Feb 28

Nintendo 3DS gets torn apart and hacked a day after Japanese launch

Posted in: 3ds, hack, nintendo, nintendo 3ds, Nintendo3ds, teardown, Today's Chili, video
So you just got a Nintendo 3DS following its launch in Japan — what do you do? While most would be content to simply pass the time with Pilotwings for at least a few days, others are a bit more… curious. In that group you’ll find the folks from Tech-On!, who have already torn the handheld apart and even gone the extra mile to examine its 3D display under a microscope — they assume it’s a Sharp parallax barrier display, but weren’t able to confirm it as such. As if that wasn’t enough for a day-old system, YouTube user ayasuke2 has already hacked the system use R4 cards and run unauthorized Nintendo DS games. Head on past the break for some video evidence of that, and hit up the source link below for the complete teardown.

Continue reading Nintendo 3DS gets torn apart and hacked a day after Japanese launch

Nintendo 3DS gets torn apart and hacked a day after Japanese launch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink GamesIndustry.biz  |  sourceTech-On!, TG Daily  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 28

MobileNotifier: iPhone alerts improved (video)

Posted in: app, Apple, hack, ios, jailbreak, Today's Chili, video

If you haven’t jailbroken your iPhone yet then MobileNotifier might just push you over the edge — a place you’re probably already teetering upon given Apple’s pathetic push notification implementation. MobileNotifier beta v3 is a free open-source rewrite of iOS’ notifications from Peter Hajas (lead developer) and Kyle Adams (UI and UX). Perhaps the biggest feature of MobileNotifier is the addition of unobtrusive alerts that appear at the top of your existing app. Unlike Apple’s interfering popups, MobileNotifier alerts can be ignored, leaving them on the display without inhibiting use of the device. You can also take immediate action on alerts or tap them away for later. Pending alerts can be found in the AlertDashboard — the previously unused area above the app switcher, accessible with a double-press of the iPhone’s home button. Pending alert counts are also displayed as a line item on the Lockscreen. We’ve been running MobileNotifier for a few hours. While it’s not perfect (opaque windows?) we have no plans to remove it either. At least not until we see what Apple has in store for iOS 5 which, with any luck, will be revealed on Wednesday for a summer launch. Another screenshot and demo video can be found after the break.

Continue reading MobileNotifier: iPhone alerts improved (video)

MobileNotifier: iPhone alerts improved (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink 9to5Mac  |  sourcePeter Hajas  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 27

Motorola Xoom overclocked to 1.5GHz, eats Quadrant and Linpack for breakfast (video)

Posted in: benchmark, hack, Hacks, honeycomb, mod, mods, motorola, motorola xoom, MotorolaXoom, tegra 2, Tegra2, Today's Chili, video, xoom

Hold on to your hats, gents, because things just got real — that’s a Motorola Xoom in the picture above, clocked at a blazing 1.504GHz. While we highly doubt that’s a new world record of any sort, the dual-core Tegra 2 inside seriously screams at that clockspeed, scorching Quadrant to the tune of 3105 (remember this?) and delivering 47 MFLOPS in Linpack. Oh, and in case you’re curious, this achievement wasn’t some random hack. It was perpetrated for our collective benefit by the master of SetCPU himself, and you’ll find full video proof of his accomplishment below and instructions at our source link. Got root? Then you’re on your way.

[Thanks, Adam B.]

Continue reading Motorola Xoom overclocked to 1.5GHz, eats Quadrant and Linpack for breakfast (video)

Motorola Xoom overclocked to 1.5GHz, eats Quadrant and Linpack for breakfast (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 19:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourcexda-developers  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 27

Man builds machine to push phone buttons from half a world away (video)

Posted in: diy, hack, Hacks, remote control, RemoteControl, Today's Chili, video

If your ambition was to travel the world, and your job to push the buttons of three cellphones located in South Korea, you might go insane. That seems to be what happened to Mok Young Bak, at least, when he invented the crazy contraption depicted in the video above. Called the Caduceus, it’s a telepresence machine that does just one thing — it controls every single button on each of those three phones with a series of servo motors and actuator cables, and moves a pendulum-like webcam so he can clearly see each screen from wherever he happens to be. That way, he can enjoy tourism while leaving his livelihood within reach, at least so long as concerned neighbors don’t assume the terrible din is, say, a killer robot assembly line, and insist that police investigate.

Man builds machine to push phone buttons from half a world away (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 11:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceHack a Day  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 24

Sony PS2 handheld mod looks downright gorgeous, just needs a battery pack (video)

Posted in: hack, handheld, mod, playstation, ps3, sony, Today's Chili, video

Oh, sure — we’ve seen N64 handhelds and PS3 laptops, but how’s about a PS2 handheld? Now that your brain is sufficiently melted, allow us to introduce you to England’s own techknott, also known as the man responsible for the gorgeous piece of playable art shown above. Apparently, this PlayStation 2 handheld was crafted for a client, and in an effort to cut down on costs, doesn’t have a built-in battery pack. That said, it’s still an awful lot more mobile than even a slim PS2, and quite a bit more handsome if we may say so ourselves. Head on past the break for a live action video, and feel free to drop him a line in the source link if you’d love to have one of your own. No discounts promised or implied, though.

[Thanks, Palmer]

Continue reading Sony PS2 handheld mod looks downright gorgeous, just needs a battery pack (video)

Sony PS2 handheld mod looks downright gorgeous, just needs a battery pack (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 07:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceModRetro  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 22

Motorola Atrix root found to be signed, hacking might not be so easy

Posted in: Android, Google, hack, hacked, motorola, Software, Today's Chili

Motorola Atrix root found to be signed, hacking might not be so easyThat the Atrix got itself rooted before it was even available made us wonder just how… receptive it would be to the caresses of the hacker community at large. Sadly we’re finding it’s perhaps a bit more frigid than its friendly demeanor might have lead us to believe. User adlx.xda over at the xda-developers forums has found that the phone’s system files are not encrypted, but they are signed. This will make the process of replacing them and loading custom builds and the like rather more complicated — but surely not impossible.

[Thanks, chaoslimits]

Motorola Atrix root found to be signed, hacking might not be so easy originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink xda-developers  |  sourcexda-developers forum  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 22

PlayStation hackers reportedly able to unban selves, ban others, turn tables

Posted in: hack, hacked, playstation, playstation 3, Playstation3, ps3, sony, Today's Chili
PlayStation hackers reportedly able to unban selves, ban others, turn tables

Just last week Sony said that those found to have hacked their PlayStation 3 consoles would have their PlayStation Network access “terminated permanently.” Harsh words that, unsurprisingly, weren’t too warmly received by the hacking community. Destructoid is now reporting that not only have those tinkerers found a way to unban themselves, but that they can in turn ban any other console they want. There’s apparently a catch, though, with the hackers having to know the unique ID assigned to the other console that they’ll be banning, which makes this sound like perhaps the hack is simply swapping a “good” ID onto a “bad” console, but at this point we have no details on the supposed procedure here. Regardless, if some random girl with a cute avatar hits you up on IM and, after a few minutes of casual conversation, asks you for the serial number on your PS3, think twice before handing over those digits.

Update: We were a little leery about this given Destructoid‘s lack of a source, and thanks to a note from reader Omega we now have what looks to be the actual source — indeed this all is sounding rather theoretical.

PlayStation hackers reportedly able to unban selves, ban others, turn tables originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Geek.com  |  sourceDestructoid  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 21

PlayStation Move, turntable used to track the Earth’s rotation

Posted in: diy, hack, playstation, science, Today's Chili, video
The above pictured contraption, called Copernitron, features a PlayStation Move controller, a turntable, and a homebrew Helmholtz coil (you know, for canceling out interference caused by our planet’s magnetic field). By sending data to a Linux PC via Bluetooth, this bad boy will measure the Earth’s rotation, find geographic north, and determine altitude. Apparently, this is achieved by measuring the controller’s subtle movements as it spins around at 45 RPM. And while the PS Move gyros are much more accurate than those of any other controller on the market, they’re not too accurate: if they were, the designer points out, “ITAR might classify them as missile components. That’s why we can’t have nice motion tracking.” See it in action after the break.

Continue reading PlayStation Move, turntable used to track the Earth’s rotation

PlayStation Move, turntable used to track the Earth’s rotation originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hack-A-Day  |  sourcepabr.org  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 20

Kinect hackers give us iOS-friendly dodgeball and Human Tetris

Posted in: hack, hacking, Hacks, ios, ipad, iPhone, kinect, Microsoft, Today's Chili, video, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7, Wp7, xbox, xbox live, XboxLive

Remember that Microsoft Rally Ball demo from a few days ago that showed Windows Phone 7’s integration with Xbox? Well, the gang at Supertouch has stolen a bit of Ballmer’s thunder with a new Kinect hack that lets you hurl digital orbs at your Kinect-controlling friend using an iOS device instead of a WP7 handset. The graphics for the game and the iDevice controls aren’t nearly as pretty as Microsoft’s cross-platform gaming solution, but the end result is pretty much the same — flingin’ balls with a phone while your friend dodges them courtesy of Kinect.

Meanwhile, Frog Design has added a Human Tetris game to the Kinect’s repertoire where players perfect their Vogue-ing skills by striking a pose to match an approaching cut-out on screen. Finally, all the shape-shifting fun with none of the goofy silver jumpsuits. Vids are after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

Continue reading Kinect hackers give us iOS-friendly dodgeball and Human Tetris

Kinect hackers give us iOS-friendly dodgeball and Human Tetris originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceKinect-hacks (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

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Feb 19

Atrix 4G Hacked Before You Can Even Buy It

Posted in: hack, motorola, phone, Today's Chili

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Following in the steps of the HTC Evo before it, the Motorola Atrix 4G has been hacked to give root privileges before the phone is even available to buy. In more evidence that Android hackers are frequently out-pacing the creators of the phones themselves, the third post in the xda-developers thread where the root was announced was a half-sarcastic “why did it take so long?” 

Right now, this is more of an academic achievement than a practical one for two reasons. First, the actual steps to obtain root privileges haven’t even been released to the public. Second, there is still a good chance that one of the main draws of rooted phones, custom ROMs, will be difficult to install thanks to an encrypted and locked bootloader. 

While rooting your phone is highly discouraged (as it’s likely to cause an increased security risk, break all kinds of terms of service and make your carrier very unhappy) the speed of this announcement is nothing short of astounding. If the amount of interest that the hacker community has in this phone is paralleled by the general public, it looks like Motorola and AT&T might have a winner on their hands.

[via Engadget, xda-developers]

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