![\"Copyright\"](\"http:\/\/www.digital-digest.com\/blog\/DVDGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/copyright.gif\" "\\"Copyright\\"")
<\/p>\nHappy Belated Valentine’s Day. Hope you and your loved one had a nice, sweet and romantic day, full or roses and chocolates and other nice things. If you’re single, then don’t be too sad and just think\u00a0of all the money you’ve saved!<\/p>\n
No time to waste, so let’s get started on this slightly shorter than usual WNR.<\/p>\n
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![\"RapidShare](\"http:\/\/www.digital-digest.com\/blog\/DVDGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/rapidshare_logo.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/a>RapidShare to cease operations by the end of March, falling popularity due to tough anti-piracy measures may be to blame<\/p><\/div>\n
RapidShare is no more, or rather, it will be no more very soon<\/a>. The\u00a0cyberlocker firm, once the darling of pirates due to how easy it was to upload, and download pirated content from the site, then turned copyright reformer (complete with manifesto<\/a>) and vowed to walk the straight and narrow. But perhaps too straight, and too narrow, so much so that traffic to the site dropped so rapidly<\/a> (a-pun-logies) that I guess it no longer made sense for the site to keep running.<\/p>\n Which is a shame, because the site did provide a valuable service. That the service was abused by pirates, and also that monetization for the site comes largely via these pirated downloads, is just unfortunate. Services like Dropbox perhaps just had a better balance between private file sharing (useless for pirating), and public sharing, and so are able to survive, not just\u00a0financially, but also legally.<\/p>\n The irony of RapidShare’s detour via the moral high ground is that it was added back to the piracy black list<\/a>\u00a0last year – so much for trying to do the right thing!<\/p>\n The PS4 and Xbox One already support 4K, although Netflix believes new versions with enhanced 4K support could come later this year<\/p><\/div>\n The first hardware revision for the PS4 and Xbox One may bring more than just a smaller footprint – Netflix believes (and perhaps knows) that the update, which could come before Christmas 2015, could also add 4K video streaming support<\/a>.<\/p>\n If history is correct, both consoles will receive a\u00a0hardware upgrade by the end of\u00a0the year, probably “slim” versions that may also be accompanied by a price cut. It is during this update that\u00a0Netflix’s Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt thinks enhanced 4K support will be added.<\/p>\n Both\u00a0current-gen consoles\u00a0actually already support 4K, but only 24\/30 FPS playback, a limitation of the HDMI 1.4 port used by both consoles. But\u00a0Hunt believes that the next hardware revision for the consoles will add in HDMI 2.0 support, which then enables 50\/60 FPS 4K playback, something that Netflix does not yet use, but could by the end of the year. Other features, like\u00a0HDR (high dynamic range) support, could also be added via an upgraded HDMI port.<\/p>\n One country that won’t be needing 4K Netflix any time soon would be Cuba. You might think this is a strange segue, but it’s\u00a0actually not that strange. You see,\u00a0thanks to President Obama’s initiative to reopen diplomatic ties with Cuba, Netflix has taken the opportunity to become one of the first American companies to officially do business with the island nation. Cubans can now sign up to Netflix<\/a> and access the complete Netflix library, TV shows and movies that are the\u00a0products of\u00a0capitalist excess. Of course, the number of Cubans who have Internet access, a connection that’s fast enough, and also have\u00a0enough money to pay for the monthly subscription (and an international credit or debit card), might not be a big enough market for Netflix to earn anything. Not to get too political here, but\u00a0I suspect this is exactly what the Obama administration had hoped would happen, to not only allow Americans to (legally) visit the country, but to also allow Cubans a view and a taste of American\u00a0life.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n