Slashdot Mirror
PS3 Hacked Using Official Controller
YokimaSun writes "The PS3 Hacking War took on a new turn few days ago with Sony releasing a new firmware that blocks USB devices, supposedly aimed at cloned PS3 Joypads, but more than likely to stop the efforts of hackers. Today the PS3 is now hackable using its own Sixaxis/DualShock 3 Controllers. How will Sony stop people now from playing emulators on the PS3?"
How will Sony stop people now from playing emulators on the PS3?"
Firmware updates.
3.50 still doesn't jailbreak. You can't go online with a 3.41 firmware either.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
The Escapist's webcomic Critical Miss seems disturbingly accurate.
From what I gather, it's some sort of whitelist of device or manufacturer IDs. The practical effect is that now only official Sony devices and devices that look exactly *like* official Sony devices work. But there is no crypto-auth on them, just some numbers it reads off. Some third-party accessories simply copied Sony's official ID numbers, and those still work. Some used their own, and those do not.
> Updates are not forced. If you wish to use every service available on the PS3 that worked before the last update, you can. It is only if you want the new features, the new games, and the new services on PSN that you have to upgrade.
I call BS. My understanding of the matter is that if you want to use the PSN at all, you have to have current firmware. This includes online multiplayer for games you already have. If you refuse to update, you are locked out of playing online.
> The Other OS was only taken down AFTER someone started bragging about the ability to copy $60 PS3 games and play them... Only 5-6 assholes who are too cheap to afford new games but feel deserving of free stuff ruined it for the rest of us.
Another Sony apologist who says the hacking attempt was motivated purely by piracy. Nonsense. If the only people who wanted to crack the PS3 were pirates, then we would have seen a crack much earlier in the console's life, given that it apparently wasn't all that hard. Instead the cracking started after Sony removed OtherOS. Isn't that interesting?
> So yeah, I bought a PS3 to play PS3 games. The fact that it had all these other benefits were just frosting on the cake.
To you. There are also people who bought it largely because of these other benefits. Just because you don't personally care about them doesn't mean Sony is justified in removing an advertised feature after the sale.
That Anonymous Coward guy is pretty annoying. Can we have the government censor him or something?
3) Updates are not forced. If you wish to use every service available on the PS3 that worked before the last update, you can. It is only if you want the new features, the new games, and the new services on PSN that you have to upgrade.
No you can't! It's not just "new services on PSN" that requires an upgrade. PSN itself requires it! Without upgrade, bye-bye PSN, yes, even for your old game you used to play on PSN before. Goodbye! Or upgrade. Seems totally unforced to you?
4) The Other OS was only taken down AFTER someone started bragging about the ability to copy $60 PS3 games and play them. Until then, people could play emulators, PS1 games, PS2 games, n64, etc. Only 5-6 assholes who are too cheap to afford new games but feel deserving of free stuff ruined it for the rest of us. Or did you want Sony to let this turn out like the PSP, which is so hacked that almost no new games get released for it? They tried to open their system, and they got slapped for it.
No one bragged about an ability to copy PS3 games via OtherOS, because no one could copy PS3 games via OtherOS! Sony used the hypervisor hack as an easy excuse to remove a feature they no longer cared about. Remember, it was removed from the Slim a long time before any hack!
Sorry, you can get back on your high horse about how evil Sony is. Just wanted to point out that out of all the evil companies out there, Sony is the only one letting you use generic parts and share purchases. Ooo, scary.
Sony consoles are also the only one to lose features over time.
Nerd rage? There is a world of difference between putting out a new product with fewer features than the older one and removing features from a product I've already purchased through the use of mandatory firmware updates.
Fixed that for you.