Microsoft Offers Free Phone to PlayStation 3 Hacker

[Shawn Zipay]

How crazy is this story? Microsoft is offering George "Geohot" Hotz with a free Windows Phone 7 device to "let dev creativity flourish."

Hotz, as you may have recently heard, is the hacker who found a way to reinstate the "OtherOS" functionality on PlayStation 3 consoles after Sony removed it in an update. More recently, Hotz has again come under fire for cracking the keys needed to break the PS3's security codes. In effect, opening the doors wide open for homebrew releases, trophy hacks, and much more. Sony has even started to take Hotz to court over the latest of his exploits.

However, when Hotz mentioned on his blog that he was thinking of picking up a WP7 device, a staff member at Microsoft offered to give him one for free.

#geohot if you want to build cool stuff on #wp7, send me email and the team will give you a phone - let dev creativity flourish #wp7dev

What are your thoughts on this move from Microsoft? A showing of good faith towards Hotz in hopes he can find exploits in their software in order to make it more secure in the long run, or maybe just a bit of a jab against Sony? Eh, either way, quite the interesting tale.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Microsoft Offers Free Phone to PlayStation 3 Hacker

Huh, strange how they are "creative" when they help ruin the competition. Such hypocracy. Thats why the hacking laws never get enforced.

I hope he hacks the phone and that allows worms to spread to wp7 devices.

Crunch

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: Microsoft Offers Free Phone to PlayStation 3 Hacker

Huh, strange how they are "creative" when they help ruin the competition. Such hypocracy. Thats why the hacking laws never get enforced.

I hope he hacks the phone and that allows worms to spread to wp7 devices.

Crunch

Actually, MS did the same thing for the guy that jailbroke Windows Phone 7 first. They gave him some swag, a free WP7, and the go ahead to keep on doing what he's doing so that they can identify security flaws faster.

So it's not just for those attacking the competition, MS is an equal opportunity ... somethingorother.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Microsoft Offers Free Phone to PlayStation 3 Hacker

Yes, they also put the bounty in the head of the Melissa worm as well as other virus/hacker writers. Worked with the FBI as well. Now its a "Cant beat em, join em, while the OSes they make are full of holes.

Of course, maybe its desktop OSes they "care" about.

Crunch