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Filed under: Internet, P2P

New version of BitTorrent heralds a new age of uncongested file sharing


You probably all know what BitTorrent is: it's the technology that powers almost every peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing tool currently in existence. Whether for nefarious, dubious downloads, or for grabbing the latest distribution of Ubuntu, BitTorrent comes to our swift rescue on its mighty steed of share-and-share-alike virtuosity.

What you probably didn't know is that BitTorrent Inc., the company created by the technology's inventor Bram Cohen, spends most of its time extolling the virtues of its tech and campaigning all over the world for the relaxing of P2P restrictions by ISPs. The thing is, while BitTorrent really, really rocks for its users, it tends to clog up networks really quickly. It also costs the ISP -- such as Verizon or Comcast -- a lot more than 'normal' Internet usage.

But it's this disparity between what the ISPs consider to be 'normal' Internet usage and what we the users consider 'normal' that has driven the development of 'BitTorrent 2.0' or uTP. (uTorrent Protocol? I'm not sure.) BitTorrent Inc. firmly believes that P2P is part of our every-day Internet lives. It is our right to download and distribute files via BitTorrent.

And if ISPs won't let us, insisting on limitations and traffic-shaping the bandwidth that we use, then they're going to develop a new protocol that meets them at least half way. uTP now automatically limits its own bandwidth use when it detects congestion on the network -- uTP limits itself so that the ISP doesn't have to.

Genius, pure, simple genius -- if it works. It's already being tested by thousands of users of the new version of uTorrent 2.0 -- which you should probably go and download! (Direct download link is available on that page.)

[via TorrentFreak]

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Web services, Freeware, Windows x64

SkyDrive Explorer adds 25gb of free cloud storage to Windows Explorer

A lot of people overlook Microsoft's SkyDrive for free, web-based file storage and sharing. Still, it's tough to argue with 25gb of free space for your digital goodies that you can access from anywhere. SkyDrive Explorer is a free shell enhancement for Windows that makes it even better.

Once you install SkyDrive Explorer, you'll see a new icon in My Computer (under "Other"). Double click it to open your drive, and a Live login window will appear. Sign in and you've got full-on access to SkyDrive right from Windows Explorer. Add files and folders, move things around, delete old junk - all as if they were stored on your local hard drive.

I'd like to see the app allow access to SkyDrive from open and save dialogs, but it's a great addition to Windows even without that functionality.

SkyDrive Explorer runs on both 32 and 64-bit Windows.

[via gHacks]

Filed under: P2P, Social Software, web 2.0

Facebook still hates P2P, pulls the pin on Limewire sharing integration

Earlier this year, The Pirate Bay debuted a nifty little feature that allowed users to post interesting torrents to their Facebook profiles. Zuckerberg's army scrambled quickly and put the kibosh on that interaction.

Limewire recently introduced a similar feature -- which Facebook has now given a swift whack with the banhammer. Limewire's Jason Herskowit told TorrentFreak that Facebook originally demanded a number of changes to the feature, and their developers complied.

A week later, and the Ministry of Facebook has decided that Limewire's integration is doubleplusungood and must be killed. According to the official Facebook statement, "Facebook respects the rights of copyright holders blah blah blah ad nauseum."

So let me get this clear: it's ok to form and join all kinds of hate groups, but you don't want us letting our friends know when we find an interesting download? That makes plenty of sense to me.

Yes, the general perception of Limewire and P2P users is that they're all after free music and stealing it willy-nilly through Bittorrent and Gnutella. However, there are plenty of legitimate uses. For example, Limewire's newer versions include private sharing for things like family photos that you want to keep semi-private.

Of course, Facebook probably doesn't want you notifying friends of your legitimate Limewire files either. They'd rather you upload those pics to their servers and tag the ever-loving crap out of them.

Pro tip: you can still just post links to taboo stuff like torrents manually - for now. Who knows, Facebook could be working on a massive blacklist so we can't even do that eventually.

[via TorrentFreak]

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Filed under: Beta, Browsers

Opera Unite gets bumped to beta, works better with other browsers


When I last tried Opera Unite, it was still in its very early stages. I had trouble getting a few of the default applications to play nicely with Firefox and Google Chrome.

Late last night, the beta version became available and it looks like Unite has learned to play well with others. I didn't experience any of the strange glitches I had when trying to play back audio files or browse folders that I did with the alpha build.

Fresh Unite installs include basic file sharing, photo sharing, media player, messenger (lets you IM your Opera friends), lounge (chat room), the fridge (a message board), and web server. User created services have started appearing as well.

Some that you might find useful include the Uploader and Document Courier - both of which allow others to send files to your system - and a streaming media server. There's also a Unite-powered OpenID provider you can install if you want to serve your own identity URL.

You can grab the new Unite beta from Softpedia (click the External Mirror - Beta 1 link), and get the additional services straight from Opera.

Filed under: Web services, P2P

s4ve.as offers simple 24-hour file hosting

There are plenty of places that will host your files for free. Many of them, however, have bandwidth limits or size restrictions, or are just too darn complicated to bother with. s4ve.as offers the basics I want from a free host and is dead simple to use.

As Jay mentioned to me, it's kind of like a beefed-up Senduit. While Senduit offers customizable time-before-self-destruct, it's got a 100Mb limit. That's just not enough in a lot of cases. s4ve.as does away with size limitations, so you're free to upload whatever the heck you want.

Simplicity is key here - browser for any file, and click upload. When the transfer is complete, integrated bit.ly support gives you an automatic short url to paste into sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Just make sure you tell your pals to grab it within 24 hours. After that, it's gone, daddy, gone.

Thanks for the tip, Scott!

Filed under: News, Humor

Bittorrent banned from Antarctica, and boy, are the penguins pissed

We all had a good little chuckle when Firefox took Antarctica by storm, capturing 100% of the web browser market share. Today the news is not so rosy for bittorrent and peer-to-peer supporters.

The U.S. Antarctic Program has banned their use. From the official communique from the USAP's director of IT and communications:
There are many different Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications: BitTorrent, LimeWire, Gnutella, and KaZaa to name a few more popular ones. Some are used to download legitimate software and media, some illegitimate. None of them are permitted on the USAP enterprise network for both bandwidth and security concerns. P2P applications have the potential to overwhelm the internet connections on the Ice and inadvertently bring malicious software and traffic into the network.
An unhappy USAP employee wrote FreakBits "The gist I got from it was 'because you are all too dumb to use a computer correctly.' At least the plans for my secret uranium mine won't leak out while I'm down here freezing my ass off."

We went poking around the icy continent to see what other Antarcticans thought about the policy.

One penguin speaking on the condition of anonymity told us, "Hey, there are plenty of legitimate uses for bittorrent. It's going to take forever for our Linux group to download new distros now." He added, "We're not all trying to download episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County like Professor Opposable Thumbs over there."

And he's right. He stinks like greasy fish, but he's right. Bittorrent and peer-to-peer apps aren't the problem. It's inappropriate use and carelessness that's the problem.

The penguins plan on staging a protest later this month, though they refused to announce any details at this point. "We don't want to jeopardize the operation," said our source.

[via FreakBits]

Filed under: Commercial, Open Source, P2P

Limewire gets improved torrent support in new beta thanks to LibTorrent


While most of you probably prefer using a standalone torrent application, Limewire is actually the most widely-installed client in the world. In the most recent beta version, the Limewire team have greatly improved the program's torrent handling chops.

By adding LibTorrent to the mix, Limewire now includes the engine powering such apps as Halite, Deluge, Miro, Free Download Manager, and more. As a result, the new version gains support for IPv6, Mainline DHT, UDP tracking and HTTP seeding, local peer discovery, and peer exchange (PEX).

Interestingly, being the most widely-installed app doesn't translate into actual use. As TorrentFreak points out, in a survey of nearly 200,000 bittorrent peers only 43 were using Limewire.

Why so few? Limewire users are generally only after the its Gnutella downloading abilities, though as torrenting become more mainstream the program will no doubt be an attractive option for the average user.

Filed under: Utilities, Web services, Web

DropRecord: send one file to multiple hosting providers


Sites like Rapidshare and Megaupload tend to be used heavily by music blogs and other sites that don't have the bandwidth or the storage space to handle a high volume of downloads. Even the biggest mirror services can get bogged down, though. Sometimes one mirror will be slow, your file will be taken down, or you'll reach the limited number of downloads some sites allow. Mirroring your file on several services at once is a possible solution, and DropRecord makes it easy to upload to all of them at once.

Ok, so maybe DropRecord doesn't upload to every single mirror out there, but it hits around a dozen sites, most of which you've probably heard of: the aforementioned Rapidshare and Megaupload, Zshare, Mediafire and Sendspace are all included. You can also search DropRecord for files people have uploaded with it. The only catch is the 500mb upload limit, but a lot of individual mirror sites impose similar caps.

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Freeware, Open Source, P2P, Beta

Limewire 5 beta released

Last month I took you on a visual tour of the alpha version of the upcoming Limewire v5. As announced on Limewire forums yesterday, the peer to peer app has now hit beta and is taking shape rather nicely.

The interface has been totally rebuilt from scratch, and jabber support has been added. Results from your friends will now appear above those from other P2P users. Of note for developers, the open source API has also been retooled and the wiki is being updated with new tutorials on working with it.

You can download the Limewire 5 beta version for all platforms from this page.

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Freeware, P2P

Upload files to 100+ hosts from your Windows desktop

If you're a frequent uploader of files, Zoom's File & Image Uploader is well worth a download.

It supports more than 70 file hosting services, including popular options like Mediafire, Megaupload, Rapidshare, Sendspace and 23 image hosts like Imageshack and Tinypic. Multi-server options like Rapidspread and MassMirror are also included.

When adding files to your queue, you can select image or file hosts. Choose a host, and FUP will display key information about the service like maximum file size, duration of storage, and acceptable file types. Multiple files can be queued during a single add action, as long as they're all headed to the same host.

Parallel uploading is supported up to a maximum of eight at a time. When uploads complete, FUP displays links to your files and embed codes. Want to verify things? Right click and choose "open in IE" to view your upload in your default browser.

File & Image Uploader is a free download for Windows only, and it's a great tool for anyone who uses file hosting services on a regular basis.

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Productivity

Send files out fast with uSend.io

There are a lot of sites for quickly sharing files, but some of them are painfully slow or require registration. If you want to send a file with a minimum of fuss, and the file happens to be 100mb or smaller, give uSend.io a look. It's powered by drop.io, and the upload speeds when I tested it were excellent compared to similar sites. This is now my go-to site for sending any medium-sized file to a friend.

Besides being fast, uSend.io also has some nice extra touches. The test file I used was an AAC from my iTunes library, and usend.io converted it to mp3 to generate an in-browser preview. Of course, when I went to download the file, it was still in the original AAC form. Beautiful. The download pages for uSend.io files are hosted on drop.io, so you can also link, embed, or share you file with additional contacts via email. It's an all-around smooth experience.

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Beta

Dropbox Opens Its Online Sync And Backup to the Public

Dropbox has gone public, opening it's file sharing and backup services to the public. The cross-platform tool makes it easy for users of multiple computers and operating systems to keep their files safely backed up and in sync.

Brad first posted about Dropbox in March, and the development team has been hard at work ever since.

Once you've uploaded a file, the software is smart enough to upload only the changes. For anyone who has an ISP with a ridiculous upload cap (30k/s for me) it's a welcome feature, since it means I won't be uploading a 75 megabyte PSD over and over. It also makes sharing work with my Mac-using partner a snap.

The web interface - "Now with lots of Ajax!" according to Dropbox - has seen a number of improvements. It handles multiple uploads nicely, and makes accessing and storing files a breeze even when you're not using the desktop client.

You can view a screencast of the service, or take the old-fashioned tour if you'd prefer.

Dropbox is feature packed, gives you 2 gigabytes of free, online storage, and is definitely one of the better services available.

Filed under: Internet, Web services, P2P, web 2.0

Upload, Share, and Mirror in One Step With Rapidspread


There are plenty of great places to upload and share files, so why not use a bunch of them all at once?

Rapidspread is a a simple file upload site that automatically forwards your files to as many as 10 filesharing sites. From the upload page, simply browse for your file(s), agree to the terms of service, and click share. Once the upload is complete, RapidSpread displays a URL to send to your friends as well as direct links to your file on the supported hosts it's been transferred to.

My test rar file successfully uploaded to eight of the ten possible hosts - not too shabby. When I chose to upload several images, RapidSpread was even smart enough to limit mirroring to the media-sharing services (ImageShack, Badongo, ZShare, and ZippyShare).

Anyone that uploads files on a regular basis will appreciate the simplicity and power of RapidSpread. If the developers would just intergrate a short URL service like bit.ly, this would be a truly killer service. Give it a shot, and see how it stacks up against your favorite service.

Thanks for the tip, Eran!

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Freeware, P2P

Cabos is Limewire for Minimalists


We've tried plenty of Gnutella clients that just aren't any good, and usually end up back with Frostwire or Limewire by default. Thankfully, Cabos has an excellent alternative for Windows and Mac users.

Cabos doesn't support torrents, and it doesn't have a built in media player, but who needs that anyway? Most of us have favorite apps for handling those files anyways, and Limewire probably isn't either of them. It simply searches the Gnutella network, displays your results, lets you filter and sort them six ways from Sunday, and downloads them quickly. It even offers basic iTunes integration.

There's no lime green splashed around the UI, just a tranquil, muted gray, and 21 languages are supported. It's totally ad-free and there are no nags - Cabos just does what you want it to and doesn't get in the way.

Filed under: Audio, Fun, Social Software, Beta, web 2.0

Fed up with trying to send music? SoundCloud it instead.

SoundCloud
A lot of web apps seem to be targeted at problems that nobody actually has. SoundCloud is smarter than that, focusing on a problem we have at least once a week: what's the best way to send a song to a friend? E-mail is a pain, you might not have ready access to an FTP server, and those weird Rapidshare-style upload sites can be more trouble than they're worth.

SoundCloud basically does two things: it sends music, and it receives music. It's the ideal setup for sending around demo copies of that new album you just finished mastering, or sharing the latest hit single (that you would never pirate because you're a law-abiding Internet citizen). There's great control over email notifications for new tracks sent to you and new comments on your songs, and you can play a song right from your SoundCloud account before you download it.

In terms of comments, the SoundCloud system is awesome. You can drop in a note at a specific point in a track -- Viddler users might be familiar with this feature for videos -- and follow your stats to see how many people are listening to your stuff. This just scratches the surface of SoundCloud's features, so be sure to check it out and apply for an invitation if it sounds interesting to you.

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