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Tech News

Cat leaves bag: PSJailbreak cloned, released, freely available

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The PSJailbreak hardware may be held up by the Australian courts, but to the surprise of no one, the code behind the project has been reverse-engineered and is now freely available online. You'll need the code, a PlayStation 3, and a USB microcontroller in order to open your system. Oddly enough, sales of such devices seem to be in the middle of a spike.

As of this writing, the ability to play backed-up or copied games has been disabled in the code, but that won't last long. The genie is completely out of the bottle, and now that the code is floating around the expected sites, Sony has few options to stop its dissemination.

Once the PlayStation 3 was hacked it was only a matter of time before the software was made available free of charge; there are simply too many risks involved with selling this sort of thing via a standard storefront, and too many people more interested in the software's spread than profit. We have not tried the hack ourselves—and likely never will—so tread very carefully when downloading code from the Internet and using it to attempt to crack your PlayStation 3. There are some very technical details available on how exactly the exploit works if you've ever wondered how the hackers made an end run around Sony's safeguards.

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Sony's new e-readers: who needs wireless?

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Sony has just dropped three new e-reader upgrades on the reading public, but the company seems determined not to compete directly with Amazon's new Kindle 3.

Sony has updated its Pocket Edition (5" screen), Touch Edition (6" screen), and Daily Edition (7" screen), and the new devices all look terrific. They use the same, higher-contrast E-Ink screens seen in the Kindle 3, and Sony doesn't have Amazon's infuriating resistance to supporting the common ePub format.

But Sony isn't competing on price. The Pocket goes for $179 and the Touch for $229, and neither model has either WiFi or 3G radios (WiFi-only Kindle 3s start at $139). If you want wireless capabilities, you'll need to shell out $299 for the upgraded Daily Edition (meant especially for downloading and displaying daily newspaper content).

Sony has decided to market its devices as touchscreens, and has extended that functionality across all three new readers. While this might seem superfluous in an e-reader, it does allow easier navigation of menu options and doesn't require button clicks to turn pages.

In addition, bookstore chain Borders has just dropped the prices on its own e-readers (a basic Kobo model can be had for $129), but most exciting are its new offerings. Coming later this fall, Borders is pushing two color readers, one based on Android, and both with 7" touchscreens, for $199 and $299—though neither have wireless.

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Wil Shipley: "we tried to do too much" for Delicious Library 2

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is, by all accounts, a very successful Mac OS X application. The software has won numerous accolades, including two Apple Design Awards and a Macworld Eddy. Creator Wil Shipley often brags about how much money he makes from sales, and won't hesitate to mention how fun it is to drive the Lotus Elise he bought with profits he's earned.

Despite his bravado, however, Shipley can admit when he makes a mistake. On the release of the 2.5 update to Delicious Library, he told Ars that the ambitious plans for Delicious Library 2.0 ending up resulting in a finished product that, while beautiful and impressive looking, performed poorly for some users. That's why version 2.5 consists largely of bug fixes and performance enhancements, and instead of adding features takes a few away.

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Feature: Enough to forget the Wii? A week with the PlayStation Move

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The PlayStation Move is Sony's answer to the motion control trend. It uses a digital camera called the PlayStation Eye to track the movement of a new controller stuffed with gyroscopes and sensors and magic—all of it topped with a glowing plastic ball.

It's been over a week since my Move review hardware arrived, and I've played games with a variety of people just to gauge their reactions. When holding one of the Move controllers for the first time, everyone I've seen so far has one instinctive response: they give that ball on the top a good, hard squeeze, like it's a clown nose.

The ball doesn't light up until you have the PlayStation Eye turned on and a game begins. Then it glows brightly, and the changing color of the ball often provides in-game information. The glowing ball also adds an extra helping of surrealism to some titles; playing archery, it was almost distracting to have that glowing pink orb so close to my face. During dark sections, I could see the glowing ball reflected on the screen of my television.

The ball sometimes cycles slowly between different colors. At other times it pulses. You can feel the motor inside the force feedback mechanism move in time to the light, as though you're holding the heart of some mechanical, bio-luminescent beast. If you have kids, you are screwed during play time; anyone from the ages of ten on down will gravitate towards that glowing ball, and they won't want to let go. My baby wants to gum on it constantly, while my older kids wave it around like they're at a pre-pubescent rave.

The PlayStation Move is here, ladies and gentleman, and it's pretty damn great.


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iPod FaceTime, touchscreen nano, 99¢ rentals all grist for Apple rumor mill

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Every year in September, Apple reveals its new iPod lineup in time for the holiday buying season. This year's event takes place tomorrow, and the usual rumors about what Apple plans to announce have popped up. Here's a rundown of some of the things we've been hearing in the hours leading up to the reveal.


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Amazon rumored to be prepping a subscription video service

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Amazon might be getting ready to expand its video offerings, according to a report released this afternoon by The Wall Street Journal. Despite facing a wall of "no comments" from every party rumored to be involved, the report indicates that the retailing giant, which already offers sales of popular TV shows, is looking to launch a subscription video service that would operate similarly to its current services, which can be watched on the Web or a variety of video devices.

According to The Journal, Amazon has approached a number of media companies to try to get them to sign onto the plan, which has been pitched in a number of variations. One of the more intriguing ideas is to bundle it in with Amazon Prime, the company's premium shopping service. Although this might cost Amazon money in the short term—its fees to the content providers would have to come from whatever profit it makes on the average Prime customer—it would guarantee the content providers a large audience, and might provide an additional incentive for new and existing Prime customers.

So far, it's not clear if anyone has taken Amazon up on the deal. The company is said to want to have the service in place by the holidays, but may have to revise those plans or scrap them entirely if none of the content providers comes through.

The apparent reticence of the media companies makes for a sharp contrast with the music business, which seemed to be eager to have a subscription service succeed, providing them with an indefinite revenue stream. In contrast to the unified front of the record labels, however, the video producers seem to be very fragmented, experimenting with a variety of ad-supported and paid rental and purchase options. So far, it appears that Amazon hasn't offered them something they feel they can't get somewhere else.

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Deals & Coupons


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Wednesday, 01 September 2010 07:00
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Wednesday, 01 September 2010 00:55
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Holabird Sports has the New Balance 740 BB Men's Running Shoes for $60 + $6 shipping = $66 shipped. Features air mesh upper with synthetic leather ... Read more
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BuyDig.com has the HP Officejet 4500 All-In-One Inkjet Printer for $60 with free shipping. Features printing, copying, faxing, and scanning ... Read more
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Newegg has the Panasonic SDR-SW21 SD Card Standard Definition Shock & Waterproof Camcorder, Orange for $250 with free shipping. ... Read more
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ZipZoomFly has the Sennheiser Street Line MX370 Headphones for $15 with free shipping. Includes storage pouch for headphones & iPod nano and fits all ... Read more
Monday, 30 August 2010 18:42
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Electronics Expo has the Olympus PEN E-PL1 12.3MP Live MOS Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera - black with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko ... Read more
Monday, 30 August 2010 12:42