Hasta La Gadget!

Just a tad ahead of schedules — perhaps as a macabre assurance this isn’t some April 1st joke — firmware 3.21 for the PS3 is now being seeded to anyone who tries to log onto the PlayStation Network. As far as we can tell, all the update seems to do is remove the “install other OS” option and kill access to anyone who does have another platform dual-booted. Just a friendly reminder, if you fall into that category, be sure to either backup your partition or wait for Geohot to find a workaround.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

PS3 firmware 3.21 is out: say goodbye to ‘install other OS’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading T-shirt modded to let you know when you have new emails, won’t tell you why your friends are avoiding you

T-shirt modded to let you know when you have new emails, won’t tell you why your friends are avoiding you originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Windows Phone 7 Series screwed and chopped onto HTC Touch Diamond (video)

Windows Phone 7 Series screwed and chopped onto HTC Touch Diamond (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking to harness the real power inside of your Pre (or Pre Plus) — and you’ve upgraded to webOS 1.4? If that’s the case, you’re going to love what a couple of Palm-loving hackers have come up with. Namely, a major overclock kernel patch for the device which boosts the CPU speed from a measly 500MHz all the way up to a finger-searing 800MHz (there’s also a more tame 720MHz variation available). The two phone magicians, unixpsycho and caj2008, had previously tapped into the power of the Pre’s CPU on webOS 1.3.5 with a small file that can be semi-easily installed using WebOSQuickInstall and a tiny bit of Linux command-line activity, and now it’s on for 1.4. So far, it looks like phones being tested with the somewhat risky tweak haven’t experienced too much of the normally expected issues (crashes, freezing, phones exploding). Also a surprise is the fact that the creators of the hack say battery life drain is only an additional 2-4 percent hit… though if you’re already struggling to make it through a day, this could be the nail in the coffin. We installed the patch on a Verizon Pre Plus, and we definitely observed a noticeable bump in app load times and improved fluidity when working with the phone — though we’ve already had one major crash. If you don’t mind possibly destroying your phone and must have a faster device right now, you can check out the patch in action and learn how to get it yourself in the video after the break.

Update: From the looks of things, that crash we experienced early on is likely due to a bug in webOS 1.4 and not related to the overclock. Actually, we haven’t experienced any further problems… in fact, the phone is seeming super speedy, and battery life has not taken a substantial hit, verifying caj2008 and unixpsycho’s claims (so far). Someone at Palm should take note — these guys have some good ideas!

[Thanks, G. Scott]

Continue reading Pre gets a nasty 800MHz overclock patch for all 1.4 users to enjoy (at one’s own risk) (updated)

Pre gets a nasty 800MHz overclock patch for all 1.4 users to enjoy (at one’s own risk) (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a story tailor-made for the fear-mongering subset of news media. This week, a pair of gentlemen lured an unsuspecting virgin iPhone to a malicious website and — with no other input from the user — stole the phone’s entire database of sent, received and even deleted text messages in under 20 seconds, boasting that they could easily lift personal contacts, emails and your naughty, naughty photos as well. Thankfully for us level-headed souls, those gentlemen were Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, security researchers performing for the 2010 Pwn2Own hacking contest, and their $15,000 first prize ensures that the winning formula will go to Apple (and only Apple) for further study. Last year, smartphones emerged from Pwn2Own unscathed even as their desktop counterparts took a beating, but this makes the third year in a row that Safari’s gotten its host machines pwned. That said, there’s no need for fear — just a healthy reminder that the Apple logo doesn’t give you free license to click links in those oh-so-tempting “beta-test the new iPad!” emails.

iPhone SMS database hacked in 20 seconds, news at 11 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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