It must be a windy day because the rumor mill is turning at full tilt. Every time a new firmware has come out for the PS3, no matter how big or minor, there have been uppity fanboys demanding to know where the In-Game XMB is. Well apparently it's coming in June. That's according to PSU who has been wrong before (see Firmware 2.0 post). Sony has said though that they intend to implement the feature in the near future. It's expected that the In-Game XMB will be released in Firmware 2.4. Sony is apparently going through the current game library to see if there are compatability issues and an SDK is due out at the end of June to allow new games to take full advantage of it. The SDK apparently allows for user music in games. The main draw behind In-Game XMB is to allow chat without having to quit the game.

One officially announced feature of 2.4 is the addition of a trophy system, similar to the one used on Xbox Live. PixleJunk Eden is said to be listed as the first game to support it. The idea behind all of this is to make PSN competative with the arguably superior Xbox Live. So far, the PS3's online capability has been pretty sparse, though it is still a free service.

Source: PSU

Update: Another rumored feature for 2.4 is the revolutionary In-XMB clock! Development videos seem to show a clock and calendar in the corner of the XMB. I've always found it odd that the PS3 doesn't have a a clock, despite the fact that you can program the date and time into it. Ironically, the menu for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue does and throws in weather as a bonus. It's not often you see software that has a better, more functional menu than the OS.