The Playstation 3's next firmware update will be hitting Thursday with some major upgrades including background downloading and better Remote Play support.

The news comes by way of Loot Ninja who tracked it down from Sony of Japan. No official word yet on what or when we'll be getting in the U.S.

But this is what Ninja Loot finds the 1.60 comes with:

* Folding @Home: Now you can participate in the worldwide distributed computing protein folding experiments from Standford University, in hopes to further understand human genetics. You can access the Folding @Home application under Network on the XMB
* Internet Browser Pinpoint Zoom and Resolution Settings: You can now choose to zoom into a portion of a website if you have a huge display and can't read things, or you can set the browser resolution to a different size so everything can be viewed easier
* Full size on-screen keyboard: Makes it easier to type messages and web addresses with the controller
* Remote Plan via Wireless Access Point: People with a 20GB PS3 can now utilize the Remote Play feature with a PSP by using any wireless access point. (No official word if you will be able to use the PSP to access your PS3 at home from anywhere, maybe in a future update)
* Background Downloading from the PlayStation Store: This one is cool. It'll make a big difference when downloading things on the PS3. No longer do you have to sit and wait at the download screen forever. No official word if you can queue up downloads, or if you can load games from disc while downloading.

I can really comment on this stuff until I hear the details of the two biggest items, the background downloading and the extrended Remote Play. Brian Crecente

PS3 Firmware Update V. 1.60 Confirmed and Dated [Ninja Loot]