p2p

Despite the Internet's ability to connect Web sites and other content across continents, finding video content from other countries can be difficult. SopCast for Mac allows users to view channels originating in many countries from one program on their computer.

Available as freeware, the program's channels are also viewable at no cost. The program is small, downloaded quickly, and easily installed. In terms of functionality, SopCast for Mac allows you to watch from a list of channels organized by country of origin. There is also a menu allowing you to directly paste links to other SopCast channels not … Read more

Fewer people are illegally downloading and sharing music, NPD Group said in a report today.

Among those surveyed for NPD's "Annual Music Study 2012," 40 percent who illegally downloaded music via peer-to-peer services in 2011 said they had stopped or decreased their illegal downloads in 2012.

Overall, the number of illegally downloaded songs from P2P services dropped by 26 percent in 2012 from 2011.

Part of that was due to an overall decline in the use of P2P services. At the 2005 peek of P2P file sharing networks, 33 million people used them. For 2012, that number … Read more

Just in time for Windows 8, Skype has now just released a major version update that adds improved integration with Microsoft and Facebook accounts, better messaging, and some minor changes to the user interface.

For those of you who've been living under a rock, Skype is one of the the most popular video chat and voice calling clients amongst our users as well as the world. It offers free calls to other Skype users over the Internet as well as very affordable rates for calling landlines and phones.

Version 6 brings a much simpler registration process, particularly with more … Read more

Peer-to-Peer luxury car sharing startup HiGear closed this week due to several thefts of members' cars.

It seems that being handed the keys to a virtual smorgasbord of luxury and classic cars was too tempting not to fall victim to a ring of professional car thieves. Using stolen identities and credit cards to bypass HiGear's member security checks, bandits boosted four member vehicles worth a total of $400,000, according to TechCrunch.com. The worst part is that members probably personally dropped the keys into the boosters' open hands.

Unlike other car-sharing networks, HiGear didn't use an iPhone-based … Read more

Philip Rosedale, the founder (and still chairman) of the company that made Second Life, is back with a new company in the hot consumer-to-consumer commerce space that TaskRabbit and Gigwalk are making popular. Coffee and Power is his creation. It is a little different from the other entries in this space, but conceptually not too far afield.

Coffee and Power is designed to be a marketplace for doing, "small, fast jobs," Rosedale says. He's proud that the service was built using itself (for the sake of this story, please ignore the chicken-and-egg problem). There are about 88,… Read more

Some of your friends use Dropbox, some use AIM, others use GTalk, and you're tired of keeping track of these preferences when you want to send them something.

Now you can use a service that works within both your Web browser and theirs. There's no wondering if you're both using the same file-sharing client because it's done through a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection right inside the browser. Here's how to get started sharing your files much faster:

Step 1: Open up http://www.justbeamit.com in your Web browser.

Step 2: Drag … Read more

LA DEFENSE, France--BitTorrent, a company that's enabled network-crushing levels of file sharing, can be seen as Internet service providers' natural opponent. But the company's chief executive today entered the lion's den with a surprising message:

"I'm actually here to help."

How? In a speech at the Broadband World Forum here, BitTorrent CEO Eric Klinker tried to build enthusiasm for his company's Micro Transport Protocol, or μTP, an open-source technology that's built into the company's client software for sharing files over peer-to-peer connections. μTP increases network efficiency and addresses congestion--the biggest concern … Read more

Release the hounds! uTorrent 3.0 was released yesterday for seeders and leechers everywhere.

Four million users tested various alpha, beta, and release candidate versions of the anticipated v3 of the popular BitTorrent software, which is a darling of the download scene owing to its simple interface and lightweight footprint (for example, the installer is only 624KB). A slew of new features are embedded in the upgraded client, including streaming video; uTorrent remote; ratings and comments; and drag and drop sending. There's also mention of an exciting new encrypted Web-based UI, dubbed uTorrent Web, which enables access to µ… Read more

Phone Amego is a clever little menu-bar app that integrates your iPhone--or other Bluetooth phone--with your Mac and with the Google Voice service. At its most basic, Phone Amego provides onscreen caller ID (a small window on your Mac displays incoming callers, and you close the window to send the call to voice mail, or you can program it with AppleScript to respond when you speak the name) and enables you to call contacts from your Address Book with just a couple of clicks. There are also basics like a call log, timer, and a hot key for answering calls. … Read more