13w ago - Recently a Sony patent was uncovered which may be used to detect pirated software though tracking video game load times.

Below are the details, to quote: "Sony has filed a new patent which may be useful in combating piracy.

The patent was filed by them way back in August 2011, and according to it, if the load times are not within the range they have set, the software could be flagged.

For the tech to be effective, a standard average load time has to be set–specific or range–and if any software that exceeds the time set, it will be easy to block it. This way of blocking games is a little impractical because sometimes drives may not function as expected due to wear and tear.

You can check out the description of the patent below.

For example, if an authentic game title is distributed exclusively on BDs having a total benchmark load time of 45 seconds on a game console BD drive, the acceptable range of load times could be from 40 to 50 seconds. Thus, a total measured title load time of 4 seconds would be outside of the acceptable range of total load times for a legitimate media type.

Seek time: In another example, if an authentic game title is distributed exclusively on flash drives...

14w ago - Following up on the previous Sony PS3 Debug / Test leak, today the PlayStation 3 DEX Firmware 4.30 PUP has surfaced with details below.

Download: Sony PS3 Debug / Test (DEX) Firmware 4.30 Update / Sony PS3 Debug / Test (DEX) Firmware 4.30 Update (Mirror) / Sony PS3 Debug / Test (DEX) Firmware 4.30 Update (Mirror #2) / Sony PS3 Debug / Test (DEX) Firmware 4.30 Update (Mirror #3) / dex 4.30 xmb_plugin.30.rar by DANNY G

Warning: According to PlayStation 3 developer soniciso as posted HERE, PS3 CEX to DEX converted units will brick when the OFW 4.30 DEX update is installed so be cautious!

PUP Hashes

MD5: 2B8F823526634F1D04A7F61261EEE850
SHA1: DD96D7D4DA85F0AAB41F7B82D348572B889A39C1
CRC32: BDCAD908
CRC16: 04A1
HMAC_SHA1: 0xF1CA59DB50C7D9B86175B95EBBF1A39D0F1AB3AE

14w ago - Following up on Sony's previous announcement, today rumors of a PlayStation Vita 4G design, PS Vita Firmware update and price cut have surfaced from PatentBolt.com (linked above).

Below are the details, as follows: "On February 7, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Sony that is technically about the PlayStation Vita and their new and upcoming connectors.

Sony states that the connectors are for "connecting the electronic apparatus to peripheral apparatuses" at the bottom and side surfaces of the device housing. Sony's patent filing specifically states that the next generation PS Vita will gain USB, HDMI and a power supply connector described as a parallelepiped connector.

New Ports Coming to Sony's PS Vita

As shown in Sony's patent FIG. 2, the electronic apparatus 1 in this example includes connectors 23, 24, 25, 39, and 59 as the plural electronic components. The connector 23 is, for example, a headphone jack.

The connectors 24, 25, and 39 are connectors such as a USB connector or an HDMI connector for transmitting and receiving data between the electronic apparatus 1 and other electronic apparatuses....

15w ago - Atlus Project Lead Yu Namba has confirmed today that Back Into The TV: Persona 4 Arena hits PSN tomorrow.

Below are the details, to quote: Hello Persona fans and fighting game fans!

We're excited to announce that Persona 4 Arena, which earned the honor of "Best Fighting Game" at the Spike Video Game Awards, is going to be available for digital purchase and download on the PlayStation Network tomorrow.

Some of you may not be familiar with Persona 4 Arena, or the Persona series. You may, however, be aware that ATLUS launched Persona 4 Golden for PS Vita last November to critical acclaim, and this title helped generate a great deal of interest for the Persona series.

Yes, Persona 4 Arena is a fighting game - but who says fighting games can't have a story? Fans that got a taste of the series through Persona 4 Golden can enjoy a whole new story arc in Persona 4 Arena.

The game takes place two months after the protagonist of Persona 4 Golden - given the name Yu Narukami - leaves the rural town of Inaba. Rumor of a fighting tournament TV...

16w ago - Following up on his previous VHBL exploit and Sony's PS Vita Firmware Update v2.05, Tomtomdu80 has now made available a demo video spotlighting a PS Vita Half Byte Loader for Firmware 2.05 below.

To quote: We announced last week that developer Tomtomdu80 got VHBL to run with a new user mode exploit. A few days ago, The Z published a video showing Tomtomdu80′s exploit running VHBL perfectly on PS Vita's latest firmware 2.05.

Firmware 2.05 patches both the user and kernel exploits used with UNO to run CEF and ARK. It's also been confirmed that the latest Sony firmware patches several kernel exploits that were all relying on the same pattern (security issues related to the kermit wlan implementation). Technically, the end user is back to square one if they are on firmware 2.05.

Thankfully, there are still lots of usermode exploits available in many psp games, and some of them can be used to port, if not a psp custom firmware (a kernel exploit would be required for that), at least VHBL.

VHBL is a Homebrew loader for the Vita running in...