PS3 the new crime-busting tool

The PlayStation 3 has been used for a variety of altruistic tasks following its launch in 2006. Perhaps the most high-profile of these ventures is the Folding@home project, which uses spare processing power from idling, networked PS3s to undertake the arduous task of simulating protein folding in order to study the causes of various diseases.

The latest effort to harness the PS3's processing power for good comes from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center. As reported by Axcess News, the Cyber Crimes Center (C3) is using networked PS3s to capture sexual predators by cracking passwords on computers suspected of containing child pornography.

The report notes that while law enforcement agents can execute a warrant to secure the physical computers, the Fourth Amendment protects suspected predators from surrendering passwords and other encryption material. As such, the agency attempts to crack the passwords by using a program that tries all possible key combinations. The report notes that a six-digit password has nearly 282 trillion possible permutations, and the networked PS3 can attempt 4 million guesses per second.
Read more »

UK survey reveals up to 60 percent Xbox 360 failure rate

Console failure rates have been a common news item throughout the year, with numerous surveys out of the US suggesting that the problem was far greater than Sony, Nintendo and especially Microsoft would like to admit. In August, Game Informer magazine polled 5,000 subscribers and found that a whopping 54.2 percent had reported at least one broken Xbox 360. In September, electronics-warranty company SquareTrade corroborated the findings to a lesser scale, finding that of the 2,500 Xbox 360 consoles it analysed at random, 23.7 percent failed within two years of purchase.

Now, a survey from CNET UK shows that the situation is similarly dire in the British Isles. The results from an online user-initiated poll of 1,128 UK-based console owners (of whom 562 owned Xbox 360s, 473 owned PlayStation 3s and 591 had Wiis, with some owning more than one) indicated that 60 percent of Xbox 360 owners had experienced terminal hardware failure of some sort, compared to 16 percent of PS3 owners and just 6 percent of Wii owners.
Read more »

Facebook porting over to PS3

If you're a Facebook addict who simply cannot live without your social network of friends, relatives and colleagues, we've good news for you. It looks like Sony's PlayStation 3 has also caught on the social-networking fever after a lukewarm response to the company's own PlayStation Home. This feature will be rolled out in its upcoming 3.10 firmware upgrade slated for this Thursday. It will be interesting to find out how this function is being implemented, particularly in games, to keep users updated on who is online, new postings, etc. But, I'll be pretty upset if I'm interrupted by a Facebook update popping up smack in the middle of an intense gun fight or race.

Via Ubergizmo

Inkier black level offered by Toshiba LCD TV

When we say the entry-level Toshiba AV502U series can produce relatively deep black levels, the key word is "relatively." It's perhaps more accurate to say that its shade of black outdoes most other less-expensive, lower resolution, small-screen LCDs we've seen by a narrow margin. It does fall short of the competition in terms of maintaining accurate color at every brightness level, however, and it will look best if you avoid feeding it any 1080i sources. Speaking of looks, the AV502U is also among the most boring-looking TVs we've seen when it's turned off, and that's saying something. Those caveats aside, this little LCD does do slightly better blacks for less, and that might be enough for bargain hunters.

Read the full review of the Toshiba AV502U series.

Via CNET.com

Sony Bravia HDTVs making a comeback in 2010

Juicy rumors of Sony's 2010 HDTV prototypes have been making their rounds on the Web based on a document from an unverified source. Although only two pages have been disclosed, these provide an early glimpse at the company's upcoming US Bravia lineup possibly slated for the Consumer Electronics Show in early January 2010 held in Las Vegas. These include four LED-lit series and an OLED equivalent as listed below:

KDL-X500 midrange LED-edgelit LCD

KDL-X650 high-end LED-edgelit LCD

KDL-XBR11 high-end LED W-backlit LCD

KDL-XBR12 high-end Advanced LED RGB-backlit LCD

KDL-ZX series OLED

According to the leaked information, the 240Hz XBR10-series panels have been upgraded with a new Bravia Engine 3 Pro processor, Emolab's Edge Motion speakers, Sharp's recently developed UV2A LCD technology and mysterious W-LED (read: Could be just white LEDs) backlighting. There's also the long-belated Bravia Z4500 successor under the XBR12 range, which offers RGB LED backlight for enhanced color reproduction, as well as the KDL-ZX-series which will replace the dated XEL-1 OLED TV.

Via Hdtvlounge

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