hacking | Stuff-Review

Android Ice Cream Sandwich finds its way on the Kindle Fire, melts into our hearts (video)

December 27, 2011 at 3:31 am

It had to happen. Someone was bound to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on Amazon’s budget conscious 7-inch Kindle Fire tablet. Thanks to the Android developer community a pre-alpha version of Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) can now be seen running on the Fire and if you are feeling extremely adventurous you can go ahead and download the test ROM to start tinkering.

The pre-alpha ROM is based on the public Android Open Source Project (AOSP) release of ICS, and judging from the video, things are going well on the development front. Main issues are with audio and video not always working properly. The video and download link are after the break.
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Siri security protocol cracked, could allow it to be accessed on any device

News

November 14, 2011 at 4:33 pm

Ever since Apple released Siri, its voice control app, as an iPhone 4S feature only, there have been endless attempts to get the lady working on other iOS 5 devices. We’ve already seen Siri running on an iPhone 4 and iPod Touch, and the main challenge so far had been to get Apple’s servers to respond to Siri’s requests from non iPhone 4S devices.

Well the developers over at Applidium have one-upped everyone by cracking Siri’s security protocol and getting access to its recognition engine from any device. What they did was setup a fake local Apple server and listen to all of the Siri generated commands from their iPhone 4S going to this fake server. What they found is that Siri sends a unique iPhone 4S identifier with every command, which is what gets the server to respond. If you have an iPhone 4S you could potentially use your phone’s unique identifier and get Apple’s server to respond to any device, even a Mac or Windows PC or an Android phone.

Developers could write their own applications, that would send requests to Apple’s Siri server and get back responses. Obviously there are two issues here, first you need to own an iPhone 4S and then you never know when Apple might catch-up with this method and issue a patch effectively nulling it. In any case, very smart going to the developers, who have also provided a host of info on their website.
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Panasonic GH2 MFT camera now hacked for video up to ISO 12,800 (video)

News

November 10, 2011 at 9:53 am

We’ve already covered how the Panasonic GH2 had been unlocked, using a custom firmware, and could now record video at an amazing 176Mbps. The latest version of the hack now removes the ISO 3,200 limit when recording video, so that you can push the camera to record up to ISO 12,800. Now, one would think that video at such high ISO would be rife with noise and completely unusable.

Well, it turns out that, although noise is there, it’s not as bad, and the hack allows the GH2 to become an amazing low-light shooter. This is especially true when shooting video in B&W where the noise just looks like film grain. It’s pretty mind-blowing that you can shoot such video with a sub-$1000 digital camera. You can find details on how to apply the firmware in by following this link.

Two videos showing off the GH2’s high-ISO low-light B&W video capabilities await for you after the break.
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iOS 5 bug could allow for untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iOS 5 upgraded devices

News

November 7, 2011 at 11:52 am

All those with an iPhone 4S or iOS 5 upgradable devices, like the iPhone 4 or iPad, waiting to break the bonds from their computers and permanently jailbreak their device get a small glimpse of hope today. A ‘developer’ (or should we say hacker), @pod2g, has tweeted that a bug in iOS 5 could finally allow untethered jailbreaking.

Currently, if you have a jailbroken iOS 5 device, you need to connect it to a computer every time you restart in order for the device to start properly. A huge hassle. The developer warns though, that the exploit might not come soon, but we are crossing our fingers here. As the late Steve Jobs said, it’s the developer and hacking community that has always realized the true potential of technology.
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How to: Convert the HTC Sensation or Sensation 4G to a Sensation XE

Guides

November 5, 2011 at 2:14 pm

You’ve recently got a shiny new HTC Sensation or Sensation 4G and there goes HTC tweaking it and releasing the Sensation XE. Well, you can actually convert the Sensation (4G) to a Sensation XE by investing half an hour of your time, and flexing your rooting skills. The hardware in the two handsets is essentially the same, as we’ve seen in our initial coverage, the XE simply has the same dual-core processor running at its default 1.5GHz speed (against 1.2GHz for the original), includes a custom Beats by Dr. Dre sound profile and a bigger battery.

You can get the improvements by installing a custom ROM, Android Revolution HD, for the Sensation, which among other things, allows the processor to run at 1.51GHz as a default, includes the Beats audio profile and a tweaked Adreno 200 graphics configuration to boot. Only thing missing is the bigger battery, but you can grab a tried and test 1900mAh Anker one from Amazon US or Amazon UK.

A word to the wise here, rooting your smartphone is risky, you could end up with a dead device and/or invalidate your warranty. Use the instructions below at your own risk.

Upgrading your Sensation or Sensation 4G to a Sensation XE involves, three steps. First, you must unlock the bootloader (from S-ON to S-OFF) so that you can install custom ROMs. Then, you have to install ClockworkMod recovery, which you will use to install custom ROMs, and finally, flash the Android Revolution HD ROM. Charge your Sensation and head after the break for the full instructions.
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How to: Root the Samsung Galaxy Note and install ClockworkMod recovery

Guides

November 3, 2011 at 7:48 am

The 5.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note tablet-phone (or is it phone-tablet) has only been out for a week now. Well, it took less than that for the device to get rooted and ClockworkMod (CWM) recovery to be installed. This means that you can run all sorts of applications requiring root and potentially install custom ROMs for the device or even overclock it. Rooting was performed by the never-tiring Android community and it has certainly helped that Samsung doesn’t go out of its way to lock-out its phones. The rooting methods are very similar to that of the established Galaxy S II, which explains why it was achieved so fast.

There are several ways to achieve root and install CWM recovery on the Galaxy Note. One method, involves downloading and running the zengRush Revolutionary tool, for one-click root — step-by-step instructions after the break.

A second method, proposed in the video also after the break, involves flashing CWM using a Windows PC and then installing the SuperUser zip through recovery. Be aware that, as always, taking the rooting and custom ROM route, involves the risk of ending up with a dead device.

Another, bigger disclaimer here is that, flashing a custom ROM could invalidate your warranty with Samsung. Similarly to the SGS II, the Galaxy Note has a flash counter, i.e. every time you flash a custom ROM or kernel to the Note the counter goes up by one. If something happens to your device and you send it in to Samsung, they might refuse to service it under warranty if you counter is not zero. Currently there is no way to reset the flash counter (though a method might be devised), so be careful with flashing any custom ROM before a method is confirmed.

So, with all that out of the way, if you are really sure you want to take the risk, fully charge your Galaxy Note, grab your USB cable and sit in front of your Windows PC (unfortunately no Mac instructions yet), and head over after the break for the full how-to.
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The lady speaks, Siri made to work on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch (video)

News

October 30, 2011 at 7:56 am

Siri, Apple’s very talkative personal assistant app, which we’ve covered in detail, was announced together with the iPhone 4S. Apple has stated that Siri will only be made available on its latest handset, meaning that if you wanted to try out Siri, you would have to get the iPhone 4S. Well, when there’s a will there’s a way, and Siri found itself ported (or should we say hacked into) ‘unsupported’ iOS 5 devices like the iPad and the iPhone 4. However, so far, although the application ran, Apple’s servers would refuse to respond to any requests, so Siri remained silent.

Well, bright developers Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) and @chpwn, finally got the lady to answer back on an iPhone 4 and an iPod Touch 4G — at least from what we’ve seen in the video, which you can find after the break. According to Steve, Siri runs well on both the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch, although the latter requires you to speak louder since its microphone was not designed to phone specs.
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Panasonic GH2 MFT camera hacked to record video at an insane 176Mbps

News

October 14, 2011 at 8:35 am

Panasonic designed the GH2 Micro Four Thirds camera to also shoot great video and the digital camera has received a warm embrace by the amateur video community. Out of the box the GH2 can shoot full HD 1080i video at the maximum AVCHD bitrate of 24 Mbit/s (Mbps).

Leave it to the hacking community to achieve what even Panasonic’s engineers would not have though possible. Not too long ago the GH2 received the hacking treatment with a custom firmware courtesy of user ‘Vitaliy’ which unlocked the GH2 to new possibilities. Well, testers have been pushing the envelope since then and a recent contribution by user ‘Driftwood’ has pushed the GH2 to record video at a whopping 176Mbps in a format titled AVCHD Intra.

What’s incredible is that the GH2 can actually manage such a high bitrate, this is by far the highest for any mirrorless or DSLR camera out there. You can catch two videos recorded at this setting after break, showing off the amazing picture quality.
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