PS3 Hacks - News, PS3 Hacks, Cracks, Mods.

An analyst with Janco, Mike Hickey, claims that a major price cut on the playstation 3 may be on the way (like, in the next few days). Hickey claims that the price slash needs to be at least $100 to get the retail juice moving again, and that, failing that, Sony should expect to see its sales on the console continue to decline. Hickey also speculates that Sony could hack the Blu-ray out of the PS3 in order to make that price cut doable but then the PS3 won’t be unique and it won’t be thee console to buy for an all-in-one HD experience — It would be another xbox 360. You’d have to buy an HD addon to make it somewhat better. — Sony isn’t that stupid, are they? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Stay tuned!

A member on the Gametrailers forums claims to have a friend working in an R&D department at Sony. That friend then let him in on the firmware 2.7 details. Some of these rumored features are awesome and heavily requested; hopefully they’re true…

Friends List:

• Voice Messaging is now available as an alternative to text after selecting a user on the friends list. Voice message recordings are capped at 30 seconds.
• Home Integration: Saved Playstation Home avatar photos can be selected as photo ID for Gamer Card/Friends List.
• Trophy number and Gamer Level are listed under Friend names for quick reference.

Gamer Card & Trophies:

• Gamer Card layout has been changed to more closely resemble the Playstation Store aesthetic.
• Past Trophy information can be viewed in detail by selecting “Recent Trophy History” option.
• Newly aquired trophies auto-sync in the background
• Server infrastructure for Trophies has been optimized. Resulting in faster retrieval time for Gamer Card and Trophy information.

In-Game XMB:

• Loading time for In-Game XMB has been drastically reduced, resulting in a more seemless in-game experience.
• “Theme settings” options while in-game is now available, allowing custom themes to be applied to the In-Game XMB.
• Internet Browser can now be accessed while in-game.
• Voice messaging and voice chat options can be used while in-game.
• Options that cannot be used in the XMB during game sessions are grayed out (but still selectable) to eliminate user accessibility confusion.

Misc:

• Other slight UI tweaks and enhancements.

Remember: this is a rumor, pure speculation… There is no hard evidence confirming its legitimacy. We can only hope.

- source: forums.gametrailers.com

Spike TV’s show, Gametrailers TV, will be making its way into the Playstation Store. The show will be airing weekly and will be making regular appearances on the PSN Video Store. Similar to Qore, Gametrailers TV will provide the viewers with a behind-the-scenes look at the development of some popular games except without that hot Veronica Belmont. Expect SD episodes to run $2 an episode, while HD episodes will cost $3 assuming of course they decide to charge the same as they do in the Xbox Live Marketplace.

- source: blog.us.playstation.com

In addition to the post on How to play PS2 ISOs on a ps3 on NTSC/JAP PS3s here is one for PAL systems! Again, Use at your own risk, we at ps3-hacks / Dashhacks Inc. cannot take responsibility if you damage your ps3 with this tutorial. Remember, we will not tell you were to get ISOs from… Let’s continue now…

What you need:

• Swap Magic 3.6+/3.8(Purchase here) (Must be actual copy, burned copies do NOT work).
• Launch PS3 PAL PS2 (60gb units)
• Flash Drive (PSP in USB MODE will also work).

1. Download the USBAdvance Tutorial File Pack [PAL].
2. Extract the contents of the folder USBADVANCE to the root of your flash drive.
3. Place the Playstation 2 ISO’s of your choice to your external HDD/flash drive. You need to have them properly formmated and copied over via USBUtil(is included in file you downloaded above). If you are not sure how to do this, there is a quick tutorial that guides you through the process. Make sure your USB/Flash drive is plugged into your PS3.
4. Boot up SWAPMAGIC and once loaded into the menu screen, people who are using swapmagic v3.6 press UP (on D-Pad)+L2 on your PS3 controller to browse through your flash drive. People that are using Swapmagic v3.8 go to the SMBOOT menu and select uLaunch from there. In the pack provided uLaunch is SMBOOT1. Go to configure, select any button you want (I usually use X or O), go to MISC and select FILEBROWSER binding it to the selected button, go down and hit ok. Now go to the browser. If you are unable to view your flash drive, then it is not compatible (use another one).
5. USB Loader should start running now. And there you have it, if you followed this tutorial properly you should see the Playstation 2 ISO’s there and just click and launch

(more…)

Hey guys & girls, this is a tutorial on how to boot PlayStation 2 ISO’s on the PS3 (20/60GB NTSC/JAP) via an external HDD. Those with a 20 or 60GB launch PS3 are in luck! That is, if you’re a pirate. Use at your own risk, we at ps3-hacks / Dashhacks Inc. cannot take responsibility if you damage your ps3 with this tutorial. Remember, we will not tell you where to get ISOs from… That said, lets continue…

What you need:

• Swap Magic 3.6+/3.8 (Purchase here) (Must be actual copy, burned copies do NOT work).
• Launch PS3 (20/60gb) – NTSC/Japanese (Must have emotion engine, only launch PS3’s had this).
• Flash Drive (PSP in USB MODE will also work).

If you are a Japanese PS3 user you need to rename the folder BADATA-SYSTEM to BIDATA-SYSTEM -This guide will assume you are a USA user and call the folder “BADATA-SYSTEM” in the download pack.

1. Download the USBAdvance Tutorial File Pack.
2. Extract the contents of the folder USBADVANCE to the root of your flash drive/PSP.
3. Boot up SWAPMAGIC and once loaded into the menu screen, people who are using swapmagic v3.6 press UP (on D-Pad)+L2 on your PS3 controller to browse through your flash drive. People that are using Swapmagic v3.8 go to the SMBOOT menu and select uLaunch from there. In the pack provided uLaunch is SMBOOT1. Go to configure, select any button you want (I usually use X or O), go to MISC and select FILEBROWSER binding it to the selected button, go down and hit ok. Now go to the browser. (Props to Crono for telling us how to use v3.8 Swapmagic). If you are unable to view your flash drive, then it is not compatible (use another one).
4. Copy the BADATA-SYSTEM folder and USBLD_01.ELF file to your Virtual Memory Card (on PS3).
5. Go inside BADATA-SYSTEM folder and cut/move the Pictures and SWAPMAGIC folder to ROOT the Virtual Memory Card.
6. Remove your FLASH DRIVE, press the PS button and quit the game and go back to XMB and launch swap magic.
7. At this point you should move the Playstation 2 ISO’s of your choice to your external HDD/flash drive. You need to have them properly formmated and copied over via USBExtreme or USBUtil (is included in file you downloaded above). If you are not sure how to do this, there is a quick tutorial that guides you through the process. Make sure your USB/Flash drive is plugged into your PS3.
8. Once booted, browse and launch USBLD_01.ELF
9. And there you have it, if you followed this tutorial properly you should see the Playstation 2 ISO’s there and just click and launch

(more…)