The Edge of I-Hacked

XBMC - Xbox Media Center

Team-XBMC and The XBMC Project is proud to announce the release of XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0. XBox Media Center (XBMC) is an award winning, free and open source media player for the Xboxâ„¢ game-console. The XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0 point-release source code has now been set in our CVS. We consider that the current code in the XBMC CVS is as stable as a point-release should be. All XBMC users are highly encouraged to upgrade to this stable Xbox Media Center 2.0.0 point-release. Remember, the XBMC source code needs to be compiled with the XDK, and requires a modded Xbox to run. Our thanks goes out to everyone who has tested, reported bugs, and helped fix them in order to make this release possible.

Topics Covered:
Cell Phone Jamming
Theme Park Hacking
Xbox360 Hacking
Ripping iTunes DRM

Today at 4:45 one year ago you came into our lives, changing them forever. How a year has passed already, I will never know. I love your smile and your laughter. I love when you are being shy or if frightened, you hold onto me tight. Also, I love how inquisitive you are, I can’t wait to show you the world.

Most of all, simply just love you.

Happy First Birthday Lauren!

from Gameworld Network news story

It appears someone has already pulled apart the Wii’s Nunchuk, and the thing isn’t even out yet! It was bound to happen eventually. Check out these 10 photos.

from alexking.org: Blog

As far as I can tell, no one has yet come up with a way to tether a BlackBerry 8700 to a Mac (running Mac OS X) to use it as a modem. This works on the PC, so it’s likely a matter of reverse engineering to get it working on OS X.

It seems that others are interested as well. A few folks seem to have started working on it, but maybe we can provide some encouragement with a bounty?

I’ll throw in $50 to get things started… if you’d like to sweeten the pot, PayPal some cash to paypal AT alexking DOT org with “BlackBerry Bounty” in the comments.

Current bounty total: $610

Terms:

* The working solution must work on both MacBooks (including Pro) and PowerBooks and it must work with a BlackBerry 8700 on T-Mobile and Cingular.
* If the solution is not made available for free (ie. is packaged as a commercial product), anyone who contributed to the Bounty must be given a free license.
* The solution must be found by September 30th, 2006.
* If no solution is found by that time, I will refund the bounty contributions (via PayPal).

from HeavyLabeling | DefectiveByDesign.org
50,000 DRM warning labels, and just in time for the holiday shopping season! Order your free sticker pack now in time for the action on October 3rd and Announce a meet-up and get your friends together with others in your area. Get these stickers where they belong! Get photographs of your action and write a blog and we will post it to the front page of DefectiveByDesign.

Warning_DRM

When the UK Government All Party Internet Group reported on DRM they made a number of recommendations. Number one was to call for Extensive Labeling of all DRM products. That was nice, but have you seen any warning labels on DRM products?

If anyone still doesn’t beleive what DRM will mean for their privacy rights, just get them to read about Unbox, Amazon’s new online movie service that Boing Boing lovingly describe as: Amazon tells customers: Eat shit and die.“” Or how about today’s The Inquirer which reports that the new Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 Shreds your Rights for the Content Mafia

Get your free warning labels and anti-DRM stickers delivered now!

Will you be in London or New York on Saturday September 30th? Help us kick of awareness for October 3rd in style by joining the action outside the flagship Apple Stores in America and Europe. Can’t make it? Tell your friends in London and New York to join in. Get the word out!

Join the New York action

Join the London action

Start your own action and get others to join you here

from Wired

A security expert in New York has learned how to get free money from some ATMs by entering a special code sequence on the PIN pad.

Last week, news reports circulated about a cyber thief who strolled into a gas station in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and, with no special equipment, reprogrammed the mini ATM in the corner to think it had $5.00 bills in its dispensing tray, instead of $20.00 bills.

Using a pre-paid debit card, the crook then made a withdrawal, and casually strolled off with a 300% profit in his pocket.

Foolishly, he left the ATM misprogrammed this way for 9 days — presumably to the delight of other customers — before a good Samaritan reported the issue and exposed the caper.

How, exactly, he pulled off the swindle remained unreported. Curious, Dave Goldsmith, a computer security researcher at Matasano Security began poking around. Based on CNN’s video, he identified the ATM as a Tranax Mini Bank 1500 series.

He then set out to see if he could get a copy of the manual for the apparently-vulnerable machine to find out how the hack worked. Fifteen minutes later, he reported success.

Now Working! Download Operator Manual

from Engadget

You probably remember the old hack that lets you change a couple of digits in a registry key in order to burn a disc capable of installing Windows XP Pro when all you paid for was the cheaper Home edition. Well it looks like Microsoft is once again looking to save a few bucks at the expense of minimizing piracy, as the company has reportedly confirmed to IDG News Service that every version of Vista — from Home Basic to Ultimate — will ship on a single DVD when the OS is finally released. Besides enabling Redmond to cut costs, there are even more self-serving interests at play in this decision: by giving consumers an easy way to upgrade, Microsoft is hoping that more people will drool over the extra features in the pricier packages and decide to throw down the cash for a new registration key. Of course the downside to this strategy is that somehow, somewhere, some clever hacker is going to figure out a way to get Ultimate onto his/her machine without the upgrade fee (after disabling WGA of course), and people the world over with less morals than ourselves or our readers will gleefully follow suit. Anyway, we could never in good conscience recommend that you partake in such illegal activities, but as per usual, you can be sure that we’ll be reporting on this hack the minute it hits our tip jar.

from ThinkGeek

Fancy yourself a programmer? Well Neuros is looking for your coding help to make their new OSD Linux-based media appliance a video-ripping, YouTube playing, TCPIP media monster. And what’s better, Neuros is putting their money where your hot little hand is with a series of cash bounties for coding certain new features into the firmware of the OSD… plus Neuros comes through with a $70 manufacturer rebate and a no questions asked 90 day return policy. Out of the box, the Neuros OSD functions as a media recorder and player. Connect the OSD to your TV and give it an analog video input from your DVD or cable box and it can encode video in various formats for your portable devices like PSP or mobile phones. Files can be stored and played either using media cards or using a USB external hard drive plugged into the OSD. However, the really special part about the OSD is its wealth of ports and the completely open source firmware. You get analog video/audio input and output, ethernet, USB, infrared, serial, two card slots to accommodate CF and SD/MS/MMC cards, plus a full-function universal remote. [Check out a detailed photo the ports here]

Please be aware that ThinkGeek is the exclusive retailer of the OSD and there is a limited quantity of 200 Neuros OSD Beta units available.

Important Note:
The Neuros OSD Beta unit is a work in progress. You need some technical knowledge to get the most out of the device. Obviously people with the aptitude to code new features into the firmware will benefit the most. Updating the firmware on the OSD requires the ability to download a file to an extra SD/MMC or CF Card (not included) insert it into the OSD and power cycle it. If you don’t know what we are talking about… you probably should not buy the OSD.