>> From Team Xtender:

Team X-tender is proud to make a new addition to our XCM line:

The XCM Multi-cable V2 PC Monitor Adapter. This unit will allow you to have a truly integrated entertainment center by allowing your next gen consoles to be displayed on your favorite PC LCD Monitor for the Maximum resolution!!!
As usual if you think you are ready for direct sales and distribution, contact us at sales – AT- teamxtender.com.

Official Site: http://www.teamxtender.com

>> Talismoon released a new product for the case modders:

Modding has its hazards – but a nasty cut from a power tool can now be completely avoided thanks to the Talismoon Window Kit Cutting Tool.

Best tool to install Talismoon X-Ray kit!

Official Site: www.talismoon.com
Buy Now: Window Kit Cutting Tool ($15) | X-Ray Kit ($10)

An anonymous person at the German 23C3 Hacker Congress showed what could be an Xbox360 hack/exploit during one of the 'Lightning Talks'. Lightning Talks is a daily event at Chaos Communication Congress (C3/CCC). It consists in one hour of several short (limited to 5mins) talks. In a very short presentation a masked 'hacker' showed an Xbox 360 booting up King Kong (the game, by ubisoft). After loading the game a screen pops up showing an Xbox 360 logo, a Mac logo and Tux (the Linux Penguin) and the words "coming soon…". I also noticed a small PCB is hanging out of his Xbox360 and he's using a laptop (Apple Macbook pro?), but it's not really clear what he's doing with it. Those who followed hacking discussions might remember hackers did some research around the vector shaders in the King Kong demo on the Xbox 360 Kiosk Disc (that ran from recordable media). The demo (and final game too) allow to modify the shaders (they are not checked/signed). However no exploit to take control of the machine was found back then … so either this hacker found something here, or he's just showing us his custom modified shaders That's all the details we have for now.

I was hoping such a game would consist of atleast a sword and shield, but my hops brought attention to an icon and a crosshair. We all know Tactical penguin and his amazing homebrew games, this involves one of the most cleverist and more creative homebrew games I could ever of seen! It involves you having to stop the Sony PSP Firmware updates from getting into your PSP!

Heres how the game works, you are suppose to stop the updates from infiltrating your PSP by shooting them with your cursor/crosshair. If the update has any collision what so ever with your PSP, then its all over, game over that is. To make it difficult, the speed goes higher each step as you go. Heres Tactical Penguins clever radical game: defend your PSP!

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[ Defend your PSP v0.1 ]

Flash-Free cIntro Mod for CF 3.0

SHADOWZ has released a flashless version of his cIntro mod.  Last week there where reports of cInto bricking 3.0 custom firmwares, this version fixes that.

Here are the flash free instructions:

•  Download the original copy of cIntro
  
• Ok the original instructions call for the modification of the config.txt located in the SYSTEM folder. This used to be used for the custom firmwares like 1.5, but not the 3.00 and above ones. So instead…
  
• Copy the INTRO folder found in the .rar file you download and put it into the SYSTEM folder in your psp's memory stick.
  
• Now you need to copy the same folder to whatever folder you have defaulted for running 1.5 kernel (for me this is simply the GAME folder but you need to consult your recovery mode to see what yours is).
  
• Next you need to rename the folder that u copied to GAME (or whatever) to BOOT and then open it and delete the "intro" file (this is not necessary and basically taking up space).
  
• Now that this is done, go to your SYSTEM folder and open up the INTRO folder that you just copied there. You will see the exact same files as the one you placed in the GAME folder. This is where you place your .pmf file that you want to use for the coldboot movie. Rename it "intro" and overwrite the current one. Now the hard part is over.
  
• Cold start your psp and enter recovery mode. You need to enable auto run program.

The read me includes a how-to for 3.02 and 3.03 OE custom firmwares. And thank you to SHADOWZ, dark420bishop, and Piccahoe for developing this app and its mods. 

Remember, this is meant for 3.0 custom firmwares, hopefully no one else will try using the original cIntro and brick their awsome 3.03 OE-B psp. Enjoy!

[ Flash Free cIntro mod ]

When it came to the European launch date for the PS3, Sony hasn't been the most informative source. The most we have been able to get out of them is that the PS3 will be launched sometime in March. Recently, an anonymous source has informed the masses that an announcement from Sony on more details about the launch in Europe is very close at hand. This news is "likely to go ahead at the end of January". Shortly after this statement was made it was backed up by a Sony spokesperson who has confirmed the announcment. What does this mean? It means to mark your calendars for the last week of January! Remember this does NOT mean that the PS3 Euro launch is in January, simply more details on the launch will be provided, So keep checking back to the site for more details!

Rather to be safe than sorry, we decided to post this news.

Basically it seems that atleast some Cintro mods modify recovery mode so that it loads from flash1 rather than autoloading from an eboot on the memory stick.

So Basically you cant load up your PSP in recovery mode and you can brick your PSP.

Forum Thread Here

PSP firmware 3.03 OE-B has been released folks! For those of you who are not aware, OE revision A and B were previously released for PSP firmware 3.02 Kernal, after upgrading from a 1.50 kernal, you could do up to so many things. These things also included being able to do anything a 1.50 firmware could do thanks to the 1.50 kernal from recovery. Recovery too was a good feature, because of the new plugins, you could do almost any PRX you wanted to add on your PSP! Including VSH, so you could go back to 1.50 firmware anytime you wanted! Lots of people are already aware of the Playstation Emulator, being able to have compressed Dumped Images onto your PSP thanks to OE-A, but OE-B has a complete new concept:

• Video now play at a higher frame rate, including 480X272 resolution (full screen)
• PIC0.PNG information background image is now able to be shown on the XMB
• Some games now will not run at the selected cpu speed while chosen in recovery mode
• sysmemp.prx removed, systemctrl.prx plugin is split into both systemctrl.prx and vshctrl.prx
• More free space of ram now available

If you do not already have OE-B, then you are required to update from 3.03 OE-A. (remember, an update from 3.03 OE-A means you must have updated from 3.02 OE-B, vice-versa 3.02 OE-A aswell)

Simply drag the MS_ROOT folder containing the update EBOOT.PBP into your PSP/GAME directory.

[ PSP 3.03 OE-B ]

Gamestop recently put up an interview with Chris Satchell, the GM of Microsof's game developer group discussing the recent announcements that have graced the Xbox 360. He covers IPTV, the larger, HD, and of course the HDMI. Enjoy!

"GameStop: Is the IPTV feature going to be a dashboard update?

Chris Satchell: How we're doing it at first is we're working with telecommunication partners who are intending to deliver an IPTV service and saying, "Here's a different kind of box you can use. Instead of just having a standard set-top box, use an Xbox 360. It gives you new services to provide your customers, and for gamers it gives them a really cool combination of next-generation television and next-generation gaming."

I think where you'll first see it will be in partnership with these telco partners who are doing IPTV. Now, later on, we're looking at, "Well, should we do an update to allow people who've got just an Xbox 360 to get to some of the same services rather than having to get it from a telco?" We're looking at both, but first you're going to see it from our partners.

GS: If Microsoft chooses to make IPTV available to all Xbox 360 owners, will upgrading be as simple as a dashboard update?

CS: If we do open it up so that our current users can get to the service, we're not quite sure how we'll deliver it. Of course, we have a great system with [Xbox] Live, so it's entirely possible that we could do it as an upgrade. It's entirely possible we could give it to you on a disc and you could just install it. There are all sorts of ways we can give it to you. Obviously our preference normally is to do everything online because that's where people are at.

GS: This might be too early to ask, but are you guys discussing how much this will cost?

CS: An IPTV and Xbox service, how much would it cost? Really, that's for our partners to define because they're likely going to bundle it in some way, kind of like when you go to Comcast and go, "Hey, I want my Internet phone, I want my Internet, I want my movies," and they do packages. [IPTV and Xbox 360] will probably be the same type of thing–that's really up to our partners and not us to set price. What we're providing is the next generation of technology and giving them something that nobody else is: full gaming with this incredible television service and the Live network as well.

GS: All this cool HD stuff that you're talking about starts to take up space. The 20GB for a lot of people is already starting to fill up. Seeing how Microsoft has been great about responding to customer needs on the Xbox 360, can you speak to larger-capacity hard drives?

CS: That's not really something we're looking at today. We're very open to feedback on it. As we produce these services, if we see an increase in pressure that's something that will be interesting to look at, but there isn't any announcement today about any new configuration that may or may not be happening.

GS: What can you tell us about the HDMI-enabled Xbox 360 rumors that have been going around?

CS: We're always working on prototypes and new technologies and just playing with stuff in Redmond to see what's interesting. I think at the moment we have the widest available connections on the system. If you want to get great HD, I think we've got a good solution for that. In the future it's interesting to see where standards evolve to. I think one of the problems that the whole industry, us and entertainment, are facing at the moment is we're in this world where standards are evolving very quickly.

We have different high-definition standards for discs that we know are competing at the moment. We think HD-DVD is going to be the right way to go, but really it's all about choice in that system so that's why we're offering these sort of services with downloads–skip that whole "format wars" problem. With other standards, audiovideo standards, they're evolving very quickly as well. We're obviously keeping an eye on that and saying, "What are the future standards and how do we give consumers the right choice for that?"

At the moment, everything you might have seen is just looking at our experimentation back in Redmond, not really a product that we're thinking about announcing."

Via [ Gamespot ]

…And now it is official: PlayStation 3 had a more successful launch than Xbox 360 did a year ago. Even though the PlayStation 3 launch had been plagued with delays and did not quite go off as planned, Sony still managed to ship a million consoles in North America alone.

To compare, Microsoft sold 600,000 Xbox 360 units from their November launch to the second week in January, according to Kotaku. Wii has sold 2,000,000 consoles to date. The gleeful release follows.

At the Consumer Electronics Show 2007 in Las Vegas, Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that more than 1,000,000 units of its recently launched PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system have been sold in to the retail channel in North America. The company successfully achieved this milestone by the end of the 2006 calendar year, just six weeks after the product was introduced on November 17, 2006.

PS3 has been selling-out at retail outlets across North America since it was launched. This high consumer demand drove the PS3 to reach the one-million mark before its predecessors, the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system and the PS one game console – both systems have shipped more than 213 million units of hardware and more than 2.1 billion pieces of software worldwide.

"SCEA went to great lengths to help meet demand for PS3, including airlifting systems into North America on a weekly basis to ensure a steady stream of units were available to consumers throughout the holiday season," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, SCEA. "The fact that we were able to reach the one-million mark faster than our top-selling platform, the PS2, further validates the strength of the PlayStation brand and our belief that consumers are ready to experience true high-definition gaming."

PS3 wasn't the only hot gift this holiday season, the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system continues to enjoy record-breaking sales in North America. In the first quarter of 2007, PS2 will continue to fuel industry growth with the highly anticipated release of the MLB 07 The Show and God of War 2 titles.

PlayStation-branded entertainment and gaming content that will be shown in the Sony booth at CES 2007, includes:
FORMULA ONE CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION – PS3
MLB 07 The Show – PS3, PSP
MotorStorm – PS3
LAIR – PS3
Heavenly Sword – PS3
Gran Turismo HD – PS3 downloadable
Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters – PSP
Killzone – PSP
SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo – PSP

Other features on display will include "Remote Play" for the PS3, which allows the consumer to utilize their PSP to access content on their PS3 hard drive, including movies, television shows, videos and music. A full demonstration of the PLAYSTATION®Network, and PLAYSTATION®Store for the PS3, as well as Location Free TV™ for the PSP, will also be shown.