The Gadget Geek

Bypass PS3 firmware 3.21 in seconds — at your own risk

Face it: Sony’s backed you into a corner. You can’t play PS3 online without downloading the 3.21 firmware update, but if you download, your precious ‘Other OS’ is forfeit — and there may be side effects. You could wait it out, hoping Geohot comes through with a workaround. You could even sue Sony for a refund if you live in Europe. Or, if you’re not terribly worried about the security of your PSN account and personal information, you could instead input just ten digits into your PS3 and magically bypass the entire issue. Though technically minded individuals have been skirting Sony’s firmware checks for years now using private proxies, homebrew developer Aaron Lindsay decided to set up a public server at 67.202.81.137, which allows anyone to piggyback on his success in mere seconds — we tried it ourselves, and it worked like a charm. By doing so, you run the risk of giving Aaron all your credentials… but if the odd identity theft doesn’t break your stride, you can jump right back into that Uncharted 2 session by entering the above number into Internet Connection Settings > DNS Setting > Primary DNS.

Bypass PS3 firmware 3.21 in seconds — at your own risk originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD’s hexacore Phenom II X6 will offer Turbo Core automatic overclocking

AMD might be playing catch-up with Intel at the moment, but at least it’s keeping the distance fairly close. Intel has yet to fully transition its desktop line over to its Turbo Boost-boasting Core 2010 series, yet its competitor has already announced its own, imaginatively titled, competing technology in the form of Turbo Core. It’s a less sophisticated auto-overclock, whereby three of the six cores are decelerated in order to give the other trio some extra voltage and speed for more serialized workloads. The truly impressive thing is that operation under the Turbo Core mode and the default hexacore arrangement will fit within the same power envelope as current Phenom II X4 CPUs, while AMD also reassures its loyal users that the new Phenom II X6s will be compatible with existing AM3 and AM2+ sockets. Nice. The table above, provided by AnandTech, confirms the models we heard about a couple of weeks ago, though we’ll have to wait a little bit longer to get confirmation on pricing.

AMD’s hexacore Phenom II X6 will offer Turbo Core automatic overclocking originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 03:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sansa Clip MP3 Player
Sansa Clip MP3 Player
Battery Breakthrough Promises Lighter Weight, More Power
Better battery life is on the top of most people’s gadget wish lists. Now, a technology breakthrough from MIT offers hope for the mobile masses — but it will have to contend with other experimental approaches in a race to the market that could take years, experts say. MIT researchers say they have found a way [...]

HP rolls out Pavilion s5305z, s5350, Pavilion Elite HPE-190t desktops
HP may be getting ready to “do amazing” with its Slate, but last we checked it was still the biggest desktop PC maker around, and it’s now further expanded its offerings with three new models. Those include the Pavilion Slimline s5305z and s5350z, which are available with a range of different AMD processors and ATI Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce graphics, along with up to 4GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive on the s5305z, or 8GB of RAM and 1.5TB of storage on the s5350z. Those are joined by the higher-end, and decidedly less slimline Pavilion Elite HPE-190t (pictured at right), which packs a 3.33GHz Core i7-980X Extreme Edition CPU, up to 24GB of RAM, up to 3TB of storage, and your choice of an ATI Radeon HD 5570 or 4850, or an NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 graphics card. Look for that one to start at $1,899.99, while the s5305z and s5350z drop all the way down to $299.99 and $479.99, respectively.

HP rolls out Pavilion s5305z, s5350, Pavilion Elite HPE-190t desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES 2007: Toshiba
CES 2007: Toshiba
Runner?s Knees Be Gone, Opedix Tights Review
As part of my ongoing research to “Be a 10 in 2010″, I reached out to a company called Opedix who makes a line of support clothing designed for active and athletic people. Their ethos is interesting; clothes that provide proper support and alignment without sacrificing mobility. I got my …

Apple’s iPad: it’s here! (updated with unboxing video)

We’ve crossed the finish line at last! How is it on the other side? You tell us! We just put down plastic for one and had it activated at the Apple Store, so stand by for pictures and videos from that unparalleled experience. The “activation” process is just plugging it into a computer with iTunes for the first time, so that you can walk out of the store with the device turned on. After the unit is up and running you can dive into the App Store, where you’re prompted for a free download of iBooks. It’s all smooth sailing from there.

Update: We added a gallery of shots entering The Cube, and after the break there’s a video of us unboxing and activating the iPad.

Continue reading Apple’s iPad: it’s here! (updated with unboxing video)

Apple’s iPad: it’s here! (updated with unboxing video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Apr 2010 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Convergence: Music/Movies Meet Games
Convergence: Music/Movies Meet Games

Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, personal computing pioneer, loses battle with pneumonia
Sad news out of Georgia this morning, Dr. Ed Roberts, pioneer of personal computing, has died of pneumonia at the age of 68. Roberts founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1970. In 1974 his company released the $395 Altair 8800. It was based on Intel’s revolutionary 8080 processor and, after being featured on the cover of Popular Electronics (included after the break), would become the world’s first truly popular personal computer. It would be on this machine that the former Micro-Soft would get its start, with Bill Gates and Paul Allen being contracted by Roberts to write Altair BASIC, a version of the simple programming language that Allen delivered by hand on paper tape to the MITS office in Albuquerque.

Those two are remembering him today with the following statement:

Ed was willing to take a chance on us — two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace — and we have always been grateful to him… The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed in Albuquerque, in the MITS office right on Route 66 — where so many exciting things happened that none of us could have imagined back then.

Our thoughts go out to the Roberts family this morning.

Continue reading Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, personal computing pioneer, loses battle with pneumonia

Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, personal computing pioneer, loses battle with pneumonia originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 07:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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