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New Zealand ISPs block websites hosting Christchurch shooting video
Internet providers in New Zealand aren't relying solely on companies like Facebook and YouTube to get rid of the Christchurch mass shooter's video. Major ISPs in the country, including Vodafone, Spark and Vocus, are working together to block access at the DNS level to websites that don't quickly respond to video takedown requests. The move quickly cut off access to multiple sites, including 4chan, 8chan (where the shooter was a member), LiveLeak and file transfer site Mega. The block goes away the moment a site complies, and Vodafone told Bleeping Computer that a "number of sites" were unblocked that way.
Kim Dotcom will be allowed to stream his extradition appeal
The extradition case for Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can be streamed on YouTube, a New Zealand court has ruled. The German internet entrepreneur -- now living in Auckland, the nation's largest city -- and three of his former colleagues began a six-week hearing earlier this week to appeal a December court decision that allows them to be extradited to the US to face conspiracy, racketeering and money-laundering charges.
Kim Dotcom promises to launch an open-source competitor to Mega (updated)
Third time's a charm. Kim Dotcom -- creator of Megaupload and Mega file-sharing sites, New Zealand politician, US fugitive -- plans to launch a third cloud-storage company when his existing non-compete clause runs out at the end of the year. Dotcom briefly outlined his plans for a new site in a Slashdot user interview, saying, "I will create a Mega competitor that is completely open source and non-profit, similar to the Wikipedia model. I want to give everyone free, unlimited and encrypted cloud storage with the help of donations from the community to keep things going."
Kim Dotcom launches MegaChat encrypted video calling service
It's been in the pipeline for more than a year now, but finally Kim Dotcom's Mega is ready to share its encrypted chat service with the world. 'MEGAchat' is pretty light on features -- it's basically just audio and video calls right now -- but the famous Megaupload founder says text chat and video conferencing are on the way. Here's how it works: After creating a Mega account, you simply log in via the web and hit the Conversations icon on the left-hand side. Contacts will need their own Mega account and after making a few calls you'll see a basic chat history on the right-hand side. To disregard it as primitive would be missing the point, however; MEGAchat is currently free to use and promises better protection than alternatives such as Skype and Google Hangouts. Who do you trust more to keep your communications secure? If the answer is Dotcom's Mega, you've now got a credible replacement.
Kim Dotcom's secure chat service is launching 'soon'
Kim Dotcom has been touting development of a secure chat service for more than a year, but it looks like those plans are finally firming up. He now claims that the project will launch "soon," and suggests that it might be named MegaChat. Whatever it's called, it still amounts to a more NSA-resistant alternative to Skype. You'll get a "fully encrypted," web-based chat and video calling service that lets you quickly send large files (through Mega, naturally). That's all well and good, although it'll be better when Dotcom has something you can actually try -- it's easy to make big promises, after all, and this internet mogul won't recover his lost fortunes without a real product. [Image credit: Thierry Ehrmann, Flickr]
Kim Dotcom says he's broke
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom might have been able to reclaim his New Zealand finances earlier this year, but his ensuing legal fight against internet piracy charges has apparently evaporated that. The entrepreneur told the BBC that he' has gone through $10 million in legal costs. His legal defense team stepped down two weeks ago causing Dotcom to initially claim he might have to represent himself at his bail hearing (which began earlier today). While Dotcom was able to reclaim some assets, dozens of bank accounts remain frozen. Dotcom's follow-up online storage service, Mega was valued at $164 million in March, although as the BBC reports, the founder doesn't hold a stake in the company. Financial troubles have also been compounded by his political party, the Internet Party, which failed to claim a single seat in New Zealand's general election two months ago.
Kim Dotcom parts ways with the music service that he helped create
If you're famous for being the most hated man in music, it might be hard to convince musicians that you're on their side. That's the problem facing Baboom, the music streaming service started by Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. Now, however, the company has parted ways with its infamous creator in the hope of improving relationships with the musicians it needs to recruit. On the surface, the parting is amicable and, after selling his 45 percent ownership stake, Dotcom confessed that his presence was holding the site back, much in the same way that the Internet Party was tainted by association. There's no word on if his self-penned album will remain on Baboom when it fully launches in 2015, so best download it while you've got the chance.
TiVo proves that 'size matters' with absurd 26,000-hour DVR
TiVo has taken the TV-watching to a new, insane dimension with the Mega, a rack-mountable, 24TB DVR that will cost around $5,000. That trumps its current flagship Roamio Pro's 4TB storage by sixfold and makes it look quaint in comparison. Like that box, the Mega supports six channels of simultaneous recording, built-in transcoding, multi-room capability and live streaming to smartphones or tablets. In addition, it uses RAID 5 and hot-swappable drives, so that you won't lose your Shark Week marathon in case of a hard disk failure.
Kim Dotcom will celebrate getting his fortune back on the race track
Kim Dotcom's getting his fortune back, and to celebrate, he's throwing a party. The Megaupload founder tweeted this morning that Auckland's High Court will return the cash, vehicles and property that were seized on behalf of the US back in 2012. On hearing the news, Dotcom tweeted that when he gets his stuff back, which should be within the fortnight, he will rent out New Zealand's Taupo race track and invite members of his political party, the Internet Party, over for a track day. We're not sure if it's open to current members only, but we doubt there's any harm in signing up, hell, you might just get a ride in his prized Rolls Royce for your trouble.
Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud app for iOS now auto-uploads your snapshots
Sure Kim Dotcom recently dropped an album, but that doesn't mean he's leaving his other projects to rot. His Mega cloud storage app for iOS just got a refresh, and it now comes with PhotoSync, which enables the app to automatically upload any new pictures you take, just like Dropbox and other backup services. It's pretty customizable, and you can toggle on cellular data upload in the absence of WiFi, as well as turn on an option that instructs Mega to sync images whenever you change locations. In an effort to protect those images (and other files) from prying eyes, Mega also added a four-digit passcode protection system. It has the power to erase all data after ten failed attempts at guessing the combination, so no nosy friend can see the selfies you took while rocking out to Change Your Life.
Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud storage service gets an official iPhone app
Now that Kim Dotcom's cloud storage service Mega is available to the public, it's finally found time to launch the iOS app it's been promising. The new app includes many of the same features as its Android counterpart, which has been available on Android for more than four months, including file previews and easy sharing. It currently lacks automatic camera syncing but that will come, along with iPad support, in a future update. What's next for Mega? It's on course to launch its Sync tool for Windows, Mac and Linux in the coming weeks, giving it time to concentrate on adding new security and messaging features to the cloud service in the new year.
Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud storage exits beta, secure messaging and video chat due next year
The feds may have taken Megaupload to the big cloud storage facility in the sky, but Kim Dotcom's followup Mega is going strong and now out of beta. That official launch includes a new web UI with tweaks focused on making everything faster and more efficient, including local caching that only syncs changes made since the last time you connected. Sharing among friends should also be easier, with user avatars for a visual reminder of who's who plus contact management that shows how many files someone is sharing with you and when they were last updated. The final tweaks mentioned are tree style navigation between folders, the ability to move around the site while continuing file transfers and a custom Firefox extension. So what's next for Mega? Its iOS app has been submitted for review (it's already available on Android), and is expected in the next month along with a Sync desktop app headed for Windows, OS X and Linux. Looking down the road into 2014, the company also previewed encrypted communications services (including file attachments, of course) for text messaging between members and video conferencing built to keep prying eyes locked out.
Report: Pokemon X and Y to include 'mega evolutions'
The next games in the Pokemon series, X and Y, will feature "mega evolutions," according to a translation of a recent CoroCoro Japanese magazine by Serebii. The translation lists a number of evolved Pokemon accessible in the upcoming games, along with their abilities: MegaBlaziken (Speed Boost), MegaAbsol (Magic Bounce), MegaMawile (Huge Power), MegaMewtwo (Insomnia), MegaLucario (Adaptability) and MegaAmpharos (Mold Breaker). Serebii notes that Mawile and its mega form are Steel and Fairy types as well. MegaMewtwo was first revealed for Pokemon X and Y in April, and a video later showed its evolution from Mewtwo itself. We're going to miss calling it Mewtwo With a Handle, honestly.
Kim Dotcom's Mega coming soon to iOS
Kim Dotcom's cloud storage file-sharing service, called Mega, is coming soon to iOS. The service launched earlier this year to mark the one-year anniversary of the US government's seizure of Megaupload.com. Mega works like many other cloud storage solutions, like Dropbox. However, Mega offers users 50 GB of free storage right off the bat. Users have the option to buy more storage up to 4 TB. The news of Mega coming to iOS came from Mega's blog. Mega has launched an Android version of its app and it says the iOS version will follow soon. It's likely the iOS app will have the same features as the Android app, so Mega fans on iOS can probably expect the same camera sync, file sharing and export features found in the Android version.
Kim Dotcom's Mega launches Android app, vows iOS and Windows apps soon
Kim Dotcom launched his Mega cloud storage platform with much fanfare, but few ways to use it. That's finally improving now that the Mega Android app is here. The release won't shock anyone who has used established rivals like Dropbox and Google Drive, but it is reasonably complete with two-way transfers, image previews and automatic camera syncing. It won't be alone for long, either. Mega says that both iOS and Windows apps are in the last stages of testing, which could give us more of an incentive to try what's still a very young service.
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 review: one giant smartphone for mankind
The Samsung Galaxy Mega is a 6.3-inch woolly mammoth of a handset, and it reigns as the largest of its kind, even if only for a brief period of time.
Samsung Galaxy Mega hits FCC again, this time with LTE
Better start working on those powerball exercises. If Samsung's Galaxy Mega was the thing you thought your life was missing, it's just landed at the FCC. Yeah, we know this isn't the first time, but this second go-round it's the LTE-sporting GT-i9205 model. The usual lab tests show little that we didn't know already -- unless you didn't know it had LTE Band 5, dual band WiFi, NFC or GSM 850 / 1900. As the 5.8-inch isn't 4G-enabled, this means we're looking at the bigger 6.3-inch version, but still no word on if, when or how a version might land on US shores. Still no harm in limbering up, though, is there? Update: Upon further inspection, this variant only uses LTE band 5 (850MHz), which no US carrier currently uses. It's very unlikely this I9205 variant will hit the US.
Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 hits the FCC, sports AT&T-compatible HSPA+
Samsung's Galaxy Mega 6.3 still doesn't have an exact launch date, but it has made its way to the FCC. While the Mega was announced with LTE and HSPA+ radios, it appears that this version, model I9200, only has the latter onboard (I9205 is the LTE-equipped variant). It's a safe bet that this particular model won't officially make it stateside, but the reports seem to indicate that it'll play nice with AT&T's HSPA+ bands. In case you're thinking of importing this 1.7GHz device down the line, you can have a look at our hands-on here. Otherwise, you can have a look at the filing by heading to the source link.
Samsung Galaxy Mega hands-on (video)
When Samsung said it was having a little soiree to celebrate the launch of the Galaxy S 4, we took the company on its word. At the end, when the execs present warned us of something new, we thought a Mini might be in the cards, but in fact it was the exact opposite. It turns out that Samsung brought another friend along to the party, the recently announced Galaxy Mega. The largest of the two, to be precise. So, while everyone wanted to play with the latest flagship, we thought we'd take some time to get to know the 6.3-inch Galaxy Mega a little better. Head past the break for our impressions.%Gallery-185848%
Samsung Galaxy Mega is official and comes in 6.3- and 5.8-inch sizes
We knew Samsung was planning more devices, but we didn't expect the arrival of two Galaxy Mega smartphones at the same time. Both are apparently headed to Europe some time next month, continuing to prove that Samsung are willing to test out any screen-size. The 6.3-inch model has an 'HD display' (720p) alongside a dual-core 1.7GHz processor, Android 4.2 and an 8-megapixel camera. Software features like Air View, Multi Windows, Pop-up Play will make sure you have plenty to do on that giant screen. The Galaxy Mega arrives somewhere between Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy Note II, although we're hoping it'll be priced slightly more humbly than either neighbor. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 houses LTE and HSPA radios, while you'll get GPS and GLONASS to aid any location-based antics. There's a 3,200mAh battery and internal storage that can be expanded by microSD up to 64GB, with 8 or 16 gigs (there's two models) built-in to begin with. The HSPA-only Galaxy Mega 5.8 reduces the size -- and pretty much all the other specs. The resolution drops down to qHD (960 x 540), while it packs a lesser 1.4GHz dual-core processor. It has the same 8-megapixel camera, while the smaller, er, Mega, will arrive in only one size -- an 8GB model. No word on pricing for either yet, but the Ubergizmo team has already got the chance to handle the Korean manufacturer's 6.3-inch goliath. Take a look at their first impressions at the More Coverage link. Update: Samsung has confirmed to us that the resolution on the 6.3-inch model is in fact 1280 x 720. Also, the Galaxy Mega 5.8 won't be sold in the UK, although it will appear elsewhere in Europe. %Gallery-185310%