http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/08/19/139235/PS3-Hacked-via-USB-Dongle
can't believe i didn't hear about this elsewhere than slowdot, but it's official - the first modchip works, and it includes online play.
i never updated my ps3 to the new non-extra-OS firmware (and, in turn, have never used PSN for multiplayer) because of my issues with sony taking away purchased features over the length of a console's lifetime. will i get this? probably not, particularly since blu-ray burners are so expensive, and there aren't any PS3 games i want to play that i don't already own.
this is it, though. the unbreakable console (which was, apparently, unbroken because no one wanted to bother with it and because it was too expensive to burn games, similar to the gamecube) has been broken. considering all the cash sony dumped into the blu-ray drive and the draconian copy protection included in it, i wonder what they're thinking now?
heck, i wonder if this would have happened if sony hadn't removed the Other OS option to begin with.
edit: fwiw, you'll need to go to the index of the link proved through slashdot, since psx-scene is getting absolutely hammered with pageviews (up by about 2000% from yesterday alone).