Filed under: Gaming

Hackers, like life, will find a way. Sony knows that all too well thanks to the PSP, but so far the PlayStation 3 has stood strong in the face of legions of nerds trying to find a way to exploit it. A potentially major breakthrough may have been made, though, as well-known PS3 hacker StreetskaterFU (we’ve no idea what he’s going for with that name — really) has managed to decrypt the beta client for Sony’s PlayStation Home service. Curious devs can now poke around in the files looking for a way to exploit the newish in-game XMB functionality, potentially allowing homebrew apps and game backups without hard drive swapping. There’s no guarantee it will lead anywhere in the end, but you don’t care either way, right? Our upstanding readership would never participate in such heinously illegal activities.

[Thanks, James]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

DeviceVM’s SplashTop “instant-on” OS is based on Linux, even though it’s locked down to only run IM, Skype, media software, and Firefox, and you know what that means — it’s already been hacked wide open. Yep, the clever kids at the Phoronix forums have managed to open up the BIOS-based OS and make it do all kinds of tricks, including run other programs and boot other machines off a flash drive. The hacks are still a little complex, but with ASUS shipping tons of ExpressGate-enabled mobos and laptops and HP’s support in the Voodoo Envy 133, we’d there’s a one-click unlocker in the wild fairly soon. Anyone brave enough to install it on their machines?

[Thanks, george85]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

When von Neumann created the first system of cellular automata in the ’40s it was purportedly to study self-replicating robots. It’s taken this long for someone to finally figure out his true intentions: powering trippy video synthesizers. Enter the CellularRecombomat, a masterful example of circuit bending featuring a VTECH Lesson One, a Zenith portable DVD player, and cellular automata circuit board from synth extraordinaire Critter and Guitari. The genetic parameters (algorithm, width across the grid, and generation lifespan) are adjusted by three antenna-mounted optical sensors based on what’s happening on the screen, meaning this thing effectively plays itself. But, for a little hands-on manipulation, the silver spheres on either side can be touched and caressed to “freak out the video sync and audio in wondrous ways.” Check out a video of those wondrous ways on display after the break.

[Via MAKE]

Continue reading The CellularRecombomat: a cellular automata video synth that plays itself

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

We weren’t too thrilled with the Touch Diamond’s resistive touchscreen when we got a chance to play with HTC’s new hotness, but if you’re envious of that updated soft keyboard, you’re in luck: the Diamond’s ROMs have already been pulled apart and the .cab files are just a click away. Installation is said to be slow and you’ll have to jump through some hoops to switch the default language from Italian, but things will eventually work out for you — although we doubt anyone’s going to be nearly as impressed as if you had a real Touch Diamond.

[Via MobilitySite]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

Although the iPhone Dev Team totally punked us on April Fool’s Day, they were still nice enough to give us an early hands-on (in person!) with a pre-release version of their new Pwnage tool. Pwnage lets you load in any firmware you want, including patched firmwares not signed by Apple — which could lead to everything from custom software distributions to totally new OSs ported over (like, say, Android or Linux). We did what most people are probably going to do, however: we took a brand new 8GB iPhone, unlocked it, and upgraded to the 2.0 firmware, while keeping it active on T-Mobile. It’s not exactly a one-click process, but it’s not all that hard either — although we kind of cheated and had Dev Team members talking us through it. Peep the vid after the break, and check the read links in few hours to get your hands on Windows and Mac versions of the tool.

P.S. -Apologies for the blurry video for the first couple minutes, we didn’t notice that our camera had gotten knocked out of macro mode. You’re not missing much, trust us. Oh, and the only cuts are during loading bars and when we accidentally flashed a phone number and the iPhone’s serial number — we figured you didn’t really want 20 minutes of listening to people sniffle during progress bars.

Read - iphone-dev.org (Pwnage tool creators)
Read - The iPhone Project (hosting the Pwnage tool)

Continue reading Video: The iPhone Dev Team’s Pwnage tool in action

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

[Thanks Andrew, Erica]

Update: Yep, it’s an April Fool’s joke. We’re just going to go offline until April 2nd, peace.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Been longing for a second analog stick on your PSP? Modder LordNico’s got you covered with the Razor X (seriously, where do these guys come up with their names?), a user-installable analog stick that appears to mimic the functions of your standard four button pad. (In other words, getting the games to take advantage of the controls is another matter entirely.) Apparently details of the mod will be released soon enough for those brave enough to consider relocating their power switch to the start button — yikes.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Details are still sparse (and primarily in Japanese), but our Tokyo bureau just let us know that Sony’s announced a fairly severe security vulnerability on the PlayStation Network, which would actually allow an attacker to access your account, personal information, and Wallet — but not your credit card on file — as well as change your password. Damn. More on this as it develops; in the mean time, keep a close eye on that account.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

That Skullphone billboard hack we saw yesterday had everyone at Engadget HQ pretty impressed with the corporate-pranking hijinks. Too bad it turns out that Skullphone is actually a phony (and total buster, we might add) who had to pay The Man (aka Clear Channel) cold hard cash to “glitch up” the digital billboards. According to Curbed LA (and our reliable tipsters / commenters), Skullphone paid the massive media conglomerate for one-day Los Angeles-wide ads — there was no hacking involved at all. From now on, he should just leave the signage-goofing to the pros, or at least make it clear there’s some money changing hands. Fool us once, shame on you… and… we won’t get fooled again.

[Thanks, Dakota]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’ve gotten pretty used to seeing crashed digital billboards and signage dot the landscape, but just like regular billboards, what’s really interesting is when the graffiti artists manage to get their own messages up on the big (big) screen. Looks like Clear Channel is the latest victim - 10 LA-area billboards owned by the media giant started displaying the logo of 18-year-old graffiti artist Skullphone last Thursday, slotted innocuously within the regular ad rotation. Sure, it’s not quite at the anarcho-political level of the Billboard Liberation Front and their ilk, but every great leap begins with just a small step, no? Hit the read link for tons more photos.

[Via Textually.org]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Today’s Wii homebrew hotness comes by way of Team Twiizers, whose new hack takes last week’s GameCube-free loader and enables custom channel icons that load hacked apps just like that. Getting from point A to point B still isn’t a cakewalk yet, though; you still have to load the Zelda / Twilight hack and use it to reboot your Wii to get that app into the channel space. Video after the break, which quickly demonstrates getting a custom app-launching channel (which in this example happens to use the Mii channel icon).

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in, via Wii News]

Continue reading Wii homebrew inches along, now has rudimentary channel support

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Handhelds

You know, the Kindle runs Linux, has USB, uses all standard processors and chipsets, even comes with free built-in EV-DO — you’d kind of think that stuff (and all the rest) would make it about as high a profile target for hardware modders and hackers as there are. So what gives, why hasn’t the hacker community glommed onto this thing? Hit the poll: anyone can answer, but we really want to hear from the über-geeks in the house why the call to Kindle has gone unheeded.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Home Entertainment

There isn’t (yet) a way to hack Apple TV v2 (aka take 2), but if you were patient enough to wait for the “safe” PatchStick upgrade on your hacked unit, Safari HD is ready to go. Good luck, and take care, after those weeks of waiting for the new update it sure would suck to brick that device.
Read - Safe update for Apple TV v2
Read - Safari HD available

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones

We’re not yet entirely sure how it works, but iPhone hacker Zibri’s just released a new app he’s calling ZiPhone, which claims to jailbreak any version iPhone — including new 1.1.3 phones right out of the box — without messy downgrades and baseband changes. We haven’t tested it ourselves, but prepare for the onslaught of downloaders to take it offline in five… four… three…

[Thanks, Tyler and Eugene]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Just because Polaroid isn’t going to sell you film for your camera anymore doesn’t mean you have to go Zink and toss your analog. Geek Technique’s got a guide — surely the first of many — to transforming an old Polaroid into a digital camera (in this case, a USB-connected webcam).

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Sure, this little hack requires more than basic soldering skills and you’ll need an actual synth for sound output, but we’ve always been intrigued by the Stylophone David Bowie used to write songs on, and now we can build one. The 29-note “keyboard” is really just an exposed circuit trace, and completing a circuit by touching the metal stylus to one of the keys sends voltage to your synth and lets you get glam in the comfort of your own home. Complete instructions at the read link, and a video of Bowie in action after the break (it’s at the very end).

[Via MAKE]

Continue reading Build your own Stylophone, be slightly more like David Bowie

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

PSP hackers will probably be pleased to learn that the next step has supposedly been taken by homebrew hacker Dark_AleX, who claims (with video!) to have the original and most hackable PSP firmware ever, v1.50, running on the new PSP slim hardware. The YouTube clip is posted after the break; take it as you will, but c’mon, it’s an eventuality.

Continue reading PSP slim gets super-hackable PSP firmware v1.50?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Judging from the fairly consistent stream of comments on our “MovieBeam is dead” post, there are quite a few of you out there looking to hack your now-defunct MovieBeam hardware — which strikes us as a somewhat quixotic effort, but then again, so was the entire MovieBeam enterprise. Anyway, it looks like some solid progress is starting to be made, with a dev wiki up and running, and instructions for getting into the hard drive, netbooting, gaining shell access, and even running custom code posted up. It’s all at the read link, for those of you still chasing the dream.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Google told us that we wouldn’t see any Android devices until the end of the year, but a funny thing happens when you put up the entire SDK and an emulator for a platform — all them crazy hackers start hacking. Apparently Android was natively booted on a Freescale-based dev board called the Armadillo 500 back in November, but the floodgates were really opened when a Hungarian group called Eu.Edge discovered that basically any device with an ARMv5TE chip could run Google’s baby. Armed (heh!) with that information, tinkerers around the world have gotten a variety of Sharp devices running Android: the SL-C760, C3000M, SL-C3000 series, and the SL-6000 have all been confirmed running the OS. Hopefully that means we’ll be seeing a lot more unofficial Android devices soon — check a couple videos after the break.

Read - Overview of Android hacks
Read - Instructions on booting the Sharp Zaurus SL-C760
Read - Instructions on booting the Sharp SL-C3000 series

Continue reading Android hacked to run on real hardware

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Gaming

Check out this sweet, sweet Guitar Hero mod by one Aaron Skillman, who whipped up a portable turntable controller in his garage one weekend. Instead of using the strum bar, you hit notes by scratching forward or backward. Since this baby is portable you can tote your alt instrument over to a friend’s place and turn co-op Guitar Hero into Rock Band lite. Video after the break.

[Via CNET]

Continue reading Guitar Hero portable turntable controller

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments