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KeepOn Dancebot Now Available For $40

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 05:20 AM PST

The KeepOn, if you recall, is a tiny robot that dances in time to music and cuddles. It was made as part of the CareBots initiative to design robots that for special needs patients.

This little $40 robot isn’t as smart as the original KeepOn but it is still pretty cool.

[This robot] captured the essence of the Keepon character while replicating the robot’s most engaging interactive traits. These features include reactivity to touch and an amazing ability to listen to music, detect the beat, and dance in perfect rhythm!

“My Keepon” Guide SRP £29.99 or USD$40.00

Wow! Stuff, hot on the heels of an award-winning 2010 and the wildly successful “Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey,” prepares to do it again in 2011 with their new blockbuster toy, “My Keepon”!
With over 4 million views on YouTube, music videos featuring a robot named Keepon have stoked the public’s desire for this cute and lovable yellow character. In addition to Keepon's wild internet popularity, it has been named one of the “Top 10 robots of all time.” Until recently, Keepon has been limited to labs and institutions, where it is breaking new ground in the fields of social robot design and autism research.
But now, a toy version of the character is on show for the first time at the European Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany. Toy manufacturer Wow! Stuff is expecting My Keepon to be the year’s hottest toy — not just in the UK, where Wow! Stuff is based, but throughout the world, having agreed to a USA launch with a major retailer (due to be announced on February 14th). Richard North, Wow! Stuff's Managing Director, announced, “We are launching a blockbuster toy that will sell in similar quantities to last year's mega-hit Dave, but this time we're going global.” North added that, during London Toy Fair previews, “My Keepon had all of the retailers in absolute disbelief. You could count the number of wows exclaimed in each meeting as we presented this exceptional toy.” Wow! Stuff’s claims for blockbuster sellers have proven spot- on to date, with runaway success Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey selling more than 270,000 units in the 3 months before Christmas 2010 in the UK alone.
For My Keepon, Wow! Stuff has collaborated with Keepon’s designers at BeatBots LLC. BeatBots co-founders Dr. Hideki Kozima and Dr. Marek Michalowski have been developing and using
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Keepon in Japan and in the USA as a robotic research platform for studying social development and as a telepresence tool in autism therapy. A meeting of minds occurred when Dr. Graeme Taylor, Director at Wow! Stuff and Head of Inventor Relations, wanted to help make a version of Keepon available to the robot’s massive and growing fan base, as evident on YouTube, Facebook, and countless blogs. For their part, Kozima and Michalowski also wanted to meet this public demand for the character of Keepon while making the high-end Keepon Pro robot more widely available to researchers and institutional users.
Wow!’s design experts and robotics engineers, based in their recently-opened Los Angeles office, worked closely with BeatBots to design a toy that captured the essence of the Keepon character while replicating the robot’s most engaging interactive traits. These features include reactivity to touch and an amazing ability to listen to music, detect the beat, and dance in perfect rhythm!
But most importantly, Wow! Stuff and BeatBots are working to ensure that the success of My Keepon will directly support the social welfare goals at the heart of the Keepon story. “A percentage of the profit from each My Keepon will go towards subsidizing and donating BeatBots’ research-grade robots to therapists and researchers,” said Taylor. “We are so proud to make Keepon available to a broader audience, and we will choose retail partners who also feel proud to sell him.”
Michalowski commented, “Our dream is to make Keepon Pro units widely available to researchers and practitioners. Our work with Keepon suggests that the character’s simplicity, combined with a caregiver’s ability to conduct mediated interactions through the robot, can facilitate social engagement in a novel and exciting way. We hope that the toy version of our robot can channel public excitement towards general autism awareness while supporting our distribution of tools and resources to people and organizations around the world working to understand and treat it.”

Product Page via Botjunkie via Giz


Augmented Reality-Powered Fishing Reel Toy

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 01:01 AM PST

So you like to go fishing but have to sit in school or in your office all day? Takara Tomy might have the solution for you: their so-called “Virtual Master Real" [PDF] is essentially a fishing game built into some kind of “electronic fishing reel”.

While such a toy isn’t that original, the main bullet point here is the so-called Augmented Reality mode. In this mode, the reel “augments” the fishing experience by superimposing virtual fish over the real-world locations you film with the 0.3MP camera that’s built into the device (yes, you’ll be able to see people with swimming fish around them, for example).

Takara Tomy also says there will be force feedback, realistic sounds and reflexive action, for example when you catch a virtual fish.

The “Virtual Master Real" will go on sale in Japan in July (price: $77). Ask specialized stores like Rinkya to get one for you in case you don’t live in Japan.

LG Teaser Video Gives A Brief Glimpse Of The Optimus 3D, Confirms It Has A Dual Core CPU

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 12:47 AM PST

Mobile World Congress — that big convention in Barcelona where a mountain of new phones get announced each year — is still over a week away, but the details are already starting to trickle out. After a little retailer slip-up and some leaks started pulling back the veil on the device earlier this week, LG went ahead and confirmed that they’d be using the show as the launch pad for their new Android flagship (with Glasses-free 3D!), the Optimus 3D.

Just a few minutes ago, LG released the teaser video (after the jump) talking up their Mobile World Congress announcement. Guess who makes an appearance?

Read the rest at MobileCrunch, where the only things that are three dimensional are our personalities. Unless we can find any 3D pictures of cats — then those would be in 3D also >>

T-Mobile Launches Galaxy S 4G, Now With 100% More 4G

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 12:45 AM PST

Hey T-Mobile Vibrant owners — feel that sting? That’s the cold slap of the cruelest mistress known to the gadget world: planned obsolescence. Just 7 months after the launch of the Vibrant, T-Mobile has announced that its oh-so-marginally-improved successor, the Galaxy S 4G, will launch sometime in February.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch, because we’d never plan to make you obsolete.


T-Mobile G-Slate Hits This Spring: 8.9″, Tegra 2, 3D Support

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 09:00 PM PST


T-Mobile and LG’s G-Slate, one of the first devices to sport Android 3.0, has just been made more official than before, with specs, release date, and even real pictures. It’s got an 8.9″ screen and an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, that should enable HD content playback.

The screen’s resolution is 1280×720, so you can watch HD stuff in its native resolution — or you can use its HDMI port and send out a full 1080p signal to your TV.

The most surprising spec? 3D support. You can take 3D pictures using the two cameras on the back, and view 3D content, though it isn’t autostereoscopic, as the rumors held. 3D is displayed in anaglyph form, and uses glasses that will be provided with the tablet. What the hell? Pretty weird. Anyway. The main rear camera is five megapixels and will take 1080p video. The resolution of the 3D video isn’t clear, but it also isn’t 1080p.

It also has 4G connectivity, or at least what T-Mobile calls 4G, AKA HSPA.

The built-in storage is 32GB, and although there’s no mention of an SD card slot, I’d be quite surprised if there isn’t one. Then you’ve got a gyroscope, accelerometer, light sensor, and the usual tablet fixins.

No price yet, and “Spring” isn’t really a date, but we’ll probably get the rest of the info in a few weeks. I’d guess you’ll see it for $300 subsidized with a plan, and the plans will probably be… let’s say $25/mo. Just a guess.

Update: Commenter benmarvin points out a leak I’d forgotten about. The rumored date for release is March 23rd.

Here’s the full press release:

T-Mobile and LG Mobile Phones Unveil the T-Mobile G-Slate With Google,
Delivering a Premium Mobile HD Entertainment Experience on a Tablet

The 4G Android 3.0 Tablet Enables 3D and HD Capture, Viewing and Sharing

BELLEVUE, Wash., and SAN DIEGO — Feb. 2, 2011 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. and LG Mobile
Phones today unveiled their Android™ 3.0 (Honeycomb)-powered tablet, the T-Mobile® G-Slate™
with Google™ by LG. With a brilliant, high-definition (HD) 8.9-inch, 3D-capable multi-touch display,
the T-Mobile G-Slate delivers a groundbreaking mobile entertainment experience, including the ability
to record 3D and full HD video.

Expected to be available this spring, G-Slate is built for speed on America's Largest 4G Network™
and is the first tablet in T-Mobile's pioneering G-series of devices, which began with the world's first
Android-powered smartphone just over two years ago. The first 4G tablet from T-Mobile and LG, the
G-Slate is powered by Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), the latest version of Google's Android platform,
which is optimized for tablets. In addition, the G-Slate will be among the first tablets to feature 3D
capabilities including built-in support for 3D graphics, enabling consumers to capture and share their
own 3D videos and experience 3D HD content right on the device with the aid of 3D glasses.

―The G-Slate represents the next chapter in T-Mobile's rich history of Android innovation,‖ said Brad
Duea, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA. ―Tablets enable users to take with them the
rich Web and entertainment experiences they have at home, and this will radically shift the way people
interact with and consume content while mobile. The G-Slate delivers a powerful combination of
premium mobile HD entertainment and T-Mobile's lightning-fast 4G mobile broadband network.‖

―We are excited to introduce the T-Mobile G-Slate by LG, which offers consumers an engaging new
way to communicate, entertain and stay connected,‖ said Tim O'Brien, vice president of marketing for
LG Mobile Phones. ―Bringing consumers the latest in revolutionary HD tablet technology and an
Android platform perfectly optimized for tablet use, G-Slate provides a unique multimedia
experience.‖

The sleek, lightweight G-Slate can easily be held upright in one hand for reading an eBook or
magazine, watching streaming TV or browsing the Web while on the go. Featuring a rear-facing
stereoscopic video recorder with 1080p for HD video capture and a 5 megapixel camera with LED
flash, the G-Slate makes it easy to capture moments on video or with a photo. With the front-facing
camera, customers can video chat with friends and family over T-Mobile's network or Wi-Fi with
Google Talk™. The G-Slate also supports 720p HD on-device video playback and HDMI output to
show 1080p content on 3-D and HD displays. With a NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor with dual-
core CPU and full Adobe® Flash® Player support, the G-Slate enables quick and seamless browsing
of rich Web content, multitasking and gaming. The G-Slate will also provide a superior entertainment
experience when streaming live TV or downloading music and videos with lightning-fast speed over
T-Mobile's 4G network.
In addition, the G-Slate includes 32 GB of internal memory and features a built-in gyroscope,
accelerometer and adaptive lighting for the latest applications and the ultimate gaming experience.

T-Mobile's 4G network, America's largest 4G network, has expanded into more than 100 major
metropolitan areas, reaching more than 200 million people nationwide. Beginning today, T-Mobile's
network is also delivering 4G speeds to Albany, Augusta, Columbus and Macon, Ga., and
Chattanooga, Tenn., in the South region as well as in Champaign, Ill.; Lansing, Mich.; and Rochester,
Minn., in the Midwest. In addition to the expanding its 4G footprint, T-Mobile has aggressive plans to
double the speed of its 4G network in 2011. T-Mobile expects that 140 million Americans in 25 major
metropolitan areas will have access to these increased 4G speeds by midyear.

Visit the T-Mobile G-Slate product page to register for updates.

Simplex Series Locks Can Be Broken Into In Seconds, Lawsuit Is Now Key

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 08:59 PM PST

You may have seen one of these before. You see, this very popular lock can be found almost anywhere, and is easily broken into. Kaba-Ilco, the maker of the Simplex series lock, is being sued in a class action lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, the lock isn’t safe.

All of their locks, except for the Series 5000 model, is vulnerable to attack. Any amateur can break the lock with only a powerful magnet. Kaba is one of the largest lock makers in the world and it’s likely they sold millions of their locks priced from $300 to $400 each. Hopefully, they have the case on lock down.

Study: Young Girls Are Happier When They Play Video Games With Dad

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 06:00 PM PST


Here’s an interesting study: the effect video games have on kids’ happiness. BYU surveyed a couple hundred families, and asked to tell about their children’s video game use along with school performance and behavior. The results are kind of interesting: it turns out that young girls who spent more time playing games with their dads are happier and better-behaved.

Makes sense, right? Spending any amount of time playing with your kids can be beneficial — I think it’s called parenting? Not only were the girls more happy, they also felt more connected to their families, were less aggressive and were less likely to be depressed.

The flip side of the study is that there was no effect on boys. The explanation is that boys play too many video games as it is, with and without their parents. Devoting most of their time to the video games had the boys missing out on homework and other important activities. And of course, they found playing violent games did make them more aggressive. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

In case you were wondering what games had such a positive effect on little girls, it was Mario Kart, Wii Sport and Guitar Hero. No Dead Space, then.

Valentine’s Giveaway: New York Readers, Win An Electric Car Love Date From Hertz

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 05:57 PM PST

Not to be outdone by Zipcar, Hertz recently launched Connect by Hertz, a car sharing service. In order to stay hip, they’ve started renting out electric cars like the wee Smart fourtwo and they want to send you and your SO on a wild ride through the streets of New York.

First, and this is the bad part, you have to be an NYC resident and you have to have a driver’s license. Here’s what you can win:

· Year-long membership to Connect by Hertz ($50 value)
· $100 drive-time credit
· $100 gift card to either Graffiti or Caracas Arepa Bar here in NY

You don’t have to use any of this on Valentine’s Day proper, but wouldn’t it be nice if you did?

To enter, just comment below describing how romantic you’ll be on your big date. We’ll pick one winner on on February 4 and get you set up so you, too, can be the luckiest guy on the Lower East Side. Thanks to Hertz for the prizes.

New PS3 Firmware Won’t Be Secure For Long

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 05:54 PM PST


Although the latest firmware for the PS3 (with reports of a possible secret rootkit) is just hitting today, it looks like it’s only going to be a matter of days before an easy crack is made available for it, if early indications pan out. Not that we support piracy here at CrunchGear, but the constant battle between hacker and hacked is always interesting. Sony just tries so hard! Too hard, I think.

It seems that some extant tools for unpacking the PS3 firmware work just fine on the new release, and in a jiffy some savvy code monkeys will have extracted the means (the signing keys) to run unauthorized code and included it in a cooked firmware pack.

We’ll keep you updated. Really, though, you should just print out figure A, here, and look at it whenever you hear about someone updating or cracking DRM or console security. I might have to adjust the timing on those arrows soon, though.

Brainchild’s Kineo Android Tablet Is Teacher’s New Pet

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 05:00 PM PST

Technology is becoming more integrated into the classroom, though often that technology isn’t used in a meaningful way. Throwing lessons into a Powerpoint, reading slide by slide with cheesy animations and clipart, contributes nothing to lesson plans; in fact, all attention is usually lost. Basically, technology has driven those curricula,  but it’s better if the curriculum drove the technology. Now, a new Android-powered tablet is on the market from Brainchild, a company that specializes in hand-held learning devices for students.

Educators will be able to provide students a cheap tablet to learn from: the Kineo Tablet. The Kineo is a small 7-inch touchscreen tablet targeted directly for student’s use. The specs aren’t amazing, so don’t expect HD video, but it doesn’t need to be a full-fledged tablet, it only needs to make sense. Some of the key features that make the Kineo special are its reliability, security and connectivity. The security software allows students to access websites that are approved by the teacher — so don’t expect it to do Facebook.

The idea with Kineo is that it tries to capture a student’s attention in the way a computer would. The tablets will connect to Brainchild’s Achiever! web-based assessment and standards-based instruction program.

Achiever! evaluates performance and then delivers tutorials and retests students to determine progress on state standards in mathematics, language arts and science.

After the students use Achiever! all the results get synchronized with GlobalSYNC, making it easy for teachers to manage, all via the web. Future plans include an app store for developers to submit their Android-based code for use on the Kineo. The question will be whether these standard services can actually integrate with existing lesson plans — and of course, whether schools can afford to buy tablets by the hundred.

Price is $299 with shipping in March. Pre-orders start today.

Specs:

  • 7-inch 800 X 480 touchscreen
  • 800 MHz dual core processor
  • 256 MB memory
  • 2GB storage
  • 802.11b/g
  • 4500mAh battery good for 10-12 hours use
  • Android 2.1

Our Great Sin

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 04:59 PM PST


I recently watched, like many of our readers, the interview (1, 2) with Mike Daisey regarding the conditions under which Apple products are made in China. And at the risk of fomenting conflict with Mr. Daisey, I would like to editorialize on the topic in slightly harsher terms.

Actually, it’s not that I disagree with the man, exactly. It’s that he doesn’t go far enough, and in doing so conveniently avoids requiring himself or anyone else from doing anything but being concerned. If you’re going to take on ideas like globalism, corporate responsibility, and cross-cultural morality, you don’t get off that easy. You can’t establish a predicate like “the way our lifestyle is made possible is immoral” and somehow avoid unpleasant conclusions.

The “great sin” isn’t Apple’s, or any one of the other major international corporations that use Foxconn or similar megafactories. And it isn’t Foxconn’s either. It’s clearly, inescapably, ours.

Continue reading…

Alleged iPad 2 Display Found: Lighter And Thinner, But Is It High-Rez?

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 03:49 PM PST


9to5mac has gotten their hands on what they believe is an iPad 2 display, and it’s… not actually that exciting, but still a great scoop for them. Unfortunately, while the screen is definitely lighter and thinner than the previous one, they have no way of telling whether it is, in fact, the high-resolution display we’ve heard rumored.

More pics this-a-way.

Sports Streaming Sites, Including Roja Directa & Atdhe, Being Taken Down En Masse

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 02:30 PM PST

Chelsea’s Number Nine Doesn’t Seem Too Bothered

It would appear that several popular streaming sites are being taken down as we speak. One that I'm familiar with, Roja Directa, has a note on its front page saying that its main domain, rojadirecta.org, has been taken down by its U.S. provider. (Dot-org now displays a scary-looking notice from the U.S. Homeland Security Department, while other domains, including dot-com are up and running just fine.) This, despite the fact that the site was deemed by Spanish courts (the site is based in Spain) to be 100 percent legal. Hm.

Another popular site, Atdhe, also appears to have been taken down, with only a simple message appearing on the site right now telling visitors to bookmark a specific I.P. address. The site's Twitter account says that the site will re-launch sometime tomorrow.

None of this should surprise you. UFC has been on a tear of late, taking down illegal streams of its events all the time, even going so far as to sue Justin.tv. UFC is a peculiar company in that most of its revenue comes from pay-per-view dollars. If it gets to the point that not enough people are buying its pay-pew-view events it would more or less require a complete restructuring of the way the company does business.

Can the same be said for England's Premier League, or Spain's La Liga? Each and every weekend you can find streams of games from all of Europe's major (and minor) leagues. A site like Roja Directa isn't hosting anything, but merely serving as a link repository. I guess links are illegal now.

More on this as it develops; I doubt we've heard the last of this story.

Wear Around Your Childhood Friends With These Spaceman Lego Cufflinks

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 02:00 PM PST


These Lego Spaceman cufflinks are sort of self-explanatory just like the folks who wear them. Fine by me. $16.99 a pair on at this Etsy store where there are about a zillion and quarter more similar Lego cufflinks and tie tacks. I like these the best. [via Cool Hunting]

Game Developers Conference Panel Suggests PC PlayStation Move Development

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 01:30 PM PST

A panel at this year's Game Developers Conference has the Internet (or, at the very least, the CG chatroom) spinning around in circles with excitement. The panel (ctrl-f for "move"), "Update on PlayStation Move Development," says the official description, "will bring developers up to speed on developing for the PlayStation Move controller. We will cover developing for the new PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter accessory. We will discuss the new Move Server project that will make it possible for academics and hobbyists to develop software using the PlayStation Move controller on their own PCs." PC? Wait, what?

There's a few ways you can interpret the description, the most exciting of which is that Sony plans to open up Move development for the PC in some capacity. Imagine a Move version of Angry Birds! Oh my goodness, I'm certain the universe itself would stop expanding upon learning of that development. Why keep expanding when there's Angry Birds: Move Edition afoot?

It could also be something far more prosaic, like an academic-only SDK.

Greg tells me that standard-issue PS3 controller can work on Mac just fine, after a quick driver install. It's not an official solution, but it gets the job done.

Let's also not forgot that as soon as the Kinect was released hackers had started work on making it run on your friendly neighborhood computer.


Miyamoto: Yes, I’m Making A Mario For The 3DS

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 01:00 PM PST

Not that this should shock any of you, but Nintendo has admitted that it's working on a new, proper Mario game for the 3DS. So says the mighty Shigeru Miyamoto, who was recently profiled in the New Yorker. This is most welcome news, yes.

Miyamoto said, as part of the ongoing Iwata Asks series, that:

In the interests of adopting new technology for the Super Mario Bros. tradition, I am now making a new Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo 3DS system… I want to show everyone as soon as possible what the new Super Mario Bros. will be like on the Nintendo 3DS.

Can't be more clear than that.

1UP helpfully reminds us that the last proper (read: original) Mario game to appear on a handheld console was 2006's New Super Mario Bros.

It was good.

New Drunk Driving Detection System May Be Coming To All Cars

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 12:30 PM PST


It seems that the new stricter strict laws regarding drunk driving have done little to curb that gravely irresponsible habit, so harsher measures may be on the way in the form of in-car breathalyzers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) may be requiring such devices, though not any time soon.

A new device, called Drive Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS), is being designed to make it easier for court-ordered users to start up their cars. The new system works in one of two ways to detect alcohol levels on the driver. A touch-based system uses tissue spectrometry that can detect blood alcohol levels when placing a finger to a touchpad, not unlike a fingerprint scanner. The other method is like a breath-analyzer, however it’s not very similar the current systems requiring one to blow into a tube. Instead, the system works using distant spectrometry; likely to detect specific molecules associated with alcohol on the breath. The sensor detecting those particles works using infrared. Basically, the system will be able to detect what makes up the drivers breath without any need to blow towards it. Completely under the radar.

Its hassle-free operation could make it easy for NHTSA to require the system for all cars in the future. The DADSS system is still roughly ten years away, though, so it won’t be in next year’s vehicles. NHTSA’s head Ray LaHood said, “[DADSS] may be another means – like lane departure warnings and adaptive cruise control – to help avert crashes, injuries, and fatalities before they occur." LaHood did comment that they weren’t going to force automakers to install the system and that, "DADSS is not designed to prohibit people from enjoying a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at the game."

As long as it is made with safety in mind and to prevent those with a higher than .08 ABV from driving, the system should be welcomed by consumers with open arms. In the long run, it could save thousands of lives.

Microsoft Puts One Last Bullet In The Kin, Shuts Down Kin Studio

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 12:08 PM PST

Accurately predicting the swift failure of a handset — as we did to a T with the Kin — is bittersweet. On one hand, being right is always nice; on the other, knowing that people worked hard on something only to have it canned due to mismanagement and a confused vision is disheartening. (Fortunately, we know for a fact that a good chunk of those people are off on bigger, better projects now.)

As of this morning, the last lingering trace of the Kin was thrown into a shallow grave with the rest of the project.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch, and we’ll gather round and sing songs about the Kin together >>

Did Sony Install A Rootkit On Your PS3?

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 12:00 PM PST

For Sony's sake there had better be nothing to this next story. A particularly nasty rumor currently spreading around the place where rumors tend to spread around quite easily, the Internet, suggests that the latest PS3 firmware, version 3.56, has a rootkit that can remotely execute code without your knowledge or approval. It's 2005 all over again!

Best to just copy-paste the report:

Essentially Sony can now remotely execute code on the PS3 as soon as you connect. This can do whatever Sony wants it to do such as verifying system files or searching for homebrew. Sony can change the code and add new detection methods without any firmware updates and as the code executes remotely there is no reliable way to forge the replies.

Whilst it is possible to patch or remove this code from the firmware this will likely mean the end of playing CFW online (as PSN can just check before login that this is active) or at the very least mean it will be even easier for Sony to detect and ban users.

Granted, the other day I spelled out exactly why I don't have a problem with Sony wanting to keep its PlayStation Network as clean as a whistle, but I'm not really sure surreptitiously enforcing that is the way to go.

At the very least Sony could try to be honest with its users. "Look, we don't want people playing with custom firmware on PSN, so we've installed a mechanism in the latest firmware update to check your console as soon as it connects to our servers."

A little honesty can go such a long way here. I genuinely don't understand why companies insist on obfuscating their every move.

Keep in mind this is all based on one man's analysis, analysis that was pasted into an IRC room. Don’t throw out your back re-arranging grains of salt, etc.

Giveaway: Christopher Ward C60 Trident GMT Watch

Posted: 01 Feb 2011 11:57 AM PST

Head over to aBlogtoRead.com for a chance to win a new Christopher Ward C60 Trident GMT watch. It has a Swiss mechanical ETA 2893-2 automatic movement with a GMT hand for a second timezone and a real kick-ass look to it. You need to comment on the giveaway post there to enter, and the giveaway is over at the end of February.


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