The blueprints were released on DefCad.org by The Liberator creator Cody Wilson. A short while after the download went live, a red banner appeared at the top of the website announcing that the United States government “claims control of the information,” and as such had been pulled. The image above is now shown where the download used to be, giving the appearance of a swift and complete removal.

For all of its grand talk and rapid response, however, the Defense Department’s actions were a case of “too little, too late.” The blueprints had already been downloaded tens of thousands of times, residing on thousands of hard drives likely located in multiple countries. Such a wide dissemination of information is like a large stone being pushed down a steep hill – trying to stop is not only near impossible, but also likely to cause more harm in the long run. The censorship of the information served only to bring the downloads to the public eye, prompting some who disagreed with the government’s decision to counter its block by releasing the information on BitTorrent and The Pirate Bay.

A quick look at The Pirate Bay shows a copy of the blueprints being distributed by thousands of seeders and acquired by hundreds of leechers, with the same kind of numbers appearing on other torrent websites that were looked at. Some of those downloading have expressed intention to upload it elsewhere, increasing both the number of places from which it is available and the number of individuals who come to harbor the information. The government will go after some of the locations where the file is hosted, but cannot do so beyond its jurisdiction.

According to BetaBeat, the firearm’s designer Cody Wilson said on the matter: “I still think we win in the end. Because the files are all over the Internet, the Pirate Bay has it – to think this can be stopped in any meaningful way is to misunderstand what the future of distributive technologies is about.”

Essentially, a Bundle consists of a couple of free pieces of content, whether it’d be a song, video, trailer, etc. However, in order to unlock more content within the Bundle, you have to pay (or at least submit an email address) for the bonuses to unlock. This could be a full-length album or a full movie where the trailer is the free part.

BitTorrent Bundle is in its alpha stages, so its way off from being a final product, but you can already try it out for yourself with the first Bundle being released today from BitTorrent, which is a promo for “Kaskade’s Freaks of Nature” DVD. In this case, the Bundle consists of a free song and trailer for the DVD, but if you submit your email address, it’ll unlock some sweet concert footage and “an exclusive digital tour booklet.”

Hopefully this move will make content creators less scared of BitTorrent and more willing to take advantage of the torrenting community. Plus, a method like this could cut down on piracy, as BitTorrent is actively seeking ways to come up with legal alternatives to prevent more people from illegally downloading content, and Bundles could be their saving grace.

BitTorrent says that two of Sarandos’ statements are not true, the first being that the BitTorrent application is a synonym for internet piracy, and the second being that BitTorrent traffic drops when Netflix arrives in new markets around the world. BitTorrent says that neither of these statements is true.

BitTorrent says that it’s an excusable mistake to connect internet piracy with BitTorrent, but the company claims that it’s addressing the public’s concern with piracy. However, BitTorrent says that many companies use BitTorrent to “preserve terabytes of data,” including Facebook, Twitter, Blizzard, Eve Online, genetic researchers, and even CERN.

As for the piracy correlation that Sarandos mentioned, BitTorrent says that they are not competing with Netflix, and Netflix shouldn’t have to compete with BitTorrent. The company says that they are “actually finding ways to support companies like [Netflix], content creators, studios, and other rights-holders directly.” BitTorrent went as far as saying that they’re “getting ready to roll out an Alpha program” that they believe could drive more traffic to movie streaming services.

Sarandos says that there is a correlation between Netflix launching in a certain country and BitTorrent traffic slowing down in that same region. It’s quite easy to see why, as well. Netflix offers unlimited streaming of a large collection of TV shows and movies for only $7.99 per month. Other streaming services, like Spotify and Rdio for music, also offer similar features for a low monthly cost.

Sarandos says that “people are mostly honest,” and a big reason why users illegally download content is because they can’t get it any other way conveniently and cheaply. For instance, you can buy and rent movies and TV shows from a variety of services, but they’re usually caked with DRM, which is a turn-off to any media junkie.

As for Netflix’s commitment to 4K streaming, there isn’t one just yet. Sarandos says that Netflix will wait until 4K evolves into a format where it can be streamed logically, at which point the company may look into it, but for now they’re only keeping their eye on it to see how 4K unfolds over these next few years.

The pirates began testing out the Copyright Alert System shortly after it launched in late February. They proceeded to download many popular files illegally using Bittorrent and The Pirate Bay. They downloaded popular movies, TV shows, music albums, and even uploaded each file back into The Pirate Bay. These pirates made no attempts to mask their IPs and were intending to get caught.

But after quite a while, not a single warning was issued. Granted, these pirates were all using Verizon as their ISP, so we don’t really know just how efficient AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, or Cablevision’s system is. The pirates intentionally went after torrents that have been proven to trigger CAS alerts in countries like France and New Zealand, but apparently in the United States, they aren’t so heavily tracked.

The study lasted 3 weeks long, with the pirates downloading popular files and seeding them every day. But no warning was ever issued. A Verizon executive defended the company’s position, saying that despite the study performed by these pirates, they have been issuing copyright warnings frequently. While we know that Verizon’s Copyright Alert System needs a bit more tuning, we still don’t know yet how efficient the other ISPs are.

[via Daily Dot]

According to TorrentFreak, The Pirate Bay is back on top, mostly thanks to the demise of several popular one-click download sites (a.k.a. cyberlockers), like Megaupload. A little less than two years ago, the piracy landscape was vastly different at the time, with bittorrent straggling behind one-click download sites. The Pirate Bay was ranked sixth back then.

The last couple of years has seen major changes in the file-sharing landscape, with big changes in the rankings. Along with The Pirate Bay jumping six spots up to first, Mediafire comes in second after finishing fourth two years ago. 4shared, which had the top spot back then, is now sitting in fourth place. Torrentz.eu is now up to sixth, up from ninth place in 2011.

Furthermore, six file-sharing sites made the top ten this year that weren’t in the top ten back in 2011. These sites include Kickass Torrents, Uploaded, isoHunt, PutLocker, ExtraTorrent, and Rapidgator. Of course, this list only consists of public trackers and cyberlockers. Private trackers have gained in popularity significantly over the past couple of years, so many users may have switched by now.

[via TorrentFreak]

The Pirate Bay’s announcement about moving their servers to North Korea existed right up on their homepage’s front page. From there they showed a lovely North Korean set of sails on their own branded pirate ship, proceeding to tell the world that North Korea – of all places – invited them to host their servers and become a new beacon of freedom. But it was not to be.

Down on The Pirate Bay’s Facebook page, the team has shown the world that they’re “in it for the lulz”. Speaking for TPB, users Winona, Winnie, and Winston Bay have spoken up about how creating a ruse such as the one they’ve executed this week proves that they “don’t run TPB to make money.” They also call out the RIAA (cleverly re-named MAFIAA in the statement) for being a “profit hungry idiot”.

“We’ve hopefully made clear (once again) that we don’t run TPB to make money. A profit hungry idiot (points at MAFIAA with a retractable baton) doesn’t tell the world that they have partnered with the most hated dictatorship in the world. We can play that stunt though, cause we’re still only in it for the f***** lulz and it doesn’t matter to us if thousands of users disband the ship.” – TPB

Of course the fun didn’t end there, the team continuing by calling out none other than the readers and the users – all of us, that is – for not calling them out when they announced such an absurd notion as moving to North Korea.

“We’ve also learned that many of you need to be more critical. Even towards us. You can’t seriously cheer the “fact” that we moved our servers to bloody North Korea. Applauds to you who told us to f*** off. Always stay critical. Towards everyone!” – TPB

So that pins it, in the end. We now live in a world where we cannot trust any company to speak the truth about their own organization – or it may just be that we’re not going to be able to read anything the team at The Pirate Bay publish from this point forward without a large grain of salt. That sounds reasonable – as does remembering that anyone could make a mistake in this fast-paced online publishing world of ours.

How do you feel about the situation?

UPDATE: Courtesy of The Pirate Bay itself, this news announcement was a complete hoax. Have a peek at the real story in our March 5th report.

It turns out that The Pirate Bay was actually in talks with North Korea for a little while. An insider from TPB stated, “We’ve been in talks with them for about two weeks, since they opened access for foreigners to use 3G in the country.” While TPB isn’t exactly situating itself in North Korea, it will be using North Korea’s network to provide its services to the rest of the world.

This comes only a few days after Norway was forced to let go of The Pirate Bay. The pirate party in Norway began receiving threats from local anti-piracy groups to shut down its services, similar to what Sweden’s Pirate Party had to face. By being offered virtual asylum by North Korea, it will be very interesting to see what anti-piracy groups will due in attempt to shut down the site again.

The Pirate Bay, and many others, believe that this is a truly ironic, seeing as the United States is known as a place of freedom and North Korea is known as the opposite. TPB hopes that it will bond with North Korea, and maybe someday convince the government to allow its people to utilizes its full services. This is an interesting turn of events, and we’d love to see how this new relationship will turn out for The Pirate Bay.

[via Torrent Freak]

The Swedish Pirate Party reluctantly let go of The Pirate Bay because the legal battles would be too damaging on the party’s limited resources. But of course, The Pirate Bay isn’t one to go down so easily. The Pirate Bay is now being serviced by two new pirate parties located in Norway and Catalonia. Anna Troberg, the leader of the Swedish Pirate Party, stated, “It is wonderful to be able to pass on the baton to two sister parties. It is testament to the pirate movement’s maturity and strength.”

The pirate parties in both Norway and Catalonia will join together and form what will now be called “The Hydra Bay”. The Pirate Bay, however, stated that this isn’t a permanent move on their part, but more of a vacation, and that there will be major “under-the-hood” changes to the site coming soon. The Pirate Bay stated in a Facebook post, “Let’s just say that it will change a lot of things for a lot of people. When the bomb goes off, remember that we did it with love in our hearts and with hope of humanity. We believe we can change the world by doing this.”

Despite all of the legal threats against The Pirate Bay, it still has the support of many pirates all around the world. Troberg stated that The Pirate Party will be holding a board meeting in a few days, where she will recommend that the board “file a police report against the Rights Alliance for unlawful coercion.” She continued with, “It is important to determine precisely how forgiving the system is to those who try to abuse the judicial system to silence others.”

[via Torrent Freak]

This has a number of benefits, as it means you won’t be subject to size restrictions like you are with other services. One of the major headaches with services like Dropbox and SkyDrive is that you’re limited in how much you can have in your synced folders – for Dropbox, for instance, you get 2GB of free space, and that runs out quick when you’re trying to sync multiple video files at once. Once you’ve hit that cap, you’ll need to shell out some cash if you want more space.

That’s not a major complaint, as these are companies that exist to make money after all. BitTorrent’s Sync, on the other hand, is free to use. You won’t have to worry about limits on the amount you can transfer from one device to another, which probably sounds like a Godsend to those who constantly have to rely on cloud services to move files between devices.

As cool as it sounds, there’s one slight problem: BitTorrent Sync isn’t available to use just yet (unless you love pre-alpha testing). It’s currently in the testing stages, but it shouldn’t be more than a few months before Sync is available to BitTorrent users. What do you think of this new cloud service from the people behind BitTorrent?

[via NBC News]

During the New York Chapter of the Internet Society panel discussion, both Verizon and Time Warner discussed their plans for dealing with piracy. Verizon customers will receive an email notification when their account is flagged for copyright-violating activities. A total of two alerts will be issued.

Upon receiving a third flag, a popup will appear that forces the subscriber to read a notice and confirm that they acknowledge the copyright infringement. If the illegal activity continues, a punishment will be enacted for the 5th and 6th flags. The user’s Internet speeds will be severely throttled for a period of two or three days, at which point it will return to normal.

As for Time Warner, the company will likewise deliver notifications when the account is flagged for copyright violations. Rather than reduce speeds for repeat offenders, however, the users will be redirected to a landing page. No word was given on whether all Internet activity will be redirected, or only some, and how long the punishment will be in place for. According to CCI, the purpose of these punishments is to educate the public on the issue of piracy.

[via Torrent Freak]

The HTC DROID DNA suffered another leak today, this one saying that it’ll be available at Verizon starting in early December, and we learned that Jelly Bean installs are on the rise, but at a pretty slow rate. A new iPad fourth-gen teardown gives us a look at more of the same, and Apple says that it’s willing to pay Motorola just one dollar per iPhone in patent fees. Smartphone market share in the US has remained more or less the same, and we got a closer look at the iPad fourth-gen’s GPU today.

A new Android vulnerability has been discovered, opening up users to SMS phishing, while one clever do-it-yourselfer has already managed to fit the iPad mini into the dashboard of his car. Apple has lost the right to sell the iPhone in Mexico, and Moshi showed off its new line of iPad mini accessories today. We learned today that we’ve had humans living on the International Space Station for 12 consecutive years, and one unfortunate BitTorrent sharer has been hit with a hefty $1.5 million fine. Verizon told us that its cell sites are improving in areas that have been hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, Overhaul Games actually bumped the release date of Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition up by a couple of days, and the Mars Curiosity rover took a very cool picture of itself.

Finally today, we have a brand new column and two pretty big reviews for you to check out. Chris Burns tells us why we’re in the age of the smartphone ecosystem rather than the age of smartphone specs, while Vincent Nguyen gives us his reviews of the highly-anticipated Samsung Nexus 10 and LG Nexus 4. That does it for tonight ladies and gentlemen, we hope you have a great weekend!

You’ve probably heard the gripe from multiple music labels about how piracy is translating to billions of dollars of lost revenue, citing that the more people who illegally download content, the less likely they are to buy the content. However, the American Assembly, which is a non-partisan public policy forum affiliated with Columbia University, published part of its upcoming Copy Culture Survey that sheds a little light on this “issue.”

The study focuses on the digital music collections of different users and how they obtained the music in their collection. The study found that not only do file sharers have larger music collections compared to others (predictably so), but file sharers also buy more music legally than those who don’t illegally download.

The explanation for this isn’t too tricky. A lot of file sharers use Bittorrent and P2P services as a way to sample music first and then decide if they want to buy a certain song or album. It’s a pretty solid system, and the study even says a lot of the music that users get for free simply come from friends through physical media as well — such as borrowing a CD and ripping the files to your computer.

[via TorrentFreak]

Once Svartholm touched down at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport in Sweden, local authorities immediately detained him due to a suspicion of him being involved in the hacking of Logica, a Swedish IT company that works with local tax authorities. However, since Svartholm hasn’t yet been charged officially in the Logica case, he could only be held in jail for a few days.

Then again, Svartholm will be stuck in jail for at least two more weeks, thanks to request put in by Prosecuter Henry Olin, who insists that Svartholm remain detained while the investigation into the Logica hack continues. To prevent the Pirate Bay co-founder from interfering with the investigation, Svartholm is not allowed to have visitors and is being denied access to newspapers and television.

Two other Swedish citizens were also arrested and put in jail under suspicion of being involved in the Logica hack as well. One of the suspects was a member of the group that founded The Pirate Bay back in 2003. Both suspects have since been released. Svartholm denies any involvement with the Logica hack.

In related news, The Pirate Bay website seems to be down. Whether or not this is a permanent shut down is still to be known.

[via TorrentFreak]

BitTorrent Inc took to the uTorrent forums yesterday to make the quiet announcement, indicating that adverts will be added to the client in a coming update within the next few weeks. Specifically, the company will offer featured torrents at the top of the torrent list, allowing artists and studios to promote their content to a huge number of users: around 125 million, according to TorrentFreak

The adverts will have several tiers. The first will promote any new features or services from BitTorrent Inc. The second will come from “offer partners,” which might include security products or privacy services, while the third will advertise independent artists. Anyone using the updated version of uTorrent won’t be able to turn offers off, however, instead only being able to skip any unwanted ads.

BitTorrent Inc says that the change won’t affect users privacy, but offers will be targeting based on IP address locations. As always, the company is trying to find a balance between offering free software and generating a healthy income, although TorrentFreak has been informed by a source that current revenue falls between $15 and $20 million, with the company “backed by millions in venture capital.”

“Investigators have copied all the information from the servers Demonoid and sealed them,” an anonymous ColoCall source tells Ukrainian newspaper Kommersant “Some equipment was not seized, but now it does not work, and we were forced to terminate the agreement with the site.” The source said that Demonoid’s owners – who remain unnamed and are thought to be operating out of Mexico – had backups stored with ColoCall, but the fact that they haven’t used any of them yet suggests that Demonoid has been closed for good.

This raid on Demonoid’s servers coincides with a US visit by Deputy Prime Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky. In his first visit to the United States, Khoroshkovsky apparently discussed copyright infringement (among other topics), though USTR spokesperson Carol Guthrie tells Ars Technica that Demonoid wasn’t specifically mentioned during the meeting. Regardless of whether or not it was, the Ukrainian government seems happy to stand by the US as it attempts to bring file sharing sites down.

Demonoid did what it could to avoid prosecution in the Ukraine by denying access to anyone with a Ukrainian IP address, but that doesn’t seem like it was enough. It’s unclear if Demonoid will return eventually, but we have a feeling it will end up much like MegaUpload. To put it simply, don’t expect Demonoid to be up and running again anytime soon, if ever. Stay tuned, because this definitely isn’t the last we’ll hear of governments taking down file sharing sites.

You’ll find both real and fake versions of the final version of Windows 8 out on torrent and other sharing sites this evening. What you wont find is any certification or assurance from Microsoft that what you’re grabbing from the web is anything that’s not going to contain a virus. You’re certainly not going to find a download out there that Microsoft wants you to have right this moment as they’ve only pushed the software to hardware manufacturers right this minute.

Microsoft will not be comment on this situation as there’s really nothing to say. There’s always the warning that bootleg copies of their hero software are not the most fabulous things to be dealing with, of course. But what explanation can Microsoft give for this sort of incident? Maybe something like, “those responsible for the leak have been found, and will certainly be sacked.”

But here’s what we’ve got to take home from this situation: the actual final release of the software is coming on October 26th for the general public – that’s you. You can wait for that date, or you can grab yourself a new machine packed full of Windows 8 when OEMs ship out their new line of machines inside the next few months.

Have a peek at the timeline below for additional bits on how Windows 8 will be coming to your fingertips soon as well. And make the right decision: don’t steal it.

The web pages are compressed on Opera servers so there’s less to download and apparently, Opera didn’t block its own servers from accessing The Pirate Bay, so if you’re blocked just enable Turbo mode and you can access the site. Interestingly, even though web users in Europe and other countries are being blocked from The Pirate Bay, BitTorrent use has stayed the same and may even be increasing.

Companies looking to fight piracy such as RIAA and others have successfully blocked access to The Pirate Bay in the UK, Netherlands, and several other countries. What may surprise those against piracy is that one of Europe’s largest ISPs XS4AII published a graph that shows traffic associated with the BitTorrent protocol has changed little between January and June of 2012.

The drones were designed to fly together in formation while broadcasting a WiFi network, enabling users to upload and share files, then disperse when needed to avoid detection or capture. The creators say:

The public can upload files, photos and share data with one another as the drones float above the significant public spaces of the city. The swarm becomes a pirate broadcast network, a mobile infrastructure that passers-by can interact with.

The cost of the drones isn’t cheap, though. Each one costs around €1,500 (~$1,985) to build. The drones consist of a 10mm by 10mm aluminium frame which holds the GPS system and wireless modules. They achieve flight thanks to four Roxxy Brushless Motors, and everything is powered by two 2,200mAh batteries.

Right now the group hope to improve the drones, add more to the flock, and increase the range of the wireless signal. Automated battery charge bases are also on the horizon – the drones need power to stay airborne, after all.

“With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we’re going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war” The Pirate Bay

The drones are dubbed Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) and The Pirate Bay suggests a cheap transmitter can provide up to 100Mbps, per node, over a 50km distance. That, the site argues, is “more than enough” for the proxy system it has in mind.

To be frank, it reads more like science fiction than something you’d expect from a torrent site, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t actually work. Issues like power and remote control would need to be addressed – perhaps using solar or wind energy – and then there’s the potential for lawsuits should a drone accidentally drift into flight lanes.

The Pirate Bay has come under increasing legal attention over the past few years, with a court case finding the site’s founders guilty of enabling piracy of copyrighted content. In response, the site has shifted from hosting torrent files to instead offering so-called magnetic links to externally hosted files, a move which allows for a 90MB download of the entire site’s catalog.

[via TechDirt and via TorrentFreak]

The 28-page report comes from Brett Danaher, Department of Economics at Wellesley College, and Joel Waldfogel, Department of Economics at University of Minnesota and National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Carlson School of Management, Twin Cities. These two fellows have published the paper Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales, 28 pages of research concluding in the idea that for this sect of the piracy universe, right here with Torrents specifically, the following is true:

Our findings indicate that, as a lower bound, international box office returns in our sample were at least 7% lower than they would have been in the absence of pre-release piracy. By contrast, we do not see evidence of elevated sales displacement in US box office revenue following the adoption of BitTorrent, and we suggest that delayed legal availability of the content abroad may drive the losses to piracy.

Torrents are a popular way for download files using the hosting power of multiple servers rather than just one – its rise to popularity also saw a massive new following of pirates across the earth just a few short years ago. The recent Megaupload shutdown was tied to Torrents only in the idea that they both had the potential for piracy. Instead the most popular Torrent-based website you may have heard of is the Pirate Bay, recently noted for their 3D modeling downloads and their newfound ability to have users download their whole site in a small file.

So as always, it’s up to you to decide what’s best for the film industry. The war rages on, and we’ll continue to let you know the biggest bits in the battles as they occur!

Rather than actually hosting files, as was the case with MegaUpload, btjunkie crawled the web looking for torrents. Private and public file-sharing sites were indexed, btjunkie serving up possible download links for peer-hosted content and fleshing them out with user-reviews to weed out bad or corrupted downloads.

“This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on. It’s been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!” btjunkie

Although they only point to download links, rather than host files themselves, torrent indexers like btjunkie have grown increasingly contentious as the film and music industries attempt to clamp down on methods of acquiring copyrighted content. News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch even described Google as the “piracy leader” after discovering how easily possible download links for Sony-produced movies were to discover using the search engine.

btjunkie has not given any public reason as to why it chose now to shut down. With renewed attention on piracy amid the MegaUpload trial, though, it’s unlikely to be the last site to consider downtime rather than face investigation.

That is now changing with Pirate Bay eliminating the torrent file hosting directly and moving to what is called a magnetic link. The magnetic link is now the default method of download and according to an insider at Pirate Bay “in a month or so” there will be no more hosted torrent files on the site. TorrentFreak says that moving to magnetic links means that very little will change for the end user at Pirate Bay.

The crux of the change may be the fact that with some countries forcing ISPs to block access to Pirate Bay, the change to magnetic links means that copies of Pirate Bay can be hosted from a flash drive. That would mean that fans of the site could access it even if it’s not available directly online. It could take longer for the torrent downloads to start using magnetic links and apparently, most modern BitTorrent clients support magnetic links already.

[via TorrentFreak]

“Unlimited” is a word anyone likes to hear. Unlimited ice cream is to sweet lovers what unlimited sharing is to peer-to-peer users, and Share offers just that. Share allows subscribers to share files with an unlimited number of personal contacts. Unlike other services, Share has no file size restraints or cost. With no monthly or yearly subscriptions required, Share is one step ahead of its competition.

BitTorrent will be relying on Amazon’s EC2 and S3 services to allow for this unique file sharing experience. Files are cached on the cloud so users don’t have to be online at the same time to complete transfers. Once a file is successfully received by all recipients, it will be removed from the cloud. Share is currently available in an alpha stage of development and only for Windows users. Mac users will be able to test the service in an alpha release of µTorrent.

[via Gigaom]

While there is no silver bullet for infringement online, this measure is one of several that we have implemented to curb copyright infringement online,” Google manager of global communications and public affairs Mistique Cano previously said to TorrentFreak. She also detailed that “this is something we looked at and thought we could make some narrow and relatively easy changes to our Autocomplete algorithm that could make a positive difference”.

isoHunt owner Gary Fung said told the blog in an interview, “It’s a lot more subtle than the censorship attempts made possible by the pending PROTECT IP and SOPA bills, but it’s still censorship and it starts small. Google is increasingly becoming a self-righteous Big Brother of the Web. So much for ‘Do no evil’”.

The searches “thepiratebay,” “the pirate bay,” “isohunt,” “torrentreactor,” “btjunkie,” “kickasstorrents,” “sumotorrent,” “btmon,” “extratorrent” and many others are now excluded from ‘Autocomplete‘ and ‘Instant‘, as well as “4shared,” “filesonic” and “fileserve.” We’ll see what Google’ll do in the future. And, by the way, this is from a company who’s motto is ‘Don’t be evil’. Just in case you didn’t know.

[via TorrentFreak]

After several tests and numerous user reports, TorrentFreak discovered that Comcast subscribers from across the United States were unable to connect to The Pirate Bay. The traceroute was going to the right place, thepiratebay.piratpartiet.se, but the website would not appear. Further tests showed that the block is not DNS related. The Pirate Bay has now confirmed that one web server was down, but has now been fixed. Still, only certain users were unable to access the site. The Pirate Bay is investigating, and trying to fix the issue from their end if possible.

Comcast’s Executive Director Internet Systems Engineering, Jason Livingood, stated: “Please note that we do not block websites and we are NOT blocking The Pirate Bay.” It is strange, though, that only Comcast users were having problems accessing the site. Comcast does have a reputation of blocking BitTorrent in the past. In 2007, Comcast was found to be actively blocking BitTorrent traffic, which they later admitted to doing. This action by Comcast has fueled the Net Neutrality debate, and resulted in an investigation by the FCC and several lawsuits.

Are you a Comcast user who also uses The Pirate Bay? Have you had any problems? Let us know in the comments!

[via TorrentFreak]

“The core problem are the random NodeIDs. The address hashing and verification scheme works for scenarios like the old Internet, but becomes almost useless in the big address space of IPv6″ ‘Astro’

DHT – or distributed hash tables – are used in BitTorrent downloads to avoid a central tracker and instead use peer-sourcing to identify other users sharing files. By establishing a malicious hash table, the torrent downloaders could be unwittingly directed at a specific server; large swarms of simultaneous users could potentially overwhelm the site.

[via TorrentFreak]

The report comes from BitTorrent news site TorrentFreak, which has been watching over the numbers. Call of Duty: Black Ops managed to beat out heavy contenders like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Mafia II, and Mass Effect 2. All of which were available for the PC. Black Ops reached a staggering 4.2 million downloads, while the closest competitor (Bad Company 2) was downloaded 3.96 million times.

The numbers aren’t as high for the Microsoft Xbox 360 version, but they’re still high. Treyarch’s title was downloaded a total of 930,000 times for the 360. However, it wasn’t the most downloaded title, as Dante’s Inferno managed to grab the crown this year. This isn’t good news for Treyarch or Activision, but something they probably expected.

[via Kotaku]

While all three were originally sentenced to a year in prison, those terms have been slashed. Neij will spend the longest inside, at ten months, Sunde at eight months, and Lundström the least, at four months. Fourth co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg will see his appeal held at a later date, as he was ill during the court sessions.

According to Ludvig Werner, chair of the Swedish arm of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the appeal court decision is “an extremely clear signal”. However, the damages awarded still fell well short of the 120 million kronor ($17.1m) the entertainment industry were initially seeking.

Russo claims not to have carried out the hack out of spite or with commercial gain in mind, but we’re guessing the RIAA and others will be looking on with great interest.  Still, in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity, Russo said he has no intention of handing it over: “Probably these groups would be very interested in this information, but we are not [trying] to sell it … Instead we wanted to tell people that their information may not be so well protected.”

[flv]http://insilence.biz/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/TPB_volI_mini.flv[/flv]

[via Downloadsquad - thanks Samuel!]

The CinemaGo is, for all intents and purposes, just a re-imagining of the CinemaTube of last year. You still get the eSATA interface, USB 2.0, built-in WiFi, and a BitTorrent manager. On top of all that, you also get access to MUZEE Internet radio channels as well. Additionally, the box is also able to handle 1080p output, and it’s perfectly capable of supporting formats like MOV, WMV, and MKV, amongst a whole plethora of others.

As for storage, you can choose to either put media onto the box thanks to an attached hard drive, or if you’re into that whole futuristic wireless thing, you can utilize your home network, or a general Web-based connection. As for pricing, you’ll be looking at spending $149.99 when the CinemaGo releases later this year. Oh, but wait. If you pre-order now, you can circumvent that price, and actually get it for only $109.99. So, this may be the best time to pre-order.

Press Release:

brite-View CinemaGo with Internet Radio Debuts

The Perfect Compact Player, CinemaGo Offers Personalized Entertainment at Home or on the Go

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 30 /PRNewswire/ — brite-View by Xpike Innovation yesterday launched the CinemaGo (BV-5005HD Mini CG), a special version of the highly successful CinemaTube (BV-5005HD). The small, sleek CinemaGo’s eSATA interface data transfer speed is three times faster than a USB 2.0 interface. CinemaGo also includes a Wi-Fi adapter for easy network access, a torrent download feature and MUZEE internet radio channels.

CinemaGo’s vivid 1080p high-definition picture quality can be displayed on HDTV in all video formats, including MOV, WMV, MKV, AVI, VOB, DIVX, FLV and RMVB. Content can be delivered from a locally attached hard drive via the home network or the internet. MUZEE broadcasts thousands of sports, music, news and talk show channels from 210 countries. San Francisco Giants fans can listen to KNBR in a Miami hotel room, and music fans can groove to the latest European dance hits on Digitally Imported.

The CinemaGo’s compact design is perfect for enjoying personalized entertainment whether at home or on the go, even in the car. The eSATA interface, a feature requested by brite-View customers, lets users watch Blu-ray movies without waiting for the movies to load. Networking multiple CinemaGo devices enables content streaming and file transfer between attached hard drives.

“A good digital media player transforms your TV into an entertainment hub, showing content from your computer, a storage device or the network,” said Robert Lo, CEO of Xpike Innovation. “The CinemaGo does exactly that, with the potential to do much more.” Lo said talks with partners are ongoing, and hinted that firmware upgrades may bring even more web-based content and services to the CinemaGo.

The CinemaGo is available now for pre-order on brite-View’s website for $109.99.

About Xpike Innovation, Inc.®

Xpike Innovation, Inc. designs and manufactures consumer electronics that spice up your living room without breaking the bank. Xpike Innovation is a leading provider of home networking applications, online media access and digital home solutions, including full-HD media players/streamers featuring torrent download, powerline Ethernet adapters and 1080p HD wireless transmission kits. Backed by nearly 30 years of electronics industry experience, Xpike Innovation products provide rich Internet-based multi-media user experiences for consumers to enjoy with their HDTVs.

brite-View™ is a brand owned by Xpike Innovation, Inc.

That drive can be used for local playback, standalone Torrent downloading or time-shifting, though since there’s no onboard tuner you’ll need to hook the ULTIO Pro up to a cable or satellite box.  Ports include ethernet, two USB host, one USB 2.0, a multi-format memory card slot, HDMI, component, composite and coaxial digital audio, and there’s an IR remote.

DLNA network streaming, optional WiFi 802.11n support and UPnP round out the main network features, and of course there are photo and music player apps as well as video.  The MvixUSA ULTIO Pro Home Theater Media Player will begin shipping in the first week of February 2010, priced at around $169.

Press Release:

MvixUSA Launches ULTIO Pro, the 1080p Home Theater Media Player with PVR (Personal Video Recording)

Chantilly, VA. January 27, 2010: Mvix(USA), Inc., a market leader in market leader in technology and products for high-definition entertainment, business signage solutions and networked accessible storage devices, announces the worldwide launch of the Mvix Ultio Pro, a Hard-Disk Based media center capable of HD digital media playback with video output as high as 1080p and personal video recording capability.

Ultio Pro’s high-end video processing not only plays Blu-Ray quality video, it allows to store entire Hi-Definition media on its internal hard drive, plug it into a TV via a HDMI and enjoy movies, digital music and family photos on large LCD or Plasma. The flexibility and scalability of Ultio makes it the easy to play HD movies or home videos. Ultio supports most 1080p HD video codecs, and formats such as H.264, MKV, Dixv HD, MOV, VC-1, FLV, etc. Ultio Pro is completely scalable – one can choose upto 2TB of media storage in its internal hard disk. Ultio Pro comes with an embedded Torrent client combined with NAS (Network – Access-Servers) features that provides an ideal setup for digital media acquisition, storage and sharing.

Combined with spectacular picture quality of HD video and crystal clear sound clarity of digital audio, the Ultio Pro enables analog recording of TV shows from the Cable or Satellite, or family videos from a Camcorder. It provides an ideal setup archiving old VCR tapes and DVDs to digital media files. Ultio Pro even supports time-shift and scheduled recording functionalities – making Live TV playback a snap.

Mvix Ultio Pro is being launched worldwide in 2 flavors: the regular version (without a HDD) is priced at $169, whereas the premium version (bundled with 2TB Hard Drive) will be available at $348. Pre-Orders start immediately.

Speaking on the occasion, Mike Mallon, VP of Business Development at Mvix, commented “Mvix Ultio Pro is the amalgamation of high definition media playback and recording. We’ve been working on the personal video recording (PVR) technology for some time and we’re happy to combine HD media playback and recording in a single device that should serve as the ultimate solution for home entertainments and business videos. Our aggressive pricing structure with a comprehensive set of features is likely to set highest standards in high definition entertainment.”

Ultio is also internet-ready and pre-equipped with a network port and an optional Wireless-N capability. It sports a samba server and a UPnP implementation, allowing seamless integration with services like PlayOn® or Tversity® (for streaming video content from Netflix®, Hulu®, CBS®, Youtube®, CNN®, ESPN® and much more). Wireless-N accessories for Ultio Pro will also be launched simultaneously.

Mike further added, “We are excited to launch this new product in the new year. This is our most comprehensive product to-date and we feel very confident about its market traction. In reality this new model is built by our valued customers – each feature on this device is an outcome of customer feedback on our older models.”

Pre-Orders of Mvix Ultio start immediately and shipping is planned for first week of February. Mvix Ultio Pro will be available at popular retail locations such as Amazon.com, Buy.com, Thinkgeek.com, B&H Photo Video.com or directly from Mvix’s Online store.

For more information, please visit http://mvixusa.com/product/ultiopro

Similarly frustrating is the 2.5-inch drive bay, rather than a 3.5-inch.  That makes it useful for dropping in an SSD, certainly, but we can’t imagine many users will pair the NAS25HDU2 with a big chunk of solid-state storage.

FTP, UPnP, Samba, printer sharing and all in something around the size of a VHS tape are all going in the right direction, but unless you have very basic needs (and a 2.5-inch drive you simply must use again) we’d look to a more capable (at least gigabit ethernet friendly) option.  The Addonics NAS25HDU2 is available now, priced at $69.

[via Gizmodo]

The new StorCenter is generally similar to the old model, a compact box with two 3.5-inch SATA-II hard-drives, but the design is far slicker and more suited to home use. Where the ix2 had no front-mounted ports, the ix2-200 gets a USB port, quick-transfer button (that automatically sucks the contents of a drive hooked up to that USB port onto the internal storage) and useful indicator lights. Round the back there are a further two USB 2.0 ports – which can be used to plug in further hard-drives, printers for network sharing, or Iomega’s optional Bluetooth dongle for wireless transfers from cellphones and the like – and a gigabit ethernet port, along with the power input and a Kensington lock slot. You can also see the two drive bays, now user-accessible.

One of our key criticisms about the original ix2 was that, should a drive fail – and you can set up S.M.A.R.T. drive alerts which will email you should that be predicted imminent – you needed to send the whole NAS to Iomega in order for them to switch to a replacement drive. Attempting to replace it yourself, or upgrade the stock drives for faster or larger versions, voided the NAS warranty.

The ix2-200, however, makes replacing the drives yourself more straightforward. Two screws (on the underside of the NAS) hold each in place, and once removed the caddies pull straight out. There’s no support for hot-swapping, unfortunately, but the ix2-200 will automatically rebuild the standard RAID-1 array; more concerning, though, is the fact that Iomega insist you use their own replacement drives rather than any generic SATA-II 3.5-inch hard-drive. Not doing so will void the ix2-200′s three-year warranty, and we’re disappointed that Iomega seemingly bury this tidbit in the user manual rather than making it clear on their product pages (which only say that the drives are user-replaceable).

Setup is reasonably easy, especially if you’re content with the default settings (which most home users should be). A single network connection and power connection gets the ix2-200 running, while a setup CD loaded in one of the networked computers locates the NAS and opens up the webserver-based UI. While you’d think this would be a reasonably speedy process, it took longer than you’d expect for the Iomega Solutions CD to grab the ix2-200′s IP address; however, subsequent tweaks to the settings are easily done by punching in that IP directly, rather than reaching for the setup CD.

The UI is reasonably unchanged from the first-gen model, about which you’ll hear no complaints from us. Seeing as the ix2-200 gets all the ix2′s skills and more, that means you have a choice of UPnP DLNA and iTunes media server functionality, standalone BitTorrent downloads (complete with bandwidth throttling), folder quotas, Remote Access and Active Directory support. Apple users will find the ix2-200 compatible with Time Machine for straightforward integration, while Windows users get EMC Retrospect Express Backup (with unlimited client licenses) to handle automated backups. We’re also glad to see scheduling support, which means you can copy files to and from the StorCenter at preset times to other NAS or USB drives (using rsync or CIFS). Since we’ll be the first to advocate having a regular, offsite backup of your data, scheduling can make doing that all the more straightforward.

New and notable to the ix2-200 is iSCSI support, borrowed from its bigger ix4-200d sibling, and automatic drive power management. The former is unlikely to be much use to most home users, but small offices might find its ready integration with Microsoft Server useful. As for the latter, that’s much more appealing; the ix2-200′s drives automatically spin down when not in use, and the NAS is paired with an Energy Star certified PSU. Iomega have picked a pair of Seagate low-power HDDs, which are reasonably quiet but still louder than the StorCenter’s fan.

There’s plenty of functionality on offer, and certainly, and much of it – like iSCSI – seems of limited use to the sort of home buyers who’ll be drawn in by the ix2-200′s reasonable pricing. The NAS can work with up to five IP webcams, for instance, supporting recording and monitoring without a client PC; useful, but we’d rather Iomega had made Bluetooth support standard and integrated the Bluetooth chip, rather than demanding a separate USB adapter be used.

As for pricing, the new range starts at $269.99 for the 1TB model (which, in standard RAID-1 setup, will offer 500GB of storage), then $269.99 for the 2TB model, and finally $699.99 for the 4TB NAS. Of the three, we’d plump for the 2TB, balancing space versus pricing. Compared to the ix2, the ix2-200 is a significant improvement, not least for the native Time Machine support for OS X users and the power saving functionality. The enterprise functionality may mean relatively little for the StorCenter ix2-200′s target audience, but drive redundancy and the flexibility of print and media servers, backup and cost-efficient pricing make this a successful improvement on the first-gen NAS.

With four ethernet ports the Fonera 2.0n can do the usual wired networking of local PCs, but there’s also a USB 2.0 port for hooking up a printer, hard-drive or webcam (or a USB hub, from which multiple USB devices can be shared across the network).  You can set the Fonera 2.0n to automatically upload photos from a USB drive to Facebook, Flickr or Picasa, as well as set it to download BitTorrent files, MegaUpload files and RapidShare files; there’s also a YouTube uploader.  All of these can be used when your PC or Mac is turned off, via the web-based UI.

Of course, the main point of choosing FON over other routers is that it means other FON users can access your connection, and you theirs, meaning less paying for WiFI hotspots when travelling.  You can even make a little money, as FON members without their own shared hotspots are charged for connecting.  The FON Fonera 2.0n is available in Europe and the US now, priced at €79 and $99 respectively.

Press Release:

FON Releases New Innovative Web Applications WiFi Router

World’s largest WiFi community releases groundbreaking 802.11n WiFi router
that interacts directly with Web 2.0 services

MADRID and SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ — FON today released
its most innovative WiFi router yet, the Fonera 2.0n. Furthermore, it
announced that its international WiFi network, the world’s largest,
surpassed 700,000 hotspots. Besides several new features, Fonera 2.0n
allows users to up and download files to their favorite Web 2.0 services
with their computer turned off. Fonera 2.0n is now available in the EU for
just euro 79 and in the US for just $99.

Fonera 2.0n combines all of FON’s revolutionary WiFi sharing and money
making features with 802.11n wireless technology, delivering faster
connection speeds and more WiFi reach. Most importantly, it has a growing
host of features and applications that make it easy for users to manage Web
2.0 services such as YouTube, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr and RapidShare–even
while users’ laptops are off. Fonera 2.0n can also automatically post
status messages to Twitter, alerting users to when an upload or download
has completed or to when another user has connected to their WiFi signal.

“As demand for WiFi and use of the social web continues to grow, FON
keeps creating WiFi products that give people what they really want,” said
Martin Varsavsky, FON’s CEO. “The Fonera 2.0n is not only a router that
lets you connect to the world’s largest WiFi community for free. It’s a
real social gadget that frees up you and your computer from tedious waiting
for uploads and downloads and even ‘talks’ to you via Twitter status
updates.”

A built-in USB port and Fonera 2.0n management software allow users to
connect and manage external hard drives and other USB devices. The Fonera
2.0n can be managed by accessing the Fonera web-interface from laptops,
computers and different kinds of WiFi devices including Apple iPhones or
Google Android based phones.

While logged in to the Fonera web-interface, users can instruct their
Fonera 2.0n to automatically upload videos or photos stored on a camera or
hard drive to YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and Facebook, or to download*
torrents and files directly to a USB hard drive. Then, because the Fonera
2.0n can also perform tasks independent of a computer, users are free to
log out and shut down their laptops completely – the Fonera 2.0n will
continue uploading and downloading any remaining files.

Additional features include the ability to backup files to a hard
drive, access a printer or webcam from anywhere, stream music via WiFi, and
convert a 3G or HSDPA dongle to WiFi. Users are also free to create
applications of their own on the Fonera 2.0n’s Open Source platform.

Fonera 2.0n can also help users save money on energy and reduce their
CO2 output. A Fonera 2.0n router consumes less than four watts while
downloading, instead of a PC that averages 100 watts, so users can reduce
their CO2 emissions by 273Kg a year–equivalent to driving an SUV more than
1,500km per year. **

“The deep integration of online file sharing, social networks, and
other Web 2.0 content into our already busy daily lives translates into
more hours spent at the computer, greater energy use and more greenhouse
emissions,” said Varsavsky. “By enabling users to handle basic computing
tasks from the router instead of the PC, we’re taking a small step towards
reducing power consumption without limiting functionality.”

Fonera 2.0n also maintains all the features of previous FON WiFi
routers. Once connected, it creates two separate WiFi signals, one private
and one public, that allow for a secure, wireless internet connection at
home and free access at FON Spots worldwide. Fonera owners can also choose
to make money*** by selling FON WiFi access passes or letting guests
securely roam at their FON Spot.

For further information about the Fonera 2.0n, visit http://www.fon.com

*FON does not promote illegal activities or otherwise violate any
applicable laws or intellectual property rights. Disclaimer: you should not
download copyrighted material unless you have permission from the copyright
holder to do so.

**Calculations based on data from 2009 PC Energy Report.

***Money making functionality not available in all countries.

About FON:

FON started the free WiFi revolution in 2006 with the first Fonera WiFi
router and the goal of free, ubiquitous WiFi for everyone. Today, FON has
more than 700.000 WiFi hotspots and over 1.7 million registered members.
FON also has a growing list of Telco partners including British Telecom,
SFR Neuf, ZON Portugal, and Comstar Russia who add FON functionality to
their broadband routers so that their customers can benefit from the FON
community, thereby enhancing their product offering. Google, eBay, British
Telecom, Index Ventures, Coral Group and Sequoia Capital are investors in
FON. For more information about FON, visit http://www.fon.com

FON, the FON logo, and Fonera are trademarks of FON. Other company and
product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

They have a previous CinemaTube model available, which retailed for about $69.99, but that lacked any HD. This time around, Brite-View has gone and provided a full 1080p HD media player, that also comes out of the box with BitTorrent downloader, as well as YouTube XL, which allows you to watch YouTube right on the tv. It’s basically a means to bypass the computer, if you’re not using Windows Media Center or an equivalent to do the same. Plus, the high definition is something that you probably shouldn’t pass up.

The CinemaTube comes with a load of supported video formats, like MPEG (and all its derivates), DivX, as well as H.264. Audio wise, it’ll pump out pure Dolby Digital and DTS. And it can also play media from a USB mass storage device. The pre-order is live right now, and it will get you to save some $30 from the suggested retail value of $129.99. So for $99.99, you can start downloading and watching straight to your TV in glorious HD. Head on over to Brite-View’s site to dig into even more details, as well as some more pictures.

[via GizmoScene; thanks K.C.]

Among the pluses are the easy to use USB and internal hard-drive connectivity, the fast throughput and the decent range.  It’s also relatively compact, and there are other niceties such as an onboard BitTorrent client, iTunes/UPnP server, remote-management and VoIP prioritizing.

The most obvious downside is the price – around $300 – but the display system, while functional, does occasionally lag and the buttons lack tactile feedback.  Still, if you’re replacing a standard router and want to pile on the specifications, the D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router seems a good place to start.

Some gamers have found that their PSP’s GAME folder is wiped after the exit the pirated version, while others have reported the same thing happening once the PSP is power cycled.  Meanwhile others are claiming to experience trouble playing music or having their PSP hang unexpectedly since loading Rock Band Unplugged.

Obviously SlashGear does not condone software piracy, and recommends that to avoid any issues with your PSP you wait until Rock Band Unplugged is officially released.  The game will hit shelves on June 9th, priced at $40. 

[via technabob]

Video demos after the cut

As you can see in the image above, connectivity includes HDMI, composite and SPDIF ports, together with two USB host ports, a USB slave port and ethernet.  The Myka runs on Sigma Designs’ SMP 8635 SoC, catering for both CPU and DSP duties, and there’s also a WiFi adapter squeezed inside there too.

The team behind Myka say they’re in negotiations with “major content owners, studios and TV networks” to get some more legitimate media onto the box, with Netflix support also tipped as just around the corner.  Until then, it looks like a sleek way to download content and play it back.

Myka is available to order now, priced at $300 for the 80GB model, $350 for the 160GB and $460 for the 500GB.

[via technabob]

Both drives also have a USB port, which can be used to add hard-drives either to expand overall capacity or make a backup of your backup for storing elsewhere.  It’s not all good news for dry network admins, either: the Big Disk and d2 Network each support UPnP and DLNA media streaming.

There’s also an integrated BitTorrent client for standalone downloads, and a comprehensive admin panel that lets you assign users and groups.  Both drives are available now, with the LaCie Big Disk Network priced at $379.99 and the LaCie d2 Network priced at $189.99. 

Press Release:

LaCie Introduces Two Network Storage Servers for Workgroups

• Compatible with Time Machine TM
• Stream multimedia content to your UPnP devices
• Advanced aluminum heat-sink design
• Extremely quiet and energy-efficient

LaCie announced today the availability of two new high capacity Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions – Big Disk Network and d2 Network. These professional file servers are optimized for users to instantly store, share, and back up files, from any PC or Mac on a wired or wireless network. LaCie’s new NAS solutions deliver high-performance and professional-class reliability, in an easy-to-use network solution for the home or small office.

The d2 Network supports up to 1.5TB capacity, while the Big Disk Network combines two drives in a RAID 0 setting, for up to 4TBs of storage. Both NAS solutions are perfect for advanced users or small to medium sized offices that want to develop workgroup environments for up to 50 users (15 at one time). Network administrators can choose from various security levels for user profiles, groups, and public or guest access. Users can connect an external USB drive to increase security through scheduled backups, or even expand capacity. The d2 Network also includes an eSATA connection for storage expansion.

In addition to high-performance hardware, LaCie’s NAS solutions offer a comprehensive software bundle for easy set up, back up and administration. The LaCie Network Assistant enables quick access and configuration of your NAS solution. Both solutions also ship with Genie Backup Manager Pro for Windows and Intego Backup Manager Pro for Mac users, which allow customers to reliably and efficiently backup documents, emails, and other digital assets directly to their NAS device. They also support computer disaster recovery for extra security.

“Data storage needs are becoming increasingly significant in homes and small offices,” said Edin Del Mar, LaCie product manager for office network solutions. “The Big Disk and d2 Network provide professional server functionality and large storage capacities that satisfy the needs of any workgroup environment, with superior design and better performance than comparable products on the market today.”

The Big Disk and d2 Network integrate easily and efficiently into most small office networks thanks to Active Directory support, which allow the product to seamlessly join Windows domains. It also supports most of the network protocols for Windows and Mac users, including SMB and AFP. Network administrators can take advantage of the Wake-on-LAN (WOL) for turning on the drive remotely, and be sent email alerts for backups, downloads, and risk indicators.

For optimal use in the home, the d2 and Big Disk Network allow users to leverage two convenient usage scenarios without being connected to a computer. The first is the ability to download large files using the BitTorrentTM protocol. The second use lets users play media from the NAS solutions through a UPnP-AV compatible device such as a PS3 or Xbox, directly to a television. Both NAS drives are compatible with any DLNA multimedia device.

Designed exclusively for LaCie by the world-renowned designer Neil Poulton, the Big Disk and d2 Network drives were engineered to maximize reliability and are remarkably compact for their enormous capacity. Its sturdy aluminum body with a unique heat sink design offers natural heat dissipation by providing 60% more surface area. The versatile design allows users to place the drive in an upright or vertical position, depending on the environment. If users desire multiple d2 drives for backup or increased capacity, the drives can be rackmounted using the LaCie d2 rack accessories for desktop and standard 19″ IT equipment racks.

Availability and Pricing
The LaCie NAS solutions are available now, with the retail cost starting at $189.99 for d2 Network and $379.99 for Big Disk Network. LaCie products are available through the LaCie Online Store or LaCie Resellers.

About Neil Poulton
Neil Poulton was born in Thurso, Scotland. A graduate in Industrial Design from Edinburgh University and Milan’s Domus Academy, Poulton first came into public view in 1989 as the creator of “the ageing pens,” pens made from a “living,” wearing plastic that changes color and form with use. Today, Neil Poulton designs and develops best-selling, award-winning products for a variety of international clients including LaCie & Artemide. Since 1991, Poulton has lived and worked in Paris, France. www.neilpoulton.com

About LaCie
Located in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong, LaCie is the leading manufacturer of computer peripherals for Windows, Apple and Linux users. LaCie creates external storage solutions and color monitors that help professionals and everyday people easily manage their digital lives. LaCie has differentiated its products through original designs and leading-edge technology. Established in France in 1989, LaCie is listed on Euronext under FR0000054314 (LAC). For more information, visit www.lacie.com