Half Byte Loader R99 Released

Major improvements come bundled with Half Byte Loader (HBL) revision 99. For starters, remember JJS’ sys-call estimation trick in R96? It improved speed & overall performance for select PSP models and firmware versions. Well that function is now working on all PSP models running 6.20.

To quote Wololo:

Although there are still a few differences in the quality of syscall estimations for these models (1000/2000/3000) on this specific firmware (6.20), this major function is now working on all models, and you should all be able to enjoy full speed on your favorite emulators.

HBL R99 also fixes [most] issues with the “Home” button and other control issues introduced in R97; shout-out to Nymphaea for that patch. Said patch also allows HBL to be ran from a memory stick on the PSPgo; I guess prior to R99 you were forced to use the PSPgo’s internal storage. I didn’t know that.

Download:
Half Byte Loader R99
Patapon 2 Demo
Patapon 2 SAVEDATA Exploit

HBL R95 v1.01 for 6.3X and Hello World + SDK for Hot Shots & Everybody’s Golf Released

As I write this Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee is still available on PSN. 6.30/6.31 users: have you got your copy yet? If you want homebrew then I suggest you do, because the whole crew — Wololo, J416, FrEdDy, and Mamosuke — have been hard at work. SDKs are now available and you can bet HBL ports will soon follow.

Software Development Kits (SDKs) won’t serve the average homebrewer any real purpose. They’re more for developers. But hey, if you care to broaden your horizons, then get the SDK below.

The directory/file structure is laid out different in HBL R95 v1.01 for OFW 6.3X. That’ll hopefully clear things up when it comes to installing J416′s HBL port. Just copy everything under “ms0″ to your PSP; that includes the HBL files and hacked save game. The “eLoader” and “SDK” directories are source code.

Download:
HBL R95 v1.01 for Minna no Golf Portable (JP) (by J416)
Everybody’s Golf (EU) Hello World + SDK (by FrEdDy)
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee (US) Hello World + SDK (by Wololo)

Mobile Assault v1.3 Released

It’s the coolest, and correct me if I’m wrong, it’s the only [homebrew] helicopter shooter for your PSP: Codetactics’ Mobile Assault. Is it compatible with HBL? No sorry, it’s not. Perhaps that’s another day.

That video is a little dated; things look nicer now, a la these screenshots (better radar, notifications, etc):

Remember to backup and restore mobileassault.db when updating your PSP. That’ll keep your player settings and everything else intact.

Mobile Assault is also available for the iPhone — check the App Store.

v1.3 changes, download…

Mobile Assault v1.3 Changes:

Features

• 3 new missions
• 6 new desert building structures
• A new spy base structure

Improvements

• Updated mission ending system
• Separate objectives into primary, Secondary and Bonus categories
• In-game Message Log is scrollable and better spaced
• In-game messages are left aligned
• Better explosions and bullet-to-ground particle effects
• New icon

Fixes

• Alternating (left, right wing) missile fire is now in sync

Under The Hood

• Improved mission scripting
• Browser based mission editor (internal use only for the moment)

Download: Mobile Assault v1.3

- release thread – codetactics -

Australian PS JailBreak Court Hearing Delayed ’till Friday

Fuck. The title says it all. More delays, less PS JailBreaking. You can familiarize yourself with the ongoing battle — Sony Vs. PS JailBreak Distributors — right here.

- source: ozmodchips twitter

PS JailBreak Cloned (Again) by Respected PSP Hackers

I’m saying “respected PSP hackers” because I’m not sure of their actual group name, if a name even exists… But you probably recognize this particular name if you’re a PSP-hacks reader: Mathieulh. And Mathieulh tweets, “Someone from our group just successfully cloned the psjailbreak dongle. Going to improve the shell code soon.” You know what that likely means? A real cheap solution is coming your way.

Update: A quick follow-up to clarify some things… Mathieulh and Co. does not plan on releasing anything but some good, solid documentation. Reverse, improve, document. That’s the plan.

- source: Mathieulh on Twitter

Sony Gets Federal Court to Temporarily Block Sale of PS3 ModChips *Updated*

Sony makes a move putting Australian PS JailBreak distributors in check… Sony has been granted a temporary injunction against said distributors, which prohibits OzModChips, ModSupplier, and Quantronics from importing & selling PS JailBreak.

The injunction perhaps explains the reason for delays, because according to the docs, Sony has until August 31st September 3rd to convince the federal courts that this temporary injunction become a permanent one. Should they succeed in that, then no PS JailBreak for you Aussies, or those who’ve pre-ordered from said shops. Otherwise, once September 1st 4th rolls around and if the courts haven’t sided, it’s game time.

Thanks to everyone who left comments, emailed in, etc.

Update: OzModChips follows up with this statement:

28/08/2010 – Hello Everyone. On Friday the 27/08/2010 we where given some documents from the Lawyers representing Sony. The documents are Federal Court orders for a temporary injunction.

The Injunction states that from 24 hours of receiving the documents to the 31st of August OzModChips, Quantronics, Modsupplier and anyone else in Australia:

• Give up all stock in our possession, including our sample

I guess it was lucky that the device was delayed by a couple of days. While many people that have received their sample and sent it off to cloners….we sent ours to a well known homebrew developer. The developer we picked showed us various homebrew applications that he had already developed for ps3 dev units, that he wants to port over to retail units. Yes, PS3 homebrew is real and will start flowing through at a steady rate as soon as next week.

• Give up any stock we get between now and the 31st

We are not getting any between these times

• Ozmodchips also cannot:
  • Import
  • distribute
  • Offer
  • provide
  • or deal with PS Jailbreak devices

These are from the Federal Court of Australia.

All 3 Australian stores we appear in court in some form on the 31st of August. On the 31st the court will decide if there will be a continuation of the “ban” or if we are allowed to sell them.

Our views are the same as Quantronics who posted this info here. This is not OzModChips Vs Sony. This is not OzModChips, Quantronics, Modsupplier Vs Sony. We would go as far as saying that is not even everyone in Australia Vs Sony. This will effect everyone that plans to buy such a device world wide. It already sets a dangerous precedent. Everyone that was using OtherOS, everyone that has had a faulty PS3 laser….and those interested in PS3 custom firmware and homebrew applications. We cannot do it alone, we need the support of everyone the homebrew community, the media, engineers that understand the inner workings and anyone else that can provide support.

Regarding orders:

If the injunction becomes permanent we will refund everyone that has ordered from us. If it doesn’t then we will send all orders as originally planned. There will be no delay to the planned shipping date. We would ask everyone to wait until then. We have the money sitting in our account which will cover 100% refunds for everyone if that needs to happen. We kindly ask everyone to just hold off until the 31st, as we need all the time we can to prepare.

Thank you for your support!

-OzModChips Team

X3jailbreak Confirmed Legit

The fine french folk over at Logic Sunrise have confirmed X3jailbreak — a more affordable PS JailBreak clone — to be legit. If you haven’t pre-ordered PS JailBreak yet, then you may want to consider waiting for one of these bad boys…

X3jailbreak is set to ship soon and they come at half the price of PS JailBreak; you’re looking at ~ $55 – $65. Now again, we haven’t personally confirmed X3jailbreak’s legitimacy, but I believe it’s a safe bet. You’re soon going to see clones all over the place. And as for ordering or pre-ordering, I’m not sure who’s distributing these… X3jailbreak.com doesn’t say much; in fact their site looks super cheese… But hey, what did your mother teach you? Never judge a book by its cover.

We’ll keep you posted.

PS JailBreak Shipment Delayed

I was just checking up on our PS JailBreak pre-order status (from OzModChips) and unfortunately their first shipment has been delayed. I quote:

Stock Status: Preorders welcome, (stock delayed a little, eta it not known 100% but it could be around the 3rd of September) Our store will be closed on the day we get stock, and the phone lines will be of to that we can process all orders as fast as we can.

I believe the same goes for all PS JailBreak retailers; I say that because PSX-Scene quotes:

Retailers will not be receiving their shipment of PS Jailbreak dongles on Friday as scheduled. Anyone telling you otherwise is either misinformed or disingenuous.

Bummer.

Apple iPad Now Shipping ‘Within 24 hours’

For awhile Apple iPad shipping window estimates have been in the , for a lack of a better word, shiter. Now, Apple has vastly improved those estimates, which ranged from 7-10 business days, down to ‘Within 24 hours’

Now, you’ll be able to order that iPad and expect to ship out and get to your front doorstep faster than a few weeks ago. We have to wait till the iPhone 4 as well as the iPhone 3GS get out of the shiter and ship out within 24 hours

Netflix App Now Supports iPhone and iPod Touch

Sweet! Originally the Netflix application only supported the iPad. Now, with the most recent update, you can enjoy Netflix on your iPhone and iPod Touch, and of course your iPad too.

Get Netflix on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix.

• It’s part of your Netflix unlimited membership. Not a Netflix member? Start your FREE trial today.
• Watch as often as you want
• Resume watching where you left off on your TV or computer
• Browse movies and manage your instant Queue right from your device

This does require you to have a Netflix subscription, which starts at $8.99USD/month. Reports claim video streaming using this application works on both WiFi and 3G. Your millage may vary.

Let us know how it works out for you!

Set Up Hotmail on iPhone With push email, calendar, and contacts with Exchange ActiveSync

Hotmail / Windows Live have recently updated their mobile experience to include such features as push notification on emails and syncing calendars and contacts with Exchange ActiveSync. Here are the basic settings:

Field	Setting
Server / URL	m.hotmail.com
Username	Enter full email address, for example: someone@example.com
Domain	Leave this blank
SSL	Enable this
Certificate	Accept the SSL certificate when prompted

For full iPhone instructions click read more…

-source Microsoft

1. Under Settings, tap on “Mail, Contacts, Calendar”.
2. Then choose “Add Account”.
3. Choose “Microsoft Exchange”.
4. 
5. Supply your full Hotmail email address in both Email and Username fields. Leave the “Domain” field blank. Enter your password. In the Description field, enter any name you want, e.g Hotmail.



6. Choose the Next button.
7. After you are authenticated successfully. You will be presented with another screen enter m.hotmail.com for the Server name. Then choose on the Next button.



8. If the authentication is successful, you will be presented with this screen. Select the data (Mail, Contacts, Calendar) you wish to sync and then choose Save.

No Jailbreak for iOS 4.0.2 or 3.2.2

iPhone Dev Team noted that there will be no jailbreak for iOS 4.0.2 (iPhone/iPod) or iOS 3.2.2 (iPad) — JailbreakMe 2.0 Star was a huge success and it was able to jailbreak mostly all firmwares with a PDF exploit found in MobileSafari, but Apple fixed that quickly on iOS 4.0.2/3.2.2.

Now it’s a few weeks later, and Apple has closed the jailbreakme.com hole. They’re shipping devices with FW 4.0.2/3.2.2, impervious to this particular jailbreak. So now, people will begin to ask: will there be a jailbreak for devices that shipped with 4.0.2/3.2.2, out of the box?

No, there won’t be. FW 4.0.2/3.2.2 was *only* released to fix the jailbreakme hole. With FW 4.1 still in its beta stages, it makes no sense to escalate the “cat & mouse” with Apple for FW updates that only fix the jailbreak holes. To quote WOPR, “the only winning move is not to play”.

Those of you who backed up your SHSH Blobs for 4.0/4.0.1/3.2.1 — you’re safe and you’ll always be able to use JailbreakMe 2.0.

Apple Media Event Scheduled for September 1st

Engadget reports that Apple sent out media invitations for a special event to be held on Wednesday, September 1st in San Francisco. The event is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM Pacific Time and will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the usual location for Apple’s fall media events.

Image of Apple Media Event Invitation — Awesome guitar, eh?

Of course, judging from the Media Event invitation, this will be about Music.. presumably the iPod product lineup. Apple is expected to refresh the iPod lineup, new iPod, perhaps an iPod Touch with dual-camera for FaceTime and a Retina Display. It’s also rumored that Apple will be introducing a significantly redesigned $99 Apple TV device, possibly renamed “iTV”, as well as 99-cent TV show rentals.

Stay tuned!

Wiimote AirDeck Virtual Theremin

If you are into music and like to hack your Wii have a look at this Wiimote AirDeck Virtual Theremin project. It allows you to get your DJ on and bust out some tunes.

Link

“Here is some video I shot shortly after my project presentation which demonstrates the AirDeck virtual theremin application I designed and explains some of the features. It uses the Wii remote as an input mechanism by tracking motion with Infrared LEDs. The AirDeck is written in Java with the WiiUseJ API for handling Wii remote events and the JSyn API for internal synthesis. It can control MIDI out as well as offering a simple DJ scratch interface for real-time manipulation of sound samples similar to a DJ scratching with vinyl records.”

iPhone Playing game using a WiiMote

This looks like it might be a better interface for playing games than using buttons on the touch screen or tilting the screen back and forth.

Link Via

“Yesterday I did my daily scan of Twitter and noticed an interesting question sent to at me. The person, TehMillhouse, asked if I could support the BTstack project.

Don’t know what the hell a BTstack project is? It basically implements a whole lot more of the Bluetooth stack than previously allowed by Apple. This is no easy task, so I was surprised to see a video of the author of BTstack already showing it off on YouTube

WODE - Wii Optical Disc Emulator

This WODE module opens your Wii console to expand its possibilities. The module doesn’t need to be soldered in place, all you need to do is plug it in where the DVD-ROM drive normally plugs into.

“Features:

• Play Wii & GC game ISOs direct from USB Mass Storage devices @8X read speed (HDD and FLASH drive)
• Complete Solder free install solution
• Easy to use GUI - LCD & Joystick - NO homebrew software required (no any update of console SO can block this device )
• Region hack, Update blocker, Autoboot.
• Passthrough with FLAT-MOD mode built-in, play your DVD-R Wii & GCbackups and Imports @3X read speed
• Powerful ARM9 MCU
• Totally Flexible Linux Kernel
• USB hub support for multiple USB devices connection
• Great File System support - use existing WBFS formatted media or ‘drag and drop’ ISOs to existing USB devices”

Link Via Via

Wiimote and iPhone

What happens when you smash two cool technologies together? Watch the video and see. The Wiimote has some very accurate accelerometers and the iPhone is a flexible platform which allows for this cool visualization. I can imagine a box with the wiimote installed in it simulating a very expensive item to be virtually manipulated to have a closer look. A press of a button could cycle threw colors and models. The possibilities are endless.

Wiimote Controlled 15 Ton Robot Arms

This application is probably not what Nintendo was thinking when they created the Wiimote. Who would have thought that a Wiimote would ever control a 15 Ton Robot Arm!

Wii NxtBalance Robot Rolling

Have a look at this Wii NxtBalance Robot Rolling around. Looks like the Wiimote was made for this use!

Link Via

“What you need:

* lego NXT with OSEK firmware and the NXTway-gs program loaded
* a wiimote of course
* ubuntu and python with bluetooth modules
* rfcomm,pybluez and pyserial
* a python script to parse the wiimote data and send it to the lego nxt”

Wiimote Tennis Serve Trainer

Here is another example of where the inexpensive Wiimote controller with all of its built in sensors nicely adapts itself to an other application. In this case the wiimote is used to determine how good a tennis serve is!

“Well that sounded like a plan so I poped open my wiimote soldered in a few wires to the minus key and then taped the wiimote to left arm (I am right handed).

Then I taped the other end of the wires to my thumb and wrapped a tennis ball in aluminum. So now when I had the ball in my hand it completed the circuit and pressed the button which registers the data in the software. I then toss the ball and when it leaves my hand it unpresses the button stopping the registry of the data from the accelerometer.”