Guide: How to install PlayStation 3 custom firmware 3.55, run homebrew

In this guide we will teach you how to install custom firmware (v3.55) on your Sony PlayStation 3 console. By installing custom firmware, you can then install homebrew, Linux and enable a number of other features like emulators.

In this guide we will use kmeaw CFW, which has little to no reports of bricks. The same method works for other custom firmware as well, like Geohots, as he was the first to release such a firmware.

Disclaimer: AfterDawn does not take responsibility if you do brick your console or void the warranty. As always, please be careful! This guide is educational and AfterDawn does not condone piracy.

If you are interested in installing custom firmware on your PS3 please read on...

Will.i.am, the frontman of the Grammy-award winning group The Black Eyed Peas has been hired by Intel as a Creative Director this week, continuing his work at Dipdive on a grander scale.

Dipdive uses "new media to mobilize politics, social issues and music."

The musician will now be a director of creative innovations for Intel.

Says Will.i.am (via Boombox)

Nearly everything I do involves processors and computers, and when I see an Intel chip I think of all the creative minds involved that help to amplify my own creativity. Teaming up with the scientists, researchers and computer programmers at Intel to collaborate and co-develop new ways to communicate, create, inform and entertain is going to be amazing.

Adds Intel VP Deborah Conrad:

We're thrilled to tap into the limitless creativity will.i.am brings to the table. He's not only a brilliant artist and producer, but also an innovator pushing the bounds of technology professionally and personally. We share a strong interest in innovation around music, art and lifestyle, and are excited to join forces to establish an authentic, emotional connection with consumers.

Engadget has posted an in-depth preview of the upcoming Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone, dubbed the "Xperia Play", which should be unveiled officially at the MWC next month.

The Xperia Play has a 4-inch display with 854x450 resolution and will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Although unconfirmed, the device's multitouch screen will allegedly be powered by a Sony Bravia engine for smoother video playback.

Under the hood, the device appears to run on a single-core processor clocked at 1-1.2GHz, an Adreno 205 GPU and 512MB RAM.

As is standard, the smartphone/handheld will have 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, and an FM receiver plus transmitter.

Physically, the smartphone has 4 buttons, Back/Menu/Home/Search, a 1500mAh battery, USB port, microSD slot and 5MP camera which lacks 720p recording.

AT&T, in anticipation of the Verizon iPhone coming on February 10th, has quietly begun giving iPhone owners a chance to move back to unlimited data plans, the plan they unceremoniously dumped in June.

Verizon announced this week that all new iPhone owners would pay $30-a-month for unlimited data, a far better deal than AT&T offers, at $25 for 2GB.

The former exclusive iPhone carrier will now give all subscribers who had an unlimited data plan in the past the chance to move back. The deal is only valid for subscribers who had an iPhone, and the unlimited plan, before June 2010.

New purchasers will still have to use the limited data plans.

When asked for comment by the WSJ, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel would not confirm the move, just saying: "We handle customers and their situations individually, and we're not going to discuss specifics."

The average smartphone user consumes 290MB of data per month, although iPhone owners notoriously use more.

ZDnet has reported today that Microsoft sold 2.1 million licenses of Window Phone 7 to OEMs in 2010, tacking on almost 900,000 in December alone.

The figures come via senior product manager Greg Sullivan, who said the pace continued to accelerate.

Additionally, surveys of Windows Phone 7 owners concluded that 93 percent were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their device. Another 90 percent would recommend the product to others.

Says Sullivan:

We're still in the early stages. When people use this phone, they really, really like it.

The Microsoft Marketplace now has 6800 applications, and is growing at 400 apps per week.

It is unclear how many of those 2.1 million units have been sold to end-users, however.

Thanks to the massive influx of tablets, research firm Gartner has predicted that app downloads will total 185 billion by the end of 2014.

Apple announced last week that its iOS App Store (which fuels the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) had reached 10 billion downloads.

Says the firm (via CW):

Tablets will boost app downloads. Many are wondering if the app frenzy...is just a fashion. We don't think so.

In 2010, the iOS App Store accounted for 90 percent of all app downloads, and will likely remain the top app store all the way through 2014, says Gartner. The company did say Apple will likely lose a huge amount of its market share by then, however, thanks to rivals like the Android Market, Nokia's Ovi Store, Research in Motion's App World, Microsoft Marketplace, Samsung Apps and any other new store that hasn't launched yet.

Netflix has reported their quarterly earnings this afternoon, surpassing all analyst expectations. The company's stock has jumped 16 points (9 percent) since the report.

The company says it has surpassed 20 million subscribers, a number that even surprised CEO Reed Hastings and other top management execs.

Income for the quarter increased 52 percent year-on-year to $47 million, and revenue jumped 34 percent to $596 million.

By adding 3.1 million subscribers and breaking 20 million, Netflix is now the second largest media subscription business in the U.S., just 3 million behind massive ISP/Cable provider Comcast.

Wrote CEO Reed Hastings (via THR):

Our huge subscriber growth, fueled by the excitement of watching instantly, impressed even us.

More subscriber growth enables us to spend more on streaming content, making the Netflix service even better in 2011.

Mozilla has released Firefox 4 Beta 10 this week, within two weeks of Beta 9, suggesting a full RC should be available in the near future.

Little has been added to the browser, but many bugs have been corrected, the browser should be more stable, and Mac OS X users will have better support for Flash video.

Mozilla says it has received over one million "pieces of feedback" since launching the beta, and continues to ask beta testers for more.

You can submit feedback via the "feedback button" in the browser or via Mozilla's site.

Firefox remains the second most used browser behind Internet Explorer, but it has begun facing massive competition from Google's Chrome, as well.

According to a new City AM report, HTC is set to unveil two Facebook-branded smartphones next month.

The phone maker and social networking giant will join up and introduce the devices at the Mobile World Congress event.

Each device will be "high-end smartphone" and include Facebook branding and colors (blue, gray and white).

The smartphones will run on an Android variant, and Facebook will be prominent on the home screens.

It is unclear what carriers the phones will be connected too or what exact integration will take place.

We will keep you updated.

Google has officially moved from the testing stage and launched number porting for Google Voice, giving users a chance to transfer their current mobile phone number over to the powerful Voice service.

Last week, a few hundred users were given the option to port their number, which Google confirmed as a test before a major rollout.

It seems the bugs have been worked out as the service is now live for all existing accounts.

To port your number it will be a one-time $20 charge, and Google warns that doing so will kill of your contract mobile phone contract, likely leaving you with an early termination fee.

You can avoid the charge by getting a new number from your carrier, but this makes the "simple" process a lot less simple.

Google also warns that you may lose out on texts for 72 hours after transferring but no calls or voicemails.

For now, you can only transfer mobile phones but landline transfers are coming in the future.

Over the past few days, rumors have surfaced that the upcoming Apple iPhone 5 will include a pico projector, but manufacturers have quickly quashed that, claiming the "related R&D is still not mature and demand from consumers has yet to appear."

The parts makers speculate smartphones will begin seeing mass produced pico projector modules in 2012.

Currently, pico projectors offer poor image quality, weak lumen rate and take an exceptional amount of power to run.

Samsung, LG and even RIM have each released phones with pico projectors, and other companies have integrated the projectors into their digital cameras, but sales volumes have been very low.

Current estimates say 1 million devices will ship in 2011 with pico projectors, as the prices still remain high. A DLP-based pico projector module still costs over $50 USD.

HTC's upcoming Flyer tablet has seen its unofficial specs leaked today, although the company has not even announced the tablet yet.

The tablet will have a seven-inch screen, 1024x600 resolution, Android 2.3 (upgradeable to 3.0), a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and LTE support.

Additionally, the device will have a 5MP rear camera, a 1.3MP front side camera, and pre-installed Skype.

The standard camera will have LED flash and facial recognition.

Finally, the tablet will have HDMI-out, DLNA wireless streaming and a USB port.

Google has purchased Twitter movie recommendation service Fflick today for $10 million, with the deal expected to close by the end of the month.

Fflick uses Twitter "sentiment" to rate movies, showing positive and negative comments, as well as how many people are Tweeting about a certain film.

For example, on the front page is "The Green Hornet," which is showing an 81 percent "like" rating on 66,000 tweets.

By signing in with your own Twitter account, you can see comments from anyone in your own network.

Furthermore, you can use the service to buy tickets, add movies to your Netflix queue, and retweet any post you see.

It is unclear what Google will use the service for.

Spanish researchers at the Carlos III University of Madrid have posted interesting results today in regards to filesharing.

The researchers say a tiny fraction of users are responsible for over two-thirds of all content published, and over three-fourths of all downloads.

Using the names, ISPs and IP addresses of uploaders and downloaders to 55,000 torrents published to Mininova and the Pirate Bay, the group concluded that just 100 users were behind 67 percent of the uploads and 75 percent of the downloads.

Concludes the team (via TG):

The success of BitTorrent is due to the fact that a few users make a large number of contents available in exchange for receiving economic benefits.

The researchers break down uploaders into just two categories, "fake publishers" and "top publishers." Fake publishers are the anti-piracy groups that upload thousands of fake files to protect copyrights, and malicious users who want to spread malware. "Top publishers" are those who upload massive amounts of content, and make profit in return through ads, VIP subscriptions, and other methods.

Verizon COO Lowell McAdam has confirmed today that Verizon will offer an unlimited data plan for the iPhone, which will cost $30 per month.

In June, AT&T dropped its unlimited data plan for smartphone users, moving to $25-a-month for 2GB or $15-a-month for 200MB. Each plan has massive overage charges.

Verizon offers $30 unlimited or $15 for 150MB, but the company has long said it will be dropping the smaller plan at the end of January.

For more comparisons, the companies offer the same voice plans, and AT&T offers a better texting plan.

McAdam does make it clear, however, that the unlimited plan will not be around forever, as the carrier "will follow AT&T's move to tiered pricing in the not too distant future."