Do you know how BitTorrent works? I mean, really know the technology behind it? Even if you’re not all too familiar with it, you probably know that it requires a tracker – a computer that coordinates the distribution of a file within the network. But the trick is, it doesn’t – not anymore. Two technologies called DHT and PEX enable trackerless BitTorrent; in the simplest of terms, the BitTorrent technology has evolved to the point where trackers are no longer necessary for operation. Thus, the folks over at The Pirate Bay have decided to permanently shut down the Pirate Bay tracker. From the Pirate Bay blog:“Now that the decentralized system for finding peers is so well developed, TPB has decided that there is no need to run a tracker anymore, so it will remain down! It’s the end of an era, but the era is no longer up2date. We have put a server in a museum already, and now the tracking can be put there as well.”Yes, seeing Pirate Bay slowly being shut down, part by part, may be sad, but the beauty of this is that little has changed in the site’s operation for the end user. You can still share and download files on The Pirate Bay, even if the tracker doesn’t work. Detailed technical explanations of DHTand PEXcan be found on Wikipedia, but in short, DHT (Distributed Hash Table) is a decentralized p2p network which modern BitTorrent clients join by default, enabling them to find peers for a download. PEX (Peer Exchange) is another way of helping you find peers on the network. Put these two together, and you don’t need a central tracker anymore. This is important because one can now imagine a BitTorrent network without trackers; even without torrents (which will be replaced by magnet links, hence the new Pirate Bay logo looks like a magnet). According to TorrentFreak, some of the folks behind the Pirate Bay plan to start a BitTorrent sitebased on this premise. If they succeed, it will be a lot harder for organizations such as RIAA and MPAA to sue the owners of such sites, while the actual process of file sharing wouldn’t change much for the end users. In any case, The Pirate Bay once again shows that, although bruised and battered, its downfall doesn’t mean the downfall of BitTorrent technology. It’s evolution at work, whether you believe in it or not. Reviews: WikipediaTags: the pirate bay, torrent, tracker

  Adobe’s AIR platform has been a major boon to bringing Internet applications to the desktop across all of the major operating systems. TweetDeck, Seesmic, and an array of other popular social apps run on the platform.While AIR has been around since 2007, it’s never received an update like this one. Today, Adobe announced the beta release of AIR 2.0, the next iteration of the AIR platform.AIR 2.0 beta offers a lot of new features, most of them ones that users won’t notice such as improved IPv6 support and global error handling. However, it does boast some new functionality for users, most notably multi-touch and gesture support, which could make it useful for use on something like the fabled Apple Tabletor a touchscreen PC. Here is a list of AIR 2’s new features, as provided by Adobe:- Support for the detection of mass storage devices.- Advanced networking capabilities like secure sockets, UDP support, and the ability to listen on sockets.- Support for native code integration.- The ability to open a file with its default application.- Multi-touch and gesture support.- New APIs for access to raw microphone data.- Webkit update with HTML5/CSS3 support.- Global error handling.- Improved cross-platform printing- Improved security and support for enterprise and government standards.Remember, this is a beta, meaning that it will come with bugs and errors as the company improves the software. If that doesn’t scare you off though, you can download AIR 2.0 here.Tags: adobe, Adobe Air, air

  This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.Name: MagntizeQuick Pitch: Magntize provides you a free, slick website that acts as your digital business card. Genius Idea: Several months ago, we reviewed Card.ly, a tool that let you create simple but elegant online social media business cards. Add in your business information, add some social media accounts, add a theme, and presto! You have a social media business card. Magntize is yet another tool that follows in the same vein as Card.ly and boasts similar features. However, the execution is unique and different enough to warrant consideration if you’re looking to create a dynamic and professional online presence without a ton of effort. Take a look at my Magntize cardfor an example of what you can create.The free web-based tool is rather simple to implement: add in profile information, a picture, a short bio, and contact information. After that, you can add links to your blog, company website, and social media accounts. The beauty of Magntize is that it can automatically detect new content within your links and add them to a social stream that appears on your digital card. Once you’ve added links, you can pick from a set of 9 unique themes and countless color schemes. Let’s compare Magntize to Card.ly, because the two services are incredibly similar. In terms of usability, we give the slight edge to Magntize. However, Card.ly has not only the stronger theme selection, but the ability to submit custom themes if you so desire. Card.ly also has something we can’t find on Magntize: the ability to embed your card. Still, Magntize offers some superior designs and cleaner social streams overall. Its pro features ($9 a month) are also useful, including the ability to upload your resume, to choose a custom domain, and to create a mobile version of your card.To be honest, you really can’t go wrong with either service. This simply means that Magntize is going to have to work harder to offer features that set it apart from the pack if it hopes to succeed.Sponsored by Microsoft BizSparkBizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platformfor their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest– use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).â€�Reviews: Magntize, PHPTags: bizspark, card.ly, Magntize

  Twitter, for all of its greatness, would not have significantly altered the landscape of real-time online communication without the swell of developer interest around its API. The simpleness of the service was, no doubt, key to Twitter’s meteoric rise, but Twitter applications – desktop, web, mobile – drove home the utility and practically of the service.Many have tried to replicate their success, but few are poised to capitalize on the release of an API quite like Foursquare, the location-based social network and game that is proving to be more useful by the day.The company has raised funds, released business services, and even partnered with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Now, they’ve officially releasedtheir API and the world will finally see why location is everything.Here’s what Foursquare wrote about today’s news:We’re super excited to announce that our API is now live.It’s something that’s been in testing with a small group of developers for the last few months. Even during this phase, we’ve seen you guys make all sorts of interesting applications using our data:- an Android app- a venue popularity tracker: SocialGreat- a foursquare layer on Layar- a location-based game: MobZombies- an integration with Peek Mobile devices: PeekMaps- an RFID/Oyster card-based checkin system: FourTap- a way to find deals nearby based on your check-in history: Yipit- a Wordpress plugin- a Firefox plugin- a check-in diary: Last Night’s CheckinsFoursquare’s PotentialYou may recall that I’ve previously delved into why Foursquare has the potential to follow in Twitter’s famous footsteps. The parallels are quite obvious, as demonstrated by the following passage from the aforementioned post:And then an intangible and metaphorical wave happened, where one by one more and more people started to tweet, started to figure out for themselves why it was important, and then repeat the same cycle as the early adopters before them. Then along came the media. They were quick to judge, full of fantastic puns, and naysayers, until they started to use it and figure it out too. Long story short, Twitter, as simple as it is, was (and to some extent still is) misunderstood.Foursquare’s very much in the same boat as Twitter was two years ago. The early adopters have started to drink the kool-aide, myself included, but for the most part it remains a service completely misunderstood, and even mocked from time to time.The API release is one of the most important pieces to the company living up to its potential. Why? Simply because it allows developers to make location and places relevant, and they’ve already done so with a few purposeful applications.Maybe posting your Foursquare history to your WordPress blog is relatively meaningless, but one developer has already mastered how to make swipes of London subway cards act as Foursquare checkins, Layar has constructed an augmented reality Foursquare layer, and SocialGreat is tracking venue trends based on the quantity of Foursquare checkins. The possibilities are endless.Reviews: Android, Firefox, Foursquare, Twitter, WordPressTags: foursquare, foursquare api, location

  Since practically its inception, Twitter has supported SMS (short message service) for updating your Twitter status. If you text something to 40404 in the U.S., your Twitter will update with that text message. However, most smartphones are capable mutlimedia messaging (MMS), which allows you to share pictures and videos from phone to phone.Now MMS support has made it way into Twitter…if you’re a customer of Orange UK, a mobile network provider. According to Twitter, this is the first time MMS support has been introduced into Twitter.We’d love to see MMS tweeting within the states, but these deals are carrier-to-carrier, so it’s tough to tell when or even if MMS support will be introduced. Regardless, we’ve included the full announcement below, just in case you’re wondering how it works or how to activate the new feature:“The UK has had an outsized cultural impact on the world. From music to sports to literature… and now – MMS with Twitter.Today, not only has Orange UK turned on Twitter SMS, but it has added a first-of-its-kind special enhancement. Orange UK users can also send picture messages (MMS) to 86444 in addition to text messages because of a site that Orange UK has created called Snapshot. The best part is that it is incredibly simple to use:1. Take a photo on your Orange mobile phone2. Select ‘Send via MMS’ or ‘Send multimedia message’3. Send it to 86444Twitter does not charge for this service. It’s just like sending and receiving messages with your friends — your carrier’s standard messaging rates apply. Give it a try by sending a text message to 86444 with the word “START.” This means that with the same shortcode, 86444, UK users can tweet via SMS with Vodafone, O2, and now Orange.”Reviews: TwitterTags: MMS, twitter

  You can have your opinion about the Twilight series, but one thing’s for sure: they know how to leverage social media. Twilight New Moon mania has enveloped Twitter, taken over MySpace, and most recently we learned that MySpace and Ustream would stream the red carpet premiere liveon November 16th, 6:00 PT.Well, that time is now, and the numbers are already mindblowiinI may not be a member of the Twilight crazy, but the phenomenon is enormous on social media channels. It only took a few minutes for the Ustream live stream to jump from 65,000 to 70,000 to over 100,000 viewers, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. They’re even asking everyone watching the video stream to tweet using the #newmoonpremiere hashtag, which is now a top trending topic on Twitter. Twilight’s ability to leverage these social platforms is clearly paying dividends. If you’re interested in the premiere, we’ve embedded the live stream below:Reviews: Twitter, twilight, ustreamTags: live video, myspace, twilight, Twilight: New Moon, ustream

  We’ve been matching up popular web services, applications and mobile apps against each other in heated one-on-one battles here in our weekly Faceoff Series. Last week we saw longtime incumbent Microsoft Office beat out Google Docsin a head to head race for the title of office suite champion.This week we turn our attention to a rather timely battle being waged on the mobile front, between Apple’s darling and wildly-selling iPhone platform and Google’s slow to boil Android mobile operating system. With the Motorola Droidlaunching with Android 2.0 in the U.S. to the tune of a healthy sales clip, it’s high time to do a new assessment of the state of affairs in the hottest mobile operating system match around.Be sure to cast your vote below for your choice between these mobile heavyweights. You have until noon EST on Friday November 20th, and be sure to let us know your reasoning in the comments. We’ll recap the results later this week and begin a new round of faceoff next week.Who would win in a fight: Apple iPhone or Google Android?(online surveys)Web Faceoff: Overall ResultsWeek 1:- Mozilla Firefox vs. Google Chrome- WINNER: Firefox, 4600 votes (Chrome: 3310 votes, Tie: 911 votes)Week 2:- Tumblr vs. Posterous- WINNER: Tumblr, 1809 votes (Posterous: 1496 votes, Tie: 256 votes)Week 3:- Pandora vs. Last.fm- WINNER: Last.fm, 1187 votes (Pandora: 1156votes, Tie: 122 votes)Week 4:- Twitter vs. Facebook- WINNER: Facebook, 2484 votes (Twitter: 2061 votes, Tie: 588 votes)Week 5:- WordPress vs. Typepad- WINNER: WordPress, 2714 votes (Typepad: 267 votes, Tie: 357 votes)Week 6:- Windows 7 vs. Snow Leopard- WINNER: Windows 7, 3632 votes (Snow Leopard: 3278 votes, Tie: 121 votes)Week 7:- TweetDeck vs. Seesmic Desktop- WINNER: TweetDeck, 3294 votes (Seesmic Desktop: 1055 votes, Tie: 260 votes)Week 8: Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs- WINNER: Microsoft Office, 1365 votes (Google Docs: 994 votes, Tie: 315 votes)Reviews: Android, Chrome, Facebook, Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, Google Docs, Mozilla Firefox, Pandora, Posterous, Seesmic Desktop, Tumblr, TweetDeck, Twitter, TypePad, WordPressTags: android, apple iphone, Google Android, iphone, Mobile 2.0, web faceoff

  Twitter apps can do almost everything that Twitter.com can: search Twitter, follow and unfollow users, and even manage Twitter lists(well, only a few apps so far). One thing Twitter Apps couldn’t do though was search for other Twitter users that could be interesting to follow. This is what “Find People” on Twitter.com does, but the microblogging company never extended the feature to third party apps.That’s changed today though. A few hours ago, Twitter announcedto developers that it has launched the Find People API to fix that problem. Perhaps a tweet from Twitter CEO Evan Williams explains best why this development is important:“Oh good, a find people API: http://http://bit.ly/dDvy8If you wondered why you can’t search for people from Twitter apps, this was the missing link”It shouldn’t be long until Twitter apps add this functionality. Discovery is one of the key components of Twitter’s appeal, and it’s tough to believe that Twitter apps wouldn’t want to offer this ability to their users.Reviews: TwitterTags: api, twitter

  Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft along with Bill Gates, has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a cancer that affects the lymphocytes of the immune system, according to multiple reports. He has previously battled Hodgkin disease, another type of Lymphoma, back in 1983.Beyond Microsoft, Paul Allen has been active as an investor, acting as chairman of Vulcan Inc. and Charter Communications, as well as being the owner of the Seattle Seahawks NFL team and the Portland Trail Blazers NBA team. He was the sole investor behind SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded spaceship to reach suborbital space.We wish Paul the best of luck in his fight against cancer.Tags: cancer, microsoft, Paul Allen

  On November 10th, hip hop artist Chamillionaire [@Chamillionaire] went against the wishes of his record label, Universal Records, and livestreamed the premiere of his Good Morning music video to fans on Facebook and Ustream.By all accounts, fans responded positively to the artist’s social media initiative. The Ustream/Facebook live broadcastsaw more than 90,000 total views with more than 9,000 simultaneous viewers at the peak.Given those impressive numbers, and the fact that Chamillionaire is using social media to merge the gap between making music and connecting with fans, you’d think that Universal would be satisfied with the outcome. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to case, as after the video premiered on the web and was posted to YouTube, Universal decided to disable embeds. This decision didn’t sit well with Chamillionaire, who then decided to post the video elsewhere so it could remain embeddable.In an exclusive email statement, Chamillionaire’s Digital Director, Jeff Lange, otherwise known as “Digi Jeff,” tells us:“Chamillionaire did this against Universal’s policy and permission, they kept telling him not to do it but he wanted to anyways.  I really felt like using Facebook & ustream to premiere his music video would be something new and creative that nobody has done before and it went really well.  Chamillionaire talked for a while before the video to build the hype and played the video twice, and later talked about parts of the video. Fans were interacting using twitter/facebook.”“The record label Universal removed all embeds on the video and put advertisement on the video. Chamillionaire didn’t like the fact that fans cant embed and share the video so we posted an embedded video on http://vidly.com/bGrS/hd[Vidly].”We appreciate Chamillionaire’s desire to push the boundaries, and we expect to see more online music video premieres in the future. For the time being, however, we do know that Chamillionaire is planning to make a custom music video just for his Twitter fans, replacing the bubbles (as seen in the embed below) with fan-contributed thoughts and their Twitter names.Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, YouTubeTags: chamillionaire, music, music video, ustream

  The live videoservice TinyChatis best known for its ability to sync together up to 16 broadcasters in the same room, but it has also been adding new services and functionality to its line-up. Recently, it launched a dead-simple video chat servicereminiscent of Skype.Now TinyChat’s decided to use its live video technology to directly compete with live video powerhouses Ustreamand Justin.tv. The company has just launched TinyChat.tv, a service for making “your own live web show.”It has all of the basic necessities to start a live video T.V. show: customization options, scheduling, subscriptions, and promotion via Facebook or Twitter. Since it’s TinyChat, you can have multiple simultaneous video broadcasters in your show, the service’s big advantage. It also has live chat and commenting. If you want to start a simple live show, TinyChat.tv is definitely a usable option.We’ll be honest though: it’s nowhere near ready to compete with Justin.tv or Ustream. Getting a live stream up and running is a long-winded process, as opposed to the main TinyChat service, which is as simple as typing random characters after “Tinychat.com.” It took 6-7 screens of settings and customization before we could get broadcasting, which was annoying.Competing against Ustream and Justin.tv isn’t as simple as putting up a live video TV service. Both of them has perfected some powerful technology and attracted thousands of loyal users and broadcasters. From our tests, we doubt TinyChat.tv could handle the load that these other services endure — for example, there were over 500,000+ simultaneous viewers for a recent Carrie Underwood concert on Ustream. In summary, TinyChat.tv is good, useful, and has features that other live video services don’t have. It’s an impressive display of their API (which is free), but there’s more to live video broadcasting than just the technology you use. It’s early though, so we expect the service to grow and improve as time goes on. If you try it out for yourself, let us know what you think of TinyChat.tv in the comments.Disclosure: Mashable has partnered with TinyChat to create The Mashable Lounge, our live Twitter chatroom.Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, TinyChat, Twitter, ustreamTags: justin.tv, live video, tinychat, ustream

  Google’s tool for translating text between 51 languages, Google Translate, has just addedsome very nifty and very useful features, with the biggest change being the addition of instant, real-time translations.While the company hasn’t removed the “translate” button from its service, it should because now the proper translation will appear in real-time below the text box. It’s actually quite amazing: you can type in complex words and see their roots as you type. It also allows you to craft sentences faster and more efficiently in other languages.Google Translate’s two other additions are nearly as impressive. Another new feature helps English speakers pronounce and read non-roman languages (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Korean). Clicking “Show romanizaiton” will provide you a phonetic representation of the translation so you can read it off instantly. Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian aren’t supported yet. However, Arabic, Persian, and Hindi now have a feature that allows you to type out the words as they sound (in English) and convert them to native script.Finally, Google’s added text-to-speech support for English translations: just click the speaker icon to hear your translation. Overall, these new features are a good upgrade to Google Translate, especially the real-time translations, which we think may change how people interact with the tool. If you want to learn more, Google’s provided a video demoing these new features:Reviews: GoogleTags: Google, google translate

  Nearly nine years after what many consider the worst merger in history, AOL and Time Warner will finally be divorced.AOL-Time Warner, first created in 2000 when AOL purchased Time Warner for $164 billion, will officially dissolve on December 9th when AOL will be spun off as its own, independent company. Time Warner shareholders will receive one AOL share for every 11 Time Warner shares that they own.It’s clear to many that AOL has fallen dramatically from his high point in the early 2000s, when its Internet dial-up business was booming. Now though, the company’s only valued at around $5.7 billion, the valuation Google set when it sold its 5% of AOLback to Time Warner in July.Still, the company has been making a lot of moves recently, hiring former Google executive Tim Armstrong as CEO and hiring journalists to ramp up its content business at rapid speed. In fact, we think that AOL could be a sleeping social media juggernautthat has the power to become a player once again. December 9th is just the beginning of a new journey for AOL.Reviews: GoogleTags: aol, time warner

  The Pew Internet & American Life Project has just published the resultsof a study on distracted driving behavior amongst teenagers which shows that teens are aware of the dangers of texting while driving, but they choose to do it anyway.After surveying 800 teens in 4 US cities over the summer of 2009, Pew estimates that 26% of all American teens 16-17 have texted while driving, and 43% have talked on a cell phone while driving.Even more alarming is that 48% of teens 12-17 have witnessed someone else texting while driving, which points to an ambivalence and acceptance of the practice. The findings also indicate that even state laws prohibiting these activities may not be discouraging newly licensed drivers from using their mobile devices while behind the wheel.Amanda Lenhart, co-author of the report, claims that teens are well aware of the risks associated with texting while driving, “but the desire to stay connected is so strong for teens and their parents that safety sometimes takes a backseat to staying in touch with friends and family.”The research is also indicative of the fact that children might be picking up the dangerous behaviors from their parents. The report states that, “the frequency of teens reporting parent cell phone use behind the wheel in our focus groups was striking, and suggested that, in many cases, texting while driving is a family affair.”In a qualitative interview one teen boy even said, “Yeah [my dad] drives likehe’s drunk. His phone is just like sitting in front of his face, and he puts his knees on the bottom of the steering wheel and tries to text.”We’ve included the full research report below, but here are a few additional findings that stand out:- 75% of all American teens 12-17 own a cell phone- 82% of teens 16-17 have a cell phone & 76% text.- Overall, 34% of teens 16-17 say they have texted while driving, which translates to 26% of all American teens 16-17.- Boys and girls are equally likely to report texting behind the wheel.- 55% of teens 14-17 report that they have witnessed a driver texting as a passenger (48% for 12-17, and 32% for 12-13).If this research highlights anything it’s that teens are uber-connected, picking up bad behaviors from their parents, and unabashedly driving dangerously in order to stay connected.Image from lierneon FlickrReviews: FlickrTags: Pew Internet, teens, texting, trending