Yeah, neither is good for PS3 owners, that's not in question here, but there is a big difference between being bricked and not.
From wikipedia:
"In one common sense of the term, "bricking" suggests that the damage, often a misconfiguration of essential on-board software, is so serious as to have rendered the device _permanently_ unusable."
There is, usually, no such thing as _permanently_ unusable. 99% of the time a bricked device can be recovered by reflashing a working FW through JTAG or equivalent. This needs a piece of equipment to do so, but so does online or USB flashing...
Comments
Yeah, neither is good for PS3 owners, that's not in question here, but there is a big difference between being bricked and not.
From wikipedia: "In one common sense of the term, "bricking" suggests that the damage, often a misconfiguration of essential on-board software, is so serious as to have rendered the device _permanently_ unusable."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_(electronics)
By that definition, and you being picky, we can safely assume than nothing can brick any device.
What? Your CPU burnt during the last upgrade? Not bricked! You just need to go through the simple procedure of soldering a new CPU!
There is, usually, no such thing as _permanently_ unusable. 99% of the time a bricked device can be recovered by reflashing a working FW through JTAG or equivalent. This needs a piece of equipment to do so, but so does online or USB flashing...