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Woot is selling a refurbished Acer C740 Chromebook for just $80 today. It’s not exactly a high-performance computer. It has less than half a year left before Google may stop offering automatic Chrome OS updates to it. But Chrome OS doesn’t …
Woot is selling a refurbished Acer C740 Chromebook for just $80 today. It’s not exactly a high-performance computer. It has less than half a year left before Google may stop offering automatic Chrome OS updates to it. But Chrome OS doesn’t stop working the day updates cease… and if you really want to, you can […]
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The latest Internet traffic report from Sandvine shows that global file-sharing traffic continues to rise. The same is true for VPN usage, which saw a drastic increase over the past year. According to Sandvine, increased fragmentation among legal video streaming services likely plays an important role in these trends.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.
Today’s Internet traffic patterns are completely different from those roughly a decade ago.
The most pronounced change in recent years has been the dominance of streaming services, mostly IPTV providers, Netflix, and YouTube.
While streaming remains the key traffic generator on the Internet today, file-sharing traffic is making quite a comeback. The early signs of this trend were already visible last year but new data from the Canadian broadband management company Sandvine show that this was no fluke.
Looking at the global application traffic share, we see that video streaming accounts for 60.6% of all downstream and 22.2% of all upstream traffic.
File-sharing has a very modest downstream market share, at just 4.2%, but it beats streaming when it comes to utilized upload bandwidth, 30.2% worldwide.
The relatively large upstream share makes sense, as that’s part of the nature of file-sharing. What’s more telling, perhaps, is the year-over-year growth numbers.
From 2018 to 2019, the share of file-sharing traffic increased by roughly 50% while the upstream share grew by 35%. Keep in mind that these numbers are relative, so in absolute terms, the traffic increases are even larger, as bandwidth usage continues to increase.
There are some regional differences in this trend. BitTorrent traffic, which is the largest chunk of all file-sharing traffic, has grown mostly in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific) regions, for example.
BitTorrent is currently most popular in the EMEA region where it is good for 5.3% of all downstream traffic and a massive 44.2% of all upstream traffic. In the APAC region, the figures are 4.5% and 24.8% respectively.
According to Sandvine, the resurgence of file-sharing traffic can be largely attributed to the fragmentation of the legal video streaming landscape. With more legal options and a limited budget, people increasingly resort to piracy, the company argues.
“Netflix aggregated content and made piracy reduce worldwide. With the ongoing fragmentation of the video market, and increase in attractive original content, piracy is on the rise again,” Sandvine’s Cam Cullen notes.
HBO is a crucial ‘fragment’ when it comes to torrent traffic. We have previously reported on the massive impact the last season of Game of Thrones had on BitTorrent traffic and this is confirmed by Sandvine’s data, as shown below. Interestingly, this bump wasn’t visible for Kodi-related traffic.
This Game of Thrones boost may have elevated the overall file-sharing market share this year, but that will become apparent when Sandvine releases its new figures next year.
While BitTorrent and file-sharing traffic increased globally, the Americas form an exception to this trend. There, the relative market share dropped slightly. However, that doesn’t mean that fewer people are using BitTorrent or that less data is being transferred.
For one, market share is relative and a slight drop is possible even if overall traffic increased. In addition, Sandvine’s data show a growing trend in VPN usage. The company closely monitors data used by 70 popular commercial VPNs and has noticed a major boost in usage.
Roughly 2% of all global downstream traffic can now be attributed to VPN traffic. Looking at the upstream traffic this percentage is even larger, 5%, suggesting that it’s often used for upload heavy purposes, such as file-sharing.
In the Americas, this VPN boom is particularly pronounced with the percentage of IPSec VPN traffic tripling to 7.7% of all upstream data. This goes up to almost 9% for all VPN traffic, Sandvine informs us.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if a lot of that traffic comes from BitTorrent transfers.
Finally, it’s worth noting that, while ‘file-sharing’ is often linked to piracy, the majority of all unauthorized media distribution takes place through streaming nowadays. In other words, ‘file-sharing’ is only a small fraction of the piracy landscape.
The streaming piracy traffic is part of Sandvine’s “http media stream” category which, for the first time in years, has a larger market share than Netflix.
The website Openload, which is often linked to streaming piracy, is even listed separately in the top 10 of all video streaming sources. With 2.4% of all downstream video streaming traffic on the global Internet, it’s safe to say that Openload uses a lot of bandwidth.
It will be interesting to see how these trends continue to develop during the coming years. It’s clear though, that file-sharing is not going anywhere, neither is BitTorrent, while the VPN boom only appears to be starting. A full copy of Sandvine’s latest Global Internet Phenomena report is available here.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.
Plus a Switch + Amazon gift card bundle, a Fire TV Stick 4K discount, and more.
Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)
Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today's list is headlined by a deal on Google's Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL phones, unlocked models of which are both $50 off. That brings them to $349.99 and $429.99, respectively. While some retailers bundled the phones with $100 store gift cards when they first launched, this marks the biggest outright discount we've seen for the devices from reputable stores to date.
That's notable, since the Pixel 3a was already a great value at its normal price point. We've recommended it a few times in the past, but the gist is that it gives you most of the better features of the full-fat Pixel 3 for half the original price. Namely, its camera is tremendous for a sub-$500 phone and still rivals those from higher-end Android flagships. Its OLED display is good for the money, it works with all the major US carriers, and you get first priority on Android software and security updates until May 2022 with Google's typically clean take on its own operating system. It also has a headphone jack, which the flagship does not.
As with any affordable phone, there are trade-offs. The design here is comfortable but mostly plastic, with nothing in the way of water resistance or wireless charging. The screen could be brighter, and the speakers could be louder. The Snapdragon 670 chip and 4GB of RAM are strong enough to smooth performance for most tasks—and the Dealmaster's personal Pixel 3a has held up fine after five months of use—but it's clearly a step down over time from top-of-the-line hardware. And the big elephant in the room is that Google is set to announce the Pixel 4 next week, which could result in clearance sales on the Pixel 3. But for now, those flaws aren't hard to overlook for $350, and this is still a fantastic value.
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The bill aims to protect consumers from unpleasant surprises.
Enlarge / A surveillance camera on display in Hamburg, Germany, in January 2019. (credit: Daniel Bockwoldt | picture alliance | Getty Images)
Much in the same way that food labels are now required to disclose the potential presence of allergens such as peanuts, one Senator is proposing a law that would require tech companies to include a label on products disclosing the presence of recording devices.
The bill, dubbed the Protecting Privacy in our Homes Act, would mandate a new kind of labeling on goods that include Internet-connected microphones or cameras. The proposed law does not define what kind of labels would need to be appended but rather would order the Federal Trade Commission to put in place specific regulations "under which each covered manufacturer shall be required to include on the packaging of each covered device manufactured by the covered manufacturer a notice that a camera or microphone is a component of the covered device."
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) introduced the bill to the Senate. "Consumers face a number of challenges when it comes to their privacy, but they shouldn’t have a challenge figuring out if a device they buy has a camera or microphone embedded into it," Gardner said. "This legislation is about consumer information, consumer empowerment, and making sure we’re doing everything we can to protect consumer privacy."
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An interview with architect Mark Cerny includes new hardware and software details.
Enlarge / Sony's DualShock 4 controller for the current-generation PlayStation. The report says the new controller looks similar, but has major new haptic features. (credit: Mark Walton)
Sony representatives have revealed substantial new details about the company's upcoming PlayStation 5 console in an interview with Wired. New features and improvements will include sophisticated haptics in the controller, a high-capacity disc format, hardware ray tracing, and a UI that lets users see in-game information before launching a game. Additionally, Sony confirmed that the console will be called the PlayStation 5 and that it will launch before the holidays in 2020.
Mark Cerny, the architect of the PlayStation 4, is returning as chief architect for the PlayStation 5. Earlier this year, he sat down with Wired to demonstrate Sony's work to eliminate load times with extremely fast solid-state drives and improved software stacks and I/O to accompany them. In that demonstration, a fast-travel load in Spider-Man went from 19 seconds on current PS4 hardware to less than one second on new hardware.
Today's interview touched on SSDs again, expanding upon the previous discussion to highlight additional benefits of the next-generation SSD—something that Microsoft has said it will include in its own next-generation console as well, also due in late 2020.
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The Atari VCS is a retro-inspired game console that’s basically a small PC with an AMD Ryzen Embedded processor and Radeon Vega graphics. It’s expected to run a custom Linux-based operating system with support for classic games and some mod…
The Atari VCS is a retro-inspired game console that’s basically a small PC with an AMD Ryzen Embedded processor and Radeon Vega graphics. It’s expected to run a custom Linux-based operating system with support for classic games and some modern titles. First unveiled as a concept more than two years ago, the latest word from […]
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“I think it’s my duty to say something about the issue,” Hong Kong gamer says.
Enlarge / Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung declares his support for Hong Kong while two announcers duck behind their desks. (credit: Blizzard)
Blizzard has stripped a Hong Kong professional Hearthstone player of his tournament prize money and banned him from tournament play for a year after he expressed support for Hong Kong during the livestream of a Hearthstone game. Blizzard said that the actions of Ng "Blitzchung" Wai Chung violated Section 6.1 of the tournament's rules, which prohibits players from doing anything that "offends a portion or group of the public."
"Grandmasters is the highest tier of Hearthstone Esports and we take tournament rule violations very seriously," Blizzard wrote. "While we stand by one’s right to express individual thoughts and opinions, players and other participants that elect to participate in our esports competitions must abide by the official competition rules."
Blizzard has deleted the video from its video-on-demand service. But gaming news site Inven Global posted the offending portion to Twitter. According to Inven Global, Blitzchung shouted, in Chinese, "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!" He also donned a gas mask, a symbol of the Hong Kong protestors.
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Adobe interprets Trump order broadly, claims it can’t provide refunds.
Enlarge / Adobe Creative Cloud application icons. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)
Adobe is deactivating all user accounts in Venezuela, saying that the action is necessary to comply with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump. The action affects both free and paid accounts.
In an FAQ titled "Adobe compliance with US Executive Order," the company explained yesterday why it is canceling its Venezuela-based customers' subscriptions:
The US Government issued Executive Order 13884, the practical effect of which is to prohibit almost all transactions and services between US companies, entities, and individuals in Venezuela. To remain compliant with this order, Adobe is deactivating all accounts in Venezuela.
Adobe appears to be interpreting the executive order more broadly than other companies. Microsoft's Office 365 and other cloud services are still available in Venezuela, for example. The executive order itself says the US action is targeted at the Venezuelan government and people who provide material support to the regime.
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All of the crew mission hardware may reach Florida in December.
Enlarge / In this highly detailed illustration, a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking. (credit: NASA/SpaceX)
On Tuesday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk offered updates on progress with the Crew Dragon spacecraft the company is building for NASA. The new information suggests that Musk is now prioritizing the program to ready Dragon to fly astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station.
This is a critical time for NASA, which is exploring the possibility of buying additional Russian Soyuz seats for missions to the International Space Station in mid- or late-2020. This may not be possible, due to political concerns as well as long lead-time needed to manufacture additional Soyuz vehicles. NASA's only other option is extending crew missions on the orbiting laboratory. Paramount to the agency is keeping at least one US crew member on the station in addition to its Russian complement.
Musk shared the new information on Twitter Tuesday in reply to a tweet by this reporter, which noted that "full panic" has ensued at NASA headquarters as the agency seeks to buy seats, possibly extend crew missions, and begin flying commercial crew missions.
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IPTV Smarters, one of the most popular software-based IPTV players for Android, has been removed from the Google Play Store. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the developer of the software says that the company’s lawyers are working to have the software reinstated in response to what he describes as yet another “false complaint”.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.
People who want to view IPTV services on their mobile or set-top devices need a software player with which to do so.
IPTV Smarters is one of the most impressive and popular applications in the niche and is used by large numbers of users on both Android and iOS-based devices.
Up until today, people could just head off to Google’s Play Store to download a copy. However, visitors to the page are now advised that the URL no longer exists, a pretty clear indication that IPTV Smarters has been deleted from the service.
Given the popularity of the software, TorrentFreak spoke with New Spark Technology, the company behind IPTV Smarters. Amanpreet Singh, who is listed as the person behind the Android app, says that the tool was indeed removed from Google Play following a complaint.
Singh says that he prefers not to share the details of the complaint, or reveal who sent it, because “it’s just a false complaint as usual.” The developer informs TF that this is the third time that the app has been deleted from Google Play and the company’s legal team is on the case.
“It’s normal [to receive such complaints] and [it has] happened three times so far. We had it sorted out last time and this time. We have executed the same procedure with the help of our lawyers,” he says.
The last time the app was taken down earlier this year it remained offline for 10 days. This time the company says it will “try to get it back as soon as possible.”
“As it’s just a video player, that’s why it will be back very soon,” Singh says.
While many people understand that IPTV Smarters doesn’t provide any content or IPTV streams to users, there are plenty out there who don’t seem to appreciate how it all works. They see IPTV Smarters getting recommended as a good IPTV-viewing solution and then expect the company to provide the streams as well.
In response, the company says it added a popup disclaimer to its site a few days ago, unconnected to the current disappearance of its app from Google Play, explaining that it doesn’t “endorse or guarantee” the use of its software by third parties “for streaming and subscriptions.”
“We respects the Intellectual Property rights of others and does not endorse any of the Intellectual Property violation by third parties. Linking of New Spark Technology, WHMCS & IPTV softwares to any of the third party links or platforms does not constitute any of the its endorsement or sponsorships [sic], it reads.”
“We put the disclaimer on our website because many users keep asking for a subscription ( username / password and url ), that is what we don’t offer,” Singh informs TF.
“Also, many customers keep asking us why their channels are not working blah blah blah. So, to prevent us getting unnecessary questions, we updated the disclaimer.”
At the time of writing, the App Store variant for Apple devices is still online via the web and installable on iOS devices, suggesting that the problem is, at least for now, isolated to the Android variant.
Precisely when that will return for download is uncertain but Singh appears confident it won’t take too long.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.
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