RIM: “PlayBook” Will Support Android Applications.

Up until a few hours ago, we were hopeful that RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook was going to live up to the hype. Though we were honestly preparing for the worst. However, RIM has turned the tide with an announcement today confirming many weeks of speculation — the BlackBerry PlayBook will run Android applications.

In order to get Android apps on your PlayBook, you’ll of course start out at BlackBerry App World. From there, the “App Player” is where all the cross-platform magic will happen. Finally, RIM also announced that the native PlayBook SDK will be available soon, allowing C/C++ application creation.

With a much larger potential app library to tap in to, is RIM’s PlayBook pulling a quick one from behind? Or are certain things like lack of native email keeping you at bay?

Digital Storm Announces Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 Equipped Line Of PCs.

Following Nvidia’s release of their new, top of the ling single-card GPU, the GeForce GTX 590, Digital Storm is announcing their own high-end hardware. The popular custom PC manufacturer has announced GTX 590 options for the company’s Black OPS and Special OPS lines of gaming PCs. Further bolstering this brute strength approach, Digital Storm is pushing their high-end setup which includes an Intel Core i7 970 hex-core CPU, 12GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, 160GB SSD, and 2x SLI Quad Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3GB cards. Said configuration can be yours for an unsettling $4,883. If a single GTX 590 is enough, the lower end $2,500 setup with Intel Core i7 2600K, 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, and 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive may be more to your liking. Either way, a lot of power can be had.

For more information, check out Digital Storm’s Black OPS and Special OPS pages.

[Update] Confirmed: Geohot In South America — For Vacation.

The ongoing Geohot vs. Sony lawsuit gets more interesting with each passing day. Yesterday, we were talking about Geohot’s apparent fleeing to South America. Today, Geohot himself has both confirmed and denied the rumor he fled the country saying:

Factually, it’s true I’m in South America, on a vacation I’ve had planned and paid for since November. I mean, it is Spring break; hacking isn’t my life. Rest assured that not a dime of legal defense money would ever go toward something like this. And of course Townsend loves the idea of painting me as an international fugitive. I have been in contact with my lawyers almost every day; I would not let the case suffer. That said, I also won’t let this ridiculous lawsuit run my life either. Then the fearmongerers win.

Fair enough. He does have a point — through all the drama that’s been going on, he probably does have a life outside his hacking hobbies. As for the claim that Geohot tampered with his hard drives, we’ll have to wait and see…

Update

About those “tampered” hard drives — Geohot simply removed the controller cards. You stay classy, Sony.

HTC Begins Locking Down Android Phones.

Fans of HTC’s longtime developer friendly handsets are getting an abrupt end to their party. Starting with the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon and again witnessed with the upcoming HTC Incredible S, HTC has begun making use of signature checks. These checks spring into action when a custom recovery image is flashed, and lock things down if a stock HTC key isn’t found. Basically, HTC has turned their back on the developer community.

There are a couple reasons for this. One scenario could be HTC (and carriers) getting tired of people bricking their phones with failed rooting attempts and as such are trying to stem the flow of returned handsets. Another according to HTC is simply “carrier interests”. However, the latter doesn’t quite pass the BS test as the Incredible S is an unlocked GSM device.

Whatever the cause may be for HTC’s new heavy handed approach to rooting, it’s not a good one. Previously, HTC was the defacto standard Android manufacturer to support if you were into rooting/custom ROMs. Now that they’re no better than the other big competitors who also have used signature checks and anti-rooting measures (Samsung and Motorola), why choose them?

Hopefully HTC reverts back to their previous ways, because we aren’t fond of this new way of doing business at all.

Geohot Flees To South America?

Infamous PS3 hacker, Geohot, is reported to have fled his New Jersey home and taken up residence in South America, this according to his PSN profile. Certainly this type of move can’t paint any type of optimistic image for his defense. Also further tarnishing the hacker’s case — hardware (PS3s, computers, etc.) that was used by Geohot to hack the PS3 has not been turned over to Sony in a timely fashion as well as critical data deleted from his hard drives. While we don’t exactly see eye-to-eye with Sony (ever), Geohot isn’t doing himself any favors with his actions.

Now that Geohot is soaking up the South American sun, is it game over for PS3 hacking as a whole? We doubt it. Plenty of other talented (and less egotistical) people will pick up where he left off. As for his trial’s outcome — that’s a different story. Look for the Geohot vs. Sony drama to heat up in the coming weeks…

Original Scans Of Grand Theft Auto Circa 1995 Hit The Web.

How about some gaming nostalgia to start off your hump day morning? Slashdot has posted a link to original scans consisting of Grand Theft Auto circa 1995 when the game was in the very beginning development stages. At that time, it GTA as we know it today was called “Race ‘n Chase”. The documents are in reverse chronological order so you’ll have to cycle to the left instead of right. With that aside, take a few minutes and give them a look. 1995, here we come…

[Update] Microsoft Begins Rolling Out “NoDo” Windows Phone 7 Update In Select European Markets.

European Windows Phone 7 users will begin enjoying a rare first over the coming days — updates before their U.S. counterparts. Microsoft announced today that Microsoft has not made a formal announcement regarding the reported ongoing rollout of the “NoDo” update for Windows Phone 7. However, various sources from within Microsoft have more or less stated the NoDo update is ramping up and will continue on through April. As a refresher, the “NoDo” Windows Phone 7 update to select European markets. Said update will bring Copy/Paste functionality, CDMA support, “Tombstoning”, improved marketplace searches, and the usual bug squashing. As of writing, Microsoft hasn’t released any specifics regarding a U.S. rollout for the much sought after update. Though as always, we’ll update you as soon as the information becomes available.