Yeah, I had actually looked in to getting an NS a month or so back, and then realized I needed a pre-dated console to be able to hack, so I dropped out of the race(so to speak). LOL
So while the NS has been opened, "N" fixed the hardware issue that allows for it, and you need to buy a system the is before the hardware revision, otherwise your SOL. They have online SN checkers, so if you have access to a potential early unit, you can use those to see if your good to go or not.
In a worse case, I can always just buy my son a new unit, and transfer his stuff over, and then I could take his launch unit, and use that, but at this point, it's no rush either way. Of course I'm waiting on the Mini, to see if that form factor is better for me, but a hacked unit, is still a hacked unit. More than likely I'll end up waiting for a few years down the road, before I consider the alternatives, as I'm just not that in to the NS currently.
Chris