the occasional glitch with the background music but its hardly noticeable any more.

Its easy to see why this is the most frequently installed hombrew when you look at the ever growing list of features. Firstly there is the background FTP service which lets you connect to the PS3 via FTP to upload games, patches or mods easily and without the need for a separate FTP application (OpenFTP) on the XMB. What's nice is the more desktop looking windows and folders based file manager that means copy and moving files on the PS3 has never been easier. Multiman will warn you before altering important files which is a nice touch. So you can remove the old filemanagers from your XMB now as they are not needed.

Obviously its main use is as a backup manager and here it excels with the highest game compatibility so far. This is now working perfectly with all games (some with a little tweaking) and is of course the most popular use for the software.

On top of all that Multiman even has built in compatibility for many of the popular emulators and can also play PSX/PS One game backup so its plain to see why this is probably the PS3's number one homebrew release!

If you have to pick a fault it can only really be the open source drama when it went closed. A decision taken sometime ago when it was modified to use the Cobra dongle and PS2 backups. If open source is your thing then you will probably want to checkout the latest Iris Manager. Maybe not as feature packed but it manages backups just as well and thats what most will be using it for.

Under the web menu item of Multiman's XXMB you will now dee downloadable PKG's which can be downloaded straight to the PS3. Hopefully this will become like the homebrew channel of the Wii where you can easily find all the latest and classic homebrew! A nice feature that can only get better and better as time progresses. Multiman will process the download que in the background while you get on with other things.

Its a new feature so a bit content light at this time but RetroARCH is there and everyone should try this new emulator. RetroARCH especially is fast becoming the one stop emulator for all the popular games consoles, retro computers and arcade games.

Nintendo emulation is handled for the NES and SNES by the bNES core. Classic arcade games are emulated by the Final Burn Alpha emulator core which covers a lot of newer arcade systems as well as the retro classics. Gameboy games and all Sega systems are fully emulated by the built in cores.

Obviously you need a jailbreak for your PS3 before you can access the Install Packages menu and install homebrew.