Internet & Websites News - Page 48

Just yesterday, Google has published their brand new 'Best Apps of 2014' list which features some old favorites alongside new big hits.

If you're looking for old favorites; Shazam, Swiftkey Keyboard and TED made the list. These are displayed proudly next to newer offerings such as Over or Strive. It's interesting to see a distinct lack of music service providers missing out of this list, with no Pandora or Spotify listed - however if you're on the path for love, OkCupid has made an appearance quite near to the top of the page.

There is a rather large range of applications on offer in this list as expected, with applications being spread over utilities, music, gaming and social culture.

A California company has a novel approach to solve problems with delivering fast internet to remote and rural locations. The system can even deliver speeds faster than fiber in locations where laying fiber isn't a financially viable option. Lasers can beam signals up to 10km per jump by utilizing a technology called COR (Composite Optical RF). Each 10km span will merely end up with another repeater, and series of these can deliver up to 2 gigabits per second over amazing distances.

This isn't the first time lasers have been envisioned for backhaul internet applications, but the differentiator is the hybrid nature of the system. Inclement weather, such as rain, dust storms, and other factors, can disrupt laser transmissions. Fog can disrupt millimeter radio as well. The AOptix system also employs millimeter-wave radio in tandem with laser optics. Complex algorithms merge the laser and millimeter wave radio into one cohesive system that essentially provides fault-tolerance in inclement weather.

AOptix also envisions use in the financial sector because the system is actually faster than point-to-point fiber. Anove Technologies has also gotten involved in the project to help tailor it for use in the High Frequency Trading market. Other uses include easy-to-deploy emergency kits, which would come in very handy during disaster relief operations. Militaries will also likely find the technology very attractive. AOptix solutions include mobile backhaul, last mile access, fiber diversity, fiber extension, financial markets, and ad hoc networks.

BitTorrent has successfully appealed to musicians willing to share their music using the company's "Bundles" feature, and has stepped up with the announcement of its first original programming. Children of the Machine features human survivors in the year 2031, trying to survive in an android machine-controlled world.

Children of the Machine will launch in late 2015, and will feature an eight-episode mini-series that will be free with advertising. The series will cost $4.95 without advertisements and $9.95 for a special edition version that includes extra features.

"This is a science fiction show catered to the typical tech-savvy, male-dominated audience," said Marco Weber, the show's producer. "We're not trying to launch a romantic comedy, so the concept of this show moved us toward BitTorrent."

Two men were arrested for their role in pirating the Expendables 3 movie, with officials from the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). The US release date for the movie was August 15, but copies of Expendables 3 were found online as early as July 25.

The two suspects, 36 and 33 years of age, reportedly uploaded the high-quality film after stealing it from a cloud-based storage system. Lionsgate Films said there was severe financial impact by the movie being related so early online, saying it cost millions of dollars in potential lost revenue.

"Today's operation shows you the significant impact intellectual property crime has on our creative industries, with millions of pounds being lost as a result of criminal actions," said Detective Chief Inspector Danny Medlycott, Head of PIPCU. "The public need to be aware that piracy is not a victimless crime. By downloading illegal music, film, TV and books, not only are you exposing your own computer to the risk of viruses and malware, but you are also putting hardworking people's livelihoods at risk as piracy threatens the security of thousands of jobs in the UK's creative industries."

A whopping 83 percent of Internet users believe affordable and stable Internet access should be a basic human right, according to the CIGI-Ipsos Global Survey on Internet Security and Trust. More than two-thirds of the world's population don't have Internet access just yet, but there are more campaigns to help people across the world begin to access the Web - largely on mobile devices, such as mobile phones and tablets.

"Overwhelming global public support for the idea that access to the Internet should be a human right also shows just how important the Internet has come to freedom of expression, freedom of association, social communication, the generation of new knowledge, and economic opportunity and growth," said Fen Hampson, director of the CIGI Global Security and Politics Program.

"Unless they are brought online, a world of Internet 'have and have-nots' will not only contribute to income inequality, but also stifle the world's full potential for prosperity and innovation."

What's one of people's favorite things to do these days? Complain about Facebook. For those who wish to do more than simply 'like for world peace', Tsu has offered up their own social networking alternative for those gutsy enough to make the plunge.

The first question you've got to ask is, what does Tsu do differently to the other copious amounts of Facebook alternatives out there? A quick look at their information page points something out straight away - "Social media should be paying you".

According to Tsu, you can sign up today - all you need is an invite from another member, or you can use the generic invite that they will provide to you anyway. They believe that they will be leading the 'social revolution', providing 90% of their total revenue from advertising and sales towards their customer base.

Just this week, iiNet's chief executive David Buckingham accused Telstra of failing to maintain its copper line networks, resulting in many customers experiencing connectivity and speed issues across Australia.

I know what you're thinking straight away - "copper, what the hell?". Unfortunately for Australians, Telstra owns almost all of the phone and internet infrastructure - so when another company like iiNet wants to provide these services to consumers, they must do so through Telstra's existing lines. The claim here is that iiNet is not to fault for their poor performance as of late, but it's Telstra's issue - basically 'passing the blame' onto the older brother.

Theories have emerged that Telstra are refusing to maintain their copper network because it is set to be sold to the government as plans ramp up for the 'National Broadband Network' (NBN) to be implemented - this is developed into either 'Fiber To The Node' (FTTN) or 'Fiber To The Home' (FTTH) depending on where you are located.

Just how much data does Netflix stream every month? A damn lot, that's how much. The US-based streaming company in the first quarter of 2014, streamed some 6.5 billion hours of videos, equating to over over 19.5 million terabytes of video streamed. With Netflix streaming 6.5 million terabytes per month, the company will have streamed 78 million terabytes before the end of the year.

Last year, Netflix streamed just 4 billion hours of video, with over 12 million terabytes of data in Q1 2013, so we're seeing quite the uptick in the amount of people using Netflix. But how will the company deal with things going into the future, as we move toward more 1080p streaming, and then 4K? HD uses around 3GB per hour, but if 4K is used, that goes right up to 7GB per hour. This would increase the total data streamed every three months to around 45.5 million terabytes.

Many consumers filed complaints about companies who gave false promises of cleaning up PCs and taking take of other PC-related problems in ads from websites and through other means. Such scams sugar-coat their lies in the name of PC cleanup service, removal of unwanted and/or malicious files and even PC 'speed boost' services.

According to consumers, they said that the 'service' offered to help them remove malicious software and system errors in an over exaggerated manner for either free, trial or minimal cost... at first. But as the 'support' progresses, the consumer falls down the rabbit hole where the tech support and sales agents use scare tactics to extort more money under the name of 'service plans'.

The FTC and the State of Florida said that many of these PC clean up service scammers were able to earn more than $120 million. The FTC was able to get a court order which will enable them to temporarily shut down tech support scams. Some of these companies were named, such as PC Cleaner Inc, Netcom Global Inc, Netcom3 Software Inc, PC Vitalware LLC and few others.

The expansion of 4K content and high frame rate movies present graphically appealing content, but digital animation studios are struggling, a recent industry expert noted. Production schedules could be impacted due to high-resolution images, forcing studios to reconsider how they create films.

"They are both going to present a huge challenge," said Bruno Mahe, Illumination Mac Guff technical head recently told the BBC. Traditional animated films are viewed at 2K resolution with 24 frames per resolution, but 4K boosts the videos up to 4K resolution and 48fps - and it isn't an easy transition.

In addition to slowing down production, studios also need increasingly powerful render farms to produce images and send them to other animation facilities.