Its been a over six months since we last saw an update to everyone’s favorite BitTorrent client. The uTorrent team has released version 1.8 of their BitTorrent client, with significant improvements and updates.

Added the already pent up excitement about the new uTorrent there is also a word that a Mac version of uTorrent is on the way.. Good news for all Mac users out there.. But I feel that a stable Mac build is quite a few months away.

We’ve had to wait for quite a while for this release since the last stable build 1.7.7 was released way back in January. A lot of work has been done in these seven months though, and the list of changes and additions that were implemented is “absolutely massive”, to quote Firon from the release announcement..

One of the most significant updates in the latest version of uTorrent is that it comes with built in IPv6 support, which improves connectivity and thus performance. The only problem is that IPv6 is still not common, and we have to wait for it to take over IPv4. Other new features are better Windows Firewall registration on Vista and improved distribution of new connections across torrents.

According to uTorrent developer Greg Hazel since 1.8 is finally out, the uTorrent team is going to be more focused to get a Mac OSX version ready on which they have been working already for the past year. According to Greg a private Alpha of uTorrent  for the Mac should be out in a few weeks.

uTorrent 1.8 can be downloaded from the uTorrent website, and the list of changes, improvements and additions is available in the forum thread announcing the release.

Way to go uTorrent! Its time to upgrade one of my favorite pieces of software. What are your thoughts on the latest and greatest version of uTorrent? I guess the Mac users are waiting to get their hands on uTorrent for Mac as soon as possible.

Via Torrentfreak

Finally one of the leading BitTorrent website of its times is rising from the ashes. Demonoid one of the leading private BitTorrent trackers was pulled down by CRIA in November last year. Deimos the admin of Demonoid has finally handed over the reins of Demonoid to a fellow admin whom he apparently trusts with the comeback of Demonoid.

Deimos will not be the admin of Demonoid anymore because he is tied with some personal real life issues. Here’s the message he posted in the Subdemon forums :

Hello Everyone,

It is with great sadness (and not a little relief) that I announce that I will be stepping down as admin of Demonoid, with effect from today.

Demonoid is currently suffering from a number of things, prime amongst these being my distraction with real-world issues, and so I have handed the reins over to a new administrator – a close friend of mine, which I trust completely and has the knowledge and time to take care of the site.

He will, in due course, be making his own announcements about the future of Demonoid. Of course, speculation over the future of the site is fun, but it is ultimately fruitless – you will all, in the near future, become aware of what the future holds. I trust that you will all give your support to the new admin as he finds his feet while he resurrects Demonoid.

Thanks again for your support in making Demonoid what it was and is.
Goodbye and good wishes – it has been a blast!

- Deimos

It surely is great news for the BitTorrent community. I was once upon a time an active user of Demonoid and the quality of torrents over there was simply too good. Demonoid is by far the best when it comes to finding software or weird music/stuff you know you’re not gonna find on IsoHunt or ThePirateBay. Glad to see the demonoid is coming back.

What do you think of this development? Do you think Demonoid can ever be the same again? (I just hope it is!!)

I’m looking forward to Demonoid resurrecting- what a great torrent community

Via TorrentFreak

The extremely popular media hosting site ImageShack has just begun a free BitTorrent downloading service that allows you to download torrents straight from ImageShack servers, and later download them from ImageShack via a HTTP link.

The Torrent download service is at the moment in a public beta, but nonetheless it works as advertised. Just point ImageShack to the torrent file either via URL or by uploading the torrent file itself. The download will begin immediately and once it is completed you can easily download the files to your computer.

Services such as this aren’t new but until now we haven’t seen a compelling free solution such as the one offered by ImageShack. ImageShack does have some restriction, like you can download at the most only 15GB a month.

Here’s what Jack Levin, the founder of ImageShack told TorrentFreak: “We think its going to be a great service for users, especially in the light of ISPs ratelimiting torrent traffic.There is a lot of free and legal torrents out there, that people should have easy access to. We have the capacity to do it, and the world needs it.”

If you are worried about the anonymity of the service, here’s what Jack Levin said: “We will not look at what you download and simply provide you, an account, with bandwidth and space. What you do with it is up to you. The DMCA applies, so, if we get reports from copyright owners to take down content, we will comply.”

There are some neat features like Selective File Downloading which means you can select only the files that you want to download and leave out the rest. The Download speeds are pretty fast and I could download a couple of torrents of about 1GB each in under 2 hours.

The only thing is that as soon the download completes,, ImageShack disconnects. This means that you will be sharing less than you would do. On the torrents I downloaded the share ratio was just 13% and 15% respectively. I hope ImageShack improves the share ratio to atleast 100% because its good karma!

So far ImageShack’s Torrent download service looks very promising and is something that I plan to use regularly in the future. Go Check it out for yourself and let us know what you feel about it?

ImageShack Torrent Download Service | Via Torrentfreak

The Website of Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences seems to have had what you call major security breach. The whole of the website complete with Server backups, Databases of Students, Site Databases, and the Complete directory structure have been leaked onto BitTorrent.

At the time of writing this, a 125MB Zip File is being tracked by Pirate Bay.

According to Torrentfreak, the Harvard University website has become a victim of a major security breach. A Torrent that is currently available on Piratebay claims to be a complete backup of the Website of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

The Torrent basically contains a 125MB Zip file that contains the entire directory structure of the site, and the major database backups. Details of the databases are below :

1. joomla.sql – claims to be the database for the Harvard site
2. contacts.sql – claims to be a database of contacts
3. hgs.sql – stated as ‘other minor thing’

Here’s what the release notes from the Torrent reads as in Broken English : ” Maybe you don’t like it but this is to demonstrate that persons like tgatton(admin of the server) in they don’t know how to secure a website.”

The guy basically refers to Thomas Gatton, Systems Administrator and User Support Specialist at Harvard. Not much is known about the reason behind the security breach. And also at the moment the site that was hacked seems to be down.

I am waiting for Harvard to come out with a clear explanation as to what is happening. At the moment the files contained in the Zip seem to be the real deal.

Via TorrentFreak.

The last quarter of 2007 hasn’t been particularly good for the BitTorrent community. We have seen the shutdown of some popular BitTorrent Trackers like OiNK and Demonoid and a lot more countries worldwide have been blocking Torrent Search Engines. In the US Internet companies are prevent access to the BitTorrent protocol itself, thereby preventing users from sharing files.

Yes 2007 has been the year when Torrent Related sites where shutdown faster than they were born, but finally we have a good news from Mininova that has just reached a milestone i.e. it’s millionth torrent was uploaded yesterday by an anonymous user.

Torrent number 1,000,000 was uploaded yesterday by an anonymous user. Unfortunately, the memorable torrent has no seeds, which makes it likely that it wont be around much longer.

One million uploaded torrents is a great accomplishment, especially if you consider that Mininova only allows user uploads. Contrary to what most people assume, Mininova doesn’t scrape any torrents from other websites, all the torrents hosted on the website are uploaded by its users.

My hearty congratulations to Mininova on reaching this commendable milestone. However with growing pressure from Anti Piracy Organizations on ISP’s and Governments supporting the hosting of Torrent Files or Trackers, do you think Mininova will be able to survive in this world of BitTorrent where survival is becoming more and more difficult.

My best wishes are with Mininova..  I want it to remain around for many more years to come..

Via TorrentFreak

This is shocking isn’t it. The Biggest loss to the Bit Torrent world is here. Demonoid is dead and is no longer available for anyone in the world. The CRIA managed to put pressure on the company renting servers to Demonoid and its been pulled down.

Here is what the message on the site reads :

The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.

This is one of the biggest losses that we have seen to Torrent Network after OiNK was shutdown. The Pirate Bay seems to be the only tracker that has been able to withstand all kinds of legal pressure.

I just hope that Demonoid is backup and running soon on some alternate servers in some country like Sweden..

I wonder if Demonoid will be able to get itself back and running.. Lets all pray, so that we have our favorite Tracker Demonoid back online.

Thanks Sindhu

BOiNK is an attempt to bring the hundreds of thousands of music albums back online that disappeared during the raid. The replacement will be released within a week and should be available on the BOiNK.cd domain.

Things are moving pretty fast on Torrent Space and I believe that the Pirate Bay are doing a good job at keeping the MPAA, RIAA, IFPI, BPI at bay. Things are gonna be a little different at BOiNK, the most important thing will be that it will be a public tracker rather than the private tracker that OiNK really was. Well that means we’re going to see a lot of people leeching the torrents and polluting the Torrent Sphere.

A lot depends on the OiNK community, they have to come over to BOiNK and start uploading everything that they had shared on BOiNK. This also sends out a very strong message to the Anti Piracy organizations, that if you kill one tracker a thousand others will pop up. Call it a Slap on the face if you want.

Well here is a screenshot of The Pirate Bay Admin working on BOiNK. You can expect BOiNK to go live within a week from now.

My best wishes are with the Pirate Bay and I really hope that BOiNK does well and becomes one of the biggest public trackers out there, and never shuts down!

I am posting the chat transcript for you all to read and ponder upon. If there any questions that you would like to ask hop on to irc://arrogant.xevion.net or email kman922002[at]gmail.com.

friggy :  you just get bailed for free?
OiNK : Yes

smartface :  does the paypal account have any funds on it ATM?
OiNK : it had some, and the account has been permanently limited
smartface : did they actually question you?
OiNK :  of course, for hours
OiNK : the police had very limited technical knowledge, which made the interview quite amusing actually.
OiNK :  i wasn’t willing to teach them how to use a computer
OiNK :  they actually wanted me to teach them how to set up a website
OiNK : i just told them to google it.
smartface : have you become a millionarie with our donations?
OiNK : no
smartface : are you planned for a trial anytime soon?
OiNK : the earliest date for trial is 26th december – though highly unlikely

Xenafor : IS YOUR FATHER OKAY AS WELL?
OiNK : my father is fine.
OiNK : my father was not arrested, though they did take his work laptop
Xenafor : Are you a vegetarian?
OiNK : yes.

apelure : what does the charges about fraud mean?
OiNK : i’ve not been charged …

Stormx2 : Everyone is first and foremost concerned for you and everything, but at the back of our minds (I think) we’re interested in what you think will happen the the pink palace. Obviously you won’t have a starring roll, but will the backups be destroyed?
OiNK : " why would backups be destroyed?

j2los : do you think at minimum the forums will be restored as a community for discussing music?
OiNK : i don’t know
j2los : do you think it is absurd that only now that the site has been taken down has it been deemed notable enough for a wikipedia article?
OiNK : i found that amusing, yes
OiNK : i’m glad the article is staying neutral

guildmast : Are there any plans for an official OiNK donations fund we can feel comfortable donating to?
OiNK : not yet

ftdrs : seriously though, what did they accuse you of?
OiNK : conspiracy to defraud and copyright infringements

maxdoubt : do you have/need legal representation?
OiNK : i’m still deciding on legal advice

Kevix : did you have any warning before hand that the knock open your door was coming?
OiNK : no

Yawg : did you anticipate a raid in the past? Did you take any precautions regarding site design and logs and whatnot to protect the community?
OiNK : the logs we store aren’t enough to inciminate users

Gl1mw0rm : are you still the rigtfull owner of the oink.cd domain?
OiNK : unclear

Barth : what about the recent security/privacy changes to the site and the irc? was that a coincidence or did you see something coming?
OiNK : coincidence

midnightgt : (without incriminating anyone) is there any copy of the source anywhere? Would you be in support of a second coming of the website? How do you think this reflects on the war on file sharing? (Certainly I do not feel like we are losing)
OiNK : sorry, no comment

ATF : did you get fired from work?
OiNK : yes

Well that answers a lot of questions I am sure. If you have been an OiNK user in the past please tell how it feels like when the site is no more. I am keeping my fingers crossed for sure. I am pretty much sure something like OiNK will come up somewhere soon.

Via IRC Logs

]]> http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/ssshhh-oink-admin-speaks/feed/ 2 http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/leopard-retail-iso-available-on-bittorrent/ http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/leopard-retail-iso-available-on-bittorrent/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:24:41 +0000 Karthik Kastury http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/leopard-retail-iso-available-on-bittorrent/ Read The Rest →]]>

I have to say Apple has done a brilliant job so far to prevent the retail version of Leopard from leaking on BitTorrent this long, but unfortunately they couldn’t keep things tight any longer and now we have Leopard all over the BitTorrent planet. I for one don’t own a Mac so downloading Leopard doesn’t make much sense, but I know a lot of people who want to download the Retail version thru BitTorrent and I have received over a dozen mails from people asking me where I could download Leopard from.

Well guys Leopard is pretty cheap, and it sells much less than Windows Vista Ultimate does, so I suggest you hop onto Amazon and get yourself a legal copy. But if you still interested to try out Leopard before the whole world even though it is illegal then read on…

Well finding the torrent shouldn’t be hard for most of you, but here a few details that will help you find the right torrent..

• Torrent Release Name : APPLE.MAC.OSX.LEOPARD.V10.5.ISO-OSX
• Size : 6.56 GB

I am still contemplating whether to post the Torrent links or not, so finally I have decided to do it this time around, so there you go,

• Leopard on Demonoid
• Leopard on PirateBay

Reading the comments on both Demonoid and Piratebay I have every reason to believe that this is definitely the real Torrent. Go ahead and fire up your Torrent Client and start downloading.

Disclaimer : dailyApps does not encourage Piracy so please go and buy yourself a copy of Leopard legally rather than being a cheap dumbo..

]]> http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/leopard-retail-iso-available-on-bittorrent/feed/ 6 http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/new-windows-xp-sp3-beta-build-3205-leaked-to-bittorrent/ http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/new-windows-xp-sp3-beta-build-3205-leaked-to-bittorrent/#comments Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:35:41 +0000 Karthik Kastury http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/new-windows-xp-sp3-beta-build-3205-leaked-to-bittorrent/ Read The Rest →]]>

Well this is the 3rd major leak for Microsoft, this month, first it was Windows Vista SP1, then Home Server and now its Windows XP SP3′s latest build that was released to Connect testers just a few days back. The latest build of Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been leaked on BitTorrent and is available on almost all popular torrent trackers.

Windows XP SP3 isn’t ready to be called as beta as yet, as it seems to be a preview of what we can expect from the 3rd Service pack. While the download was made available to Microsoft Connect testers its leak means that more than 12000 people that Microsoft originally planned will test SP3 are going to be able to get their hands on the preview.

Finding the torrent shouldn’t be hard if you are already a pro when it comes to filesharing, but here are some details that I managed to extract,

• Filename : windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu.exe
• Size : 334.92 MB

If you can’t find the torrent link, drop me a email and I will try to help you. If you are planning to download and test this latest build, then drop in your comments as to what you feel is new and changed from the last build.