If there is one thing that the PS3 has dropped the ball on is that once you launch a game you could not see if any of your friends were online or access messages sent.  These two basic features on Xbox Live were missing from the PS3.  Well Sony has finally announced that the Xross Media Bar (XBM) will now be accessible with firmware update 2.40.  This firmware update will also be bringing trophies support which is Sony's version of Xbox achievements.  There is no news on when this firmware will be released but I suspect it will come out around E3.

Now i have to say this is a really big improvement to the PS3.  Before once you launched a game you were essentially excluded from your other friends online.  If someone sent you a message you'd have to quit the game and head back to the dashboard to read the message.  For anyone with an Xbox 360 this seemed like a really bad design on Sony's part.  It's surprising that the PS3 came out a full year after the 360 without this feature and then it's not available till 17+ months after it's been on the market. 

Source:
kotaku.com - sony-announces-in game-xmb-trophies-coming-to-ps3-via-240-firmware