Hasta La Gadget!

It looks like The Pirate Bay has set sail for another country, and a country none of us would have expected. North Korea has taken The Pirate Bay in, and has even offered it virtual asylum. It was only last week when The Pirate Bay was forced from its home in Sweden due to the threats the Swedish Pirate Party received from a local anti-piracy group. TPB was then provided shelter in both Norway and Spain.

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]

Pirate Bay flees to North Korea for freedom’s sake is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This weekend the documentary TPB AFK has gone live: start to finish a free download, entirely appropriate given the subject matter. This documentary covers none other than the rise and current operation of The Pirate Bay, the world’s most popular online file-sharing service. This documentary has been four years in the making and makes its mark right at the outset as the first film ever to be premiered at a major motion picture festival and offered as a digital download at the same time – and again, it’s totally free.

The film TPB AFK follows the three founders of the “TPB” (aka The Pirate Bay) as they discuss the beginnings of the site through the recent trials they each went through in Sweden. It’s Swedish producer and filmmaker Simon Klose that covers this major era in the history of The Pirate Bay’s history as both an epic series of events for the company and the world. It’s here that long-lasting internet-related bills and laws are being decided – no joke!

The premiere on the web exists right alongside the first viewing many users will have during the Berlin Film Festival in Germany. As will be made clear to you in viewing the documentary, it’s not just a peaches-and-cream team effort from start to finish – it’s as much an exploration of the way these founders went about their business as it is a telling of the story of the site’s goings-on. In the end, according to founder Peter Sunde, it was “Simon’s decision what to include and it’s his view of our story.” And not a bit of objectivism was left in the world.

Click the above thumbnail for a full-sized movie poster that you’ll be able to use for your smartphone or tablet wallpaper right this minute!

Sunde went on to note, according to Torrent Freak, that “I like that he’s independent from us and that he’s promised to release lots of extra material for some of the things that I might have wanted to have included.” So you’ll be wise to expect an “extended cut” in the future if not a B-Roll offering in the near future. By the general rules of our modern web, someone’s bound to release the full collection at some point – it’s just a matter of time.

You’ll be able to download the official TPB AFK film from Simon Klose’s own Pirate Bay account immediately if not soon. At the moment there are three different versions available, each of them the same cut at different quality video sizes. Let us know if you plan on popping in some popcorn and sitting down for a spell tonight!

Weekend watching: TPB AFK “Pirate Bay Documentary” download live! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Walmart Entertainment launched its in-store disc-to-digital Ultraviolet conversion early last year, and now it’s making the process a bit simpler by letting customers do it by themselves at home. Powered by the Vudu To Go app for Mac and Windows PCs that already lets viewers stream or download movies in up to 1080p, they can search for previously-purchased movies from participating studios (DreamWorks Animation, Lionsgate, MGM Studios, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) and then convert them: DVD to SD or Blu-ray to HD for $2, DVD to HD for $5. Like the beta feature recently launched by Best Buy’s CinemaNow, the app authorizes the copy and then you can watch it through any of the numerous Vudu / Ultraviolet-ready devices and services merely by logging in.

One other new feature on the way is the ability for Vudu users on iOS to download copies to their devices for viewing offline. We first saw the feature on mobiles when its Android tablet app launched last month, and it will come to the Apple family of hardware in mid-February. One other note as Walmart attempts to expand its “Entertainment” brand is a Facebook app that will let its fans read and submit reviews and also vote on which movies will be offered for sale in-store and online. Still need a reason to give UltraViolet a try? Vudu is tossing new users 10 free pre-selected movies just for linking their account or signing up. Check out the full list of details in the press release after the break or hit the source link to see if it’s live.

Continue reading Vudu and Walmart bring disc-to-digital conversions home, iOS app adds offline viewing next month

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Walmart Entertainment

Catching up to Microsoft’s own web-based Xbox store, Sony’s unleashed a new online store for its movie, TV and video content– but neglected to mention it. Titled the Sony Entertainment Network, and separate to its own book store we were able to login to the UK site and found that content pricing matched what we’ve seen on the PlayStation Store and other Sony digital shops. As an example, the complete Mass Effect trilogy rings in at £60 ($96), although Sony is kind enough to offer links to discounted titles, PlayStation Plus highlights and other offers at the top of the browsing sidebar — Tokyo Jungle is today’s holiday deal at £5 ($8). Purchases can be done through the store, with the product downloaded to your game console when it’s turned on next. Video content, meanwhile, can be purchased and then played on your PC, as well as on the PlayStation 3, PS Vita, PSP, Sony Tablets and compatible Xperia smartphones. Even if you’re balking at some of those early prices, it might be worth browsing through some more palatable festive deals by visiting the source below. We’ll have more when we hear the official line from Sony.

Update: We’ve been unable to access our downloads just yet, something that was also noted by Eurogamer, which spotted that content can also be purchased through Paypal. PlayStation Blog manager Fred Dutton has added that the store is currently under testing, and that Sony are set to announce the full details of the service soon — no harm in taking an early look, however.

Update 2: After digging around in our PS3’s network settings, we were able to discover our web-based purchases and start downloading them to the console, although it wasn’t the most clearcut way to get to them. Unfortunately, it looks like the service won’t officially launch until next week and our US editors have had no luck connecting to the service so far, suggesting that at this stage it’s still being tested before being rolled out further.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD, Mobile, Sony

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Via: Eurogamer

Source: Sony Entertainment Network, Fred Dutton (PlayStation Blog)

If you’re looking for new video game to play on your computer over the long holiday weekend and you’re a fan of first-person shooters, you might want to give PlanetSide 2 a go. The game has launched in North America and Europe and is a massively-multiplayer online shooter that has gamers enlisting in one of three empires. The empires include the Terran Republic, New Conglomerate, or Vanu Sovereignty.

The game promises intense battles using hand-to-hand combat, various weapons, ground vehicles, and air vehicles. The game uses Sony Online Entertainment’s proprietary MMO game engine called ForgeLight. While the game is free to play, players can purchase items and content in-game.

Players can also choose to purchase a subscription at $9.99(USD) per month that gives scalable gains for resources, XP, and passive certification points. Premium members also get priority login access to game servers along with access to new cosmetic items and monthly Station Cash bonuses. The game is available as a digital online download right now for Windows PCs.