Hasta La Gadget!

When word first reached Microsoft that the open-source community would hack the Kinect, the company’s response was pretty heavy-handed: “Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products,” a rep told CNET, pledging to “work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant.” But now that Kinect mods blow our minds on a near-daily basis, Redmond has changed its tone. Microsoft’s Alex Kipman told NPR Science Daily listeners that as far as the company’s concerned, the Kinect hasn’t actually been hacked thus far, and that Microsoft actually left the camera’s USB connection unprotected “by design” to let the community take advantage. Though he and fellow Microsoftie Shannon Loftis wouldn’t commit to official PC software drivers for the device, he did say that the company would “partner sooner rather than later” with academic institutions to get the hardware doled out, and suggested that some universities started playing with Kinect even before its commercial launch. Read a transcript of the pertinent section of the podcast after the break, or listen for yourself at our source link starting at the 18:22 mark.

[Thanks, Fred T.]

Continue reading Microsoft: I’m a PC, and Kinect open-source drivers were my idea

Microsoft: I’m a PC, and Kinect open-source drivers were my idea originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Nov 2010 12:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s something deep down inside of us that makes us want to believe Apple has some sort of app plan for Apple TV, and by “deep down inside” we mean “jailbreaking.” Fire Core, the people behind the aTV Flash software package for older Apple TVs, has just shown off its work on aTV Flash (black), a port of its hackery to the new Apple TV. Basically, aTV Flash converts your Apple TV into most of the interesting parts of the Boxee Box, and we’re particularly interested in the “Couch Surfer” browser aspect — at least as far as it can fend off encroaching jealousy for Boxee and Google TV. Unfortunately, the current version of aTV Flash costs $50, and while $50 + $100 is less than a Boxee Box, you don’t have to hack the Boxee to make it work. Hopefully Fire Core will reconsider that price by the time it launches aTV Flash (black), and in the meantime maybe some white knight hacker will get something like this working on Apple TVs gratis. Check out a video of the browser and Last.fm in action after the break.

Continue reading Jailbroken Apple TVs getting Last.fm and a browser, for a price

Jailbroken Apple TVs getting Last.fm and a browser, for a price originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re sorry if you’re like, so over Kinect hacks, but with a million tinkerers just getting warmed up on the thing, we recommend you just get comfortable and try to enjoy it. A new processing app by Chris Rojas takes the distance data and renders objects in neon cubes, with the size of the cube based on the object’s distance from the sensor. Sure, it won’t cure world hunger, but it looks pretty sweet. Of course, that wasn’t good enough, so Chris hooked his app up to TouchOSC on the iPad, which gives him sliders to define and adjust different “planes of interest,” along with the accelerometer input of the iPad to control zoom and pan of the virtual camera. Just don’t get too close to that sensor, Chris, or the MCP might decide to digitize you entirely! Check out the original, iPad-less Box Cloud video after the break.

Continue reading Kinect data massaged into retro-futuristic ‘Box Cloud,’ iPad tilts its way into the action

Kinect data massaged into retro-futuristic ‘Box Cloud,’ iPad tilts its way into the action originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As soon as a novel piece of tech makes it to the masses, it never takes long until hackers start appropriating it for all manner of unintended uses. And that’s exactly what’s starting to happen now with Xbox’s recently-released controller-free gaming system, Kinect.

One such techno-tinkerer is Oliver Kreylos who has developed a method to create 3D rendering based on video collected from the Kinect–in real-time.

This technique allows users to create a fairly impressive 3D rendering of themselves and the surrounding environment (with the one exception that the single vantage point of the Kinect creates some holes or “shadows” in the rendering). The rendered environment can be explored as any digital 3D space, allowing viewers to virtually walk through any area within the Kinect’s view.

The tech works off of C++ code which Oliver has made available on his site under a General Public Use license. This cheap and accessible tech could have various applications down the road–everything from communications to security/surveillance to new forms of social gaming.

Be sure to watch the whole video after the jump to get a full appreciation of the possibilities.

via Hack a Day 

The update wars continue, and call us crazy but it sure looks like Sony is on its heels. The PlayStation 3 firmware version 3.50 was supposed to be the one to really protect the console, forcibly installed with Medal of Honor and reportedly the cause of the latest (and last) Gran Turismo 5 delay. But, it was all for naught, with PS Jailbreak announcing downgrade support for firmware 3.42 and 3.50 “and beyond.” The only question now is: what’s the next firmware version going to be called? Maybe if Sony started naming these updates after delicious pastries we’d be a little less tired of applying them.

Update: To clarify, this will not let you play 3.42 or 3.50 games, but will let you downgrade your firmware from those versions to an earlier, more hackable release.

[Thanks, Mattias]

PS Jailbreak gets support for PS3 versions 3.42 and 3.5, is no firmware safe? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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