wow! who would have guessed that begining a rollout of new hardware at my ‘real’ job would be so busy? hehehe.  i apologize for the lack of updates last week; i had a ton of great posts brewing in my head but didn’t get the time to actually materialize them.  

this week i hope to follow up to my previous PS3 vs HTPC post with the HTPC look.  I finally got my Vista Ultimate up and going on that machine and now think that will make for a more fair comparison.

also, expect to see an Eee pc related posts on how I am using mine and a few useful windows xp tweaks for the Eee.

and finally, i hope to have a few ‘breaking’ pieces where i hope to dismantle my PS3 (which is now out of warranty and still having  a few freezing problems; want to see if problems are due to blocked airflow in case or dust/smoke) and also plan to take apart my new work Dell Latitude XT tablet.  Now if only work would slow down to let me get these babies going!

life, fanboy, review, tablet pc, eee, htpc, blogging, opinion, gaming, modding, culture, ps3, windows | 5 Comments »

if there is one name in the PSP hacking world that almost everyone knows, its Dark_Alex..Dark_Alex imo is a pure PSP coding genius.

up until CFW 3.90 M33 was released, i did my CFW updates manually by putting the installers on my duo… however, with 3.90 M33, i’ve decided that to update to M33-2 via the Network Update feature.

keep reading for the embedded quick vid on doing the update and me rambling on about PSP and PS3 connectivity.
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geek, culture, fanboy, console, modding, gaming, psp, hardware | 1 Comment »

well, sadly after nearly 2 years, my Sony Cybeshot DSC-T9 finally died.  of course, it had to be the first day on my vacation in Mexico and caused by me jumping into the ocean and landing on my camera and the sport/waterproof housing… (note to self, not seamonkey-ass proof though..)  

salt-water and electronics do not go very well, but even though my camera’s lcd did not light up and only turned on by opening the front cover and then powering on; it still took some decent shots and video. 

however i decided that after i got back from my trip, i would put it out its misery and ‘try’ to fix it by a nice disassemble of my Cybershot DSC-T9.. btw, i didn’t fix it… but am now waiting for the Sony Cybershot DSC-T300 (has the BIONZ sensor which is in the SLR versions) to be released in Mar and hopefully go down a bit i apr.  in the meantime, i’m trying to get me a used DSC-L1 to tie me over till apr (just a 4mp but its so nice and tiny and took great pics, i had one a while back).

anywho back to the disassemble, pics and notes below.  enjoy!

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culture, life, cybershot, geek, handheld, hardware, modding, general gadgets | 1 Comment »

todays video post will be a look at my PS3 running v2.10 firmware and my PSP running CFW 3.90 M33 (Dark Alex styled) and Remote Play. 

i’ll be honest and admit that i’ve contemplated selling my PSP on quite a few occasions but right when i’m about to break down and do it, i stop myself.  the main reason i always stop myself is the potential for its bonding w/the PS3 and Remote play.  Only a very few games even support remoteplay and gaming (Lair supports remoteplay, you can play Lair on your PSP w/remoteplay) and if your running CFW its a hit or miss game depending on if a sony ps3 update will change code related to remoteplay apps (like last update and cfw 3.70, however there were ways around that).

anywho, the video below just shows a few of the newer features of the remoteplay including using the Gaia screensaver for music. 

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culture, geek, ps3, fanboy, PlaystationStore, console, modding, psp, gaming, music, opinion, mobile, hardware | 3 Comments »

really, how? i’ve been very curious about this lately since i’ve been working with quite a few ‘experts’ at work.  so, off to the web i went to see if there were any articles or posts on this question.

my search yielded a very good article from Matthew Moran on this topic.

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culture, blogging, random, geek, modding, web, gaming, opinion, general gadgets | 2 Comments »

Well, i’ve been working off and on with my W810i (make that 2, long story w/the whole one not working an then buying a 2nd used one on ebay and then frankensteining the best parts from each into a ‘new’ W810i, mwaa) and trying to hack it.

the best site to for CID49 hacking is one of my hangout sites, http://se-nse.com . a few members over there were the first to get into the CID49 filesystem using free apps and a service cable. mad props to the original hackers! so, the last few weeks i’ve been doing a ton of reading and playing. i’m using my w810i w/the weird battery problem as my test machine and i purchased a totalmultiserver credit just in case (use it to flash the firmware if i mess it up bad).

the first few tries of mine were unsuccessful. i didn’t have a service cable or the right firmwares or tools. also, trying to understand the whole process was very confusing w/the conflicting guides and all. so last week i received my 2in1 service cable (self-powered, usb) and finally figured out how to get it all working and fix my phone if i screw up.

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fanboy, sony ericsson, geek, handheld, mobile, modding, hardware | 6 Comments »

well, i and the rest of the world knew this was coming; a way to unlock the iPhone sim card.  prior to this newest hack (which will run about $90-100 for the blank sim card and sim card reader/writer), the non-ATT/Cingular users could activate the iPhone via a hack but were still unable to use the phone (basically it made it a wifi ipod).

however, the good folks over at hackint0sh forums have found a way around this!  here’s direct link to the forum post on the how-to.

http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2215&page=1

so, it seems like i may perhaps end up w/an iphone at some point if this hack works w/Tmobile USA.  i’ve  always wanted to get into the whole SIM card hacking but really never had a reason to and now i may.  i know, i am still an iphone naysayer (but thats mainly because i didn’t want to switch to cingular/att) but may sway to the dark side.  we shall see.

oh yea, on top of this, Windows users now have a nice iPhone file browser. check it out at modmyiphone.com:  http://www.modmyiphone.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=301

so.. anyone wanna send me an iphone to unlock and then in turn post up a nice tutorial?? hehe, had to try.

culture, news, modding, mobile, hardware, opinion, apple | 1 Comment »

well, i got my rma’d W810i back. so nice having a decent phone vs a crappy one. hehe.  however, after verifying that it worked normally i decided to the front camera case mod.  its probably one of the easiest housing mods you can do w/the W810i.  Just remove the two screws under the battery cover, pop off the housing, put on the K750 or W800 housing (almost identical housings / hardware is used among these three phones).

afterwards!

in addition to the camera housing change, i also fully disassembled my W810i and used my silver buttons from the spare parts K750i i had. the camera cover slide will not turn off/on the camera (i even purchased the camera ribbon for the K750i which did fit, however the connector that goes to the phone’s pcb was vertically set not horizontally). i can now fully disassemble and reassemble my W810i in prob under 5 minutes (tried to swap out a few parts but had to then go back and replace w/the W810i pieces).

my next step will be doing some File System customizations and CID49 hacking using XS++ and Far Manager. i’ll post some screenies of my phone once i get some new flash themes added and custom drivers updated. should be fun, given i don’t brick my phone!!

culture, sony ericsson, geek, modding, mobile, hardware | 6 Comments »

is july the official RMA month? sure seems so for me, had to RMA three items this last week: my new W810i phone (arrived DOA, argh!!), a 1GB MicroSD card, and of course my Western Digital 80GB laptop hd.  however, i guess i can’t really complain since prior to this month i’ve only had to RMA 4 items in the last 5 years (considering how many geek toys/items i buy, not a bad number).

i’ve officially given up on getting OSX on my HP TC1100.  using a different external cd/dvd drive did not seem to resolve any of the install problems/slowness.  i might try the deedmo image method but at this point don’t see any reason to try since it will prob run slow as heck.  so instead, i’m back to my dual booting XP/Vista setup.

been thinking about a few of the mods i want to do w/my new phone (that is once i get a replacement and verify that it works fine since my mods will nullify the warranty).  so far these are the mods i plan to do (given the phone is CID36 not CID49; the RMAd W810i was a CID49 so i may be limited on what i can do w/the filesystem and UI hacks).  glad i held onto my buddies dead K750 so that i can use those parts w/my W810i. i love how sony ericsson phones are so moddable! now if only they could get rid of that WSOD; however i think the problem i had w/my phone was mainly because it was really not a NIB phone (phone had signs of wear and tear; the camera lense had a nasty coating on it and the memory card slot was broken and the LCD display was not properly centered; i could see light on the side of the lcd). so hopefully get that back soon.   here’s the mods list i want to try:

-housing mod:  going to use K750i camera cover side, replace all black buttons w/silver K750 buttons

-software mods: complete overhaul of UI (black/orange brushed metal style) and Walkman player.  Possible camera and acoustic driver hacks (use drivers from K750, W800). I may see its possible to add the camera lense switch from the K750 (given there this is supported on the W810i, which it may not be).

and i’ll see if i can get tethering working too since i was able to get the non-existant VPN Internet plan from Tmobile (the $19.99 that doesn’t include wifi since who wants hotspot service to start with eh?).

i’ll be posting up some recipes to my hacks/mods later next week.  btw, if your a sony ericsson user, head over to my other fave SE hangout area: http://se-nse.com  some good SE fanboys/hackers over there.

peace

geek, fanboy, guides, osx86, handheld, modding, apple, mac, hardware, gaming, general gadgets | 4 Comments »

just recently two huge breakthroughs were made in the PSP underground/hacking world.  Noobz and Archaemic found an exploit in the game Lumines that basically allow all PSP firmware versions (1.5 to 3.50) and allow it to run homebrew.  this is a pretty huge find, so much so that for a few days Lumines sales on amazon exploded, at one point its sales were up 5,700%! whoa.

however, this is not the first instance that a game exploit/buffer overflow has been the entry point for hackers into a gaming console.  with the xbox there came to be a way to softmod it via a hacked game save file, i believe the game used was mech assault. 

the gamecube also had a game hack too, that game was phantasy star online. it allowed users to even put linux on the gamecube.

so i’ve always wondered, do developers purposedly leave the rare exploit in their code in hopes to drive their own software sales due to the exploit? even though the console maker and other software makers may not like the idea, it really seems to be plausible thought.  one that i am sure that most devs would ever speak of. 

anywho, i also see that the iphone activation has been hacked, DVD Jon has figured out a way to emulate the apple activation servers, however you will not have any cell phone abilities (but give this some time, once the sim card lock has been broken, a combination of this hack and a future one could allow those non-cingular/att users to have actual working iphones; not saying it will be me but ya never know.. i like a good hack!).

peace

wii, culture, geek, handheld, ps3, fanboy, osx86, xbox, ds lite, console, applications, windows, web, hardware, mac, gaming, psp, modding, mobile, vista, pc | 1 Comment »