New Megaupload to be launched in January

 

New 'Mega' will launch one year follow raid.

 

January this year the U.S. Government destroyed Megaupload, but founder Kim Dotcom is a not done with the file-hosting business yet and is preparing a comeback with something bigger and better. Over the past months a group of coders have been working hard on the new “Mega” venture and Dotcom announced today that the raid-proof service will launch exactly one year after Megaupload was shut down.

Megaupload With 50 million visitors per day at its peak, Megaupload was one of the largest websites on the Internet.

This abruptly ended January this year when the U.S. Government took down the file-hosting service and had several key employees arrested including founder Kim Dotcom.

Despite ongoing criminal proceedings Dotcom and his team are determined to launch a new Megaupload, which will simply be called “Mega”.

Initially the new Mega was expected to launch in 2012, but according to the latest information the launch is now scheduled for January 19 2013, exactly one year after Megaupload was shut down.

“The new Mega will launch exactly 1 year after the raid,” Dotcom announced a few hours ago, adding that there’s a Doomsday launch button in place, a reference to the device U.S. authorities claimed could have been in place to self-destruct the old Megaupload in the event of a raid.

Previously Dotcom said that the coding work for the new Megaupload was nearly finished and that the servers had been ordered. Investors are lining up to join the new venture that Dotcom has described as a “massive global network.”

“All non-US hosters will be able to connect servers & bandwidth,” he explained.

According to Dotcom we can expect a Mega with an even greater range of applications than just file-sharing. Developers of file managers are being encouraged to get in touch for early API access, and Dotcom is also calling out to those involved in email and fax tools, VOIP and video apps.

For users the new Mega will also mean more security. Uploaded files will be encrypted using the AES algorithm. Users will then be provided with a unique decryption key giving them sole responsibility for who can have future use of their files.

Former Megaupload users who expect “Mega” to give them access to their old files will be disappointed. While Megaupload is trying to convince the court to help users retrieve their old files, the new Mega is going to start from scratch.

One detail that still remains a secret is the domain name the new Mega will be operating on. Megaupload.com remains seized and is therefore unavailable.

Dotcom told that he hasn’t made a definite choice for a domain yet. He did register a few options this summer that would be fitting for the new service, and his other upcoming project Megabox.

Whatever the choice turns out to be, January 19 is going to be an eventful date once again.

Now your wait ends!!

Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2012

Continuing a long-standing New Year’s tradition, we present an up-to-date list of the world’s most visited BitTorrent sites. At the start of 2012 The Pirate Bay continues to pull in the most visitors, followed by Torrentz and KickassTorrents. The six-year-old TV-torrent distribution group EZTV appears in the list for the first time, ranked 8th.

Which torrent sites get the most visitors at the start of 2012? At first glance little seems to have changed, as many of the sites in the top 10 have been among the top torrent sites for more than half a decade. But moving down the list we see quite a few movers and shakers as well as three newcomers.
The most notable absentee this year is TorrentReactor, one of the oldest torrent sites on the Internet. The Russian-based site hasbeen featured in the top 10 since 2006, but missed the cut in 2012. Last year’s best newcomer LimeTorrents took an even bigger hit in traffic and has dropped off the list as well.
Below we have compiled a list of the 10 most-visited torrent sites at the start of the new year. Only public and English language sites are included. The list is based on traffic rank reports from Compete and Alexa. In addition, we include last year’s ranking for each of the 10 sites.

1. The Pirate Bay

The Pirate Bay is probably the best known BitTorrent brand on the Internet. The site was founded in 2003 and is still expanding, despite the various legal troubles and blockades that were designed to hurt the site in recent years. The Pirate Bay currently has close to 2 billion page views a month.

 

Alexa Rank: 78 / Compete Rank: 577 / Last year #1

2. Torrentz

Torrentz has been the leading BitTorrent meta-search engine for years. Unlike the other sites featured in the list Torrentz does not host any torrent files, it merely redirects visitors to other places on the web.

Alexa Rank: 142 / Compete Rank: 1.053 / Last year #2

 

3. KickassTorrents

 

Founded in 2009, KickassTorrents is one of the youngest sites in the list, and this year it moved up to the top 3. Responding to the increasing worries about domain seizures, the site moved from its kickasstorrents.com domain to kat.ph a few months ago. The site continues to innovate and release new features every other week.

 

Alexa Rank: 257 / Compete Rank: 1,165 / Last year #4

 

4. IsoHunt

  

In 2010 isoHunt became the first search engine forced to implement a keyword filter provided by the MPAA. Despite this setback, isoHunt continues to be listed among the top torrent sites. In 2012, isoHunt hopes to get rid of the filter through the Appeals Court.

 

 

Alexa Rank: 259 / Compete Rank: 1,153 / Last year #3 





5. BTjunkie

 

BTjunkie had to deal with a setback a few months ago when the site was blocked in Italy following a court order. In response to the block, the site’s owners launched an ad-free proxy site for Italians only. Just as last year, BTjunkie settles in fifth place.

 

Alexa Rank: 385 / Compete Rank: 802 / Last year #5

 



6. ExtraTorrent

 

ExtraTorrent is one of those robust torrent indexes that doesn’t make the news very often. Compared to last year the site has moved up a spot and is now the 6th most popular torrent venue.

Alexa Rank: 446 / Compete Rank: 1,574 / Last year #7

 

7. Demonoid

  

The semi-private tracker continues to attract a massive audience, also on the new .me domain name. Behind the scenes the site’s owners are working on a new and improved look.

 

Alexa Rank: 455 / Compete Rank: 2,397 / Last year #6

 

8. EZTV

  

Unlike the other sites in the top 10, TV-torrent distribution group EZTV is a niche site specializing in TV content only. Despite its fair share of downtime this year, EZTV has managed to get a spot in the top 10 for the first time in its six year existence.

 

Alexa Rank: 1,151 / Compete Rank: 13,647 / Last year #na

 

9. Bitsnoop

 

BitSnoop is another newcomer that gained a large audience this year. This didn’t go unnoticed by the RIAA, who filed a complaint at the U.S. District Court of Columbia and obtained a subpoena to reveal the identity of BitSnoop’s owner a few months ago.

 

Alexa Rank: 1,415 / Compete Rank: 5,242 / Last year #na

 





10. 1337x

 

 

1337x is also new to the top 10, and focuses more on the community aspect than some competitors. The site’s owners say they started 1337x to “fill an apparent void where it seemed there was a lack of quality conscience ad free torrent sites with public trackers.” Its 10th place this year proves that they’re getting the success formula right.

 

 

Alexa Rank: 2,006 / Compete Rank: 10,856 / Last year #na

 

Disclaimer: Yes, we know that Alexa isn’t perfect and that Compete has plenty of flaws, but combined both do a pretty good job at comparing sites that operate in a similar niche. 

 

Making Video Calls with Skype on Your PC

Phone calls are so 20th Century. The cool kids are all using video conferencing, and while I bet you’ve heard of it, you might have thought it was too complicated and required expensive hardware that you don’t have. The truth is quite different and odds are good that your existing PC – particularly all modern PC laptops – has all the equipment you need to be able to participate in video calls with friends and family around the world.

We’ll use the popular Internet-based telecom system Skype for our calls. If you’re like most people you might have heard of Skype but probably assumed it was just for voice calls. It started out that way but now supports very high quality video chatting and even works across computing platforms, so if you’re a PC fan and your sister’s an avowed Macintosh enthusiast, no problem!

WHY A VIDEO CALL?

Before we go further, you might be wondering why you’d want to make a video call rather than just a voice call. From my own experience, the biggest reason is because it’s just really fun! The further away someone is, the more delightful it is to be able to see them in person, and when I have video chats with relatives and colleagues in Australia, Germany or England, it’s amazing. Very space-age stuff.

A lot of calls are considerably more beneficial with a video component too, including if you’re on the road and want to check in on how your newborn is doing, or read a story to your child before they go to bed. Phone calls aren’t very engaging to children, but seeing you on the computer? It’s like being a TV star!

There’s another important category of video call users too: people in the military. My niece’s husband is on his third rotation in Afghanistan and for them it’s very important to have some face to face time, not just for their little ones, but for him to remember the wonderful family he has back home and for her to be reassured he’s made it through another day intact.

DO I HAVE THE HARDWARE I NEED?

As I said in the introduction, most modern PCs have all the hardware you need. My Dell laptop (as featured in the video) is typical with its built-in video camera and microphone. They’re not only all ready to go but when I launch Skype, it automatically sees them and uses them for the video and audio input devices. Couldn’t be much easier.

If your computer doesn’t have a video camera or mic, you can also acquire any one of a number of very good webcam packages for $50-$60. Heck, Microsoft’s Webcam Compatibility Center for Windows 7 lists 410 compatible Webcams. Plenty of choices!

The other hardware I suggest you look into is lighting: having illumination on your face from a light source behind your computer screen means that the image you are sending to others will be much more pleasant and attractive, and that’s all good. This doesn’t mean you need some sort of studio lighting at all, but even just rearranging your floor lamps or positioning yourself so that there isn’t a light source like a window behind your head is important!

GET STARTED

Once you have the hardware set up, the next step is to go to Skype and grab the very latest version of their constantly-improving software. It’ll download and install in just a minute or two for most Internet users. Skype has a premium version, but for our uses, the regular free version works great.

When you’re ready to go, you’ll need a Skype account of your own and you’ll need to know the other person’s Skype ID. You can, of course, have them initiate the call by just sending them your Skype ID, but it’s easy to add them to your Contact lists too…

In Skype, simply click on the “New” button and choose “New Contact”. You’ll see this as shown in the right image.

Enter their account name and you’ll be ready to go. Well, not quite. Let’s have a peek at your settings first. Choose “”Options…” from the “Tools” menu and you’ll see quite a few different settings you can tweak. The most important two are audio and video settings.

Start with audio.

Make sure it’s using your microphone and speakers by talking to your computer. The green bar under the microphone option should show green to give you feedback, as you can see I have displayed above.

Second step is to click on “Video settings” and you’ll hopefully see yourself!

It’s dark. In this settings mode, however, it’s perfect for you to experiment with lighting and moving your lights (or computer) around to get a better image. Easily done, and once it looks good, you’re ready to proceed.

MAKING A VIDEO CALL

Once you have things set up properly and are happy with your video lighting, etc., go to your Contacts and right click on your friend or family member’s name.

As you can see, there are a bunch of options, most importantly “Video Call”. Choose that, and if they’re also online and connected to Skype at the same time, you’ll hear the audio of a phone ringing and they’ll have a window pop-up saying that you’re requesting a video call.

If they accept the call, after a few seconds you’ll see a big window of them and a little thumbnail of yourself.

They see the opposite, a big version of you, a little version of them.  and as you might suspect, you can just start chatting with your first video call. Oh, and don’t be surprised if they never seem to be looking at you. In fact, they are. They’re looking at the window that shows your video feed, not the camera on their computer. Short of having a video camera embedded in the middle of the screen, this is inevitable!

That’s all there is to it. Have fun trying out video calls with your friends and family!

Blogger.com enables new option custom permalink option for bloggers

Blogger.com's New Custom Permalink

What does a permalink really means?

A permalink is a URL that points to a specific blog or forum entry after it has passed from the front page to the archives.Because a permalink remains unchanged indefinitely,it is less susceptible to link rot. Most modern  web-blogging and content-syndication software systems support such links.

Blogger.com had just revealed a new way of giving  your post with the Custom URL feature.

The much requested and eagerly awaited custom permalink (custom post URL) for Blogger (blogspot) has finally arrived. However you need to sign in at the Blogger in Draft (blogger.com) instead of the usual www.blogger.com.

Before or till now if you didn't use the custom permalink option your link is published like as follows:

your-blog.blogspot.com/2012/07/post-title.html

This is really a good news to all bloggers on Blogger.com, before this, you can only find this on a self hosted blogs.

You will have no control on the permalink other than by choosing the words for your post title. There is also a limit to the number of characters in the permalink. Thus, if you have a very long post title, the last few words will be left out of the permalink.

You can find this on right just down schedule option (see the image)

Now I will show you how and what to do ?
For example I am going to make this post permalink www.o-beat-computing.blogspot.com/2012/07permalink-blogger.html

You can what the was link before.

As I said before you can change only post title in the link.

Thats all done check it in the address bar.  :)

Disable YouTube Video Autoplay

As video junkies would attest to, sometimes you want to open more than just one video at the same time, to let the video load up first before you play it one shot.

And those who use this tactic would understand how annoying it is for a video to auto play when buffering has yet to complete, especially when you have several loading and you have no idea which tab is playing and which is not. This article will introduce to you a few browser extensions to help you stop the Youtube auto play feature.

Stop Youtube Autoplay On Chrome

If you are using Chrome browser, head over to get the Stop Autoplay For Youtube chrome extension. Add to Chrome.

Once the installation complete, it just works! Open any Youtube video from your Chrome browser and you will see that the video would not play until it is fully loaded.

Click To Load And Play

If you prefer to be in control and only let a video play only when you want it to, you can choose to activate "Click to play" on your browser. This works with your Opera and Chrome browsers.

1.Chrome

If you are on Chrome browser, type chrome://chrome/settings/content in the address bar and enter. After the settings page appear, scroll down and look for the Plug-ins section, and change the option to Click to Play.

2.Opera

Now go to Advanced tab, look for the Content section at the left bar, check option for Enable plug-ins only on demand then click OK.

With all this set in Opera and Chrome, whenever you open a new video on Youtube, it will not load nor will it play, until you click the big button on the video screen.

3.Firefox

For Firefox, go to Tubestop extension page and install the extension to your browser.

Once installation is complete, all videos will not be played or loaded, until you click on the link on the video screen.

State Of The Internet 2012

We use the Web for just about anything these days. At the minimum, we do stuff like reading the news headlines, catching up with friends, and checking our emails. But as technology advances, more and more bandwidth-hungry apps and services start to crop up. You can now do weekly skype sessions with your family when you are away in campus, or even complete an online degree with a university halfway across the world. Gaming or collaborations need no longer be limited to people of the same nationality or even the same timezone. All of this and a whole lot more is made possible because of the Internet – and a stable Internet connection, of course.

20+ Free Web Browser Frame PSD Templates

If you have ever designed a simple website template in Photoshop for a client or presentation, you may find yourself in need of a quick but chic way to show a screenshot of your final masterpiece. As with first impressions sometimes a simple screenshot just won’t do. Why not create a web browser frame to frame a screenshot of your work? It may take a bit of time to build all that from scratch but you can also use ready-made web browser frame psd templates that can be found on the Web to make your life easier.

The following is a collectiong of 20 free high-quality web browser frame psd templates for the picking. All templates are layered PSD files; all principal elements are editable where possible which means you can change the colors, text or the shadows to suit your own style and help you nail that final look.

What Happens in a Minute of the Internet World?

Everyone says that everything moves fast on the Internet, but just how fast are we talking about here? How much data gets shared across the Internet? While you calculate that in your head, take note that we are talking about emails, status posts, tweets and retweets, the downloading of apps and uploading of vacation pictures, streaming of online videos and music, online transactions and the list goes on.

Do you know what happens in one minute on the Internet? In just one minute, more than 204 million emails are sent. Amazon rings up about $83,000 in sales. Around 20 million photos are viewed and 3,000 uploaded on Flickr. At least 6 million Facebook pages are viewed around the world. And more than 61,000 hours of music are played on Pandora while more than 1.3 million video clips are watched on YouTube.  

Computing is transforming and touching more people in a wider range of devices. From smartphones to tablets, netbooks and notebooks and even automotive; it can often seem like every one of us is connected. But while it’s hard to miss the proliferation of portable devices, it’s what we don’t see that’s the bigger issue.

6 Simple & Effective Ways To Speed Up Your Mac

We are all impressed with the smooth running of the Apple Mac OS X as we compare with the contemporary Windows OS like Vista or Windows 7. However, there are times when your Mac might be slowing down as you put in more stuffs in your hard drive and work the system hard. That is perhaps a good time to evaluate where the bottleneck could be and clear it.

In this post I’ll be sharing tips I found useful in speeding up the Mac. While most of the tips do not cost you extra bucks, they also help you to clean up your Mac to not only make it run fast like cheetah, but also keep it as powerful as lion. So spend some time to get really well with these tips, then you’ll be smiling happily as you run your Mac smoothly!

How To Unlock GodMode In Windows 8

It may be hard to find your files in Explorer on Windows 8. Due to the hidden functions, you are limited in your file searches and basically do not have full control of your own computer system.

        

The limitations can be very frustrating. Wouldn’t it be great to have access to all settings in just one folder – like having divine overall access to your computer, to have the ability to do anything, with every single option available within reach?

In Windows, this is aptly termed ‘GodMode’. It is a hidden control option, which gives you access to all the options on your computer. In this tutorial, you will learn how to activate it.

Recommended Reading: 5 Top Windows 8 Features You’ll Love

Activate GodMode

GodMode is not a plugin, or a software. To activate a GodMode shortcut, you just need to create a simple folder and rename it to a specific filename with a code.

5 Top Windows 8 Features Everyone Should Know

Following the release of Windows 8 Developer Preview, many sites have done reviews on what the next Windows system will be like. The reviews are mostly positive, with some hailing Windows 8 as the next revolution in the technology of computer operating systems (OS). Such may well be the ambition of Microsoft, and it shouldn’t surprise time it comes at a time when Apple’s share of the OS market is rising and pitting fiercely against them.

         

If there’s one thing great about competition, it is that it brings out the best product between companies. I’ve read up some of the features that Microsoft’s Windows 8 will be offering, and am now both intrigued and excited for what’s to come in the full version. It will even come with a new and unique kind of user interface (UI) known as the Metro.

Here are brief descriptions to some top features you would be keen to know about:

Pirate Bay Enjoys 12 Million Traffic Boost, Shares Unblocking Tips

Last week the UK High Court ruled that several of the country’s leading ISPs must block subscriber access to The Pirate Bay. The decision is designed to limit traffic to the world’s leading BitTorrent site but in the short-term it had the opposite effect. Yesterday, The Pirate Bay had 12 million more visitors than it has ever had, providing a golden opportunity to educate users on how to circumvent blocks.

Last Friday the UK High Court ruled that several of country’s leading ISPs must censor The Pirate Bay website having ruled in February that the site and its users breach copyright on a grand scale.

The blocks – to be implemented by Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media (BT are still considering their position) – are designed to cut off all but the most determined file-sharers from the world’s most popular torrent site.

On hearing the news a Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak that the measure will do very little to stop people accessing the site and predicted that “the free advertising” would only increase traffic levels.

It’s not possible to buy advertising “articles” from leading UK publications such as the BBC, Guardian and Telegraph, but yesterday The Pirate Bay news was spread across all of them and dozens beside, for free. The news was repeated around the UK, across Europe and around the world reaching millions of people. The results for the site were dramatic.

“Thanks to the High Court and the fact that the news was on the BBC, we had 12 MILLION more visitors yesterday than we had ever had before,”

Megaupload Prosecution Is Lawless and Unconstitutional, Law Professor Says

Yet another law expert has slammed the US Government’s decision to launch a criminal case against Megaupload. Law Professor Eric Goldman argues that the Megaupload prosecution is a “depressing display of abuse of government authority” that ignores basic constitutional rights in order to protect private commercial interests.

In recent months many people have been baffled by the US Government’s decision to shutdown and prosecute Megaupload.

While the Department of Justice proudly presented the case as one of the biggest criminal cases ever brought in the US, critics claim the Government has gone too far.

Many law experts agree with this assessment and point out that Megaupload is a lot less guilty than portrayed by the authorities.

This weekend Eric Goldman, a Prof. at Santa Clara University School of Law, joined in with his comments. His attack on the US Government is scathing, describing the Megaupload prosecution as a “depressing display of abuse of government authority.”

Siding with Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom who lashed out against the Government earlier, the Prof. claims that the shutdown of the world’s most popular cyberlocker was a gift to the entertainment industry.

UK Anti-FileSharing Letters Delayed Until 2014

The implementation of the UK’s controversial anti-piracy legislation, the Digital Economy Act, has been delayed again.

The confirmation, which was delivered yesterday by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, means that UK Internet users suspected of engaging in unlawful file-sharing won’t see any warning letters for nearly 2 years, or more.

“We expect the first warning letters to go out in early 2014,” a DCMS spokesman told ZDNet UK. “This is due to the rulings in the judicial review of the DEA. The court ruled in the government’s favour in both the judicial review and the appeal court; however it ruled against small parts of the cost sharing.

“Therefore the Cost Sharing Statutory Instrument will need to be changed, and as a result Ofcom will need to change their code. Both will be published when they are ready.”

A spokesman for the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) told the BBC that they were welcoming the delay since the legislation is not “particularly good” and there are better alternatives for dealing with piracy.

“There’s more than just the Digital Economy Act when it comes to tackling copyright infringement online,” he said.

“Ispa continues to believe that the most effective solution to the problem of users accessing unlawful content is for reform of the licensing framework so that legal content can be distributed online in a way that consumers are demanding.”

Pirate Bay Damages Rise 60%, Police Ready Hunt For Missing Founder

After failing to hand himself over to authorities as required in January, Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm lost his chance to serve his sentence in an open prison. As a final surrender deadline looms, it’s been revealed that interest charges being applied since May 2006 have boosted the damages award against the site’s founders by 60% to nearly $11 million, a huge $4.06 million uplift.

As revealed earlier this month, Swedish authorities have now decided where the founders of The Pirate Bay plus one time site ‘financier’ Carl Lundström will serve their sentences.

There is, however, the still unresolved situation involving Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm.

From the date of the first appeal in September 2010, Svartholm (aka Anakata) has been somewhat of an enigma. First, he failed to attend that hearing due to an illness which left him too sick to leave hospital in Cambodia.