Ya know, the fact that these are game specific updates and not something implemented via firmware makes me wonder if people are mixing up two entirely different things. Perhaps the "Cloud" feature in Echochrome is entirely unrelated to whatever "PlayStation Cloud" is.

Or perhaps this does have something to do with firmware, and it was added via 2.8. Remember, we heard rumblings that there was a feature in 2.8 that we would care about, but that wouldn't be initially noticeable/useful to us.

I wish I had a functioning ps3 so I could snoop around the XMB. =/

Well I think you're on the right track for the initial implementation of the 'cloud'. Perhaps PlayStation Cloud refers to simply using cloud technology to bring user-generated content instantly, just done by Sony. Of course I fully expect a similar system to what I described in a few years, but for now they are probably playing with the Cloud technology and seeing what they can get away with.