PS3 Hacker GeoHot Hiding Out in South America

I haven’t been writing much about the legal battle between Sony Computer Entertainment American and renowned hacker George Hotz (GeoHot), but this latest tidbit is too good to ignore. Instead of complying with several requests made by federal magistrate judge Joseph Spero, Hotz has high tailed it to South America. According to a statement filed by SCEA:

Most seriously, after Magistrate Judge Spero ordered an inspection of Hotz’s devices and ordered Hotz to appear at a deposition in California, SCEA learned that Hotz had deliberately removed integral components of his impounded hard drives prior to delivering them to a third party neutral and that Hotz is now in South America, an excuse for why he will not immediately provide the components of his hard drives as requested by the neutral.

Hotz’s attempts to dodge this Court’s authority raise very serious questions.

Also, he allegedly lied about having a PSN account. That’s a crime punishable by 50 lashes with a PS3 power cable.

Sony vs. GeoHot went from being a boring legal battle to movie-of-the-week material! In my head, Hotz is in Brazil, hanging out with Blanka. Where do you think he is? What do you think he’s doing? What do you make of him leaving the country when he has serious legal issues to deal with?

Source via VGHQ

Read My Dragon Age II Review (Please)!

I was waiting for the accompanying video to post, but I’m kind of tired of waiting. I’ll add that in a separate post. Anyway, kindly check out my Dragon Age II review at Machinima.com. I’m completely digging the game — even more than the original (I’m nearly done with my third play-through). Here’s a snippet from the review (I love quoting myself):

Some players will hate that Dragon Age II is smaller in scope, has less customization, and features easier combat. None of that bothered me too much and I think the hate is overblown. My biggest complaint was seeing the same environments over and over again. As for the gameplay, I enjoyed a lot of the streamlining and think people complaining about companion armor customization are a bit wacky (buy a doll). On paper, the combat is deep, but making the game more accessible left me without a reason to take advantage of my character’s abilities. Ultimately, I was left with two of the three things I expect from a BioWare game — fantastic story and brilliant characters. And that’s more than enough to leave me confident that Dragon Age II will end up being one of my favorite games of 2011.

If you have time, please leave a comment over at Machinima. If you want to talk more about the game here, I’m totally up for that as well. Please be warned that discussing Dragon Age II in this post will probably lead to spoilers.

Source

Square Enix Launches Hippos Lab Mobile Studio

Compared to its competitors, Square Enix has been aggressive with mobile game publishing, releasing a number of quality titles for iOS devices. The company seeks to bolster its mobile efforts with a new subsidiary called Hippos Lab.

Compared to its competitors, Square Enix has been aggressive with mobile game publishing, releasing a number of quality titles for iOS devices. The company seeks to bolster its mobile efforts with a new subsidiary called Hippos Lab. According to Gamasutra:

The wholly-owned subsidiary, launched on March 7, is looking to provide “high quality original content focusing on smart phones”.

The company notes that the popularity of the smartphone “has exploded in recent years,” and it believes that “the smartphone will run away with the show.” Hippos Lab aims to have its first release “ready soon.”

Square Enix is one of my favorite videogame publishers and I’m excited to see what Hippos Lab does on mobile platforms. While I’m sure a lot of its focus will be on iOS, I’m hoping that the company can help the languishing Android games market thrive. Also, where the hell is my Final Fantasy Tactics for iOS?!? *joke*

Source

N8R’s Nicotine-Dust Filled iMac

Ever wonder what the insides of an iMac look like when they’re covered with nicotine dust? Thanks to RPadholic N8R, you won’t have to wonder any longer. Here are some nasty pictures of the gruesome effects of smoking…on an iMac.

Ever wonder what the insides of an iMac look like when they’re covered with nicotine dust? Thanks to RPadholic N8R, you won’t have to wonder any longer. Here are some nasty pictures of the gruesome effects of smoking…on an iMac.

[nggallery id=51]

Coffee Talk #322: Android Hardware in Amazon’s Future?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon phones and tablets featuring Google Android by the end of the year. The digital services are there, ready to be leveraged…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Sandrock323’s birthday, the chances of Verizon acquiring Sprint, or the countdown to MLB opening day, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon phones and tablets featuring Google Android by the end of the year. The company has done well selling digital music, movies, TV shows, and books. Its new Android Appstore is poised to do well. The Kindle e-reader is the company’s best-selling product of all time. It would make a lot of sense for Amazon to start selling hardware featuring seamless integration with its digital offerings. The pieces are there. Do you think Amazon is interested in expanding its hardware business to exploit its numerous digital products?

The mobile phone industry uses the razor-and-blade model. Carriers sell you the phone (the razor) for a relatively cheap price and keep you on the hook with monthly service (the blades). An Amazon Android phone or tablet would work similarly. Amazon or its carrier partners would sell you the hardware for a relatively low price. Amazon would stand to make more money selling you digital goods. In other words, it would use the Kindle model, but on a larger scale.

What do you think the chances are of Amazon branded Android hardware happening? Do you think it will be WiFi-only products, partnerships with mobile carriers, or both? Would you be interested in an Android phone with tight Amazon integration? I’d love to hear what you think!

Happy Birthday Twitter!

Twitter turned five-years old yesterday. It’s crazy how fast the service has grown and how influential it has become. People use it to follow their favorite celebrities, athletes, and verbal entertainers. People use it to track their favorite news sources in real time. People use it to stay informed about global disasters (Haiti, Japan) and make sure their loved ones are safe. People use it to spread news on the latest political revolutions (Egypt, Libya) as they happen. In retrospect, it’s hilarious that pundits initially dismissed Twitter as a web site about nothing.

As for me, I use Twitter to follow news, keep in touch with friends, see what some of my favorite writers are up to, promote RPad.tv content, communicate with readers, and more. It’s my favorite social media tool, by far. I love its quickness, brevity, and ease of use.

What do you think of Twitter’s growth over the last five years? Are you impressed by what it has become? Do you enjoy using Twitter? For those of you that are down on it, what don’t you like about Twitter?

Mozilla Releases Firefox 4

Hot on the trails of Google Chrome 10 and Internet Explorer 9, Mozilla has released Firefox 4. The browser offers a number of interesting features and a huge speed improvement. I’ve been playing with the browser for about an hour and I’m very impressed with it. In terms of speed, it seems quite competitive with the latest Chrome and IE products. That said, I don’t see it displacing Chrome as my primary browser.

Have any of you downloaded FF4 yet? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts on Mozilla’s latest and greatest.

RPad.tv Video Available on Roku Boxes

If you have a Roku streaming video player then you can watch RPad.tv videos on your television! My videos can be found on the Blip.tv channel. Just search for RPad.tv in that channel and you’re good to go. You’ll be able to enjoy the most electrifying man in videogame verbal entertainment on your TV!

[Thanks to my excellent friend Steve for testing this out!]