A clever gent who goes by the name SeventhSon (we hope in reference to the totally ripping Iron Maiden record Seventh Son of a Seventh Son) has discovered a method to alter both the DVD key and game region code on Microsoft’s Xbox 360, at least for the Hypervisor exploitable 4532 and 4548 kernels. If you’re not sure what that all means don’t feel bad, part of this hack involves desoldering your Xbox flash chip — something most of us aren’t getting around to anytime soon. However, for the tenacious and technologically handy, this opens up all kinds of diabolical possibilities like, um… playing UK games on your US Xbox.

It looks like the unmanned aerial drones now on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan will soon be getting a lot more company, with the U.S. reportedly set to deploy its first full-on “robotic” drone squadron. According to the AP, the US will be deploying an unspecified number of MQ-9 Reaper “hunter-killer” drones, which are about the size of a jet fighter and are able to fly at speeds of 300 mph and reach altitudes of 50,000 feet — each of which can be controlled from a base in Nevada. While further details are obviously scarce, the drones will apparently be deployed to Afghanistan first, with the fleet expected to expand to Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring.

C’mon, don’t act so shocked — you had to realize that these record sales of NAND-based iPhones and iPods were using up some serious flash memory, right? Turns out, Apple’s two biggest hits are “expected to consume 25-percent of the global flash output,” which could in turn drive up prices of said memory in the not too distant future. DRAMeXchange, a market research company out of Taiwan that tracks the memory industry, further suggested that it could take “about two to three quarters before manufacturers can raise their chip yield rates to a higher level,” which doesn’t bode well for anyone hoping to see a price cut on any of Apple’s handhelds due to increased volume purchasing in the memory department.

A video posted to YouTube in April offers a primer on how to use Google to pilfer music and video files in less time than it takes to download them from a peer-to-peer service.

“I’ll be teaching you how to use Google as your own peer-to-peer network,” said Jimmy Ruska at the beginning of the clip. Ruska is the 21-year-old who posted the video, according to a report in The Financial Times.

The how-to video focuses on what is known as an “index of” search and shows users how to direct Google’s search engine to locate files from unprotected computer systems, many of which are found on college campuses. University students around the country often store music on their schools’ computer networks.

Ruska’s formula also worked at Yahoo and other search engines, according to the FT. Record labels have always maintained that downloading unauthorized music files violates copyright law.

How effective is Ruska’s technique? The FT quoted a Google engineer who said that “nothing guarantees that such a search will find music files.”

But during the 9-minute long video, posted to YouTube on April 16, Ruska teaches viewers to focus their search using keywords, which will weed out spam and other unwanted results.

Ruska claims on the video that his technique can help people find MP3 and MP4 files “so they are compatible with the iPod” and even small video clips.

Les Echos, a sister publication to the FT, first reported this story.

Owners of Apple’s iPhone are beginning to receive their first monthly bill from AT&T since the new purchase and are discovering a number of mistakes on the wireless carrier’s part. Most notably, AT&T is not removing prior data plans, charging users $20 for the iPhone data, as well as up to $50 for their previous package.

Although Apple pulled off what many characterized as the biggest product launch of the decade without a hitch, things have not gone so smoothly on AT&T’s side. Limited stock, activation delays and now double billing surely won’t help reassure those who have switched, or are looking to switch, to the carrier. BetaNews calls to AT&T customer service went unanswered, as the company only has support staff working 7am to 9pm during the week and no one to help at all on Sunday.

Hackers discover root password and mobile account password, but are they opening Pandora’s box?

If you want to know what makes the iPhone tick, thank the hackers who’ve been working tirelessly to discover its secrets. DVD Jon has already posted a workaround to the AT&T activation, which means the device can work – just not as a phone.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Far more important are two more discoveries by others, the root password for the phone and the password for the mobile user account.

The iPhone root password is “Alpine,” and the mobile user account is “Dottie.”

And, in dissecting the phone, hackers have laid bare the CPU, which is an ARM architecture, unlike previous systems used by Apple.

As hackers of all stripes discover more about the iPhone, and the handset becomes more commonplace, it’s very likely that the number of viruses written to affect it will grow. And as phone become more sophisticated and like mini computers – like the iPhone – they’re more likely to be hit, rather than the relatively crude older cell phones. In other words, the phone’s popularity could become its problem.

“It is why there are so many more viruses targeting Windows, after all, than the Mac,” Mark Sunner, chief security analyst at MessageLabs, told E-Commerce Times. “It is quite telling that now that the iPod generation has come into the workforce, the number of threats against Mac OS X is increasing.”

Still, for now analysts seem to agree the the iPhone is more secure than most smartphones on the market. However, if you own one, expect the malware to appear, and probably sooner, rather than later.

Tazer XREP electric shotgun shell

The engineers at Tazer, maker of numerous possibly-lethal “nonlethal” weapons, have added a new item to their arsenal.

If it prevents someone from actually getting shot, I’m all for it. (That’s assuming that this thing is any safer than what would normally come out of the barrel of a shotgun.) The research I’d like to see done: Does putting “nonlethal” weapons in the hands of law enforcement make them more likely to use them in lieu of, I dunno, tackling people and handcuffing them?

From the product site:

“XREP is a self-contained, wireless projectile that fires from a standard 12-gauge shotgun. It delivers the same Neuro-Muscular Incapacitation (NMI) bio-effect as our handheld TASER X26, but can be delivered to a distance of up to 100 feet, combining blunt impact with field proven TASER NMI….

The TASER XREP launch velocity is approximately 300 feet per second….

Another innovative and unique feature of the XREP nose is the reflex engagement electrode. A normal reaction to the pain of a projectile impact is for the subject to grab at the impact site. If the subject tries to grab or disconnect the XREP projectile, the reflex engagement electrodes complete a circuit allowing TASER NMI to discharge from the Nose Electrodes, through the subject’s body, out to the hand that grabbed the XREP. This creates a significant spread that allows the XREP pulses to affect a large body mass, causing overpowering Neuro Muscular Incapacitation….

In fact, if the subject even grabs the tether, a live hand-trap wire makes a connection and the NMI effect is delivered through the hand, preventing the subject from letting go. If none of the preferred electrodes are in contact, the XREP delivers its impulse across the front electrodes, creating a painful stimulus to distract, disorient, and entice the subject to grab for the XREP making a hand connection, or to move in reaction to the pain which can help the cholla electrodes on the main chassis to engage.

Let this be a lesson to anyone in the audience planning the usual Tuesday multi-billion dollar video game console launch: dropping the price by a healthy chunk (like, say, $100) does very good things for sales of systems like the PS3 on sites like Amazon.

The kooky hacking kids over at IRC channel #iphone claim to have gained full ownership of the iPhone filesystem. In an update titled “How to Escape Jail,” they highlight the technical steps required to enable custom ringtones, wallpapers and more for your iPhone. They have not released a tool for general consumption — yet — but do provide the picture above as evidence of their hacking skillz.

Installation artists / DIY’ers Rebecca Stern and Rees Shad came up with an intriguing response to a certain January 2007 Aqua Teen Hunger Force-related bomb scare in Boston you may have heard of — talking lamps that innocently declare, “I am not a bomb”. The lights, based on common solar powered garden lamp shells, contain temperature sensors and sound playback circuitry, and trigger automatically depending on air temperature, repeating the aforementioned phrase in one of twelve languages while flickering with varying intensity. No word yet on whether the city of Boston will implement these in high-paranoia areas. To see the whole process, check the video after the break.