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Sunday, September 2, 2012

Synology DiskStation DS112j - Review and Product Tour



Full Video Review

Want to quickly check the full video review of Synology DS112j? Here you go, have a look! But we'd recommend reading through the complete review to understand everything about this wonderful NAS device.
We'd like to express our sincere thanks to Digit, that is www.thinkdigit.com for sending us the DS112j for review. It was pleasure to review this device, which would have otherwise been impossible without the support of ThinkDigit (9.9 Media). Also, thanks to Synology for making this (and many more) NAS devices.




Introduction

Sharing documents and multimedia has become a crucial aspect of any gadget these days. With more and more devices supporting advanced technologies like DLNA and media server, it’s becoming easier to centralize all your content instead of taking the hassle of duplicating it on all gadgets that you own.
To add to this ease of sharing, and to take it much beyond that, the world-renowned expert in network-attached storage devices – Synology has brought us an efficient, robust, feature-packed and yet economical solution – The Synology DiskStation DS112j.
Synology DS112j has been designed with the perception of a ‘new-NAS experience’, and it exceeds all expectations when it comes to that. Not just a network-attached file server, this packs in a whole lot of new features such as personal cloud, file sync, multimedia streaming, compatibility with smartphones, and USB ports for infinite possibilities. Keeping the needs of home and small office customers in mind, this has been designed to be a very power-efficient and noiseless (probably the quietest ever) NAS device. All this comes at a very economical pricing, which doesn’t put any significant load on your pocket if you’d like to buy one (or more) of these.
Usually manufacturers treat operating system of a NAS as secondary when it comes to value addition to their product. The DS112j, like any of the latest Synology NAS devices has such a great operating system – DSM (DiskStation Manager), which is identical to most operating systems we use daily. Running in any standard web browser, DSM user interface has it all – ease of use, simplicity, capability of multitasking and loads of customization. With the help of probably the best-written help topics built into DSM, absolutely anyone can make most out of their DiskStation. Installable packages by Synology as well as 3rd-party developers take this to a great new level of customizability and features. Consistent updates of DSM released by Synology ensure compatibility, security and stability across all Synology NAS devices, including the DS112j.

With extraordinary hardware configuration, balancing both processing power and power consumption, the DS112j is lightweight and has small form-factor. With easily replaceable 1xHDD bay supporting up to 4TB of storage, it basically fulfills the requirements of a home or small office user. However, if you need more than 1 bay for some reason, DS112j is not for you. But hey, Synology has whole lot of DiskStation NAS devices, with various configurations for different customer needs. Finally, DS112j proves to be the best NAS in its segment in almost every criterion.


Unboxing and Installation


Most gadgets come pre-installed right out of the box. The Synology DS112j is in a way an exception. While it does not expect any kind of technological expertise to assemble a product, it gives a nice do-it-yourself hardware and software installation experience. Most of the required hardware is assembled, you only need to slide the hard disk into the right place and fix some screws, which isn’t a difficult job to do.
Unboxing the DS112j makes you feel how lightweight the device basically is, when the hard disk drive is not installed. The box gives a lot of information about the product itself. The package contains 1 each of a DS112j main unit, installation disk, assembling kit, power cord, power adapter and RJ-45 LAN cable, as shown in the photographs. The unboxing video gives a feel of taking each of these contents out, while the installation video intends to show the hardware installation. Its then pretty evident how easy it is to install the Synology DS112j. It takes about 10 minutes to perform the hardware assembly (assuming you don’t know anything) and about 15 more minutes to install the software. The software setup may take any duration depending upon the customizations you want to install. But the basic installation is a matter of 25-30 minutes, including the power connections and getting it wired into your LAN network.



HARDWARE INSTALLATION



Hardware installation requires you to take the main unit apart using the simple open/close labels provided at the bottom of the unit. Once you take the cover off, the provided space to install the HDD doesn’t require any guesswork. Just slide it in, push a little to connect it firmly, and tighten four screws to fix it in place. You can see the fan, LAN port and a few other circuit boards, but you need not touch them at all. Just put the cover back into its place, and fix the screws in the holes provided. This completes the hardware assembly. The power cord fits into the power adapter, which needs to be plugged in at the rear of the main unit, while the RJ-45 cable needs to be connected at the back, too. Connecting them to the respective counterparts (wall socket and network router/switch) finishes the required hardware installation. The installation video shows this procedure in brief, as well as the photos give adequate information regarding the installation.


SOFTWARE INSTALLATION


Installing software is basically formatting the HDD for the first time, and installing the latest DSM on it. The installation disk provided in the package contains the necessary tools to perform this task quite easily. Within a few clicks as shown in the pictures, you can get it up-and-running with the DSM version provided with the installation CD. If you want to use the latest DSM with the most recent patches and features, you might need to download it from Synology website. Depending upon your internet connection speed, this may take a few minutes. After you’re done installing, you may login to the main user interface – called as the DiskStation Manager (DSM). A welcome screen helps you get acquainted with most of the features which we’ll cover in the features part of this review coming up next.
That’s most of the things you’d need to do in order to get your Synology DiskStation DS112j up-and-running at your home or office easily. Should you need any assistance, you can refer to the help, online guides, official Synology forums or ThinkDigit forums.

Package Center


Next part of any installation is customization. The Package Center is an important aspect of the DS112j like any other Synology DiskStation NAS. It allows you to install desired packages available for your device, either developed by Synology or any 3rd-party developer for virtually infinite possibilities. These applications (called ‘packages’) have been tested and updated on a regular basis to provide maximum stability in applications. Some of the packages are actually essential elements of Synology NAS to make the most out of it, while some are purely optional based on usage scenarios and personal likings. For example, Audio Station is a package downloadable from the package center, but it is very important to install this package to make the most out of your device in terms of playing music. However, one might not want to install WordPress package on this NAS, if he’s not willing to host a wordpress blog. Similarly, many applications are optional as well as essential in terms of their usability and purpose.

Hardware Features

Synology DiskStation DS112j has a number of distinct hardware features which makes it a truly wonderful NAS device, including look and feel, hardware compatibility as well as cool and quiet design.

LOOK AND FEEL


Look and feel of the Synology NAS device is more of a mini-server or workstation than a hard disk. It resembles a typical HTPC (Media Center PC) in terms of form factor, size and looks. The white color body integrates perfectly with any surrounding devices, and still stands out from the others.
All connections are given on the rear side of the device, such that you can place it without any entanglement of wires on your table or desk. On the left as well as right, the brand name “Synology”, crafted into ventilation holes, catches the eye, while it serves as a ventilation channel on both the sides, useful for air flow and heat dissipation.

On the front, it has LED indicators as shown in the picture which give you direct information about how your NAS is running. The Status LED marks what state the device is working in, similarly LAN and Disk LEDs give relevant information for diagnostic purposes.
On the bottom, the DS112j has an information sticker, with an open-close label for easy installation. The bottom is rested on the desk with the help of four rubber stands, which reduces vibrations caused by the HDD in operation. This is particularly useful when you’re keeping it on the same desk which you work on. 












SIZE COMPARISON

DS112j comes in a medium-sized form-factor. It is neither small enough to be carried around, nor too large to be bulky. Its certainly smaller than our HTPC, the media center PC we sometimes use, but bigger than a Seagate BlackArmor NAS of the same drive capacity. The medium-sized form factor is a balance between space management and cooling system. When we see the interiors of a Synology DS112j (during installation), it is pretty evident that there is a lot of empty space inside the main cabinet. Also, it includes a fan, making the box a little bigger. The empty space is important to circulate the right amount of air through the main unit, to keep it cool and quiet. We had previously experienced problems with the Seagate Blackarmor NAS because of its tightly-fit cabinet around the hard-disk drive, which used to heat up quite often and sometimes reboot. Also, it doesn't provide as many features as the DS112j, hence it requires smaller circuits.
Since a NAS device doesn't require as much circuitry as a media center PC, the DS112j is obviously smaller than a Mini-ITX cabinet HTPC, hence occupying lesser space on our working desk. The size comparison of the HTPC, Synology DS112j and Seagate Blackarmor NAS can be seen in the pictures.





HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY

Combining the sleek and fresh design with great hardware compatibility makes this device truly useful. On the rear, it has a power inlet, two USB 2.0 ports and a RJ-45 LAN port. The two USB ports enable you to plug two devices at the same time, making multi-tasking possible. For example, we printed some photos off an external HDD by connecting both, the printer as well as the external HDD in the Synology NAS at the same time. This reduced the hassle of copying the photos over to Synology’s internal HDD first and then printing it, and allows to keep important USB devices (such as shared printers) running all the time.
It is not just pen drives, external HDDs and printers that you can plug into this NAS box. It can accommodate a wide array of USB devices to its USB ports. This includes USB-DVB sticks to record media directly, a 3G dongle for easy internet access (not tested), mobile phones, card readers and many more general USB peripherals. It however cannot support any input devices such as a keyboard or a mouse, which can still be connected safely, although they won’t be of any use.


COOL, QUIET AND LOW POWER CONSUMPTION

Synology DS112j comes with efficient airflow tuning. It creates a direct and non-stop airflow channel right through the device, which improves ventilation multifold than having a closed box unit. It not only provides cool airflow, but also reduces the natural humming generated by NAS itself. DS112j’s noise levels are so low that you cannot hear it even from a distance of about 1 ft. It is only when you put your ear next to the NAS box, you hear the HDD spinning and the fan doing its job to keep the system cool.
Environmental foot prints are crucial in today’s world, and DS112j lives up to this expectation by reducing the already excellent footprints. It consumes about 12.1W of power in full working mode. When it isn’t at work, typically at night or when you’ve not used it for a specific duration, it only consumes 4.4W after entering the HDD hibernation mode. These values have been taken from the reference sheet of DS112j and have been tested under laboratory conditions.
Very low power consumption makes DS112j economic in terms of continuous operability by not impacting your electricity bills too much. The low-noise design further enables you to keep the NAS device anywhere without getting irritated. For example, our device sits right onto the desk where we work.



Software Features

Older NAS devices usually come with only the basic software features – file sharing, backup and maybe a basic multimedia server thrown in. Synology DS112j exceeds any of your expectations from a NAS device. It not only has the most advanced features, but also many things which NAS devices traditionally don’t have, or haven’t been imagined to have. This truly justifies the tagline carried by all new Synology DiskStation devices – The “New NAS experience”. Technically speaking, it has the highest number of unique features available amongst any other network-attached storage device. Newest updates to DSM, makes it possible to have virtually any number of features in the future.
It is impossible to discuss each and every feature of DS112j (yes, there are so many!), however we’ve done our best to compile and display the key features which makes DS112j stand out from its competitors (we’d say there is no competition to it as such!).

DISKSTATION MANAGER UI


Synology DiskStation comes with Synology’s own DSM user interface, which combines the best of compatibility and functions in order to create the most efficient UI on any NAS we’ve tested. Running in any standard web browser, DSM user interface has it all – ease of use, simplicity, capability of multitasking and loads of customization. With the help of probably the best-written help topics built into DSM, absolutely anyone can make most out of their DiskStation. Installable packages by Synology as well as 3rd-party developers take this to a great new level of customizability and features. Consistent updates of DSM released by Synology ensure compatibility, security and stability across all Synology NAS devices, including the DS112j.


EASY NETWORK SETUP


Synology ezCloud service helps you to build a seamless Internet presence for DiskStation. ezCloud offers “QuickConnect” to sets up direct connection for users without worrying about port-forwarding. There’s no need to configure a router or any other device. No more hassles from seeking 3 party services makes the network setup a smooth experience.
For a complete network setup, EZ-Internet also provides step-by-step instructions for connections, DDNS registration, and firewall settings. Port-forwarding is done almost automatically to provide you with the easiest network setup ever. DiskStation is also enabled to automatically discover UPnP routers within the network so you really don’t have to worry about complicated network setup anymore.

PERSONAL CLOUD

Effortless file synchronization and seamless sharing marks its one of the important features. Storage management in a central hub makes it easy to manage your device from any of your workstations. File Station serves as a file center and makes the file navigation as the native experience as what a PC or Mac could offer. Users can also assign privilege settings for their files.
Cloud Station takes file synchronization to a new level. It automatically syncs files with any edit and pushes the changes to every PC computer at hand. Files stored within cloud will always be up-to-date and ready for offline viewing and edits. This automates most basic tasks, and could also be used for backup purposes, however that is taken care of by many other packages based on your need.
Users can fully customize their DSM desktop by adding application shortcuts and changing the background wallpaper. Administrators can enable different packages to be used by the users and they can also change the design of the login page. Each user gets a private folder to store their files in conventional folders as on any PC or Mac. They can even have their own online photo album with the flexibility to design it the way they want. That means – every user can have a separate photo album, while the photos are stored in the cloud on the DS112j.
Instead of using cloud station to make backups, it is possible to have various backup solutions integrated in the device. Files that are originated from Windows can be backed up onto DS112j by any 3rd party software, or Data Replicator 3, which is developed by Synology. Mac users can use the DS112j as their backup destination for time machine backups without worrying about any compatibility issue. Manual and automated backup scheduling makes it the easiest and best backup solution for any backup purposes. Be it your photos or important office presentations, the DS112j will take care of them for you, so that you’d never miss a routine backup schedule.

RICH MULTIMEDIA CAPABILITIES

Synology NAS are known to provide the best digital entertainment, and the DS112j isn’t an exception. It serves as the center to offer a plenty of multimedia apps to expand the entertainment horizon.
Audio Station is the embedded music player for music streaming and Internet radio. Each user can have their own personal music library and create smart playlists based on their favorites. Audio Station can be accessed directly from the browser window, in the same window as DSM, providing the best music experience using the multitasking-capable DSM UI. This eliminates the need to have a compatible music player on all your workstations. Just a javascript-capable browser can enable you to listen to your favorite music from any PC or Mac. However, if you’re more used to iTunes, music stored on DiskStation can also be directly streamed to your iTunes player.
Isn’t it great to create your own online photo gallery and blog without capacity limits? DS112j lets you do just that, using the Photo Station. This built-in app enables you to display the photos uploaded in order with a Timeline and locations pinned on Google Maps. You could geo-tag a vacation to Kashmir or tag family and friends in this weekend’s party photos with automatic facial recognition. Also, photos can be synchronized onto Facebook and Picasa Web Albums or shared on Twitter, which makes it a truly social photo album solution.
Video Station is your personal theater, using which you can browse and organize all videos and movies at your fingertips. With a USB DVB stick plugged in, TV shows can be live streamed onto computers or set recording schedule directly via Video Station. Media Server is capable of streaming digital contents from DiskStation to other multimedia devices, for instance, the DLNA/UPnP compatible TV sets. Having a Sony PlayStation 3 or a Microsoft Xbox 360? You can use them to stream personal media to a larger screen for better entertainment. DS112j also supports streaming with AirPlay devices for you, if you’re a dedicated Apple user.
All multimedia is also accessible on-the-go. Synology’s mobile apps, DS audio, DS photo+, and DS video let users to manage and enjoy all the digital contents directly on mobile devices. A video explaining some of them in brief will enable you to know how Synology has made all our devices have terabytes of storage using all the above multimedia applications and personal cloud. DSM mobile offers complete touch-screen experience to monitor and manage DiskStation, such as account and privilege settings and quick access to mobile applications. All mobile apps are designed differently in looks on iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. This enables you to use them in an environment you’re most used to.

Performance

Even for the general user, performance matters a lot these days. For a technology enthusiast, it is the first criteria of determining the usefulness of any gadget. When it comes to such an advanced NAS like Synology DiskStation, we were at first thinking how to measure performance in great detail. Because although file copying speeds could be tested like any other NAS, and multimedia streaming can directly be checked using a PC or Mac, or maybe our favorite PlayStation 3 system; it was difficult to compare the other features in terms of performance, because there was no other device available with this level of feature-set.
We’ve performed a couple of important tests for measuring the performance of the Synology DS112j, which are Read/Write speeds and multimedia streaming test using PS3. Both these tests were taken with the following test setup.

TEST SETUP

            We used a few devices we have in order to test the performance of this NAS. The purpose of using comparatively high-end configurations was to eliminate any external limitations and factors which could affect the performance of Synology DS112j. However, we could only use the ones available readily with us.
1)    Dell XPS L502X Laptop – Intel Core i5-2450M @ 2.50GHz 2.50GHz / 8GB RAM / 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium (OEM) / 750GB 7200RPM HDD / Power plugged-in / Connected optionally by LAN and Wi-Fi to test read/write speeds and streaming
2)    Sony PlayStation 3 slim / 120GB model / Connected LAN via Wi-Fi to test streaming
3)    Seagate FreeAgent|Desk External powered HDD / 1TB / USB 2.0 interface
4)    SanDisk 8GB Flash disk drive
5)    Belkin Router-Modem and D-Link 10/100 Ethernet switch

READ/WRITE SPEEDS TEST

We conducted this test in many phases. Results of each phase have been compiled into the screenshot given below. All testing was done with laptop connected to LAN using RJ-45 cable and an Ethernet switch. For example, we tested copy speeds from PC to NAS, from NAS to PC, from USB to NAS etc. However, this should not be taken as official data since many factors can affect the tests conducted by us.
Our tests proved that the Synology DS112j is indeed very fast in terms of general usability. However, we faced some performance degradation over Wi-Fi connection between our laptop and the modem. Hence, we switched to testing over LAN RJ-45 interface most of the time.

The tests shown in screenshot below are -
Top L: NAS to PC; Top R: PC to NAS; Bottom L: USB to NAS; Bottom R: NAS to USB.



MULTIMEDIA STREAMING TEST

The video below describes the multimedia streaming test performed using the test setup mentioned above. The video in .mp4 format (x264, 720p, AAC audio) was stored on the NAS which was streamed to a PlayStation 3 device over Wi-Fi.


Applications

It is the applications packages which makes the DS112j a truly different and new NAS experience. Various applications such as Photo Station, Audio Station, Storage manager, Download Station etc. can be used to enrich your NAS experience customized to your needs. Some specific noteworthy applications have been explained in this section. The video below shows briefly all the noteworthy applications.

PHOTO STATION

            Photo Station, a built-in app enables you to display the photos uploaded in order with a Timeline and locations pinned on Google Maps. You could geo-tag a vacation to Kashmir or tag family and friends in this weekend’s party photos with automatic facial recognition. Also, photos can be synchronized onto Facebook and Picasa Web Albums or shared on Twitter, which makes it a truly social photo album solution.


AUDIO STATION

Audio Station is the embedded music player for music streaming and Internet radio. Each user can have their own personal music library and create smart playlists based on their favorites. Audio Station can be accessed directly from the browser window, in the same window as DSM, providing the best music experience using the multitasking-capable DSM UI. This eliminates the need to have a compatible music player on all your workstations. Just a javascript-capable browser can enable you to listen to your favorite music from any PC or Mac. However, if you’re more used to iTunes, music stored on DiskStation can also be directly streamed to your iTunes player.

Update!! Audio Player gets a overhaul in DSM 4.1. We just updated our DSM, to find a complete new look for the audio station UI, and a nice mini player too. Check it out in the screenshot below:


 

DOWNLOAD STATION

Download Station is a centralized place to manage all your downloads on the Synology NAS. Forget about keeping your PC running whole night just because it was downloading something. Just use download station to download files directly to your NAS. It’s very easy to configure and start downloading in seconds after installing this optional package from the package center.


CLOUD STATION

Sharing files and photos with family and friends has never been easier than with this application. Network drive is the fastest method to access files at home. For access over the Internet, you can use the file browser to manage and transfer files by simply dragging and dropping, on Windows and Mac. iPhone, iPad, and Android phones can also access DS112j cloud in similar way. All user interfaces are thoughtfully designed keeping in mind the usability to a specific user. In short, even those who aren’t familiar with PC will discover the user-friendliness in DS112j for sure.

Conclusion

With extraordinary hardware configuration, balancing both processing power and power consumption, the DS112j is lightweight and having small form-factor. With easily replaceable 1xHDD bay supporting up to 4TB of storage, it basically fulfills the requirements of a home or small office user. However, if you need more than 1 bay for some reason, DS112j is not for you. But hey, Synology has whole lot of DiskStation NAS devices, with various configurations for different customer needs. Finally, DS112j proves to be the best NAS in its segment in almost every criterion.



Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Enable Devnagari support (partial) on Android Devices

How To Enable Devanagari (Hindi/Marathi) support
on android devices

Below is a method which I compiled from various guides about how to do it, which sums up the various things to do into one, and tested working on my HTC Desire phone.
There is a lot of information on pushing fonts to your device, and how to use ADB on your rooted android phone, but its kind of general, and not specific. To follow these instructions, your phone needs to be rooted. Yes- rooting isn't difficult, and its a job of just a few minutes. Though there must be a rooting procedure available for your phone.
So here we go!

What You Need
1) Your Android Device (Rooted/possible to be rooted)
2) A PC (Windows)
3) Data Cable provided with your phone

Procedure
1) Root your phone: To know more about how to root it, just search google with "root (your_phone_name)", and you'd get the best possible method to do it. Also install a "custom recovery" as specified.
2) Install android SDK on your PC. To do so, you can follow the procedure at the same link. You may have to disable the various "sync" applications with your phone such as HTC Sync.
3) Save the SDK to C:/ drive root with folder name "sdk" (directly on drive, no nested folder and small letters)
4) Download THIS file (DroidSansFallback.zip), unzip it, and you'd get a DroidSansFallback.ttf file out of it. Copy this file to C:/sdk/tools folder of your android SDK.
5) Now you're good to go. Power off your phone, and boot into recovery (using your favorite method, such as hardware key combination etc). Then connect the phone with a data cable to your PC.
6) Open Command Prompt on your PC, and type the following commands one by one EXACTLY as listed here:

cd c:/sdk/tools
adb shell mount /system
abd shell rm /system/fonts/DroidSansFallback.ttf
adb push DroidSansFallback.ttf /system/fonts
adb shell remount
adb shell reboot
adb reboot

That should do the "font pushing" part for you.
Now let your phone reboot. Try opening up any website which shows Devanagari content (such as esakal.com) and see if it worked for you!
If it didn't, try installing MultiLang Keyboard from android market. That will enable you to write in Devanagari also, with some practice, of course!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

How they hacked the un-hackable PS3….



What Is a PS3 Jailbreak:


It was only till the 2nd week of August when we could say the Sony PlayStation 3 device just cannot be hacked. But the modders at OzModChips are certainly ahead of all the 7-step security Sony has installed on the PS3. They have recently released a jailbreak which hacks your PS3 device to help you run custom code, backup games from the dump, and actually a whole lot of pirated content. The jailbreak is a small USB plug-and-play modchip which you plug into any model of PS3 and hack the highest security on a console ever.

The news of PS3 jailbreak is all over the internet, but very few know actually HOW it works. This article takes a hacker’s scoop on how the PS3 USB modchip jailbreak takes apart the top security I’ve already described in another of my articles. Some assumptions are from my own thinking, though.

How They Made It Possible:

1) The Modchip: The USB device is not just a pen drive or storage device, but it has a microcontroller chip which exploits the loophole in the security. Just like Sherlock Homes says, “a criminal always invariably leaves some clue” in this case, its not the criminal but the security itself which still had a loophole. The guys at OzModChips were quoted saying “It makes your PS3 feel it’s a developer device”. Now what does that mean? Its simple: the developers of PS3, that is the wise guys at Sony who made the security possible, also need their own way to run the code on the console while testing it. For that purpose, they used an external device via USB to convert a PS3 console into a developer console. The creators of the jailbreak released now, found the chip on the developer’s testing device, got it on a PCB, did some research and finally came up with a small, light, easy and plug-n-play device which looks like a pen drive. They make the console to appear as a developer console and then you can run any custom code on it.

2) Backup Manager: Having a way to run the code isn’t enough. Even though you can run any code, be it right or wrong on a dev device, there should be a code which runs a backup manager. At the moment, backup manager is the only homebrew code that they have released. What backup manager does is to dump the games from a blu-ray drive to PS3’s own hard-disk. Being a dev console, all security and encryption from the HDD as well as the blu-ray drive is broken already, hence its very easy to dump the game on the HDD. You can alternatively dump them on external Hard-disk as well. Dumping actually means copying the whole game from the disk. After dumping, you can leave any one of the original game disks inside the drive of PS3, and use the backup manager to “load” the dumped backup to play that particular game. But how does one put the backup manager on the PS3? As soon as you jailbreak your PS3 using the modchip, a dev version of the OS can be accessed, which can let you install the backup manager. Hence you can just insert another general mass-storage USB device, having the backup manager software on it, and install it directly in the XMB menu bar itself!

3) Free alternative: At the moment, even though many are claiming to have a free alternative which can install the jailbreak on any pen drive and use it, this is NOT true and actually installs a Trojan on your pen drive. Remember, the jailbreak is a ModChip and NOT a pen drive. It has the distinguished microcontroller in it which makes everything possible. Even if there will be free alternatives in the future, they will consist of using an already jailbroken PS3 to hack a clean one or maybe use LAN or Wi-Fi to install the code on the PS3 using your own laptop or PC. But its not too close, although it looks that way.

What might make a free alternative possible is to create a virtual microcontroller on your computer which has been done using Linux already, and use a USB cord to jailbreak the PS3. That is a difficult thing to do, but certainly possible. Only limitation would be to keep running your PC and the virtual porting software ON all the time.

What Sony Might Have In Store For The Hackers….

Sony would soon be busy making arrangements and ways to patch the loophole in their next firmware version. That won’t be enough, so they would ban those jailbroken PlayStation 3 consoles from PSN. Its also possible that they could identify the hack over the internet and just send a file remotely to disable the hack or PS3 itself, forever.

Also, if one wants to jailbreak sooner or later, he must make sure he doesn’t install ANY of the further firmware updates. But that does mean you lose out on some of the features Sony would be rolling out in the near future.

In my opinion, someone who would want a jailbreak won’t bother about having Sony’s features on their device. Because, anyhow in some days there would be lots of homebrew content on the PS3 to do things you might have never even imagined. Maybe one could enable a Microsoft Kinect device to use on their PlayStation! Finally, whatever Sony can release hereafter, can be run via homebrew content, and I’m sure the modders and freelance developers are capable of doing that.

To sum it up, Sony will have PSN bans, firmware updates and lot more in store to curb the piracy, but that can stop only the itty-bitty modders from doing so. Its very difficult now to stop the hardcore hackers from hacking the PS3 to the maximum, they now have got the one spark they needed to create the fire.

Beware of the hack fire, though. It may damage your console.

Why Hack? Stay legal, enjoy the paid game.