iPad and iPhone users, rejoice! Thanks to Mike’s excellent work, we are finally able to include iOS in our release. For the first time Wagic is available on both Android and iOS. Read the rest of this entry »
A few days ago we discovered that it is compulsory to be connected to the internet in order to use the Content Manager Assistant. Although I found out later that this tool is not necessary for media files, it is still compulsory to use it if you want to copy games and savedata from and to your PS Vita. Having to be connected to the internet while you copy files between two pieces of hardware you own is inconvenient, unsafe, and technically not necessary. It is therefore an unnecessary “feature” of the Content Manager Assistant that was put here by Sony for no other good reason than force people to update their console to the latest firmware on a regular basis.
Famous PSP Dev Virtuous Flame released today a tool called OpenCMA, which is basically a patch to the Content Manager Assistant (on the PC side) that will prevent it to connect to the internet.
A year and a half ago when I got Doom for PSP to run on the PSP Go, website hackaday noticed it and said “[being able to run Doom is] a prerequisite for any cracked device”. Some people try to run Linux on their hardware at all cost, I prefer Doom. Today I was able to tweak HBL a bit on the PS Vita to get Doom to run on it. Will I get hackaday’s attention this time too? 
That’s, hands down, the best fps available on the vita so far, check the video below!
Mike at exophase is showcasing yet another Hello World running in the PSP emulator of the Vita. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s finally here! This is still a beta, so we expect to fix a few bugs for the final 0.17 release, but if you want to help us smash bugs, feel free to give it a try. This version of Wagic is open to all people who are registered at the Wagic forums (registration is free, and note that it’s not the same forum as /talk, so if you own an account at /talk you might need to create a new account).
Wagic is an heroic-fantasy card game, supporting more than 15’000 cards (more than 8’600 unique cards). The beta is currently available for the PSP, Windows, and Android. Yup, Android joins the Wagic fun. Read the rest of this entry »
Developer SKFU says today he found a problem in the PS Vita’s encryption functions which allowed him to decrypt some test files, “directly via the system” (hu, does he mean that the Vita decrypts the files for him, and he manages to retrieve the decrypted version???). His blog post doesn’t say anything technical about the flaw or how he found it, but he said he would update his blog when he has more info to share. Stay tuned.
Source SKFU, thanks to Omega Zero for the tip
A few days ago I posted my concerns about the “Content Manager” tool, a tool that is compulsory to install and use if you want to copy files from and to your vita. Some people said I was paranoid (see my answer to that at the end of the article), and others shared my concerns and started digging. Interestingly enough, that article gathered almost as much attention as my much more spectacular (in my opinion) video of a Megadrive emulator running on the vita.
Some sites took my words out of context and said that I had proof Sony is spying on us when we copy files. This is not true, I don’t have any proof, just lots of concerns. Because of that I decided to call Sony’s customer service in order to get more information. Read along. Read the rest of this entry »
Update: one important clarification: this video shows HBL running on the latest firmware 1.510. The firmware update that happened today does not patch the exploit, unlike what some sites are saying.
A few days ago Japanese developer Teck4 posted a picture of a “hello world” running on the PS Vita through the PSP emulator. I contacted him immediately with some help from Mamosuke, and I soon got enough information to start working on porting Half Byte Loader to this exploit (note that Teck4 is also working on exploiting this vulnerability further, but I don’t know how far he’s been).
What you see in the video below is the game “Sonic & Knuckles” running in picodrive, a Megadrive emulator for the PSP.
Update: it is actually possible to copy mp3, movies, and photos without being connected to the net. The connection is required only when using the content manager, which is not compulsory to use for media files, but for games and save data. You can read more here.
Today as I was using the PS Vita “content manager” in order to copy some files to the PS Vita, the content manager refused to start until I updated my firmware to official update 1.510. (This literally happened 10 minutes ago)
What surprises me is that the vita was disconnected, so I am assuming the update order came from the client on my PC (Update: confirmed. And the Vita refuses to run the content manager if the PC is not connected to the net).
A friendly advice to anybody who tries to “investigate” the Vita like I do: install the content manager on a PC that has no network connection (Update: I think “bastards” is the first word that came to my mouth when I saw that the vita refuses to connect to the PC if the Pc is not connected to the internet. This is really really concerning, and I hope a few people will have a look at the code of the PC “content manager” client. I’d be extremely happy to know why Sony is spying on me through the content manager when I’m copying my porn movies to the vita…), and disconnect the Vita as well. It seems Sony has a possibility to prevent anyone from playing with the Content Manager too much. This also confirms that the PSP Exploit we’re working on is more or less moot, since as soon as it is made public, Sony will prevent people from copying the files to their Vita with an obligatory firmware update.
This is really twisted, and I could swear a compulsory update in order to use such a core feature of the console might be illegal in some countries…we’re far from the “you have a choice to stop using linux” here, it’s more of a “you have a choice to stop copying mp3 and movies from and to the console”.
I have no clue what this update is for, but I’ll have a look. I assume it patches some of the weird bugs that people reported, including (but not limited to) the weird “demo mode” glitch, and other “freeze in the xmb” type of errors…
Today I have the privilege to interview developer Some1. If you are running a Custom Firmware on a psp with a recent firmware (anything above 6.35), you are probably using some of his work every day without knowing it. Some1 once ported HBL to an exploit, but he is mostly known for having found kernel exploits in recent firmwares up to 6.60, which basically are the key to install and run a Custom Firmware on your PSP. Today, we discuss his past experience on the PSP, and his future work on Sony’s devices.