downloads

Australia probes download, software pricing disparities

Australia's Parliament is planning to investigate why it costs more to download software and other content in Australia than it does in other countries.

The probe comes after a report on the situation released last year by the government Productivity Commission found significant price disparity between prices charged in Australia and in overseas markets. The controversy flared up again last week when Adobe Systems announced that Australians would be paying several hundred dollars more for its Creative Suite software than their American counterparts.

"People here scratch their heads trying to work out why they get fleeced on software … Read more

Find the apps that matter with 1Mobile

The 1Mobile Market for Android offers a curated selection of fun, useful, and otherwise interesting apps, all of which are free. It's unique because it's managed by a team of actual editors, rather than a set of algorithms that try to home in on what you're looking for.

First thing you'll notice is that 1Mobile's main panel looks a bit like a cheap knock-off of Google Play, with its large tiles and similar color scheme. For some, this might be comforting, but for me, it feels a little tacky.

While looks may not be 1Mobile'… Read more

'Hurt Locker' makers file new suit against downloaders

After filing a lawsuit against 24,583 individuals who allegedly downloaded the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker," movie studio Voltage Pictures is at it again. This time, in a new lawsuit, they've added about 2,500 other alleged BitTorrent users to its list, according to TorrentFreak.

Voltage Pictures, which filed the suit in Florida last week, says that all of those people downloaded "The Hurt Locker" illegally; as a result, it has lost millions of dollars in revenue. One of the studio's goals in this lawsuit is to get a subpoena to reveal the … Read more

Facebook to reveal more of the data stored about you

Facebook is expanding a feature called Download Your Information, which lets you view an archive of all the posts, photos, and other content you've shared over the years.

Now in addition to your own content, the feature will let you peek at other types of information, including previous names you've used, friend requests, and even IP addresses from which you've logged in. Launching today, the expanded Download Your Information archive will roll out gradually to all Facebook users, so you may not see the full scope of data available just yet.

The social network is also promising … Read more

Instagram takes the title of No. 1 free app on iTunes

Instagram has terminated Draw Something's long-time reign over the No. 1 free app spot on iTunes' download charts.

"Instagram is #1 in the @AppStore for the first time ever! Thanks everyone!," Instagram announced on Twitter today.

Most likely this has something to do with Facebook's acquisition of the photo sharing app yesterday. With widespread news that the social networking behemoth laid down $1 billion for Instagram, people who weren't familiar with the app must have gotten curious.

It's been a big last few days for the 2-year-old startup. Not only did it cash in … Read more

How to download any attachment in Gmail for Android

The official Gmail client for Android is relatively complete; you can handle most of your e-mail tasks without ever needing to sit in front of a PC. Unfortunately, there's one specific task where the app falls short: downloading attachments.

Sometimes you'll be able to preview and download an attachment, and other times you won't. Instead of letting you grab an MP3, PDF, or even DLL from an e-mail, it just opens the files -- or worse, it's a file type you can't preview. So here's a look at a plug-in for the … Read more

Draw Something goes viral with 50 million downloads

Zynga must be glad it dropped that $180 million on OMGPOP last month. Besides acquiring Checkers, Pool, and other online games, Zynga also got its hands on Draw Something--which topped charts today as the fastest-growing original mobile game ever, according to VentureBeat.

The wildly popular game, which most resembles the board game Pictionary, was released less than two months ago and within the first two weeks it skyrocketed with 10 million downloads. Quickly, both the free and paid versions were No. 1 on iTunes' download charts.

As of today, the game has exceeded 50 million downloads, according to VentureBeat. … Read more

RIAA: Consumers are shelling out for subscription music

Here's a message that Spotify and Rhapsody will surely forward to the handlers of Adele, Coldplay, Tom Waits, Paul McCartney, and especially those guys in The Black Keys: Subscription music services saw revenue increase 13.5 percent last year, while the number of the sector's paying customers climbed 18 percent.

That's according to the Recording Industry Association of America, which yesterday released year-end music shipment statistics for 2011. The RIAA reported that subscription revenue went from $212 million in 2010 to $241 million last year. The number of users rose from 1.5 million to 1.8 … Read more

The Pirate Bay sparks new criminal investigation

The torrent-downloading site The Pirate Bay announced last week in a blog post that the Swedish authorities had launched a new criminal investigation into its activities.

"The Swedish district attorney Fredrik Ingblad initiated a new investigation into The Pirate Bay back in 2010," the blog said. "Information has been leaked to us every now and then by multiple sources, almost on a regular basis."

Today, the torrent news site TorrentFreak confirmed that the Swedish police were looking into The Pirate Bay. Apparently, authorities requested that the Swedish hosting company Binero, where The Pirate Bay is registered, … Read more