Although Tele2, Denmark’s largest ISP, was recently forced to block all access to the notorious torrent site The Pirate Bay, it seems once again the admin team over at TPB are having the last laugh.
The access block, from a technical standpoint, is very elementary and the admins even created a site to help Danish file sharers break the block and access the site. A new blog post seems to prove that their method is working and that all the IFPI has done has given more publicity to the already hugely popular site.
“…the number of visits from Denmark has increased by 12% thanks to IFPI,” reads the post. “Our site http://thejesperbay.org is growing more because of the media attention than people actually coming to learn how to bypass the filter - our guess is that alot of the users on the site now run OpenDNS instead of the censoring DNS at Tele2.dk.”
“We also started tracking some stats before and after the block. There’s no noticable difference between the number of users from Tele2.dk before and after,” the post added.
The Jesper Bay site simply teaches those how to use OpenDNS which will connect them to a global DNS instead of the ISP’s DNS server, breaking the access block.
Result for: AVI
After last month’s announcement that the Apple TV would see an update, the “Take 2″ upgrade is finally available.
Users simply need to navigate to the Settings menu and hit Software Update. It will then download and install.
The new update, the first major update to the device, will offer new features such as “the ability to purchase and download video and music directly from iTunes instead of having to use a Mac or PC first.”
The Apple TV now supports HD movie rentals through iTunes. The new service allows users to download movies for $2.99 for SD or $4.99 USD for HD. The videos can be played once and then expire after 24 hours.
Another new feature is access to photostreams on Flickr as well as on .Mac Web Galleries.
The upgrade is free to existing Apple TV users and is also included on all new units which now retail for $229 USD for the 40GB model or $329 USD for a 160GB version.
Result for: AVI
In what can equate to an “I told you so”, director Michael Bay has spoken out again about Blu-ray and its recent “victories” over the rival HD DVD format.
Earlier this week, both Netflix and Best Buy seemingly chose Blu-ray as their HD format of choice although Best Buy said it will continue to stock both. Bay, taking the time to knock HD DVD had this to say at the Visual Effects Society’s sixth annual award show, “Blu-ray’s better, and I told everyone … I was very vocal about it. I knew HD [DVD] was not going to make it.”
Ironically, despite his support for Blu-ray, his best selling HD Title is far and away Transformers which is available on HD DVD.
“Am I thrilled? It really wasn’t my fight, but remember what I said in the press? I was kind of saying HD [DVD]’s going to lose,” he added. “No one believed me.”
Despite the fact that both formats support the same video and audio codecs and each have excellent interactive layers, Bay says he simply prefers the way his movies appear on Blu-ray Discs. “It’s just sharper,” Bay added. “It’s just [that] the tools are better. I just think it’s closer to what it should look like.”
This is not the first time Bay has talked about his preference for Blu-ray. He first voiced his displeasure with HD DVD when Paramount decided to go HD DVD-exclusive, and taking Transformers with it. Bay even went as far as to say that he would not come back to direct Transformers 2 as a boycott to the decision.
“I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were Progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me,” said Bay back then.
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