Drae-Lab

We have to admit that people pirate a lot of data. Whether it’s for video games, movies, professional and costly products, or operating systems, people pirate stuff and there is no end in sight. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to your own opinion.

One highly pirated form of media is music. In fact, there’s a pretty high demand for music as it doesn’t take much before you’ve already spent $100 to fill your iPod by about 5%. So here comes an interesting thought – what kind of music do people want the most, or in other words, which are the most pirated?

In case you’re wondering how I got my results, I simply organized a list of current torrents by the number of seeds each one has. A seed is a system that has the complete torrent on their system and is ready to upload any parts of it to other systems. The number of seeds represents the number as tracked by the torrent site, but there are more than likely plenty more seeds when combining other trackers. As for where I got my list of torrents from, you can do some Googling to find out if you don’t already know, or look here and here.

The Top 10 List

The following top 10 list are torrents, so some may be complete albums while others are just songs.

1. Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne (Deluxe Version) [Album]

The combination of Jay-Z and Kanye West seems to be pretty popular as this album hits the top of spot with 9,495 seeds. This is pretty impressive, considering that there aren’t that many torrents that reach a seed number that high.

2. Lil Wayne – The Carter IV (Deluxe Version) [Album]

Lil Wayne has always had success, and this is proven again as his album The Carter IV is the second most pirated music torrent. His genre, like most on this list, is Hip Hop and Rap.

3. Adele – 21 [Album]

Adele is the only artist on this list that doesn’t have too much in common with any of the others. Instead, this album has pop, soul, blues, rock, alternative, R&B, and indie rock as its listed genres.

4. David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj & Flo Rida – Where Them Girls At [Song]

Where Them Girls At is the first song on our list of torrents. Therefore, it can probably be described as the most pirated song, as most of the others are entire albums.

5. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem [Song]

LMFAO is the only artist group on this list that does hip hop and a number of electro and techno genres. Party Rock Anthem‘s genre, for example, is electro house.

6. Red Hot Chili Peppers – I’m With You [Album]

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been a household name for quite some time now. This recent album is proving to be a success for them as well.

7. Jennifer Lopez feat. Pit Bull – On The Floor [Song]

Jennifer Lopez has lots of fans as her career is currently at one of its peaks. She produces some great music, and having a song that features Pit Bull is also a plus. This song has elements of dance-pop and electro-house.

8. Black Eyed Peas – The Beginning (Deluxe Version) [Album]

Yes! The Black Eyed Peas do in fact have something in this top 10 list! By the time a song or album has been well received by the public, it doesn’t take long before they have something new to offer. Their latest album is pretty popular in the 8th spot on our list.

9. David Guetta – Nothing But The Beat [Album]

This is the second torrent in our top 10 list where David Guetta’s work appears. His music is very popular, and that trend won’t be going away anytime soon.

10. Rihanna – LOUD [Album]

In the last spot on our top 10 list is Rihanna’s latest album. She’s been a household name just like Red Hot Chili Peppers, and her career is still going strong. Her album barely made the top 10 list, which is still a good “achievement”.

Conclusion

Overall, the list is pretty impressive, considering the number of seeds they have. You can see that Hip Hop and the like are well-sought after, which for me isn’t such a surprise. However, if you go outside of the top 10, you’ll start to see other genres appearing.

What are your thoughts about pirating in the music industry?  Should being in the top ten most pirated list be considered an indicator of an artist’s popularity or success? Let us know in the comments!

Image Credit: Shutterstock

McGruber writes "An Atlanta newspaper reports on the city's 'Video Integration Center,' which allows Atlanta's Police Department to control more than 100 public and private cameras. 'Officials say hundreds or thousands more private-sector cameras will eventually feed into the center.' According to the Atlanta Police Foundation, 'This is going to grow by leaps and bounds over the years. The goal, of course, is to have the entire city blanketed [with cameras].'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sleepbox is a self-contained hotel room for airports and other public places. Designed by Russian architects at the Arch Group, each Sleepbox has all the amenities you need to catch some shut eye while you wait for your next flight.

Inside each Sleepbox are up to three beds with self-changing sheets, an LED reading lamp, a nightstand and storage for your luggage. Some models are even geek-friendly with charging outlets, built-in WiFi and a TV with a touchscreen monitor.

The first Sleepbox was installed last month at the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia. Weary travelers with some time on their hands can rent the Sleepbox for as little as 30 minutes or as long as several hours. [Arch Group via Dezeen]

I hate the term fanboy. It's a pejorative meant to denigrate someone's opinion. A conversation-ender. After applying it to someone, really there's nothing left to say. But seeing the reaction to Windows 8, I get why people use it.

Very many people who have never used the new early prototype Windows tablet have been shitting all over it like a public toilet, largely sight unseen. Much of that has centered around the fan.

Yeah, the fan blows. It's annoying. We get it! I'm with you.

But the Metro interface in Windows 8 is amazing. It's certainly advanced the field of gesture-based computing. The pen-based handwriting recognition just plain works. The ability to run two apps at once in snap state is spectacular. (I can't wait to use MLB At Bat while web-browsing, for example.) Metro apps are also ridiculously easy to develop and, thanks to the built-in Windows Store, easy to sell. There's a very low bar to entry to make and distribute great-looking gesture-based apps that accomplish all kinds of tasks. They're are going to be loads of them, doing very interesting things, produced by people who have never before made an app. It's profound.

If you're not intrigued by Windows 8 and Metro, if you can't recognize that it's a big leap forward, if you're not excited about what it means for you, personally then you don't really care about technology; you care about brands. You care about platforms. You care about politics. You're a fanboy.

Look, we all lean certain ways. I have my own set of preferences. I tend to vote for Democrats and buy Apple products. But that's because they tend to support my priorities, not vice-versa. If the Democrats suddenly turned their backs on science, or Apple began pushing out products with buggy cluttered interfaces, I'd look elsewhere. I don't really get those who treat brands like sports teams, offering blind allegiance over self-interest. That's just zealotry. God bless that file system; my platform, right or wrong.

The older I get the less I trust anyone who puts party or platform over the advancement of society.

This Apple Taliban's focus on the fan misses a huge point about Windows 8: It will trickle-down everywhere, and in little ways and large ones, it will make your Apple products better. Ultimately, Windows 8 will improve the Mac OS, and iOS, and hell yes, even the iPad.

Right now the iPad is the only game in town. Want a tablet? You should buy an iPad. No kidding. No exaggeration. Other tablet computers would be great if the iPad didn't exist. But it does. And as a result I would never in good faith tell anyone making a purchasing decision that they should buy anything else.

And before you berate me, know that I own an Android tablet and have used others. But I also own three iPads. They're better. They have more apps, a more responsive interface; they just plain work. We use them constantly. I'm not even sure where the Android tablet is. I think it might be in a drawer somewhere. I used to keep it in the shitter to read books on its Kindle app, not wanting to sully my iPad. But then the battery died and quite frankly it wasn't worth my time to find the charger and now I've lost the tablet too. I don't miss it.

I make this point not to attack Android, but to point out that the iPad doesn't really have any competition. Competition is good. It makes everyone work harder and do better. Windows 8 is going to be competitive. And if you care enough about technology to be platform agnostic, you know that's a good thing.

Improvements on one platform drive improvements on others. Typically (yes this is true, Windows zealots) Apple is leading the charge when it comes to interface technology. But not always. And as much as the Apple Taliban loves to point out every Mac OS feature and icon that eventually shows up in Windows (and in fairness many do) Apple is more than willing to borrow features from other platforms. The mouse and the graphical user interface were ripped off from Xerox, for example. More recently, the way notifications work in iOS 5 are very liberally borrowed from Android. I'm going to be amazed if, down the line, iOS doesn't borrow some features from Metro.

Look, the fan is noisy and it runs nearly constantly. But as Microsoft relentlessly explained, this is a developer preview running on sub-optimal hardware. The Samsung tablet that previewed at BUILD will never hit the market with Windows 8. Yet people keep bringing it up, again and again, as reason enough to dismiss the whole show. Apple would never show something like that, they argue.

And they're right. Kind of. Apple would never trust you enough to let you hold something unreleased like that in your hands for evaluative purposes. But it shows off early previews of things all the time. And quite often it trots something out onstage that just doesn't work. If you've never seen Jobs have a minor fit onstage when something doesn't work, you've missed some of his most entertaining moments.

Forget the fan. Focus on the interface. Metro is a fantastic way to get things done. Microsoft has fundamentally started over. It's built something ridiculously great. Now, whether or not it will get its act (and technology) together enough to ship Windows 8 and Metro on an ARM-based tablet that won't need a fan before Apple leapfrogs it is another question.

But for now, based purely on what it's shown, Windows 8—and especially Metro—is fantastic. It feels like the future. And you can bet those Windows 8 developer builds are being installed and evaluated on machines all over Infinite Loop. Because while those outside of Apple may be blind to how great Metro is, those inside are not. Apple gets that it can learn from Microsoft (yes, Microsoft!) even if the Apple Taliban does not.

Look, I'm with you. I love Apple products. They're great! But Windows 8? I'm a fan, baby. I'm a really big fan. And I'm noisy.

Chris Madden is a New York-based illustrator and designer. You can see his work here, follow him on Facebook and Twitter

ideonexus snips thus from Wired: "The Art 404 gallery is currently exhibiting a piece by Manuel Palou called '5 Million Dollars, 1 Terabyte' which is a 'sculpture' consisting of a 1 TB external hard drive containing $5,000,000 worth of illegally downloaded files. The hard drive is displayed on a pedestal at the gallery." Adds ideonexus: "There is a PDF of the files stored on the device with links to the torrents." I'd like this to be an exhibit at every trial in which gigantic money damages are claimed for copyright infringement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

We loved the chase!  

Good luck, Steve.

Signed,
Jailbreakers and tinkerers everywhere.

tekgoblin writes with a quick bit about new words in the COED. From the article: "Concise Oxford English Dictionary is the smaller but most widely recognized derivative of the official Oxford English Dictionary, which is celebrating this August its 100th anniversary. To celebrate, the lexicon published its 12th edition today that adds more than 400 new entries – many of which reflect the technological vocabulary found in today's society, like 'woot,' 'mankini,' and 'jeggings.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

iOS (Jailbroken): FlashCam sticks two extra buttons on your iOS lock screen that give you quick access to your camera and an LED flashlight.

They say the best camera is the one you have with you, though it doesn't do you much good if you take 10 seconds to find it. You may not need your camera or flashlight that often, but when you do, you need them quickly. FlashCam puts a button for each right on your lock screen so you can access them right away.

To install FlashCam, just open up Cydia and go to Manage > Sources. Add the http://cydia.wrightscs.com repository, then search for FlashCam in the Cydia database. You'll find it in your Settings app, where you can tweak where it shows up on the screen, which camera app it uses, and more. Note that I found it to conflict with the Activator extension used by many other jailbreak apps, so if you use anything that relies on Activator, your mileage may vary.

Haven't jailbroken your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch just yet? Head on over to our always up-to-date jailbreaking guide for the complete instructions.

FlashCam | BigBoss via AddictiveTips

See more epic wins on FAILBlog’s silver lining, WIN!

I am extremely unmusical (on the verge of being tone-deaf) so I can’t decide whether this new iPhone app is good or bad: Japan-based musical instrument maker Kawai has developed a camera app that scans music notes printed on paper and plays them back in real-time. Dubbed Gakufu Camera [JP], the app is said to be the first of its kind.

Kawai claims the app also works with handwritten notes, those printed in different colors and under weak lighting. Gakufu Camera also offers a few other bells and whistles, for example a function that allows you to store the notes you scanned first and play the melody afterwards.

Gakufu Camera is only available in the Japanese App Store at the moment for iOS 4.0 and up (price: 350 yen/$4.50). But as Kawai is a global company and the app is already available in Japanese and English, expect it to hit other markets rather sooner than later (we’ll keep you posted).

This video shows the app in action (explanations in Japanese, but music fans will get it, I am thinking):

Via Asiajin via IT Media [JP]

While we would never endorse piracy, it’s fair to say that the best games get downloaded more than others. In fact, games that are well pirated generally mirror their performance in the retail world – so in the absence of reliable sales figures, we look towards the download counts.

It’s with great pleasure that I hereby introduce you to the top 10 most pirated games of all time.

1. Call Of Duty: Black Ops – 4.27 million downloads, Nov 2010

The most recent addition to the incredibly successful Call of Duty series, which began way-back in 2003, originally based on the Quake III arena engine. Arguably the best multiplayer FPS available today – it’s the most played game I’ve personally owned for sure. Black Ops is the standard by which other FPS games are judged, and frankly there are so few that come even close. Why is it so good, then? The multiplayer has been tweaked and developed so much over the years that a 10 minute game is likely to release more adrenaline into your body than most people will experience in a year *. With an incredible degree of customisation, fantastic array of weapons and constant reward mechanisms, it’s a formula that’s likely to keep this game on top – at least until October 22nd, when the next instalment of Battlefield is released!

* Officially made up factoid.

2. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – 4.1 million downloads, Nov 2009

To be honest, there isn’t all that much to differentiate this and Black Ops, other than it was produced by a different studio and was slightly less developed in the levelling-up / rewards tweaks. Gameplay was very similar, and multiplayer was fantastic, but the sequel to this fork of the franchise has ended in lengthy legal disputes resulting in Modern Warfare 3 being jointly developed by two studios that are completely new to the franchise. Will it result in slow painful death of the series? Doubtful, but only time will tell.

3. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – 3.96 million downloads, Mar 2010

Another FPS, Battlefield tends to take a wider look at gameplay, rather than focussing on upfront and personal combat. To that effect, Battlefields strong point has always been the inclusion of vehicles, and game objectives are based on area capture and hold rather than straight out kills. Instead of customising various aspects of your soldier, you pick a base class – such as medic – and build up from there. Emphasis is given to having a varied team and being able to work together utilising the different skills. Battlefield 3, due out October this year promises not only the most incredible graphics seen in an FPS yet, but also a breathtaking damage system that will buildings crumble around as they are shot to pieces Definitely worth checking out if you think the straight-up finger-twitching combat of Call of Duty will be a little too much for you.

4. Mafia 2 – 3.55 million downloads, Aug 2010

Mafia seems to have completely passed me by, so I’ve had to refer to external sources for this one I’m afraid. With obvious narrative content, the gameplay centres around a simple mix of shooting, driving, and close combat – though it isn’t particular outstanding in any of them. Facing a variety of critical reviews, the worst being from Eurgamer thant give it a 4/10. 2KGames refuses to release the actual sales figures though, so your guess is as good as mine as to how commercially successful this game really was.

5. Mass Effect 2 – 3.24 million downloads, Jan 2010

A unique game in so many ways, the Mass Effect titles are science-fiction open-world RPGs, with a smattering of FPS thrown in for funsies. A completely new IP, the original game was flawed but presented a strong storyline, the likes of which no other game in this list can parallel. Mass Effect 2 fixed those shortcomings and showed fans what a fantastic game it really could be when given the chance to shine. Not for everyone perhaps, but a star quality game that will be remembered in gaming history.

6. Sims 3 – 3.2 million downloads, June 2009

Though appealing to a somewhat different audience than the rest of the games here, The Sims has undoubtedly been one of the most influential games of the decade. It’s hard to describe it even as a game really – it’s more like an elaborate virtual dolls house. The latest iteration takes your Sim out of the confines of the family home, and let’s them travel to various locations around the city. The sheer level of freedom allows the game to appeal to a wide variety of people – wether they be attracted to making a dream home version of themselves, or perhaps living out an alter-ego fantasy.

7. Starcraft 2 – 3.12 downloads, Jul 2010

The most eagerly anticipated sequel, ever – Starcraft is a pure top-down strategy game with a truly epic following of fanboys – though personally I was always a Command and Conquer kind of guy. Starcraft 2 ignored any evolutions the strategy genre has seen, and chose to take the whole experience to a level of epic retro, with fantastically better graphics and gameplay that’s just as addictive as is always was.

8. Prototype – 2.35 million downloads – Jun 2009

Finally, an original IP in the top 10! An open world game GTA-style with an intriguing storyline and varied missions. For many, the strength of this game lay in the fact you could drive a tank around and throw cars – others liked the unique gameplay opportunities offered by being able to take the shape of other characters in the game. If you merged with a soldier, for example, you could declare someone an enemy combatant and have them taken down, or even call in a limited number of aircraft. Certainly one I’ve added to my LoveFilm rental list.

9. Need for Speed: Shift – 2.1 million downloads, Sep 2009

Taking the series back to it’s racing roots, NFS:Shift represents a midway point between racing realism from the likes of Grand Turismo and joyriding arcade nonsense of BurnOut. Is it the best racing game out there? I doubt it, but that didn’t stop millions of people downloading it to see what all the fuss was about.

10. Street Fighter IV – 1.85 million downloads, July 2009

An arcade classic, Street Fighter IV brought vastly improved graphics and not a lot else in my experience. Cue the hate-mails – I’m sure the underlying button mashing techniques were tweaked, but it felt the same to me.

Personally, I was sad to see not a single Grand Theft Auto game make it into the top 10, despite GTA4 breaking the Guinness World Records for “highest grossing video game in 24 hours” in May 2008. Are there any games you think were a glaring omission here? Don’t forget to check out all our other regular gaming articles too.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

10 Most Pirated Games Of All Time is a post from: MakeUseOf

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So you coughed up for a Spotify pass. Great work! The unlimited streaming music superservice is everything it's cracked up to be. But don't let that log-in fester like unwanted leftovers. Here's how to start using it, and more importantly, making the most of it.

If you've not yet signed up, and are still puzzling over the three price-tiers, it's worth noting that while the free account provides unlimited streaming for now, it will most likely be capped at 10 hours' playtime per month like the European version. This free version is ad-supported (though they claim to be targeted, based on your musical preferences), but if you really can't abide the commercials, stump up the $5 a month for an Unlimited account.

The daddy of the accounts is the Premium, which provides the user with unlimited streaming of Spotify's library via a free phone app. Offline mode is also supported, which means you can play chosen playlists outside a Wi-Fi zone.

Hopefully by now you've signed up for an account and downloaded the desktop application? Fire 'er up, and let's embark on a magical mystery tour together by taking a spin through the gallery.

Start Me Up

Spotify is essentially a music-streaming service, so type in one of your favorite bands or artists—no, not The Beatles—into the search bar top-left, and check out what's on offer. The reason I mention The Beatles is because while Spotify has 15 million tracks available, some bands have refused to offer their wares. Though surprisingly Metallica has a few tracks available—guess they know a good thing when they see it.

Once you've typed in your chosen band, you'll be presented with a selection of the most popular tracks, either by that band or with the band's name in their trackname. Typing in The Cure, for example, will bring up songs by the British band, but also The Cure by Snoop Dogg. From here, you can jump to The Cure's artist page, or to a specific album or start streaming a specific song (press control + F if you can't find what you're looking for.)

Diving into the artist's page by clicking their name, you'll be confronted with the "overview" page, which has a crib sheet of five of their most-streamed songs, and under that, the albums made available to Spotify. Click the "biography" tab up top to read about them, check out related artists, or even stream random songs by them plus associated artists using the "radio" tab.

Boolean syntax is also supported in Spotify's searchbar, so if you fancy listening to punk try searching for "genre:punk," and exclude unwanted artists by adding "NOT the-stranglers" for example. An artist's work in any period of time can also be searched for, such as "fleetwood mac year:1971-1978."

Where Do the Children Play...list?

Part of Spotify's appeal is the ability to create playlists, either on your tod or by collaborative means. See the left sidebar? Click on "new playlist" down the bottom, and give it a title. I'm going to name mine "British Goth Hair Bands," and obviously a track by The Cure needs to be on there. Find the track you wish to add to the playlist, and either drag it to the playlist, or right-hand click and add that way.

Search around for more tracks to add, and once you're sorted, click on the playlist name so you're staring down the barrel of your selections. If something is no longer suitable, right-hand click and delete it, or if you think it's ready for the world's delectation, right-hand click on the playlist name in the sidebar to either share to Facebook or Twitter, or to grab the URL.

You can also choose to make it a collaborative playlist this way, meaning those who you share the link with will be able to add tracks—plus delete them. If you've sprung for Premium Spotify, you can also choose to make the playlist available offline, for those times when you're not in a Wi-Fi zone, or if you wish to stream it on your cellphone.

I'll Be There For You

Spotify really comes into its own when you pair it with your Facebook account so it syncs your contacts and their playlists. Clicking a name in the right-hand sidebar means I can easily raid their playlists (and even subscribe to them, which means it'll be added to your left-side sidebar for easy reaching), plus view their top artists and top tracks. Sometimes this can be a bad thing, or in the case of our boss Nick Denton, a very bad thing.

If your friends aren't Facebook users, you can still search for them using their username. Just type "spotify:user:username" into the search bar, and you can track them down that way. Be sure to add them though, or you'll have to search for them all over again. On the flip side, if you don't want to have all your friends' faces peering at you from the sidebar, just right-hand click on their names and hide them from the list.

Like a tune or album? Instead of sharing it with your pals via a URL, you can just drag and drop it on their name in the right-hand sidebar, and view sent songs and your friends' messages in your inbox, top-left. You can also enable posting to Facebook, so everytime you create a new playlist or want to share a song, it can instantly be posted to your Facebook wall. I'd suggest disabling this function though, as it gets really spammy, so click on the cog in the top-right side of the application (below your name) and disable that way.

Take A Load Off

You've probably got thousands of MP3s on that home machine of yours, but what happens when you're at work and want to listen to that band Spotify doesn't have, like The Beatles? Upload all your MP3s to Spotify's cloud! Even your carefully-created playlists on iTunes will be replicated in Spotify's playlist section, for listening on any Mac or PC you may've logged into—regardless of whether your MP3s are stored on that particular machine or not. One thing to bear in mind here is that Spotify uses Gracenote, so if your metadata doesn't match Spotify's tags, problems might occur.

Even if you haven't sprung for Spotify Premium, you'll be pleased to hear all your uploaded MP3s will also be available for streaming on your phone—just not songs from Spotify's library.

Private Life

It doesn't matter if you only listen to the same Peter Gabriel song on repeat—you can lock your account down while still getting an eyeful of what your mates are listening to. Clicking on your name in the top-right will bring up your profile, which is where you can edit your privacy settings. Here lies the option to make your top tracks and top artists public or private, plus individual playlists. If you're looking to change your avatar, unfortunately that can only be done on Facebook by changing your profile picture.

Road To Nowhere

Coughed up the tenner a month needed for Spotify Premium? Now you can download the free app to your iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone or Palm and stream Spotify's library, plus your offline playlists. That doesn't mean free and unlimited users don't get any on-the-road joy though—they can wirelessly sync their own uploaded MP3 files with their phones or even iPods, bypassing iTunes.

Home-dwellers can also free their Spotify library by streaming to Sonos, Onkyo and Logitech devices.

"How's it gonna end?" warbled Tom Waits. This guide to Spotify might have reached its conclusion, but your streaming future is only just beginning—have fun! Feel free to search for me on KatHannaford and raid my embarrassing selection of playlists—please, no laughing.