via Games Industry


The recent round of price cuts for the Xbox 360 is not a reaction to slowing sales for the home console, according to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer.

Speaking to the Mercury News, the chief executive said the Xbox business is an unqualified success, with the console continuing to sell well.

"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard anybody say," offered Ballmer when asked whether price reductions were evidence that Microsoft had run out of ideas to boost hardware sales. "All consoles start at higher prices. They always come down through the long cycle."

Although Microsoft has now cut the price of the hardware twice in one year, raising questions about offering lower prices within six months of each other, Ballmer said pricing strategies are never discussed outside of the company.

"Price is not something you discuss externally. Nobody ever does. So, whether we were planning on cutting price the next day or in six months or a year, we're not going to discuss price changes. If you ask me, Xbox Live is going gangbusters. The console is selling well."

He added: "I certainly would say the work that we've done around Xbox is an unqualified success. No question about that. The product is selling very well. The Xbox is an absolute home run."

Following last month's price cuts, the Xbox 360 has sold over six million sales in Europe. ...

via Engadget


Not even a fortnight after HTC's Touch HD went official in Germany, out pops a review from Deutschland calling it the best thing since sliced bread. Okay, so maybe our translation skills are a bit off, but one thing's for sure -- it was hailed as the first "iPhone killer to deserve that name." Right off the bat, reviewers praised the TouchFLO 3D interface for masking Windows Mobile, and of course, the expansive display was drooled upon numerous times. Additionally, critics praised the Opera browser while scolding Internet Explorer, and while it's hard to say for certain whether the battery life was remarkable, it definitely seemed to get their vote of approval.

Of note, the 3.5-millimetre headphone jack was also loved, making us weep while thinking of what could have been with the T-Mobile G1. At any rate, it seems pretty clear that the Touch HD is going to rock some socks off, but we're trying to push it out of our minds until it becomes available on this side of the drink. Too bad that approach isn't working at all. ...

via Joystiq


Excitement quickly turned to disappointment when we realized that Sega and Platinum Games' super-stylized Wii action title, MadWorld, was up-and-running on two kiosks at Nintendo's Fall Media Summit ... but wasn't actually playable by the media. Instead, Sega reps informed us that the game is currently undergoing some fundamental changes to its control scheme and that, well, they basically didn't want us to play it in its current state.

It sure looked bloody fun (emphasis, of course, on the "bloody"). We watched those around us slowly back away as we giggled with child-like glee at the on-screen ultra-violence (hey, we'd had a very bad morning in traffic). Someone urged Sega's testers to show off the most over-the-top move they could think of, so we were treated to a gameplay sequence wherein an enemy was restrained with a tire, skewered through the head with a stopsign post, then cleaved in twain by the main character's chainsaw.

We also got a peek at the chainsaw in action while riding a motorcycle down the side of a building and along a highway at innapropriate speeds. A sequence which, again, made us even more steamed that we couldn't grab the controls and try it ourselves. Not mad enough to run anyone through with a signpost, mind you, but most definitely irked. ...

via Games Industry


Nintendo has confirmed that software specifically created for the DSi will be region-locked, with European, North American and Japanese software only working on consoles designed for their specific regions.

Previous DS and GameBoy hardware has been region-free, allowing users to purchase US or Japanese software and play it on a European handheld.

Nintendo told our sister site Eurogamer.net this afternoon that the DSi is region locked "because DSi embeds net communication functionality within itself and we are intending to provide net services specifically tailored for each region".

The company added: "Also because we are including parental control functionality for Nintendo DSi and each region has its unique age limit made by different independent bodies."

This only applies to software that is compatible exclusively with the DSi - existing DS software remains region-free. Internet browsing and photo sharing also works globally.

It's worth noting that Nintendo's statement refers to "software" rather than "games". GamesIndustry.biz is seeking further clarification from Nintendo.

A lucrative retail market currently exists catering to early adopters and consumers keen to import Japanese and US titles often released far earlier in those regions than in Europe. ...

Hello all, this is a BlackJack game with a bit of a twist, like in blackjack you can hit, stand, double down and split. However this aims to help you beat the casino by helping the practice of card counting and basic strategy .


To help with the basic card counting there is a page that you can flip through a deck of cards and try to keep count, you can check to see if your count is good at any time and your also timed so you know when you've improved.


There's also the three basic strategy tables that can be viewed, these show you how each hand should be played but with the knowledge of the card count, which is also kept on the game you play, you can determin your percentages of winning more.

Then there's the actual game this is just how it could be played in a casino, there's five decks, dealer stands on 17, you can hit, stand, double down and split, five card trick counts, you have a wallet and can change your bet. But as this is to practice you can check on the running count, the true count and the basic strategy tables. A good idea for practice is laid out in counting101 (bottom link).


For more information on card counting and basic strategy look at these links:

Wiki Page on Blackjack:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackjack

How Stuff Works page:
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.c....htm/printable

Very good article on beating the casino (counting101):
http://www.bjmath.com/bjmath/novice/counting.htm

Hope someone finds this of use Enjoy KOR. ...

Source - Free PSP Themes

How to put them on your psp

Hope you enjoy them and please comment below ...

Actarus has released Sam an update to his PSP emulator.

New release for my PSP emualtor, more fixed and added, like VFPU opcodes. Today Im releasing also the source code.


...

Dark_Alex posed this explaining why.

This is an explanation of the security that was added in TA88v3, and which will be likely in PSP3000.

When the PSP boots, the boot code (aka pre-ipl or ipl loader) loads the ipl from either the nand or memory stick. The IPL is splitted into pieces of 0x1000 bytes.

First 0xA0 bytes of each block is a header for the kirk hardware command 1. It contains keys,
the size of the cipher data, and two hashes, one for part the header itself, and another one for the body. The 0xF60 remaining bytes are the ciphered body, which will decrypt to 0xF60 plain bytes... if the hashes, which are checked by kirk hardware itself, are OK. (Note: ciphered body can actually be less than 0xF60, in this case, remaining bytes are ignored... before TA88v3) Fir

The security of kirk hashes was destroyed by a timing attack, and the IPL became unprotected.
What has Sony added to fix this?

The answer can be found in 4.00+ slim ipl's. They decreased the size of the ciphered body to 0xF40 to leave 0x20 bytes at the end of each block (at offset 0xFE0).
As stated before, these remaining bytes are ignored... in pre-ipl's of psp's prior to TA88v3, and in fact, they can be randomized and ipl will still boot in those psp's. In newest pre-ipl's, these 0x20 bytes have a meaning.

The first 0x10 bytes is an unknown hash calculated from the decrypted block. It is deduced that is calculated from the decrypted block and not the ciphered one due to the fact that 4.01 and 4.05 have a lot of ipl blocks in common, which, when decrypted, are similar, but they are totally different in its encrypted form. In these two ipl's, this hash is same, as seen in the picture:


The second 0x10 bytes seem also to be dependent of the decrypted body (maybe dependent of the previous 0x10 bytes too?). In the picture it can be seen that they are different in 4.01 and 4.05, but they can actually be interchanged, you can move those 0x10 bytes from the same block in 4.05 ipl to the 4.01 ipl and it will still boot; however it cannot be randomized.

This protection also destroys any possibility of downgrading below 4.00, as these new cpu's won't be able to boot previous firmwares ipl's.

Summary: basically, all security of newest psp cpu's rely on the secrecy of the calculation of those 0x20 bytes. If pre-ipl were dumped somehow, the security would go down TOTALLY.

Graphic summary:
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News/release from Torch:



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