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After a long time of waiting and a weeks-long Ninja release, Frostegater’s exploit is finally revealed to be in the PSP Mini  game UNO. UNO joins the growing collection of PSP games with a buffer overflow vulnerability, and if our experience is to be trusted, Sony will remove it from their stores within 48hrs (although we hope the holiday season might help delaying this…), so hurry up and get it. For those who just join us, developer Frostegater announced a few weeks ago that he would be porting Total_Noob’s CEF to Vita Firmware 2.02. CEF is a piece of software that allows users to run PSP Homebrews, plugins, and backups within the PSP emulator of the Vita. Since this is not official Sony software, it relies on flaws in some specific games in order to run. This time’s game is UNO. But well, if you’ve been following this blog, you know what CEF does and why you want it, so if you are interested, hurry up, and get Uno now. Let me emphasize again that if you are interested, yo...

Direct Source: http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/f456/imp-news-install0us-apptrackr-shuts-down-1590958/

Just recently developer SKFU has made progress on what could be a native hack of the Vita, giving us our first visual glimpse! It seems hacking progress is regularly attempted outside of the PSPemu (which is the typical eCFW and VHBL) by SKFU. Awhile back you may remember our reporting on news that the developer SKFU was able to get a developer PsVita and had slowly started to peal back the veil of his own Vita exploit by releasing common app paths in the Vitas filesystem. Now, SKFU has revealed a picture of what could be a native Vita exploit, confirming that he has made progress with that Dev unit. SKFU posted the picture below and playfully teasing us by saying “VHBL is not the only thing working on 2.02" Source: Wololo's blog

As it turns out, the PSP scene isn’t exactly dead, the PSP scene has just moved on to the Vita, as we get more exploits (VHBL,eCFW) for the Vita, we need more homebrew developers, the Vita’s PSP emulator itself has a lot of potential (even at the lowest clock speed, the emulator is faster than the max 333 MHz of the PSP), to help beginners to develop homebrew with the PSPSDK, a wiki has been setup which can be accessed here , we need the help of all developers to construct a good and more usable documentation for the PSPSDK. Everyone who has some knowledge in programming for the PSP is requested to help out. The wiki is aimed at providing documentation of things like what different functions do, how to call them, the exceptions that they can throw, in plain English so that everyone can understand them easily. We also plan to provide code snippets to make tasks simpler, tutorials etc. I ask everyone who can help to help out, this is for the good of the community and because we ...

To quote Coldbird directly (source) : Some people over at Wololo’s place have been wondering whether the showcased VF Vita CFW Video was the CFW I’ve been working on. To put it short, yes it is. Project Ark (initially PRO-Vita) has been a joint collaboration of multiple big personalities of the scene. However, as I’ve not queried the other team members for permission to post their names just yet, I will only name those which are already obvious to the open eye, namely me (Coldbird) and Virtuous Flame. (Should any other people want to get mentioned, please contact me, you know how to find me.) I want to put big importance into the fact that this project is a collaboration and that everyone that took part in it deserves to label himself a valuable member to Team PRO. Rolling up the events of the recent past, namely the leak of the Project Prototype which forced me to leave the scene, was caused by multiple people, some trustworthy – some not so trustworthy – some made of pure evil. ...

Happy holidays for everyone! Hope you eat and party, and of course stay safe and sound with your familiars (or if you don't want to stay with them, or just want different company) look for friends or colleagues. This is a day to stay with people who want the best for you... Have a greay day!

After outing the HTC Butterfly/DNA last month, HTC is once again looking to make waves with a ultra high-res screen, except with a more compact size. The latest bit of online gossip has it that the company's upcoming M7 flagship is set to feature a 4.7-inch 1080p display, which amounts to an unprecedented 468 ppi. The display panel will be of the SoLux variety, which is claimed to feature superior outdoor visibility, viewing angles, and color reproduction. Inside, you'll find a quad-core 1.7 GHz Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM, and 32 GB of internal storage. The camera sensor will have 13MP resolution, while the lens will have a bright f/2.0 aperture capable of super slow-mo and video HDR in 1080p. The 2MP front-facer will also be capable of 1080p video. In terms of connectivity, the M7 will support LTE up to 42Mbps, as well as the new 802.11 ac wireless standard. Beats audio enhancements are also included, and it will all be powered by a 2300mAh battery. On the so...

Samsung has announced a new Android based smartphone, called the Galaxy Grand. The main feature here is the 5-inch, 800 x 480 resolution LCD, making it smaller only to the Note series in Samsung's smartphone lineup Other features on this smartphone include a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, 2 megapixel front camera, 8GB internal memory with microSD card slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, HSPA+ connectivity and a 2,100mAh battery. The Galaxy Grand will be running Samsung's TouchWiz interface on top of Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. It will come with the usual range of Samsung features, including S Voice, multi window mode, Direct Call, AllShare Play, Smart Alert, Popup Play and all the Samsung Hubs. The phone will be sold in two variants, I9080, which will be the single SIM variant and I9082, which will be the dual-SIM variant. No word on availability and pricing. Source: GSMArena

Software usermode exploits on the PSP have always been either about exploits in a game (generally a buffer overflow), or exploits in one of the embedded libraries such as libtiff. Exploits in games had the inconvenience that it often meant buying an expensive game that you might not end up really playing, but sometimes it was well worth it. The overall idea was to make sure to buy a copy of the game that didn’t have a patch for the security hole (in hindsight, the games were actually not patched, their metadata was just slightly modified to require a higher version of the Firmware, and the firmware is where the patch was). As long as you didn’t update your firmware and were able to buy one of the “golden” UMDs somewhere, you would be able to enjoy a HEN, a downgrade, or a CFW. That system had its drawbacks, mostly the insane price of the UMDs for some of those games (unpatched copies of GTA Liberty City Stories reached up to 20,000Y – that’s $250 – in Japan), but other than that it ...

This question keeps coming, for example people on vita OFW 1.69 are asking us how they can update to 1.81 without running the risk of installing the latest firmware 2.01 instead. The Z made a tutorial on how to do this exactly. Keep in mind that this does not allow you to downgrade, only to upgrade to any version you want. You can reinstall your existing firmware, or go up to any version, but not go down. This is nevertheless useful for people who were on a fairly old firmware and want, for example, to try and install total_Noob’s CEF on 1.81 with the latest technique that we describe here. The Z’s video is fairly old, but I never blogged about it, and now feels like exactly the right time for that  In addition to this, The Z posted a fairly details Tutorial on /talk. The tutorial is fairly long, so I will simply link to it: How to: Manually updating to another PS Vita Firmware (Tuto by The Z) You will need OpenCMA, and a working http link for the update file you want to i...

Divertido articulo que explica como funcionan las nuevas cajas automaticas, recomendado! Please use a translator if you can't talk spanish! Source/Fuente: Auto10

With all the exploit related news and the upcoming ecfw by frostegater, we barely see articles that have nothing to do with the vita, so lets take a step away for brief moment from the psp scene and learn how the copy protection and different security measures on the ps1 worked. In this article I will explain how the ps1 security works, so you can understand the methods used back then to bypass it’s security and why those methods don’t work today. Original security measure: disc region First, we must know that the ps1 had region locks, which means a legit bought game from the US won’t work on a EU console. The next thing you should know is that the region lock and the antipiracy check is one and the same, for older models that is (but we’ll get to that later). Legit Ps1 games had a marked zone at the beginning of the disc that contained the region information, this information had the letters SCEx, where x was the region of the disc: - A for america (SCEA) - E for europe ...

Open CMA has finally been fixed to work on the new firmwares. After the recently released 2.00 and 2.01 firmware updates for the PlayStation Vita, Open CMA versions 4.5 and below no longer worked due to Sony’s new changes. However, now a new version, Open CMA 5, has been made by Virtuous Flame to work with the newest Vita firmwares. It’s recommend you download and use it, if you are on firmwares higher than 1.81. Open CMA 5 will only work on 2.00 and higher, so if you are on firmwares 1.81 and below continue and/or use my existing Open CMA 4.5 version. You can find the download for Open CMA 5 below with a description of what Open CMA is for those of you who need clarification or are new. What is Open CMA? Open CMA is the content manager assistant to copy files to the Vita. Open CMA is the same as the official Sony version but modified, so that you can copy files without any internet connection unlike the official Sony CMA which requires a constant internet connection to the Sony...

This will not come as a big surprise for those of you who know how these things work, but it’s always nice to have a confirmation: VHBL still runs fine on Vita’s firmware 2.01, and The Z proves it to us with a video. The video showcases Frostegater’s latest port of VHBL to an unknown usermode exploit in a PSP Game. On the video we can see VHBL running Zelda on Masterboy (Game boy and master system emulator), Wagic (Collectible card game), and PSPFiler (File manager for the PSP). This is most likely the same version that was running a few days ago on 2.0, as we can safely assume Sony did not patch any undisclosed vulnerability with 2.01. There is still no word on a release yet, and it is still unclear if Frostegater will focus on a VHBL release or work on his own port of Total_Noob’s CEF, since he seems to also be in possession of a PSP Kernel exploit. As a reminder for those who just joined us, we had a PSP Kernel exploit available up to 1.81, but that got patched in 2.0. At t...

As we can see, quite crappy grounding... Have to make it better

suggestions welcome

This is the end, Big N fans. Nintendo Power's final issue is upon us and in a surprise tip of the hat, the magazine's staff has decided to pay tribute to the famed cover that started it all. Framed in a similar manner to the inaugural issue from 1988, this last dance with all things officially Nintendo apes the Super Mario Bros. 2 clay-styled setup for a cover story on New Super Mario Bros. U. Look for it to hit newsstands one last time on December 11th, bringing the beloved decades-old publication full circle. Source: Engadget

If you think Sony's DualShock and Move controllers are two halves of a well-rounded gaming experience, you might be pleased to know that the firm has dreamt up a hybrid. A patent application filed last year by Kaz and Co. for a "Hybrid Separable Motion Controller" has just surfaced, and it describes a controller that can function as two independent parts or locked together as one. The application also suggests that the location of the controller's halves could be independently tracked when separated and that video games played with the Franken-hardware could switch to configuration-appropriate control schemes. A similar concept has popped up before, but that's no guarantee the contraption will ever see the light of day. In any case, you can hit the bordering source link to dig into the filing and fantasize what such a piece of kit could mean for gaming. Source: Engadget

Consider it a trend: Verizon's wireless charging 8X variant will work out of the box with U.S. GSM networks. According to Windows Phone Central, users have reported success swapping in AT&T and T-Mobile micro-SIMs, indicating that the devices are shipping unlocked. And it's not just hearsay either, as we've confirmed on our own review unit that this does indeed work. In fact, with the network openness afforded by recent additions like the Droid DNA and iPhone 5, this is quickly becoming more rule for the carrier than exception. Certainly we can all agree that it's a welcome break from Big Red's stodgy past. Source: Engadget

Recently Sony invited us to check out its forthcoming 84-inch XBR 4K LED TV and we couldn't resist an opportunity to get an idea of how well the company's $25,000 flagship stacked up against the competition. Perhaps trying to simulate an in-home viewing experience, Sony packed its gargantuan TV into a family room setting and allowed us to give it a spin. While we didn't get to channel surf freely, the provided stock media did a great job of highlighting the display's capabilities. Images were crisp but fluid, while colors remained strong and organic. One of our biggest concerns was that things would look too good and possibly appear unnatural. But the XBR-84X900 managed to produce an excellent picture with stellar viewing angles. As for the content itself, we were treated to a collection of pre-loaded clips running off of Sony's recently announced 4K media server controlled by the system's included Xperia Tablet S. It should be noted that The Amazing Spide...

We got an early teardown of the latest 21,5-inch iMac thanks Japanese site Kodawarisan, but now it's had the full iFixit treatment. The overall verdict? Well iFixit weren't overly enthused with some of the new design's internal fixings, making a special reference to the use of glue to bind the LCD and glass to the rest of the frame, instead of magnets as found in previous models. Likewise, those two major components are now fused together meaning if you want to replace one, you'll be replacing the other, too. This adhesive also contributes to the trickiness of general repair. Beyond the glue-based concerns, there's the usual intense poring over of internal like the dual mics found at the rear, or the 2.5-inch HGST / Western Digital hard drive. Overall, though, the tone is a definite thumbs down when it comes to repairability, with the device getting just 3 out of 10 on it's now famous meter. Prise open the source link for the full internal tour. Source: E...

One area where Moore's law can be seen alive and well seems to be the developer and small project computer world. Whether it's the ubiquitous Raspberry Pi, Intel's NUC, or any number of similar products. There's one more name to add to this list, and that's the ODROID-U from Hardkernel. The boards are a little more expensive than Raspberry Pi's impressively cheap Model A and Model B, but you are getting some bang for that buck. The $69 ODROID-U comes with a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos 4412 processor (as found in the Galaxy S III and Note II, 1GB of RAM, quad-core Mali 400 graphics, micro-HDMI, a brace of USB ports, a headphone jack and Ethernet. If you want a little more oomph, for an extra $20 you can have the RAM doubled, and a 1.7GHz core with the ODROID-U2 model. There's one stat you might notice missing which is flash memory. There's no onboard storage, so you'll have to bring your own memory for the built-in microSD slot. As the ODROID name sugge...

Just like the suddenly inescapable 4K, it appears Google TV will be a buzzword for multiple new devices at CES like this Netgear NeoTV Prime (model # GTV100) which GTV Hacker discovered via a pair of curious FCC testing documents. It actually snuck through the FCC before the just-leaked ASUS Qube (more on that in a moment), revealed via a documents for both its Bluetooth-connected remote control and a wireless component, although the box itself remains under wraps. The remote packs a QWERTY keyboard, while up front there's a touchpad plus the usual assortment of control buttons augmented with several app shortcuts for Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Vudu, HBO Go and Crackle. It may be wishful thinking, but here's hoping the inclusion of Amazon and HBO Go buttons mean dedicated apps are on the way, instead of the current website shortcuts. The wireless module is less revealing, only confirming the name, 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0 and a lack of ad-hoc wireless network support. Check aft...