Microsoft Kinect hacked to work with Linux

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Accessories, Mods / Hacks, Video Games,

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Just a few hours ago a video surfaced on Twitter that showed the Microsoft Kinect sensor working on a PC running a Linux open source driver, just 3 hours after the European launch. The driver manages to read the input from both the video and the depth camera on the Kinect, making the information available to PC software. This was done using an open source driver now available online. Of course, this has no immediate use for you and me, but it's the first step that can lead to many cool things. Ever since Kinect was announced, people have commented that it could be used for a myriad of scenarios, such as a cheap motion capture device for animators, or a security system, which could recognize familiar faces and block intruders. Now that it's been demonstrated that the system can indeed be hacked into and linked to a normal PC, expect more code to be written to take advantage of these features in the coming months.

Read More | Open Source Kinect driver

30 reasons to jailbreak your iPhone

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Mods / Hacks, Software,

So, you've heard all about this iPhone jailbreak stuff, but haven't ever taken the plunge? The folks over at ReadWriteWeb have put together 30 reasons why you might wanna consider it. While the team "jailbreak" might sound a bit scary, what you are basically doing by jailbreaking your device is enabling the ability to install apps that aren't in the App Store because Apple wouldn't accept them for one reason or another. In the video above, for example, you get a look at FolderEnhancer, a tweak that allows you to put as many apps into a folder as you'd like, swipe between pages in a folder, and even put folders inside of other folders.

Another of our personal favorites, BiteSMS, makes the list as well, and it's basically SMS the way Apple should have implemented it in the first place. You can reply directly from the notification, send an SMS from anywhere (without having to go into the actual Messaging app,) and much more. There are other tweaks that enable things like FaceTime over 3G (removing the Wi-Fi-only restriction,) and the fantastic SBSettings, which gives you access to toggle a bunch of buried iPhone features off and on from anywhere.

Head on over to ReadWriteWeb for the full list.

Read More | ReadWriteWeb

Limera1n iOS 4.1 jailbreak now available for Mac

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Mods / Hacks, Software,

Limera1n, the first jailbreak tool compatible with iOS 4.1 is now available for the Mac. When first released five days ago, it was Windows-only, and wouldn't even work inside of a virtual machine. Now Mac owners can get in on the action. Limera1n works with all iOS devices.

Read More | Limera1n

GreenPois0n iOS 4.1 jailbreak now available

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Mods / Hacks, Software,

After a short two-day delay, the GreenPois0n iOS 4.1 jailbreak tool is now available for download. Unfortunately, like Limera1n before it, it’s a Windows-only tool for now, and the OS X version should be available shortly. We used Limera1n to jailbreak an iPhone 4 a couple of days ago, and while it’s nice to have tools like SBSettings, and BiteSMS back in our lives, we’ve found that quite a few of the jailbreak apps that we know and love are in beta, pending a full release that is compatible with iOS 4.1. Still, we’re definitely happy to have our phones functioning the way we want them to, rather than the way Apple wants them to. GreenPois0n is free, and supports iPhone 4, iPad, iPhone 3GS, and the third- and fourth-gen iPod touch.

Read More | Chronic Dev

GreenPois0n iOS 4.1 jailbreak drops on October 10

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Mods / Hacks, Software,

If you’ve got an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 4.1 and you’ve been itching to get that jailbreak goodness back, it looks like you’ll have your wish in under three days. The Chronic Dev Team has just confirmed that their SHAtter-based GreenPois0n jailbreak tool, which is compatible with all iOS devices, will be released to the world on October 10, 2010 at 10:10:10AM GMT—see, that’s 10/10/10 10:10:10.

GreenPois0n is based on a low-level exploit which can be used to jailbreak all currently available iOS devices permanently. In order for Apple to block GreenPois0n, they’d only be able to do it on new, revised hardware.

Dreamcast VMU case for iPod Nano

Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Accessories, Apple, Mods / Hacks, Portable Audio / Video, Video Games,

There’s still a bit of Dreamcast nostalgia left around in the air circulating from it’s recent 11th anniversary and revival on Xbox Live and PSN. So what else can you do to pay tribute to that great system that died before its time? How about encasing your new iPod nano in the VMU? It may be a bit bulky in comparison to the nano, but its a cool way of showing off your Sega pride and general geekery. Imagine the look on peoples’ faces when you pull a VMU out of your pocket and nonchalantly start touching the screen and playing music. Priceless.

Check out the video after the jump.

Click to continue reading Dreamcast VMU case for iPod Nano

Read More | Kotaku

Let the Apple TV hacking begin!

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Mods / Hacks,

Looks like Eric Sadun over at TUAW has found that the new Apple TV is definitely hackable, as the device is instantly recognizable by PhoneView (an OS X app that let’s you browse the disk of your iOS devices.) Since the Apple TV runs iOS and has been found to pack 8GB of storage, aside from the fact that the Apple TV version os iOS has already been hacked by the iOS Dev-Team using their SHAtter jailbreak, it’s a no-brainer that we will be seeing third-party apps on this thing at some point in the very near future.

Read More | TUAW

Video: Apple TV OS ported to iPod touch

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Mods / Hacks, Software, Videos,

So, now we know that the new Apple TV runs iOS, which is what we expected. What we didn’t expect was that you’d be able to run the Apple TV version of iOS 4.1 on an iPod touch. The software that runs on the Apple TV is called Lowtide, and looks to operate just fine on the iPod, save for some screen real estate issues.

iPhone hacker comex publishes JailbreakMe exploit code

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Mods / Hacks, Software,

So you know that JailbreakMe site that let’s you jailbreak your iOS device? Well, Apple published an iPhone and iPad update today to plug that hole, and right after, iPhone hacker “comex” published the source code of the JailbreakMe site. Why is this relevant? Well, now any would-be evildoer has access to that exploit and can thusly infect any pre-iOS 4.0.2 device using the same exploit. So you have two options here if you want to stay safe. You can update to 4.0.2, or if you want to stay jailbroken, download the PDF Warning tool. One interesting thing in all this is that if you are running the original iPhone or iPod touch, Apple doesn’t have a fix for you. So you are essentially stuck with a vulnerable device unless you jailbreak it. How’s that for backwards?

Read More | Twitter

Apple releases iOS 4.0.2, fixes PDF exploit

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Mods / Hacks, Software,

Following up on their promise to quickly plug the gaping hole in MobileSafari that allowed a PDF exploit to jailbreak your iPhone using the JailbreakMe website, Apple has just released iOS 4.0.2 for the iPhone, and 3.2.2 for the iPad. There don’t seem to be any other changes other than plugging that hole, and remember, if you are already jailbroken and want to stay that way, hold off on updating. To anyone else, go for it—the update awaits.