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The Pirate Bay moves domains again, this time to Guyana

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 11:18

The Pirate Bay moves domains again, this time to Guyana The infamous torrent tracker The Pirate Bay has moved domains again, just days after relocating to Peru.

Peru suspended the domain name with prior notice, killing off the thepiratebay.pe site. Peru's National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) ordered the shutdown claiming "The use of thepiratebay.pe domain can help users avoid infringement by connecting, sharing files and downloading files."

The site can now be found at thepiratebay.gy, using Guyana's country code top-level domain.

Pirate Bay officials didn't seem to phased, and they did not seem too worried in the first place, adding "We have some 70 domain names left, so eventually we will find one that sticks. A few domains have been prepared so we can switch over whenever's needed."

In the last week, the site has been moved from their .SX domain, their .AC and now their .PE.

Read the company's very brief Facebook post.




AfterDawn: News

LG to unveil 105-inch curved Ultra HD TV at CES

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 10:58

LG to unveil 105-inch curved Ultra HD TV at CES LG has announced that they will unveil a massive 105-inch curved Ultra HD TV at next year's CES event.

The TV will easily be the "largest curved TV ever made" as noted by the company, and it will feature a 5120 x 2160 resolution and a 21:9 aspect ratio "CinemaScope" screen.

LG says the resolution will allow for reduced letterboxing during movie watching, and will also allow for "additional information without covering up the program itself."

"With a resolution of 11 million pixels, the 105-inch curved LCD panel is proof of our continued leadership in the next generation display market, offering exceptional world-class value to our customers," notes LG Display's Yong-kee Hwang.




AfterDawn: News

New, powerful $3000 Mac Pro goes on sale in a few hours

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 10:35

New, powerful $3000 Mac Pro goes on sale in a few hours Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed today on Twitter that the new Mac Pro will go on sale tomorrow, right off the assembly line of the company's new plant in Texas.

The new Pro is built in the U.S. and can support 4K video editing. Apple's latest is 10 inches high, 6.6 inches in diameter (it's a cylinder), and weighs 11 pounds.

Base models start at $2999 and features a 3.7GHz Intel Xeon E5 with 10MB L3 cache and Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz, 12GB (three 4GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC memory, Dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM each. Flash storage shockingly starts at just 256GB, but can be configured up to 1TB.

For connectivity there are four USB 3.0 ports, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, dual gigabit ethernet, and HDMI 1.4 UltraHD.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Microsoft: New CEO will not be hired until early 2014

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 10:29

Microsoft: New CEO will not be hired until early 2014 Microsoft has noted this week that the board will not select a new CEO until early next year.

John Thompson, the Microsoft director in charge of leading the search for the new CEO to replace long-time executive Steve Ballmer, says the list of candidates has been pruned, but the board requires more time.

"We identified over 100 possible candidates, talked with several dozen and then focused our energy intensely on a group of about 20 individuals, all extremely impressive in their own right. As you would expect, as this group has narrowed, we've done deeper research and investigation, including with the full Board. We're moving ahead well, and I expect we'll complete our work in the early part of 2014," adds Thompson.

Ballmer announced earlier this year that he would be retiring after a decade as CEO and over 30 years with the company.

Current Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Microsoft's enterprise boss Satya Nadella are the most oft-rumored candidates, but there are clearly more than a handful still in the running.




AfterDawn: News

Sony's PlayStation Mobile expanded to eight new countries

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 10:11

Sony's PlayStation Mobile expanded to eight new countries Sony has announced that their PlayStation Mobile app has been expanded to new countries across Europe and Australasia.

The app is now available in Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Belgium and New Zealand.

If you own a PlayStation certified smartphone/tablet, you can download the free PS Mobile app and get full access to games.

Purchased games can be played on up to three devices, with Sony specifically noting a smartphone, a tablet and their own Vita handheld console.

The service launched with 21 games last year and has slowly grown to over 50 titles.




AfterDawn: News

Target hit by massive data breach, millions of credit card details involved

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 9:57

Target hit by massive data breach, millions of credit card details involved The U.S. Secret Service has confirmed that it is investigating a massive data breach at major retailer Target that could involve millions of shopper's credit and debit card information.

According to Krebs on Security, which has broken high-profile security incidents in the past, the breach began on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, and involves the theft of information from nearly all of Target's brick and mortar stores in the U.S.

Target has 1800 stores in the nation. The report claims online purchases do not appear to be involved, just the data that would allows thieves to create counterfeit cards and even possibly withdraw from ATMs using stolen PINs.

Krebs reported that the breach was ongoing from Black Friday until December 15th.

Target, Mastercard and Visa did not comment on the initial report.




AfterDawn: News

China Mobile and Apple have still not officially announced pact for iPhone

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 9:43

China Mobile and Apple have still not officially announced pact for iPhone Although speculation and evidence has mounted for months, China Mobile and Apple have still not announced their long-awaited pact for the iPhone.

Xi Guohua, chairman for the carrier, said they have no iPhone announcements to make at this time as the company remains coy on a timetable.

China Mobile is the world's biggest carrier with over 740 million subscribers and Apple is the world's second largest smartphone maker.

Multiple American media outlets had reported that the announcement was definitely expected for this week, but there is no indication that the deal will be signed in the next couple of days.

When the deal is struck, industry analysts say the deal could give Apple another 20 million handset sales in the first year, a seventh of their expected 2013 total sales.




AfterDawn: News

Torrent uploader gets $652,000 fine for sharing unauthorized movies

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 9:10

Torrent uploader gets $652,000 fine for sharing unauthorized movies Two years after the popular private tracker Swebits closed down, one of its uploaders has received a suspended jail sentence, 160 hours community service and a massive $652,000 damages award.

The uploader shared over 500 movies, but the fine was just for one film: a pre-release CAM version of "Beck – Levande Begravd."

Anti-piracy group Antipiratbyran brought the case, and the rightsholders had called the man the "worst ever" individual movie pirate in Swedish history, demanding a one year prison sentence.

Rights Alliance lawyer Henrik Pontén says the damages award was the largest ever for a piracy case, adding that "[The $652,000] refers to compensation and is equal to what the man would have paid if he had bought a license to distribute the movie for free downloads. "The man also has to pay damages for other losses such as disturbing the market and goodwill losses. This shows what damages are caused to the creators and rights holders by the illegal file-sharing of one movie."

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

LG to launch Chrome OS-based all-in-one at CES

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Dec 2013 12:20

LG to launch Chrome OS-based all-in-one at CES LG has announced they will be introducing an all-in-one based on Google's Chrome OS operating system.

The company will unveil the computer at the upcoming CES event next month.

Dubbed the "Chromebase," LG has included a 21.5-inch 1080p IPS display and will sell with a full keyboard, mouse and other accessories, but can also be used independently.

Perhaps most notably is that the computer runs on Chrome OS, Google's operating system which for the most part requires an Internet connection as offline function is minimal.

"Simple to operate for all types of users, the award-winning LG Chromebase computer represents the successful combination of simplicity, power and greatdesign," said Hyoung-sei Park, head of the IT Business Division at LG Electronics. "LG Chromebase is the wave of the future for desktops, expected to be widely adopted not only at home, but especially in schools, hotels, call centers and other business settings."

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Samsung unveils Android gamepad optimized for their Galaxy line

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Dec 2013 11:05

Samsung unveils Android gamepad optimized for their Galaxy line Samsung has made their first entry into the mobile device gamepad market, launching the "Smartphone GamePad" for Android devices running versions 4.1 or better.

Differentiating itself from recent gamepads released for the iPhone, the GamePad is a standalone device that connects via Bluetooth, rather than a controller that attaches directly and extends the phone.

If you have a Samsung Galaxy device with Android 4.3 or higher, you will have an optimized experience, says the company, including NFC connect support.

On the hardware end, the GamePad weighs just 0.43 pounds, has two standard analog sticks, an eight-way D-Pad, four action buttons and two shoulder triggers. The companion "Mobile Console App" lets users browse and download/purchase supported games.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Apple: Here are the top apps of 2013 for iPad

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Dec 2013 10:29

Apple: Here are the top apps of 2013 for iPad Alongside their announcement of the top free and paid applications for the iPhone, Apple also revealed the top apps for their tablet line.

The iPad and iPad Mini saw many of the same top apps as its smaller brother, but there was one clear difference: social media was notably absent from the iPad list with the exception of Facebook.

Temple Run and Angry Birds, in multiple varieties, appeared all over the lists, and Candy Crush Saga topped the figures, just like on the iPhone.

Here are the full lists:




AfterDawn: News

Apple: Here are the top apps of 2013 for iPhone

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 17 Dec 2013 9:35

Apple: Here are the top apps of 2013 for iPhone Apple has released some interesting figures for its App Store, revealing the top iPhone apps, both paid and free, for the year.

Earlier this year, the company announced that its App Store had reached 60 billion total app downloads of its 1.05 million apps.

The Cupertino giant broke down the top apps by free and paid, and also revealed the top grossing apps of the year.

Topping the free list (as well as the top grossing) was 'Candy Crush Saga,' the cross-platform blockbuster that brought in millions in revenue from in-app purchases. On the paid end, Minecraft: Pocket Edition unsurprisingly topped the list.

The rest of the free list was dominated by social media and photo/video sharing. Check the full lists here:

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Netflix gets 'Breaking Bad' spinoff 'Better Call Saul'

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Dec 2013 11:50

Netflix gets 'Breaking Bad' spinoff 'Better Call Saul' Breaking Bad spinoff show 'Better Call Saul' will be available on Netflix in 2014.

The show will air in the U.S. on AMC starting in September 2014, and Netflix will begin streaming it around the globe shortly afterwards.

Bob Odenkirk, who played Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad, will reprise his role as the sleazy lawyer and Breaking Bad creator and writer Vince Gilligan will write the show, as well, exciting fans of the original.

Netflix offered a similar deal with Breaking Bad's last season, airing it in Europe hours after it aired in the U.S.




AfterDawn: News

Sprint reaches 300 cities with LTE coverage

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Dec 2013 11:01

Sprint reaches 300 cities with LTE coverage Sprint has announced that 70 new markets now support the carrier's LTE network.

There were some major cities included, like St. Louis and San Diego, but mainly the additions were smaller, rural areas across the nation.

The carrier's rollout has been different than other major carriers, as Sprint continues to rollout out small cities along with bigger cities, but there is still notable missing areas, like San Francisco.

By the end of the year, the carrier says it expects 200 million Americans to be within LTE support by the end of the year, within striking range of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, all of which have had more successful rollouts.

For those in congested areas, Sprint has begun slowly rolling out 'Spark,' a higher bandwidth, faster network that can theoretically allow downstream speeds above 50 Mbit/s.




AfterDawn: News

Amazon announces upcoming original content will be shot in 4K

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Dec 2013 10:25

Amazon announces upcoming original content will be shot in 4K Amazon Studios has announced today that its lineup of original content for 2014 will be shot in 4K Ultra HD resolution.

The 3,840 x 2,160 pixel resolution is starting its long journey to the mainstream, and companies like Amazon and Netflix have already begun to integrate it to their streaming services.

"As a premium original content creator, we're excited about 4K and the future of Ultra HD technology, particularly as we move into drama series next year," said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. "All of the pilots and series we produce next year will be shot in 4K. That includes our first ever drama series that we will greenlight next year--we think customers are going to love watching these series in the highest resolution ever available to consumers and we can't wait to deliver it."

Read more...



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