-= Xbox360 toch gekraakt!=-

Het gaat dus om de Xbox360 Dvd-Drive dus niet echt een (firmware) modchip. Echter willen de hackers de flashgeheugen 256 kb niet vrijgeven of doorverkopen. Maar het ziet er na uit dat Team Xecuter nu ook de hack van TheSpecialist hebben ontdekt en verbeterd hebben. Maar in tegenstelling van hem gaan ze dus nu wel de hack naar buiten brengen. Wordt gegarandeerd vervolgd.

De Nederlandse Xbox-fansite heeft in een interview met Xbox 360-hacker TheSpecialist de nodige details verkregen over de exacte aard en implicaties van de dvd-beveiligingskraak van afgelopen zaterdag. Volgens de verder anonieme hacker uit Nederland was de uitdaging vooral het statement van Microsoft dat de Xbox 360 de best beveiligde console ter wereld is. Het verspreiden van de hack in kwestie wijst hij van de hand, aangezien dit volgens TheSpecialist niets met hacken te maken heeft en dit ook niet de doelstelling van het team was.

TheSpecialist: "Months of hard work have come to an end. The 360 FW security details were posted a few days ago already, so why not make it official :) It's been done. Respect to all the people on this board who made it possible with their brilliant contributions: Anita999, Geremia, Nayr, Bluecop, Interestedhacker, MacDennis, Phantasm, Marvin, Tiros, SpenzerX, Team Modfreakz, Fuzzylogic, Takires, loser, jasper, SMO, Groepaz, Zobyone, Jumba, Amadeus, Tser, DjHuevo, oz_paulb, DaveX, darkfly, evestu, Robinsod, Dark_Neo, Gael360, Seventhson, probutus. Just for fun,  And no, the team decided not to release a hacked FW. The security details are proof itself. The team advocates hacking, not piracy."

(YouTube flash video here).

Daarnaast is de huidige hack eerder een gevaar voor de gebruiker dan voor Microsoft: door middel van een eenvoudige check kan Microsoft de aanpassing detecteren, waarna een patch voldoende is om de firmware in zijn werking te belemmeren. Ook kan het uitvoeren van de hack ervoor zorgen dat de gebruiker de toegang ontzegd wordt tot de Live-service. Dat, in combinatie met kostbare hardware en specialistische kennis die nodig zijn voor het uitvoeren van de firmwareflash, maakt de hack onaantrekkelijk voor de gemiddelde eindgebruiker. Ook zou de kraak geen voorbode zijn van een eerdaags te verwachten firmware of modchip die het mogelijk maakt om illegale media op de Xbox 360 af te spelen.

Datel XBox 360 4GB Portable Hard Drive

Datel made big waves with their hard-drive for the Sony PSP. Now they offer a portable hard-drive for the Microsoft Xbox 360. The Datel Xbox 360 4GB Portable Hard Drive connects via USB 2.0 to the Microsoft Xbox 360. It features a green glowing power Xbox 360 button on the case.

The original 20GB Xbox 360 Hard-drive can also be called portable. Additionally any USB external hard-drive actually can be connected to the Xbox 360. The Datel Xbox 360 hard-drive is for those who want a small portable drive with Xbox looks.

Rumor: PS3 To Have Different Systems Too?

Posted Feb 06th, 2006 at 08:10AM by Jeff Ch. Listed in: Rumors

Lanceerdatum Playstation 3 onzeker

Halo 3 in 2007? Bigger Hard Drive Coming?

IGN, gaming's self-proclaimed Nostradamus, is making a few predictions for the coming year on how the Xbox 360 will evolve. Seemingly based off of private discussions with industry insiders, the gaming publication has some pretty interesting things to say.

One of those rumors, or predictions, is that Halo 3, for all the excitement behind it, will be delayed until 2007. According to IGN, with Halo 2 being plagued by a long development time, approximately three years, it is likely that the team at Bungie will take its time to create something truly excellent and as a result will most likely ship the title in 2007.

Another prediction, and one that is grounded more closely in reality, is the great likelihood that Microsoft will begin to sell larger hard drives for the 360. With downloads over Xbox Live sometimes clocking in at hefty sizes, most people are finding their hard drives filling quickly. IGN predicts sizes of 40 and maybe even 80 gigabyte hard drives in the future.

IGN has a few more things to say about the coming year, check them out here. For accuracy purposes, check out last year's predictions here.

Toshiba May Delay HD DVD Launch Until 2006

Toshiba Corp. said it is considering pushing back the year-end US launch of HD DVD players until 2006, losing its first-move advantage against Blu-ray Disc, which is scheduled for launch in the first half of 2006. The main backer of the next-generation DVD format known as HD DVD said that any change in the launch schedule is intended to maximize the potential demand of the new format.

"We are now in talks with Hollywood studios and large-scale retailers to seek the most effective timing of the launch and best way to launch," a Toshiba spokeswoman said. "We originally aimed for the year-end launch in the United States. But we have not really decided on that."

Toshiba may, however, launch the players in Japan in the current year, the spokeswoman said.

HD DVD offers a variety of discs, including: a 15GB single-layer, single-sided disc and a 30GB dual-layer, single-sided ROM disc, both approved and standardized by the DVD Forum (an international association of hardware manufacturers, software firms, content providers and other users of DVDs).

Toshiba also recently announced a high capacity triple-layer, single-sided 45GB ROM disc, and a hybrid (double-sided, dual-layer) ROM disc with 30GB of high-definition content on one side and 8.5GB of standard-definition on the other. Manufacturability for these new discs has been verified as well by key disc replicators.

Using the latest compression technologies, the 30GB disc can store up to 8 hours* of 1,125-line HD images. Today's DVD has a capacity of 4.7GB and can contain 2 hours of 525-line standard definition (SD) images; the 30GB HD DVD has space enough for 48 hours of SD images.

Last week, NEC announced the NEC HR-1100A, the world's first 5 1/4 inch HD DVD PC drive, will be available this October. This HD DVD drive plays back HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs. This is all down to the optical head that was developed by NEC which can read blue, red and ultra-violet light.

In terms of media compatibility,the NEC HD DVD Multireader HR-1100A is the first drive that is capable of reading HD DVD media at 2x speed, DVD minus and DVD plus media up to 8x DVD speed, as well as rewritable and dual-layer DVDs. It can also read DVD RAMs at 5x speed. Finally, the HD DVD Multireader delivers a convincing 32x CD speed as CD-ROM drive. The new HD DVD standard enables a storage capacity of up to 64 GB – which is over 13 times greater than that of a conventional DVD – as well as 16 hours of recording and playback in HD quality.