Month: December 2015

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For millions of people around the world, Kodi – or XBMC as it used to be known – is one of the best pieces of software for viewing pirate content online. However, this capability is certainly not available ‘out of the box’.

Kodi, which is simply a media player at heart, is compatible with third-party addons that can turn it into a piracy powerhouse providing free access to movies, TV shows and live sports. This has made it one of the most popular tools for viewing streaming content.

For the XBMC Foundation, the people behind the legitimate Kodi app, this pirate association has developed into a thorn in the side. Last November the foundation began taking action against infringers, filing complaints with eBay over members who sold Kodi-loaded hardware for the purpose of viewing pirate content.

But no matter how hard the foundation tries to distance itself from piracy there are constant reminders, sometimes from the most unexpected of directions. Most recently it was the turn of Nvidia, one of the world’s largest graphics technology companies.

In an article titled ‘How to Install Kodi Add-ons on NVIDIA SHIELD’ and published late last month, Nvidia revealed that Kodi is “hands down” one of the most popular apps on the SHIELD Android TV.

“Where Kodi really shines is in the world of user-created add-ons,” Nvidia said.

“We’ll be posting a follow-up article soon highlighting the best Kodi add-ons. Until then, here is a quick How to on installing Kodi Add-ons.”

To be clear, Nvidia did not specifically advise users to install illegal software. What it did do, however, was to point its readers to a tool on TVaddons, a site that has become known not only for the promotion and development of totally legitimate software, but also a range of ‘pirate’ addons for Kodi.

The screenshot provided by Nvidia

Nvidia then proceeded to offer instructions on how to install Fusion, a package containing addons which allow the viewing of anything from user-uploaded content to the latest movies. Again, there is no indication that the company intended to directly advise people on how to access pirate content (note:in countries such as the Netherlands, facilitating the viewing of pirate streams is yet to be made illegal) but the software being installed certainly provided that capability in spades.

The faux pas might have gone unnoticed but soon complaining posts began to appear on Kodi’s official forums, made worse by the fact that Nvidia is an official Kodi sponsor.

“Didn’t want to post this, but since Nvidia is a sponsor and apparently Team Kodi does have a rapport with them, maybe someone should tell them that this isn’t helpful,” wrote one user while linking to Nvidia’s article.

These concerns were quickly addressed by Kodi Project Manager Nate Thomas.

“Already taken care of,” Thomas wrote.

By Tuesday this week the piece had gone (cache copy) but it soon reappeared in heavily edited form. Gone were the references to Fusion and TVaddons.ag to be replaced by a cautionary tale about staying legal.

“You can find Kodi add-ons in ‘repositories’ and we highly recommend only using the add-ons in the official Kodi repository as that’s the best way to make sure that you’ll not only have add-ons that the company trusts, but you’ll also find yourself on the right side of the law,” the new variant reads.

While the misstep by Nvidia has now been corrected, it appears the whole thing could’ve been avoided. Just recently the company was cautioned by the Kodi team against connecting its product with those who use the software for infringement.

“Only a few weeks ago we visited Nvidia and during the meeting we actually clearly discussed this topic on what they should include in their blog posts to stay out of the gray area and if they had any doubts or questions they could always ask. Still this happened,” Martijn from Team Kodi reports.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

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Ein wunderschöner Flug als Adler in Eagle Flight, Sport mit riesigen Robotern und Luftkämpfe in den Düsenjägern von Ace Combat 7: Die Spieleproduktion für Virtual Reality brummt - und Sony hat gleich mehrere Titel für Playstation VR vorgestellt. (Playstation VR, Sony)

Amazon is offering discounts on a number of its Fire products today including the Amazon Fire TV and several Amazon Fire tablets. While there’s no $35 tablet this time around, some other tablets are cheaper today than they were on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Here’s a roundup of Amazon’s current fire sale: Amazon Fire HD […]

Amazon Fire sale (on tablets, TV boxes) is a post from: Liliputing

From copyrighting nothing to too many copyright notices, read the news roundup for the week ending 6 December 2015

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Google Android may have started out as an operating system for smartphones, but these days you can buy tablets, Android TV boxes, smartwatches, and other products powered by the OS. But for the most part Android is still very much optimized for touchscreen devices. Jide has been working to change that. Earlier this year the […]

Remix Mini review: A $70 Android desktop PC is a post from: Liliputing

In an effort to increase its revenues BitTorrent Inc. added advertising to its uTorrent and Mainline clients three years ago.

While users can dive into the advanced settings and remove all ads, most don’t seem to be bothered by the occasional advertisement.

A few weeks ago BitTorrent Inc. invited its bundle publishers to use the ads to promote their content, referring them to their DIY advertising network.

“Artists and publishers can now advertise with BitTorrent, getting your work in front of millions of fans of music, movies and software around the world,” the company wrote in an email.

BitTorrent’s advertising platform lists several statistics that reveal some interesting details on users of the uTorrent and Mainline clients.

For example, the clients have roughly 170 million active users per month. The vast majority (92%) are male, with the prime demographic being educated and tech savvy 18-34 year-olds.

The advertising network also shows some interesting stats on the number of ad impressions the two clients have available. BitTorrent Inc. currently supports two ad formats which each have an estimated 3,397,615,000 views per month, based on statistics from the last 30 days.

That’s good for well over 100 million impressions per banner format per day, and over 200 million in total.

BitTorrent’s ad options

While these numbers are certainly impressive, the revenue is relatively modest. BitTorrent sells its worldwide traffic for 7 cents per 1,000 views, which is one of the lowest tiers in the ad industry.

That said, if all banner spots were to be sold, BitTorrent Inc. would make over $14,000 per day, which is still pretty decent. It’s also possible that there are better rates for certain kinds of ads that are sold outside the advertising network.

In addition to banner advertising the uTorrent client also generates revenue through bundled software. BitTorrent Inc. doesn’t publish any figures but it’s known that these type of offers can reach $1 per install.

For some users these revenue sources are cause for complaints. BitTorrent Inc. is aware of this critique and has recently announced that it is exploring other options, including direct financial support from users.

For now, however, uTorrent and the Mainline client will continue to serve hundreds of millions of ads every day.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Der ehemalige Microsoft-Chef Steve Ballmer kritisiert seinen Nachfolger. Nach Auffassung von Ballmer sollten alle Windows-Phone-Smartphones in der Lage sein, Android-Apps auszuführen. (Microsoft, Android)

Ein Surface Phone soll kommen - allerdings dauert das noch. Microsoft hat das Surface-Team darauf angesetzt, ein Oberklasse-Smartphone auf Basis von Windows 10 Mobile zu entwickeln. Dabei wird eng mit Intel zusammengearbeitet. (Microsoft, Smartphone)