2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, today announced that Ghost Rider, the action-packed combat and motorcycle video game featuring Marvel Comics’ iconic supernatural superhero, is now available in North America for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, the PSP (PlayStationPortable) system and Game Boy Advance. The title will be available in Europe as the movie releases in different regions. The Ghost Rider video game reflects the stylized action of the successful Marvel comic series and Sony Pictures’ upcoming Ghost Rider movie.

The game was developed by Climax and its storyline was authored by famed comic writers Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti. In the video game, stuntman Johnny Blaze is brought back as his alter ego, Ghost Rider, to protect others from experiencing his Hell on Earth. Ghost Rider haunts America’s highways, inflicting his righteous wrath upon the souls of the wicked and the damned. The unique storyline takes Ghost Rider to a large variety of scenes and locations, while facing off against familiar faces from both the Marvel comic universe and Sony Pictures’ movie.

“The Ghost Rider video game offers an exhilarating gameplay experience in a fast-paced environment. Ghost Rider can battle multiple enemies from the Marvel Universe using his trademark weapons, the Hellfire Chain and Hellfire Shotgun,” said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. “Fans of the comic book series will love its true-to-form style.”

Features:

-Ride the terrifying Hell Cycle, swinging Ghost Rider’s chain at enemies and using the bike’s powers to ride on water, boost over jumps, and power down under obstacles.

-Travel through several locations from the movie, including the Quentin Carnival and Caretaker’s Graveyard and take a ride down the skyscraper that links Earth to the depths of Hell.

-Upgrade the Hell Cycle, gain new moves and increase Ghost Rider’s stats using the essence of defeated foes as currency.

-Besides possessing superhuman strength, speed and durability, Ghost Rider can force criminals to experience a level of emotional pain equivalent to that which they have caused in others with his Penance Stare.

-Fight in spectacular boss battles with key Ghost Rider villains, including Lilith, which will put players’ combat skills to the test.

-Unlock original Ghost Rider comics, artwork, “making of” footage and developer interviews.

-Extended replay value with bonus characters, challenging players to dig deep into the experience.

-PSP offers new gameplay including game sharing, and Wi-Fi multiplayer racing for up to four players.

Hacking Wireless Networks With The PSP
Is the PSP spurring a new generation of safety concerns?
August 24th, 2006
By Robert A.

One doesn’t often associate a child bearing a portable gaming console as a potential hacker, or, worse, a terrorist. We often disregard the PSP as a multimedia tool sincerely used for promoting happiness: watching movies, playing games, and listening to music. But how about using it for infiltrating top-secret clearance level data at some of the US’s most prestigous intelligence agencies? The PSP has all the prerequisites. If homebrew programs can be made to emulate Nintendo 64, send phone calls, utilize GPS protocols, and more, with the measily, yet powerful 333 MHz CPU, what’s stopping terrorists and malicious individuals from sending a child, armed with a PSP bearing a homebrew password brute forcer, to walk by the FBI Edgar Hoover building in Washington D.C. (who’s wireless networks reach the public sidewalk alongside the building), and gather data which could be used to thwart the government which protects us? Is this one of the reasons why Sony wants to stop homebrew? There are so many possibilities.

This brings me to my own story. The other day, I parked my car on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., killing some time before an event I was about to attend further down in D.C. I whipped out my PSP, while sitting in the car, and pleasured myself to a round of Tekken: Dark Ressurection. Mind you, it was nearly dark outside, and the lights in the car were off. Roughly ten minutes into my game, I noticed a certain figure standing outside my car. I quickly shutoff my PSP, turned the lights on, and rolled down the window. To my surprise, it was a police officer. He asked me what I was doing at that very moment. Now, of course, I am an adult, and an adult playing a PSP in the dark, inside his car, on the busiest street in D.C. is pretty awkward, one would think. So I replied and explained my situation, that I was early heading to a nightclub, and wanted to feed my addiction to a new game I had just bought. He didn’t buy it. Not one bit at that.

Maybe it was my sketchy behavior, I was excited for the night, it was a long and tiring week, and now I had to deal with the fact that I might get in trouble for something, knowing how police have a knack for finding trouble. He immediately yelled (not politely) at me and forced me to put my hands in the air, step outside the car, and place both hands on the side of the car. He then proceded to pat me down and handcuff me from behind, and then asked me to sit down on the curb. He peeked inside my car, with flashlight in hand, and thoroughly searched my car (lucky I didn’t have my 6-pack next to me, as I originally planned to bring along). He picked up my PSP as evidence of “unusual behavior” and left to his car. There, I would assume, he traced my tags, performed a background check, and called in an additional police cruiser. He came out, and by now, the second cruiser had arrived with two additional men; they all came towards me. I was deeply interrogated. Why I was parked in front of a federal building at this time at night, why I tried to hide the item in my hands when the police officer had supposedly been yelling at me from the outside of my car, before I noticed he was outside, and what the ‘real story’ was. I started laughing, I knew nothing better to do at the time; these people thought I was a terrorist. They probably thought I was using the electronic device to decrypt confidential passwords, try to detonate some sort of triggered bomb, or something along those lines. Whatever the case, they let me go as they could find no real reason to arrest me, and I was relieved. Was that right there reasonable doubt? Did those police officers have the right to approach me like that? To this day the thoughts and words of that night still skim through my brain.

Now, I don’t want to make this article a rant against the criminal system we have. I’m actually, in a way, pleased that these officers had thought about such malicious potentials from the handheld; this is what makes the US safe(r). What I really wanted to get at was the true possibilites of the PSP; there is really nothing stopping anyone with malicious intent to be in my exact same position that night, utilizing a homebrew password decrypter/brute forcer/MD5 decryptor/mini-rainbow table setup/wireless bomb detonator rather than playing Tekken. Had I been sitting in the car with a laptop on my lap, it would have been many times more suspicious. A portable device equipped with wireless capabilities and the ability to launch custom, unsigned code, coupled with a small form factor is capable of anything. The terrorists and hackers of the next generation could be simply walking down the street and hacking away, using their concealed PSP to port scan and find a way to penetrate a victim’s wireless network, and essentially, gather sensitive information.

How safe are we? Could the PSP pose as a tool for the next generation of hacking? Is this potential one of the things that Sony is trying to protect us from by pressing firmware updates, and, eliminating the ability to run homebrew? Is the PSP really a toy?

One of the great things about the PSP is the awesome ability to use a web browser at any wifi spot you encounter. Well sometimes I want to see Youtube content to a freind but the PSP has a VERY old version of flash and because of this Youtube does not work under normal circumstances.

Now there is a way to view all you favorite Youtube videos on the go. A new site that has launched, and is still in beta actually, is set to make thing alot easier for the PSP user.

The only drawback is that you still need a PC to do this, yeah I know it sucks, but it is a step in the right direction.

Here is how to watch all you favorite YouTube vids on the go.

1. Find a video you want to watch, in this case I will point to a video I made of me playing Outrun 2006 on a dual monitor setup direct feed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTkazvfVtLk (yes I know I suck LOL)
2. Go to http://vixy.net/ and copy and paste the URL (web address) into the provided space
3. Select the mp4 format (iPod/PSP)
4. Hit the convert button and wait for the conversion to take place
5. when it is done you will be taken to a download page, but the PSP can not download these videos with the URLs this site spits out, so we use a trick go to http://lix.in/ and copy and paste the download link into the space provided, you can’t miss it… no I mean it, and hit “Protect Link”
6. you now have a short PSP freindly url you can use on the PSP web browser to download the newly converted video
7. click all links needed to get back to the download page and hit save on the PSP and then make sure you save to the /VIDEO folder of your PSP
8. after a bit of a download your video is now on you PSP memory stick ready to watch anywhere you take you psp to

Enjoy your new ability to take Youtube with you on your PSP

• Sopranos Book Signing Checout the Sopranos Book

• Music of the Sopranos Listen as creator David Chase talks about the music of The Sopranos

• Invitation to the Set HBO invites you to the set of the Sopranos

• Buzz- Sopranos BTS Take a behind the scenes look at the Sopranos

• Sopranos: The Making of Cleaver Go Behind the Scenes writer/producer “Christopher Molit

• Sopranos: Paint It Black Paint It Black

• Sorpranos: Death Montage Death Montage

Elgato Systems announces a hardware encoder in USB Stick format that rapidly converts video files to the high quality H.264 (MP4) format for iPod, Apple TV, and Sony PSP. Turbo.264 accelerates exports by a factor of 4 on an Intel Core 2 Duo up to a factor of 10 on a Power PC G4. The rate of acceleration depends on the Mac processor type.

Furthermore, Turbo.264 offloads the computationally intensive software conversion of video files away from your Macintosh, leaving it free for other tasks – a virtual co-processor for the Mac. Turbo.264 supports all Macs with USB 2.0.

There is no need to acquire additional software to convert videos, since Turbo.264 comes with video conversion software by Elgato. Simply drag-and-drop videos into the application and chose one of four formats: iPod Standard, iPod High, Apple TV, Sony PSP).

Turbo.264 supports batch conversions and even offers exports of unprotected DVD content (VOB files). Turbo.264 also accelerates exports from the most important Macintosh video applications such as iMovie, QuickTime Pro, Final Cut Pro, and EyeTV.

Turbo.264 supports resolutions of up to 800 by 600 pixels, enabling videos and TV recordings in PAL or NTSC formats to be converted to Apple TV with no scaling. In addition, Turbo.264 supports standard resolutions for iPod and Sony PSP. When conversion is complete, Turbo.264 automatically transfers video files to iTunes, making them immediately available to Apple TV or the iPod.

Pricing & Availability

Turbo.264 is available immediately for US$99.95 in the Elgato Online Shop as well as through distribution. The package includes the USB 2.0 Hardware Encoder, the Turbo.264 software on CD-ROM, a user’s guide on CD-ROM, a quick start guide as well as a USB extension cable.

This post is a little off subject but interesting nonetheless. A regular visitor of our blog sent in a video that was created with a free website and a few minutes of free time. As you know we have a contest going on for the best PSP Blender video. The person that submits the best video will receive a free PSP with firmware v1.5 and a 8GB memory stick to get them started. Below you can see the video Im talking about with a link to the site to get you started.

Created using One True Media

We are offering a new PSP Blender video / graphic contest. Submit your video or graphics for a chance to win a PSP with firmware version 3.03 OE-C complete with a 8GB memory stick and accessory package. Below are some videos we recently had submitted.

Everybody loves YouTube.com. It has examples of everything you’d want to watch, from Lonelygirls to football goals, old men complaining to Goths crying. The only trouble is our lack of time. If only we could catch up with everyone else by watching that funny bad advert from the ’80s while commuting to work. If only there was some way…

Go to YouTube and pick the video you want to convert. We chose a video about blenders, as it was the top rated clip the day we looked. Go up to the address bar, click it, and Ctrl-C to copy the video’s address.
Go to YouTubeX.com. Paste your video’s address into the main box and click Get Video. Click Download and save your video to the desktop.
Right click your newly downloaded video and change the name from get_video to get_video.flv. You may be asked if you’re sure you want to change the file extension, in which case you should reply that you are.
Go to TVC’s homepage and click Free Download. Save the file to the desktop, then double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Run the Total Video Converter programme. Click on get_video.flv and hold the left mouse button down. Drag the video into TVC’s Track List Window. On the screen that pops up choose PSP Mpeg4. Click Convert Now and wait while it does its thing.
Now all you have to do is put the converted video on your PSP. Follow our guide to do just that and you’re away.

It is recommended that PSP Blender members do not update their firmware to 3.10 for the time being.
Sony released their PlayStation Portable firmware update, 3.10 and now makes demos even easier to check out.

Sony announced the release of the Sony PSP firmware 3.10. It includes Conserve Memory to optimize your Internet browser to see more data while using less memory. Also included with this firmware update is Dynamic Normalizer in the sound settings allowing automatic volume adjustment settings for playback of music and other audio sources with variable output levels.

Sony is also making it easier to check out their demos. Demos are downloadable at the official Sony PSP site as well as at the PlayStation site.

Some of the demos that can be downloaded are Killzone: Liberation which is a third-person shooter putting players into 16 intense missions to rescue hostages from the evil Helghast. Other demos include Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2, both of which are set for release in the next few weeks.

1. Get a Memory Stick for your PSP:

Before you can load any data onto your Sony PSP, you must have a memory stick to store the files onto. The PSP comes with a tiny 32MB card that is only big enough to store a relatively small amount of files. If you plan on watching video clips and installing lots of games on your PSP, you will need to purchase a larger Memory Stick Pro Duo card. These cards come in several different sizes. Exact sizes vary depending on compression rates and quality, but on average, you will need about 5MB for every 1 minute of video. Before you can use a brand new Memory Stick with your PSP, you need to reformat it. If you don’t know how to do this, here’s a quick tutorial on how to format a PSP Memory Stick.

2. Format your Memory Stick on your PSP:

Before you can use a brand new Memory Stick with your PSP, you need to reformat it. If you don’t know how to do this, here’s a quick tutorial on how to format a PSP Memory Stick.

3. Download this test video clip and thumbnail to your computer:

Right + Click (PC, Mac) or Option + Click (Mac) to save each of these two files to your Desktop. Joe Vs. Wade (ZIP file, 32MB)

4. Connect the PSP to your computer:

If you haven’t already, you need to connect the PSP to your computer with the USB cable that it came with and put the PSP into USB mode. Press the HOME button located on the bottom left of your PSP and then scroll left to the SETTINGS column. Scroll down to USB CONNECTION and press X. The Memory Stick inside your PSP will now mount on your computer.

5. Copy the video onto your PSP:

In order to playback video files on your PSP, you must copy them into the proper folder. The correct file path is MP_ROOT > 100MNV01. If you place video files anywhere else on the Memory Stick, they will not playback properly. If the MP_ROOT and 100MNV01 folders don’t already exist on your PSP’s Memory Stick, then you need to make two new folders and name them in ALL CAPS. Just a reminder, the 100MNV01 folder goes inside the MP_ROOT folder. The PSP requires video (M4V) and thumbnail (THM) files must be named starting with M4V and ending with five random numbers ie. M4V12345.

The following two diagrams should help explain where the video files need to go:

MEMSTICK.IND

MP-ROOT

MSTK_PRO.IND

PSP

100MNV01

(videos)

6. Watch the video on your PSP:

Once the video file has finished transferring onto your Memory Stick, you can disconnect the PSP from your computer. Scroll over to the VIDEO column on your Sony PSP and you should now see the video file. Press X to watch it. Enjoy!