Hasta La Gadget!

Sony’s taken some strong steps against PS3 cracking in the past week — not only has it taken to the courts and won a temporary restraining order against Geohot and fail0verflow for cracking the console, but it also released firmware 3.56, which locked things down again. Unfortunately, that restraining order doesn’t mean anyone else has to stop a-crackin’, and wouldn’t you know it: 3.56 was cracked open in less than a day by KaKaRoToKS, who was behind one of the first 3.55 custom firmwares. Now that the 3.56 signing keys are out, we’d guess updated custom firmware is soon to come — and we’d bet Sony’s lawsuit will just inspire an entirely new wave of people to jailbreak once those hit the scene. Way to put that genie back in the bottle, Sony.

Update: We’re hearing that new custom firmware isn’t on the table quite yet, because Sony changed most of the locks, and is reportedly actually storing the all-important ECDSA private key with random-number cryptography this time around. Be warned: if you upgrade to 3.56, there’s no easy way back down. In related news, Github complied with a DMCA takedown notice to remove KaKaRoToKS’s repositories, so you’ll have to head on over to Gitorious (at our more coverage link) to get at the fail0verflow tools.

[Thanks, Tomi R]

PS3 firmware 3.56 hacked in less than a day, Sony’s lawyers look confused (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the first things that happens after a new platform emulator breaks loose is that a bunch of hackers far smarter than ourselves get hold of it, tear it apart, and port it to whatever’s convenient. In the case of this week’s Android 3.0 Honeycomb preview, “whatever’s convenient” would be the Nook Color, which reigns as perhaps the cheapest decent-quality Android tablet money can currently buy. Naturally, xda-developers has a thread going on the subject as we speak; the current port is said to be really slow and mostly broken — but then again, that kind of describes the current state of the emulator itself. Good news is that the developer says he plans on working on graphics acceleration to improve performance over the weekend, so with any luck, the Xoom might have some unofficial competition before too long. Follow the break for another shot.

[Thanks, s30zgt]

Continue reading Nook Color earns its very early, very unofficial Android 3.0 Honeycomb wings

Nook Color earns its very early, very unofficial Android 3.0 Honeycomb wings originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cutting through the back and forth surrounding Windows Phone 7 tethering are two new hacks, with one being markedly easier than the other to implement. After discovering the option in Samsung’s Focus and Omnia 7 late last year, engineering minds over at xda-developers have now uncovered a method to allow USB internet tethering on HTC’s smattering of Windows Phone 7 handsets. Unfortunately, you’ll need to unlock your device before any of this will work, but the case is definitely different for Dell’s Venue Pro. For that one, you’ll simply need to modify the .INF file — no unlock required. Hit the links below for the devilish details, and try not to set up a P2P farm using your phone’s 3G connection. We hear carriers are none too fond of that foolhardiness.

[Thanks, Lake]

Hack brings USB tethering to HTC Windows Phone 7 devices, Dell Venue Pro originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen hackers use keyboards to deliver malicious code to computers, and we’ve seen smartphones used as remote controls for cars and TV — but we’ve never seen a smartphone disguised as a keyboard used to control a computer, until now. A couple folks at this year’s Black Hat DC conference have devised a clever bit of code that allows a rooted smartphone — connected to a PC through USB — to pose as a keyboard or mouse in order to attack and control the computer. The hack takes advantage of USB’s inability to authenticate connected devices coupled with operating systems’ inability to filter USB packets, which would enable users to thwart such an attack. While utilizing a digital costume to hack a computer is a nifty idea, it doesn’t pose much additional risk to users because the method still requires physical access to a USB port to work — and most of us would probably notice someone plugging a smartphone into our laptop while we’re using it.

[Image Credit: Angelos Stavrou / CNET]

Hackers disguise phone as keyboard, use it to attack PCs via USB originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s here, what looks to be the world’s first attempt at overclocking a Samsung Galaxy Tab. User Bauxite at the always happening xda-developers forums has posted the way to boosting Samsung’s hunk of burning Android up to 1.2GHz — along with some seriously stern warnings:

THIS KERNEL MAY NOT WORK ON YOUR DEVICE, MIGHT DESTROY YOUR DEVICE, MIGHT PUNCH YOUR CHILDREN, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY THIS KERNEL, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

Initial user reports are generally positive but, given the risk and the complexity here we think we’ll be staying at the stock 1GHz speed. For now, anyway.

[Thanks, Alain]

Galaxy Tab gets 1.2GHz overclock, very scary warning originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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