TorrentFreak » vista

Integrating BitTorrent in Vista Media Centre

Smaran — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:03:11 +0000

Whatever faithful Mac/Linux users like me might say, there’s no denying that Windows XP is the most widely used operating system, and it’s only inevitable that Vista will inherit the thrown from its ageing predecessor. Therefore, the most important platform for any BitTorrent developer is Windows. And what better way for BitTorrent to take on mainstream media stores like iTunes than to nestle itself right in the middle of what will be the most widely used media centre software? If there’s one thing that can give the AppleTV a run for its money, it’s a BitTorrent media centre.

Aufero is everything you’d want in a media centre. Here’s a list of features.

It lets you:

manage any existing media you have.
create a “wish list” of videos you would like to watch, and then have those videos automatically downloaded once they become available.
view trailers, reviews and previews, and download torrents related to them.
manually download torrents you feed it.
seamlessly playback videos in an array of formats on your Xbox 360 (not just WMVs).
receive “subtle notifications” on your screen after something on your wish list has been found, downloaded, unpacked, indexed and moved into your library.
receive e-mail notifications of relevant events when you’re not in front of your TV.
Lastly, Aufero is simple to use and tries to increase the “wife appeal” by making it easy for less tech-savvy people to make use of.

Best of all, it sounds like the developer is planning to release Aufero under an open source license. I think Microsoft should be thanking him, because he’s just created a worthy Windows-based competitor to the AppleTV. Sadly, there’s almost no chance of that happening. For his own “protection”, the developer isn’t disclosing anything about himself, not even his name. All we know is that he (or she?) is Dutch.

Aufero is not yet available for download, as it’s in the early alpha testing phase. If you look at some of the screenshots, this is made obvious by the current UI, which is rather unpolished. But the developer stresses that it’s not complete yet.

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Microsoft Frames VistaTorrent Cease and Desist Letter

Ernesto — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 11:44:52 +0000

Mirosoft gave the guys behind vistatorrent.com a framed version of the cease and desist letter that took down their site.

Although the demand for Microsoft’s second Vista Beta is extremely high, Microsoft refused to release a torrent for “security” reasons.

At the Gnomedex conference Chris Pirillo, one of the organizers, and the initiator of vistatorrent.com received a nice “gift” from Microsoft. It probably Microsoft’s way to let them know that they appreciate the initiative. Pretty funny…

Manager of Microsoft’s community team Aaron Coldiron said:

“Jake and Chris we obviously love, and we thought it was a great attempt. Of course, it does violate the EULA (End User License Agreement). Things do happen, and we thought this would be a lighthearted way to say, ‘Nice try.’ “

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Vista Beta Torrent Not An Option

Ernesto — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 15:31:16 +0000

The demand for Microsoft’s second Vista Beta is so high that they have to limit the bandwidth to prevent the internet from collapsing (not my words). However, they can’t release it over BitTorrent for some vague reason.

At least, according to a chat Chris Pirillo had with MS Mindshare Manager Aaron Coldiron. Coldiron said:

We are pumping out bits as fast as we can. If we pushed out bits any faster there would be a measurable impact for the Internet. So, we are literally saying that if we increased our bandwidth any further there’s a possibility of taking down the Internet

When Chris asked why they couldn’t just seed it as a torrent, Coldiron responded:

There are legal and privacy issues which unfortunately make that not an option for Microsoft to officially sponsor a BitTorrent. I really wish we could do it, but we can’t. If someone [seeds or downloads a torrent] we can’t guarantee that they’ve got an unaltered copy, etc.

This is obviously bullshit, Legal and Privacy issues? Sounds to me like Microsoft just isn’t capable to produce an MD5 hash, like Chris Pirillo already noted.

Update: BitTorrent.com and vistatorrent now provide clean Vista Beta torrents

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