MyGadgetNews » PS3

PlayStation 3 Hacker Releases Homebrew Collection; More To Come

_GadgetNews — Wed, 25 May 2011 01:59:01 +0000

A PlayStation 3 hacker by the name of KaKaRoToKS recently released an SGTPuzzles PS3 homebrew port of Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection dubbed the Humble Homebrew Collection, which currently includes 33 puzzle games for both jailbreak and PS3 CFW (PlayStation 3 custom firmware) users. The collection of apps it provides can be used on a jailbroken PlayStation 3, Linux, Windows, Mac, or Android.

This is what the “The Humble Homebrew Collection” website says:

The Humble Homebrew Collection is an initiative that aims to convince Sony to provide us with a legitimate and official way to create homebrew applications for the consoles that we own.

We are providing you with a free homebrew game that aims to be polished and look professionally made which includes 33 very good and addictive puzzle games. We’ve tried to make this homebrew games collection as good as possible so that even the anti-homebrew purists will be jealous of it.

Homebrew does not equal piracy, and this is proof of it. These games are all free and are released under the MIT license.

The main purpose of this website it to serve as a petition against Sony’s unjust behavior towards their customers. You are encouraged to sign the petition, donate to the developers or you can simply download the games. The choice is yours.

Let Sony know that, as a customer, you want homebrew games, you want to see the real purpose of the Copyright Law used properly: To encourage creativity and innovation. Let them know that, as a customer, you are willing to pay for quality homebrew and that if they wanted to, they can get a share of that money. After all, all they care about is money

According to KaKaRoToKS, more games are being written for this PlayStation 3 game collection and it will continue to receive regular updates with the to-do list detailed below:

To-do List:

High priority:

Add an about page
Fix performance issues, need 30/60 fps on full redrawns on 1080p now it’s around 1 or 2 fps…
Add a way to enter numbers/letters for Solo/Unequal/Keen/Towers games
Fix game help by using FreeType and supporting utf-8 chars correctly.

Medium priority:

Add a ‘resize screen’ at boot (some tvs crop the left size of the screen)
Redo a cleaner design of the user interface
Recognize when a game is completed and show a message+play sound.
Check if a game is solved and allow easy ‘new game’

Low priority:

the save/load thread seems to crash (get interrupted) if we do a quit from the xmb while the save/load menu is open

Download Humble Homebrew Collection Apps:

Download: HumbleHomebrew / GIT

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Sony’s PSN Password Reset Page Has Been Compromised

TechHead — Wed, 18 May 2011 18:42:37 +0000

According to reports coming in from Eurogamer, NeoGaf, and Nyleveia Sony’s PlayStation Network password reset system (the one that was put into place after the PSN hack) has been compromised, allowing hackers to change a PSN password if they know your email and date of birth. This information was exactly the same information that was released in the original hack. As a result, Sony has taken the password reset system offline.

The good news here as pointed out by NeoGAF’s “Metalmurphy” is that if your account was compromised, you should have gotten an email from PSN stating that your password has been reset. Furthermore, an official community moderator on the EU PlayStation forums noted that the following services are currently offline:

PlayStation.com
PlayStation forums
PlayStation Blog
Qriocity.com
Music Unlimited via the web client
All PlayStation game title websites

Since the services are currently offline and won’t be up until the bug being exploited is fixed, the executable that was being used to trigger the exploit was the following:

Navigate to : https://store.playstation.com/accounts/reset/resetPassword.action?token (this is normally, via email, https://store.playstation.com/accounts/reset/resetPassword.action?token=YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY with the y’s being a unique token) – do not enter the code at this point.
Open a new tab in firefox, and go to fr.playstation.com (other pages will work too most likely), and click Login (Connexion)
Click Recover password
Enter the email and date of birth of the target account
Click continue, then on the confirmation page, click “Reset using E-mail”
Switch back to the original tab, and enter the code, then click continue
You will now be asked to enter a new password for the target account

Sony further clarified that no hack was involved for the whole process. Instead it was just a URL exploit which they have claimed to fixed already. Still, we can’t help think about how Sony would let something like this happen so shortly after an already devastating downtime. What do you PSN users think? Do you feel safe using Sony’s services? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

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Sony’s “Welcome Back” Package Announced For PSN Users

TechHead — Wed, 18 May 2011 00:52:07 +0000

Sony recently released details of their PlayStation Network “Welcome Back” package for North American customers, with PlayStation Plus service and free games as the order of the day.

Offered by a way of a thank you for sticking ar0und with the company through the PlayStation Network downtime, Sony is offering a free month’s subscription to their PlayStation Plus PSN upgrade for users who don’t currently subscribe. Existing customers will have a month’s usage added to their account free of charge. More interestingly, the company is offering two free games to download from a list of five for PlayStation 3 owners and four for PSP owners. There is currently no mention as to whether owners of both consoles can take a total of four free games though, so we will have to wait and see how that one pans out.

The games available for North American gamers are:

PlayStation 3 (PS3):

Dead Nation
inFAMOUS
LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
Super Stardust HD
Wipeout HD + Fury

PlayStation Portable (PSP):

LittleBigPlanet (PSP)
ModNation Racers
Pursuit Force
Killzone Liberation

Along with the offer of the free games and the PSN Plus subscription, Sony is also offering an “On Us” weekend where a selection of movies will be available to watch for free. The titles that will be available have not yet been announced as of yet. Fans of Sony’s PlayStation Home will also be pleased to hear that the company is giving away 100 free virtual items for your pleasure.

While free stuff is always welcomed, we can’t hep but think that many would rather Sony have just prevented the whole downtime fiasco in the first place.

Sony fans in North America can read the full press release here while European and Latin American users should check their respective PlayStation blog posts for information on what they will be offered.

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GeoHot Donates Money Collected For Lawsuit To EFF

_GadgetNews — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:51:29 +0000

As we already know that Sony vs GeoHot Lawsuit has reached an upexpected settlement. George Hotz was facing a trial against Sony for jailbreaking PlayStation 3 firmware 3.55 and had asked his followers for donations to face the trial against Sony. As the case has settled down now, he has decided not to return money to the people who had made the donations, instead he has transferred all the money which is $10,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is an organization that fights for freedom in the world of technology.

This is what he has posted on his blog:

As promised, all left over legal defense money, plus a little to bump it to a nice number, has been sent to the EFF. Thank you all so much for your support, without it, things could have been much worse.

This money goes to the EFF in hopes that America can one day again be a shining example of freedom, free of the DMCA and ACTA, and that private interest will never trump the ideas laid out in the constitution of privacy, ownership, and free speech.

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Geohot And Sony Reach Unexpected Settlement

_GadgetNews — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:02:40 +0000

The whole GeoHot and Sony fiasco is now a thing of the past. Out of nowhere, headlines today revealed the infamous iDevice and PS3 hacker; George “GeoHot” Hotz and Sony have apparently patched things up. In fact, the two parties are coming to terms with their recent high-profile legal grudge match and settling matters peacefully. Both Sony and GeoHot released a joint statement heralding a conclusion to the courtroom showdown that has been dragging along for weeks now. “The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011,” the statement reads. “As part of the settlement, Hotz consented to a permanent injunction.”

Some of you are probably wondering what this means. It’s safe to assume that GeoHot agreed to stop hacking any and all Sony products, an outcome that raises the question of the legality of jailbreaking once again. If a hacker agrees to an injunction to stop what Sony calls an “illegal activity“, the precedent suggests that others attempting to jailbreak the PS3 (or other devices) might be held up to a similar prosecution. These are all questions that undoubtedly will soon surface in another court case involving jailbreaking.

“Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us,” said Riley Russell, General Counsel for SCEA. “Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal.”

“It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,” Hotz added, “I’m happy to have the litigation behind me.”

“We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment and we want to protect the hard work of the talented engineers, artists, musicians and game designers who make PlayStation games and support the PlayStation Network,” added Russell. “We appreciate Mr. Hotz’s willingness to address the legal issues involved in this case and work with us to quickly bring this matter to an early resolution.”

For those of you who are interested in reading the full joint statement, you can do so on the PlayStation blog by clicking here. As usual, stay tuned by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or subscribing to our RSS feed.

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GeoHot’s Legal Team Takes A Shot Sony

_GadgetNews — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:20:36 +0000

The popular hacker George “GeoHot” Hotz isn’t going down without a fight in the epic jailbreaking legal battle with Sony. He has been subjected to some serious full court pressure by Sony Computer Entertainment America, which is actively seeking to have the case heard in California, conveniently located just outside the company’s headquarters. Stewart Kellar, GeoHot’s lawyer, has finally stepped up to the plate publicly by blasting Sony for demanding that the case be heard in California. Not only would it be “a hardship for Hotz to travel there,” it would “set a precedent for companies being able to sue anyone, anywhere, on relatively flimsy grounds,” the International Business Times reports.

Kellar went beyond just criticizing the PS3 maker for trying to relocate GeoHot for court. Kellar also says that SCEA “isn’t even a subsidiary of Sony Japan (the actual producer of the PlayStation 3) and the “entity that should be suing.” In addition to arguing why SCEA shouldn’t be upset with GeoHot, Kellar is seemingly asserting that SCEA doesn’t have much to do with the matter, at least in the sense that everything in the PlayStation’s “system, software, and packaging all point to Sony Japan as the producer.”

The latest efforts by GeoHot’s legal team represent some degree of good news of the infamous hacker, who was accused of “fleeing the country” to evade authorities last week, critics contended. GeoHot rebuffed the mainstream media reports by noting that his vacation was in the works for months and that he was in touch with his lawyers for the duration of his trip.

Do you think GeoHot has a chance of helping pave the way for the jailbreak community? Or do you feel Sony has the upperhand and things will remain that way? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

As usual, stay tuned for more news and info on the topic by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and/or subscribing to our RSS feed.

[Source: International Business Times]

[How To] Log In To The PlayStation Network (PSN) With A Banned PS3

_GadgetNews — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 19:23:16 +0000

Were you one of the many people who managed to get their PlayStation 3 banned from the PlayStation Network? It is probably pretty annoying to be missing out on all the demos and media which could be at your fingertips. Well now there might just be some hope of you being able to fix the issue thanks to a post over at PS3Hax.

This is confirmed to work if the error you are receiving when trying to access the PSN is error 8002A227. What you will need is the PS3DNS-GUI and PSID.

Disclaimer: This article is purely for informational and testing purposes only. We at MyGadgetNews did not create the hack, nor do we endorse or promote the use of it. We are not responsible for any bans that may occur, or the inability to sign-in to PSN. Use it at your own risk only.

How To Log In To PlayStation Network (PSN) With A Banned PS3:

Download the above mentioned required files.
Run PS3DNS-GUI and choose your IP and region.
Go to Tools –> Rewrite –> PS3DNS –> eth0 –> Rules –> Add
Enter every field just as it is in the image below. The part that says ‘original console ID’ will need the ID from the banned machine (no spaces)
Change the last digit of your ID to 1 then hit OK.
On your PS3 and in your network settings, enter your DNS as your PC’s IP. Turn on Proxy and enter your PCs IP as the Host and 8888 in Port.
Try to log in to PSN – you should sign in fine.
Open PSID and press Square. (This changes your console ID to a random one)
You should now be able to enter the PSN Store.
Confirm that you have your original console ID in PSID.

If all works out in your favor that should do the trick. If you do have any problems, check out the PS3Hac post where there are loads of comments with people getting the method to work and helping each other through the process.

Fingers crossed, and that should do the trick. Any problems please do visit the PS3Hax post – there are loads of comments there with people getting the method to work and helping each other through the process.

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GeoHot And His Legal Team Claim Sony Is Misleading The Court

_GadgetNews — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 06:02:26 +0000

We are pretty sure George (GeoHot) Hotz did not expect Sony to bring a lawsuit to the table when he first started jailbreaking the PlayStation 3. The latest installment of this never-ending drama brings news from Ars Technica, where GeoHot and his lawyers believe Japanese giant Sony is misleading the courts in their quest to ensure proceedings continue in their home-town of San Francisco and not where Hotz resides. Sony continues to insist that Hotz agreed to the terms of using the Sony SDK, which is in turn linked to Sony’s US offices in California. The link you may ask is Sony’s US offices are named as the place to look to for SDK support, which seems to be a bit of a stretch. After receiving permission from a judge, Sony will be looking through GeoHot’s computer hard drives along with his Pay Pal dealings in the hope they can link the hacker to California.

Sony also seems to be dragging its heels when it comes to providing a copy of the PS3 SDK to lawyers, insisting that they must visit Sony to see it – and only then under an NDA:

Trying to lock this down may be trickier than it seems. Hotz’s lawyers would like a copy of the SDK to look through to determine the exact wording included, while Sony is trying to limit access to the SDK by arguing that the lawyers can only see it under NDA, at Sony’s offices. Moreover, Sony is arguing that they should be able to look through the entirety of Hotz’ hard drives and search his e-mail looking for evidence of communication with parties in California.

Many are now starting to lose patience with Sony’s persistence in trying to link the case with California. Unfortunately there is no end in sight as of yet. What do you think of the whole ordeal? Let us know in the comments below!

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[Source: Ars Technica]

Sony Grants Access To Two Years Of GeoHot’s PayPal Records

TechHead — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 06:37:39 +0000

Recently, we reported that Federal Magistrate Joseph Spero officially authorized Sony to subpoena GeoHot’s web provider to secure the official log of IP addresses that visited GeoHot.com between January 2009 and early 2011. In addition to Sony being given access to this information, the PS3 maker is about to delve even deeper into GeoHot’s personal records. This week Sony was also granted access rights to all of GeoHot’s PayPal records for 2009, 2010, and even January of 2011.

The reason Sony was given access to GeoHot’s personal PayPal log is the same reason the company was similarly handed all of the other data it requested. According to Sony, the information will help determine whether the company should sue George “GeoHot” Hotz in New Jersey or San Francisco. NJ is GeoHot’s home state, but San Francisco is where his jailbreak files were allegedly most downloaded (plus, San Francisco is also close to Sony headquarters and a trial close to home would be nice.) If you are also wondering about what is going on, you aren’t alone. After all, Sony is looking into more than 24 months of PayPal records even though the primary hack they’re upset about is only a few months old. Nonetheless, even on the heels of Sony’s latest over-the-top effort to publicly embarrass GeoHot in front of the entire jailbreaking community, few are expressing outrage over Sony’s ability to acquire this relatively sensitive information all for the sake of making an example out of a hacker.

What do you think of the whole ordeal? Let us know in the comments below!

[Source: Case Docket, Geohot, Register]

PlayStation 3 Firmware 3.60 Jailbroken Within A Week

TechHead — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:25:06 +0000

PlayStation 3 on version 3.60 has been jailbroken in less than week after Sony released security update to patch all exploits. PS3 hacker Winocm has posted a video that show jailbroken PS3 in action. However, this jailbreak will never be released, as cited by hacker. The PS3 firmware v3.60 was rolled out for PlayStation 3 users on 9th March, 2011 as a system update in order to patch Jailbreak vulnerabilities. With this update, PlayStation Plus subscribers were allowed to boot saved games into the cloud.

After Sony’s legal action against GeoHot and graf_Chokolo, most of the hackers are stepping back from PlayStation 3 jailbreaking scene.To avoid Legal mess with Sony, the video has been taken down. Before he closed his Twitter account, the folks over at GadgetsDNA managed to capture the screen shot of his tweet which was also re-tweeted by infamous PS3 hacker:

What is your take? Should he release the PS3 3.6 exploit or not? Why?Let us know in the comments below!