computer parts

Dropbox is going to war with on-premise content storage in the enterprise with its latest product announcements.

Smart Sync, formerly known as Project Infinite, allows employees to minimise the amount of content they store locally, while the team folders feature and collaborative document creation tool Paper are now both generally available. 

“We’re redesigning Dropbox to be fundamentally designed for teams," Dropbox CEO Drew Houston said. "We’re reinventing sync, bringing a modern collaboration experience to all your files, and launching Paper, a new way to work together that goes beyond the document."

Dropbox Smart Sync

As any iPhone user will know the local storage on devices is becoming increasingly stretched as we store more and more content on our devices. This is a problem Dropbox has been working on for years, announcing something called Project Infinite at its Dropbox Open event last year and now releasing it under the name Smart Sync.

Similarly to Google Photos, this allows users to see all of their files as normal, but without them taking up all of your device storage.

In practice this looks like your normal desktop, except files and folders are each adorned with an indicator, either a cloud icon to signal that they're only available online, or a green tick which means they're synced to the device.

So if you are online you get access to all of your files in the cloud without taking up any space on your computer. Then, if you are planning on working on a file or folder of files while offline, such as on a plane, you sync the documents to your device and any updates will be registered as soon as you are back online.

Read next: Dropbox for Business security explained: is it enterprise ready?

As Jeroen Roodnat, solutions architect lead at Dropbox, told Computerworld UK before the announcement, the key is for "users to see all of their content from desktop, without it taking up any space until they need it."

Dropbox team folders

Team folders is essentially the next generation of an old school company intranet. In short, it's a central hub for teams to share and work on documents. It is directly competing with old rival Box, as well as Microsoft's popular Sharepoint, which is part of Office 365.

Roodnat said: "Now by combining Smart Sync and team folders businesses can rethink their file server strategy and how teams want to work beyond the constraints of their devices."

Read next: Dropbox team folders gives Silicon Labs the confidence to move files to the cloud

All documents stored in team folders are universally compatible going back to Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.9. Roodnat believes that put together, this will mean Dropbox holds the edge over its competitors. "The combination of that cross-platform, on-demand and cloud-based approach, we think no other company is offering this today," he said.

Team folders come with granular IT administrator controls called AdminX. This drills down to file event logging, down to individual edits, additions and deletions, which can be filtered into an admin log. Admins can manage membership down to the sub-folder level to ensure that people inside and outside the company can only access specific folders.

For device management, IT can limit the number of linked devices an employee can have for work documents. This capability is built to complement, not compete with, existing enterprise mobility management (EMM) offerings.

Smart Sync was made available for business and enterprise customers as of 30 January as an opt-in for team admins, they simply have to turn it on. Roodnat says the company is "exploring ways to get it to individual users in the future".

What customers say

Smart Sync could lead to major enterprises shutting down their on-premise content servers over time, and this will certainly be what Dropbox is setting out to do. Roodnat says that Dropbox has already heard from "companies with the ambition to move all of their data into Dropbox and are ready to shut down their file servers."

Read next: Expedia supports global workforce collaboration for 18,000 users with Dropbox cloud file storage, eyes Project Infinite

Expedia's VP of IT Chris Burgess told Computerworld UK last year at the announcement of Project Infinite that the capabilities are “exciting" and that it "has the possibility" to replace all file share and storage.

“Having physical infrastructure in over a hundred offices and having to maintain that infrastructure, and manage complex file systems and permissioning has a cost associated with it," Burgess said at the time. "So if you can remove the physical side of it, and no longer rely on upgrades, you can focus your time and effort on providing other solutions.”

Media giant News Corp is also a big Dropbox user for storing content and could certainly be eyeing Smart Sync as another reason to go all in on cloud content storage.

Dropbox has reorganised its business plan tiers in light of these announcements. The new tiers range from standard (£10 per user, per month, starting at five users) to advanced (£15 per user, per month, starting at five users), with the latter including admin, audit, and integration features. There is also an enterprise tier for larger businesses, with pricing available on request. Previously there was no advanced tier and business was priced at nearer £9 per user per month. Rival vendor Box charges £11 per user, per month for its business plan.

Read next: Dropbox Enterprise vs Box: Which cloud storage platform is better for your business?

Virtual reality is well publicised in the world of gaming, with VR products flooding shops and magazines over the past few years. In education, some schools are already trialling VR as a way of offering new and engaging ways of teaching and learning.  

Mixed reality and augmented reality, while less familiar in the education space, has proved to be successful in other areas such as museums and construction. But the technology used in these environments could easily be translated to school and universities. 

Like with most things, the biggest barrier to full adoption of these technologies in education is cost. And while mobile VR such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR offer great (and cheap) alternatives to full VR units, the VR apps available are still somewhat limited. 

On the other hand, mixed reality and augmented reality in theory offer the best learning experience, with AR offering - in the long term - a relatively cost-effective option for schools to provide classwork that can work nicely with AR apps, making the content 'come alive' in the classroom. 

Mixed reality products like Microsoft's HoloLens offers great potential in education with benefits for architecture and medicine training being well promoted by the tech giant. However, as Microsoft only offers two options, the developer HoloLens coming in at £2,179 and the enterprise model costing £4,529, the cost of this could be enough for education institutions to write it off completely. 

Read next: Is VR ready for business use? Six industries getting to grips with virtual reality

How could virtual reality be used in education?

Virtual reality uses a __computer to create a simulated environment. Users are within that simulated world, rather than outside looking in like in AR and MR.

There are a few different types of VR, all offering different levels of immersion.

Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear provides mobile VR, that requires users to place their smartphones in a headset.

VR units such as the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR provides a totally immersive experience, and are connected to a __computer (or a PlayStation in regards to the PS VR).

The benefits of virtual reality units in education are pretty clear; more student engagement, faster learning and better quality of education.

And, if you believe the hype, VR could reduce classroom disruptions from children with behavioural difficulties.

For example, a VR history class could transport students to Ancient Egypt to see how they lived and learn about the early Egyptian civilisation in great detail.

But primary and secondary education is just part of the education sector that could benefit from virtual reality.

There could be advantages for higher education institutions too, such as medical schools at universities which could benefit greatly. For example, students could get to grips with the intricacies of a surgery, go inside the human body to fully understand how things work and simulate any real life medical situation.

Speaking at Bett in London last week, University of Leicester’s educational designer, Terese Bird described how important emerging tech is in the medical field. Bird highlighted how VR videos of real life surgery could help medical students understand how the body works and the steps taken in any surgery. 

Away from medicine, university courses such as architecture and those requiring technical drawings would definitely benefit from VR. Architecture students could see in real time how their designs could work, or not work, what need changing and how it could look in the real world.

VR in education: pros and cons

The main drawback of VR is price and accessibility. Some universities and schools might not want to dedicate a large chunk of their budgets to such an emerging technology while others will not be able to afford it at all regardless.

If the consumer prices of VR units are much to go by, equipping one or more departments at a university, or subjects in a school could be hard to justify.

Another drawback is content, specifically the applications that will run alongside the VR hardware. While there are various VR videos on YouTube and a lot of apps available for both iOS and Android, a lot of this content is not high quality or made specifically for educational purposes.

However, there are a handful of companies out there that offer both the hardware and educational content for schools, and it's these companies that could make VR more accessible to schools.

"The most complex side of VR is the content itself. We make the content from zero, entirely in-house and we have subject specialists who go through a visualisation process and then programmers who try to make that happen," said Colin Bethell, director at classroom VR firm Veative, speaking to Computerworld UK at education technology conference Bett last week.

But while the 'package deal' approach will appeal to some schools as it offers convenience and tailored content, the cost could out-price a large number of schools.

Even though VR units are likely to come down in price, until then mass use of VR in the classroom or lecture hall will be limited, if there at all. But that’s not to say some early adopter establishments won’t invest in VR and take advantage of its powerful interactive learning.

It seems the most realistic or attainable form of VR will come in cardboard form. In secondary schools, most students will have a mobile phone and Google Cardboard, for example, cost about £5 each, which is a long way off other options. 

How could augmented reality be used in education?

Augmented reality overlays computer-generated images and videos on a real-time environment by using markers such as a movement, barcode or physical object that will act as a trigger and a method of interaction that the user is seeing ‘on screen’.

In most cases, lessons revolve around a certain textbook and augmented reality could enable its images to ‘pop out’ and make the textbook become an interactive lesson.

Many schools across the UK offer tablets to students and these tablets (or even their own smartphones) could be placed over images in the book enabling it to provide an AR ‘video’ the student.

For example, biology students studying the human circulatory system could place their device over a textbook image and see the heart move and show in great detail how blood is pumped around the body. And this is likely to improve students concentration and enthusiasm.

Keeping practicalities in mind, AR will offer more accessibility to a broader range of schools, as the technology itself is easier to implement within the classroom. Once established (i.e. sufficient AR-enabled textbooks and apps are created), AR should be much cheaper to implement across schools with limited budgets.

So, AR might be the better choice for schools that don’t want to commit to full VR headsets and VR capable PCs.

But AR isn’t just limited to the classroom. The potential for its use on class trips and at home is another thing that augmented reality can provide that VR cannot.

For example, teachers could provide a homework sheet with ‘markers’ on them for students to use with their smartphones at home.

While cost is a running theme when implementing VR, AR and MR, it's an important factor, and in some school the most important metric. Once AR materials (books, task sheets, textbooks and more) are set up and the apps and content is made, implementing AR is a pretty cheap option for children with smartphones or schools offering tablets. 

It's likely that a subscription AR package will be used by schools to get curriculum-based AR apps and in theory the benefits to learning are huge. The only question is when is this going to happen?

How could mixed reality be used in education?

Mixed reality, put simply, is a mix between real life and virtual worlds, sometimes described as a mix between VR and AR and augmented virtuality (AV).

Products like Microsoft’s HoloLens offer enterprise mixed reality, with HoloLens claiming it to be the ‘first self-contained, holographic computer’.

"What we're seeing is a huge amount of interest in how people can learn in 3D. Traditionally the way that people have been learning has been with books and all of that is obviously 2D, and is not necessarily the way that everyone likes to learn," said Microsoft HoloLen's senior director and commercial lead, Roger Walkden.

"What we're doing is giving people the opportunity to see real items and bring them to life in a classroom. That is a very impactful way for people to figure out how they can really get a feel for an item and or to understand more about a real life item like the anatomy of the body," added Walkden.

Like augmented reality, MR can be used to provide training to medical staff, construction workers and even town planners. 

As mixed reality projects a virtual image or video on a real world scenario, it is ideal for people at university-level studying subjects that require exceptional details and technical accuracy.

A prime example being civil engineers that need to find pressure spots and weaknesses in their bridge designs. Or perhaps someone studying brain function that needs to see what happens to the brain if its been put under immense stress. 

However, mixed reality does have a few flaws. As it is enterprise-led, it's less accessible to primary and high schools as it requires a lot of time for implementation and the creation of the mixed reality applications themselves.

While these schools could work with Microsoft to create educational apps, the cost of this - while not known - would probably be more than what an average school could afford.

However, in 2016, Microsoft partnered with educational materials firm Pearson to create educational applications and mixed reality learning tools for the HoloLens. These tools are to be used across a broad range of areas such as nursing, construction and engineering, and working with colleges, universities, and secondary schools in the US.

If this is a success, it could be the case that Microsoft offer these educational services to UK schools and colleges in future.

Right now, it seems that the most accessible - in both price and set up - is mobile VR, however the 'experience' is very limited, not only by the apps on the market but also by the level of student interaction that mobile VR can provide. Whereas, AR and mixed reality could be the next step up for early-adopting schools.

The benefits of VR in classrooms could be huge and for some schools a reality in the future, but for now it seems that the technology might be better used at universities where the budget and access to these technologies is much higher. 

It’s a question many people are asking and debating: is it legal to stream copyrighted films and TV shows using Kodi in the UK and Europe? Contrary to what you might think, and what others may say, it’s currently legal to watch the latest cinema releases and TV episodes through streaming websites and apps. See also: Is it legal to download YouTube videos?

Disclaimer: We’re not legal experts, and we’re merely reporting on what the Court of Justice of the European Union has said. The current situation appears to be that you are not breaking any EU law by using a website or software to watch copyrighted content that has been made available by someone else. Morally, of course, it’s a completely different matter. But we’re not going to debate the morality of it here: we’re concerned only with legality.

Is Kodi legal?

Kodi is perhaps the best-known and most popular media streaming app at the moment. It used to be called XBMC and has been around for years.

Kodi is simply a media player, much like Windows Media Player or VLC. Tthere is nothing illegal about downloading, installing and using software that plays video, music and other media. In short, then, Kodi is legal.

What’s controversial are Kodi add-ons. These are plug-ins which provide access to a massive library of TV box sets and films for free. These video are hosted without the permission of the copyright holders.

You can install Kodi on your PC, laptop, tablet, even on an Amazon Fire TV, or any Android TV, but it's dedicated set-top boxes - aka Kodi boxes - which have hit the headlines recently. 

To clarify, there's nothing illegal about buying hardware with Kodi pre-loaded. What the authorities are cracking down on is people selling boxes which are pre-configured to access copyrighted TV shows, films and pay-per-view events for free.

Plenty of headlines suggest that users are being targeted by law enforcement, but in fact there is no evidence of this. Organisations such as Fact are actively after those who sell and distribute copyrighted material or devices which allow people to access it. 

Is it illegal to streaming copyrighted movies and TV shows? 

Back in June 2014, there was a “landmark” case where a media service company (Meltwater) was sued by several media groups including the UK-based Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA).

Essentially, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled against the NLA saying that viewing copyrighted content online is not copyright infringement. It all boils down to the fact that the copyrighted information is stored only temporarily on the user’s computer, and temporary copies are exempt from copyright laws.

That’s big news, since it has implications beyond simple web pages, which is what the case was all about.

Since then, the CJEU was asked to clarify whether these existing EU copyright exemptions also apply to viewing and streaming videos online. The court said that streaming videos is different to making a copy, so is also exempt from copyright laws.

Of course, the owners and operators of the streaming services which make this copyright protected content available are breaking the law and can be prosecuted, but as a viewer and streamer you are not breaking any European law.

However, although this is currently the situation, it could change in the future. The CJEU has been asked to clarify the legality of streaming video in Europe, with particular reference to a Dutch retailer which sells Kodi boxes that are pre-configured to access copyrighted material.

In the UK, there have been several police raids on sellers of video players (including Android boxes) which are allegedly set up to stream paid-for content for free.

Is Popcorn Time legal?

Popcorn Time is an application which doesn’t require any adds-ons or configuration: it’s basically Netflix without a subscription. According to EU law, it’s only the developers and distributors of the software which are in the wrong. You’re not breaking any EU law by downloading and using Popcorn Time.

Is CartoonHD legal?

If you use software to stream video – be it a home video your Uncle Bob just uploaded or the latest Ben Affleck movie – is not in itself illegal. You’re viewing a temporary copy of the video, which won’t be stored for the long term on a hard drive or any other form of storage. 

Again, this situation could change, and we're not in any way condoning or recommending the use of any of these apps, services or devices. 

Virtual reality is well publicised in the world of gaming, with VR products flooding shops and magazines over the past few years. In education, some schools are already trialling VR as a way of offering new and engaging ways of teaching and learning.  

Mixed reality and augmented reality, while less familiar in the education space, has proved to be successful in other areas such as museums and construction. But the technology used in these environments could easily be translated to school and universities. 

Like with most things, the biggest barrier to full adoption of these technologies in education is cost. And while mobile VR such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR offer great (and cheap) alternatives to full VR units, the VR apps available are still somewhat limited. 

On the other hand, mixed reality and augmented reality in theory offer the best learning experience, with AR offering - in the long term - a relatively cost-effective option for schools to provide classwork that can work nicely with AR apps, making the content 'come alive' in the classroom. 

Mixed reality products like Microsoft's HoloLens offers great potential in education with benefits for architecture and medicine training being well promoted by the tech giant. However, as Microsoft only offers two options, the developer HoloLens coming in at £2,179 and the enterprise model costing £4,529, the cost of this could be enough for education institutions to write it off completely. 

Read next: Is VR ready for business use? Six industries getting to grips with virtual reality

How could virtual reality be used in education?

Virtual reality uses a __computer to create a simulated environment. Users are within that simulated world, rather than outside looking in like in AR and MR.

There are a few different types of VR, all offering different levels of immersion.

Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear provides mobile VR, that requires users to place their smartphones in a headset.

VR units such as the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR provides a totally immersive experience, and are connected to a __computer (or a PlayStation in regards to the PS VR).

The benefits of virtual reality units in education are pretty clear; more student engagement, faster learning and better quality of education.

And, if you believe the hype, VR could reduce classroom disruptions from children with behavioural difficulties.

For example, a VR history class could transport students to Ancient Egypt to see how they lived and learn about the early Egyptian civilisation in great detail.

But primary and secondary education is just part of the education sector that could benefit from virtual reality.

There could be advantages for higher education institutions too, such as medical schools at universities which could benefit greatly. For example, students could get to grips with the intricacies of a surgery, go inside the human body to fully understand how things work and simulate any real life medical situation.

Speaking at Bett in London last week, University of Leicester’s educational designer, Terese Bird described how important emerging tech is in the medical field. Bird highlighted how VR videos of real life surgery could help medical students understand how the body works and the steps taken in any surgery. 

Away from medicine, university courses such as architecture and those requiring technical drawings would definitely benefit from VR. Architecture students could see in real time how their designs could work, or not work, what need changing and how it could look in the real world.

VR in education: pros and cons

The main drawback of VR is price and accessibility. Some universities and schools might not want to dedicate a large chunk of their budgets to such an emerging technology while others will not be able to afford it at all regardless.

If the consumer prices of VR units are much to go by, equipping one or more departments at a university, or subjects in a school could be hard to justify.

Another drawback is content, specifically the applications that will run alongside the VR hardware. While there are various VR videos on YouTube and a lot of apps available for both iOS and Android, a lot of this content is not high quality or made specifically for educational purposes.

However, there are a handful of companies out there that offer both the hardware and educational content for schools, and it's these companies that could make VR more accessible to schools.

"The most complex side of VR is the content itself. We make the content from zero, entirely in-house and we have subject specialists who go through a visualisation process and then programmers who try to make that happen," said Colin Bethell, director at classroom VR firm Veative, speaking to Computerworld UK at education technology conference Bett last week.

But while the 'package deal' approach will appeal to some schools as it offers convenience and tailored content, the cost could out-price a large number of schools.

Even though VR units are likely to come down in price, until then mass use of VR in the classroom or lecture hall will be limited, if there at all. But that’s not to say some early adopter establishments won’t invest in VR and take advantage of its powerful interactive learning.

It seems the most realistic or attainable form of VR will come in cardboard form. In secondary schools, most students will have a mobile phone and Google Cardboard, for example, cost about £5 each, which is a long way off other options. 

How could augmented reality be used in education?

Augmented reality overlays computer-generated images and videos on a real-time environment by using markers such as a movement, barcode or physical object that will act as a trigger and a method of interaction that the user is seeing ‘on screen’.

In most cases, lessons revolve around a certain textbook and augmented reality could enable its images to ‘pop out’ and make the textbook become an interactive lesson.

Many schools across the UK offer tablets to students and these tablets (or even their own smartphones) could be placed over images in the book enabling it to provide an AR ‘video’ the student.

For example, biology students studying the human circulatory system could place their device over a textbook image and see the heart move and show in great detail how blood is pumped around the body. And this is likely to improve students concentration and enthusiasm.

Keeping practicalities in mind, AR will offer more accessibility to a broader range of schools, as the technology itself is easier to implement within the classroom. Once established (i.e. sufficient AR-enabled textbooks and apps are created), AR should be much cheaper to implement across schools with limited budgets.

So, AR might be the better choice for schools that don’t want to commit to full VR headsets and VR capable PCs.

But AR isn’t just limited to the classroom. The potential for its use on class trips and at home is another thing that augmented reality can provide that VR cannot.

For example, teachers could provide a homework sheet with ‘markers’ on them for students to use with their smartphones at home.

While cost is a running theme when implementing VR, AR and MR, it's an important factor, and in some school the most important metric. Once AR materials (books, task sheets, textbooks and more) are set up and the apps and content is made, implementing AR is a pretty cheap option for children with smartphones or schools offering tablets. 

It's likely that a subscription AR package will be used by schools to get curriculum-based AR apps and in theory the benefits to learning are huge. The only question is when is this going to happen?

How could mixed reality be used in education?

Mixed reality, put simply, is a mix between real life and virtual worlds, sometimes described as a mix between VR and AR and augmented virtuality (AV).

Products like Microsoft’s HoloLens offer enterprise mixed reality, with HoloLens claiming it to be the ‘first self-contained, holographic computer’.

"What we're seeing is a huge amount of interest in how people can learn in 3D. Traditionally the way that people have been learning has been with books and all of that is obviously 2D, and is not necessarily the way that everyone likes to learn," said Microsoft HoloLen's senior director and commercial lead, Roger Walkden.

"What we're doing is giving people the opportunity to see real items and bring them to life in a classroom. That is a very impactful way for people to figure out how they can really get a feel for an item and or to understand more about a real life item like the anatomy of the body," added Walkden.

Like augmented reality, MR can be used to provide training to medical staff, construction workers and even town planners. 

As mixed reality projects a virtual image or video on a real world scenario, it is ideal for people at university-level studying subjects that require exceptional details and technical accuracy.

A prime example being civil engineers that need to find pressure spots and weaknesses in their bridge designs. Or perhaps someone studying brain function that needs to see what happens to the brain if its been put under immense stress. 

However, mixed reality does have a few flaws. As it is enterprise-led, it's less accessible to primary and high schools as it requires a lot of time for implementation and the creation of the mixed reality applications themselves.

While these schools could work with Microsoft to create educational apps, the cost of this - while not known - would probably be more than what an average school could afford.

However, in 2016, Microsoft partnered with educational materials firm Pearson to create educational applications and mixed reality learning tools for the HoloLens. These tools are to be used across a broad range of areas such as nursing, construction and engineering, and working with colleges, universities, and secondary schools in the US.

If this is a success, it could be the case that Microsoft offer these educational services to UK schools and colleges in future.

Right now, it seems that the most accessible - in both price and set up - is mobile VR, however the 'experience' is very limited, not only by the apps on the market but also by the level of student interaction that mobile VR can provide. Whereas, AR and mixed reality could be the next step up for early-adopting schools.

The benefits of VR in classrooms could be huge and for some schools a reality in the future, but for now it seems that the technology might be better used at universities where the budget and access to these technologies is much higher. 

A joint report by Goldsmiths University and 'cognitive science' service provider IPSoft paints a rosy picture for the role artificial intelligence will play in boosting productivity within the workforce.

According to the report, titled FuturaCorp: Artificial Intelligence & the Freedom to Be Human, developments in AI will drastically alter the way in which organisations operate, and bring in a raft of new roles that will reward more uniquely human capabilities like imagination and creativity.

Dr Chris Brauer of Goldsmiths was the lead on the research. Speaking with Computerworld UK, Brauer says that he went into the project expecting to unearth which jobs will be left at all from the coming boom in AI – but was surprised to find that the report suggested a more collaborative approach between humans and machines.

"One of the main findings is an alternative to the dystopian views that have been projected out about job losses, and automation entering the workplace to replace human beings," Brauer says. "This study found that the collaboration between smart machines has the potential to be more productive – a hyperproductive environment – where you're maximising for the human and for the machine."

In short, Brauer believes that tasks suited to machines – monotonous and repetitious – should be outsourced to machines. But humans will, he thinks, be freed up to take on roles where humans are current irreplaceable, for example, in understanding design, empathy, creativity and strategy.

The roles are divided into three categories: cross-functional skills, probabilistic skills, and deterministic skills. Cross-functional skills include social intelligence, cultural knowledge, and adaptive thinking. Probabilistic skills are more suited to AI acting as a complementary technology to human beings, and could include new roles such as "AI interaction designers" – for instance, feeding the human understanding of design language into a machine.

"We envision a world where organisations begin to adapt and assign resources to machines doing what machines do well, and humans doing what humans do well," Brauer says. "The part that has been missing is we've been trying to get humans to do things that machines do well, and then we're surprised that those roles are eventually going to be taken over by the machines. In many ways, they were so deterministic and robotic and appropriate for the machines in the first place."

One such example is the 'technology broker'.

"A technology broker was another one that came up," says Dr Brauer. "Being able to broker between the needs of the sales team and the actual capabilities of the technologies. Bringing in advice, negotiating support in divisions across companies and so on, to allocate resources to trending things."

"We'll see organisations with their probability matrices and so on who will be able to see in real time areas of the business that are on the up, just as if you were watching an exchange," he explains.  

Embracing automation is central to the ethos of the DevOps movement – that all repetitive tasks should be automated leaving developers the time and energy to develop.

"It's almost like in order to embrace our humanity we have to embrace the AI and that's a paradox for a lot of people," Brauer says. "They see the AI as dehumanising us, whereas this study suggests the opposite."

Navigating the social changes that AI and automation will affect is fairly new territory. But Brauer says that the doom-ridden soothsaying from some corners ignores part of the equation. He points to the fact that while machines have been able to beat the best chess players for more than a decade, an average chess player working in tandem with a supercomputer will almost always be able to beat a supercomputer playing on its own.

The claims in the report echo the thoughts of some of the technology industry's leading figures speaking at Davos earlier this month. Satya Nadella and Gini Rometty, for instance, both argued that while there will be social change, advances in AI will not do away with jobs per se – but people will need to adjust and equip themselves with the correct skills and mindset to get ahead.

Late last year Dr Wolfgong Krips, executive VP for operations at Amadeus IT Group, suggested something similar: that just like in an automotive plant, the workers "go away from the conveyer belt and they start programming the robots" to become "automation engineers".

"If you want to go to these levels of stability and agility you have to change the whole way how you deliver the services," he said at the time. "That is the big transformation that is happening."

For years people have been sharing large files online via torrenting sites. The most famous portals are sites such as the Pirate Bay - which has been involved in numerous legal disputes - plus TorrentHound, ExtraTorrent, and a number of others. While the principle of torrenting is completely benign, the most common use of the technology is to distribute pirated versions of the latest movies, TV shows, music, and software. So what is torrenting, and how can you make sure you stay on the right side of the law? We explain the legality of torrents and legal uses.

Related: Torrenting vs Streaming | Why you need a VPN 

Are torrents legal? | What is torrenting?

Torrenting is simply a method of sharing large files online. Unlike a standard download where you click a link and the file is saved to your hard drive from a single source, a torrent file is shared out among a number of users and downloaded in parts that are then automatically assembled into the movie, album, or relevant media. The reason for this approach is to reduce the strain on any one source, sharing the load among the users.

To download a torrent you'll need a torrent software client and to visit a dedicated torrent site. For a more detailed description on how this all works, and why you might want to reconsider doing it, take a look at our guide on How to Download a Torrent.

Are torrents legal? | So is it OK to download torrents?

In and of itself torrents and torrenting is not illegal. But, and this is a tremendously important caveat, this changes depending on what you download. Back in 2010 the UK Government released public spending data via BitTorrent and various Linux operating systems have been shared completely legally via torrent sites for years. The reason you can download these files with alacrity is that the copyright holders have agreed to this method of distribution. 

If the copyright holder hasn't agreed, which is the case with pretty much anything you would otherwise have to pay for, then torrenting is seen as stealing.

A quick look at the most popular media downloaded via torrents in 2016 gives you an idea of why it makes the headlines so often. Game of Thrones, HBO's hugely popular fantasy epic, headed the list followed by the Walking Dead and Westworld. On the movie side of things Deadpool proved the most popular, accompanied by Batman vs Superman, Captain America: Civil War, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

As you can imagine these premium titles are not officially made available for you to download for free. The huge production costs involved guarantee that they will only be found on paid services such as NowTV, Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, or Google Play Video. 

Are torrents legal? | But who is going to notice me downloading a few files?

As far as the law appears to us (we advise on tech - we're not legal experts) torrenting is seen as making a copy of a file, therefore if you don't have the permission of the copyright holder to download and store that file you're in breach of copyright laws. This becomes a lot murkier if you stream copyrighted material, as explained in our Is streaming pirated movies legal article, but our advice is simple: steer clear of both if you want to stay on the right side of the law.

Yes, you might get away with it. Conversely you might not. But why take the risk? You're also ripping off the people who have invested vast sums of money to create the content. The Google Play store often runs promotions where you get money off of movie rentals or purchasing TV series, and if you really can't wait to catch up on your favourite show then you could try purchasing one episode at a time. They usually cost less than a coffee.

Take a look at our Netflix Vs Amazon Prime video comparison review to keep yourself on the straight and narrow.

Modern Windows laptops, tablets and PCs fitted with SSDs can have limited storage, so it’s more important than ever to keep a clean house and remove unwanted or unused programs. Not only will this free up precious storage space, but it can make your device run faster because those programs often start up with Windows.

The uninstaller provided with Windows is functional, but it can also be very slow and is somewhat lacking in features. Plus, it doesn’t always do a thorough job and can leave files and shortcuts behind. However, here are five free uninstaller programs which should ensure a program can be completely removed from your computer.

Revo Uninstaller

• RRP: Free (£17 inc VAT for Pro version)

Revo Uninstaller provides a number of ways to track down and list programs you no longer need and a simple means of removing them. In standard mode, available programs are listed ready for removal, but a search facility is also available for those with lots of applications installed.

In Hunter mode, program shortcuts can be simply dragged and dropped onto a target area to remove them, or by dragging the target onto an unwanted program's icons or titlebar. We found this a little hit and miss, but it’s a nice extra.

Talking of extras, there’s also a file shredder and an option to download a portable version of the program that you can run from a USB flash drive.

The free version comes with free tech support and supports Windows 10, but there’s a Pro version with even more features, including the ability to forcefully uninstall a program, queue up several programs for automatic removal and extended scanning for leftovers. The latter has been shown to work well, and makes the $19 price for a single PC seem pretty good value. 

Download Revo Uninstaller Free

IObit Uninstaller

• RRP: Free

IObit Uninstaller is one of the best uninstall tools and can completely remove programs from your hard drive, with none of the usual Registry clutter and junk files often left behind.

The cleanup process has two stages. First, you launch the unwanted application's uninstaller and let it do its work. And second, IObit Uninstaller's "Powerful Scan" option checks your Registry and hard drive for remnants that the program might have been left behind. These are then displayed for your approval, and you're able to delete anything the program has discovered in a click.

There’s also a section where you can identify and remove any unwanted browser toolbars, and will tell you which are safe to leave on your PC. Also, you can easily remove Windows updates, but be careful to ensure these are not needed before doing so.

Before uninstalling anything, you get the option to create a Windows Restore Point so you can roll back in case you end up uninstalling something critical or something you realise you actually needed.

Download IObit Uninstaller

CCleaner

• RRP: Free (£19.95 inc VAT for Pro version)

You may know of CCleaner for its ability to remove graphics card drivers and clean up the Registry, but it can also uninstall Windows apps and programs. You’ll find the list of installed applications in the Tools > Uninstall section.

It does a decent job of clearing up all the loose ends (which Windows’ built-in installer occasionally doesn’t), and it comes with a selection of useful extras such as a duplicate file finder, a file shredder and a Windows start-up program manager.

There’s a Pro version of CCleaner which costs £19.95 and includes real-time monitoring, scheduled cleaning, automatic updates and premium support, but the free version should do pretty much everything you need.

Download CCleaner

PC Decrapifier

• RRP: Free

We love PC Decrapifier’s no-nonsense name. We also love how it’s free, but there are options to donate a small amount of money to support the developers rather than sneaky ‘Free download’ links which refer to the fact that you can merely download the file for free but you have to pay if you want to use the program.

PC Decrapifier’s interface is also straightforward. On our test laptop it couldn’t find any ‘crap’ or ‘questionable’ software, but if you click the Everything Else tab you will find all the programs available for uninstallation.

The whole program is self-contained so doesn’t need installing or uninstalling, so you can run it from a USB flash drive. Like all others here, it’s up to date and supports Windows 10.

Download PC Decrapifier

Wise Program Uninstaller

• RRP: Free

Wise Cleaner claims its Program Uninstaller doesn’t require installation, but the first thing it asked us to do was choose the folder in which to install it. Aside from this slight annoyance, Wise Program Uninstaller is completely free and has a handy context menu option which adds the option to use the tool to uninstall a program just by right-clicking on its shortcut icon.

It’s quite basic compared to the most fully featured here, but it does have a sometimes-useful Forced Uninstall option which can help when a program’s official uninstaller is broken and refuses to uninstall the software.

Download Wise Program Uninstaller

Financial regulators in the UK have a well earned reputation for an open and progressive approach to cutting edge technology, with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) operating Project Innovate and a regulatory sandbox, as well as the Bank of England's fintech accelerator.

However, there is still no firm regulatory framework in place for the potentially disruptive blockchain technology to be used by financial services firms. So what needs to change?

Read next: Blockchain has its benefits, but can it live up to the hype?

Blockchain as a term grew to prominence as the distributed ledger technology underpinning of the crypto currency Bitcoin. It is essentially an electronic ledger of records which are organised into data batches, called blocks, which automatically reference one another, forming an unbroken chain which theoretically cannot be tampered with as it is 'distributed' and does not reside anywhere central.

The reason financial organisations are so interested in the technology is because of the possibility of having an irrefutable record of transactions, and effectively eliminating the possibility of fraud.

Regulating blockchain

Speaking at London Blockchain Week on Tuesday, three lawyers and a fintech founder spoke about where they see the UK's regulatory framework in regards to the distributed ledger blockchain technology, and what needs to happen for use cases to go mainstream.

John Salmon, a partner at law firm Hogan Lovells said that there tends to be two camps when it comes to regulating blockchain, and that they resemble the way regulators spoke about the early internet during the dotcom boom. He said: "Either it was the Wild West and it cannot and shouldn't be regulated, or there is a camp saying that this had to abide by existing laws."

He gave the example of music pirating sites like Napster as an early indicator that online businesses need to abide by the same rules as incumbents, and that this should be taken into account by regulators looking at a technology as potentially disruptive as blockchain. "The lessons to be learned are that we need to apply existing laws and regulations, and we absolutely have to think about putting in new ones," he said.

Read next: How technology will transform banking in 2017: Blockchain, cloud computing and digital challenger banks

On that note, Mark Carney - the governor of the Bank of England - made a speech at the Deutsche Bundesbank G20 conference this week where he spoke about some of the considerations the Bank makes when deciding whether something like blockchain should be brought into its regulatory perimeter.

He said: "Just because something is new doesn’t necessarily mean it should be treated differently. Similarly, just because it is outside the regulatory perimeter doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to be brought inside." In short: we are no closer to a clear regulatory framework for blockchain in the UK.

Later on Jonathan Galea, assistant legal counsel at online gambling company NetEnt, helpfully took a step back too, adding that there needs to be a distinction between public and private blockchains. "When it comes to the blockchain, completely decentralised blockchains can't be regulated, so where the code has been written and issued to the general public. Private blockchains can be regulated, but we still need to make a distinction between the two," he said.

Current regulatory landscape

Many recognise that the UK's regulators tend to be more open minded when it comes to new technology in the financial services space. For example, an EY report into UK fintech from February 2016 asserted that "the UK has the strongest fintech policy environment, with the most supportive regulatory regime," as benchmarked against other leading fintech hubs.

"The strength of the UK policy environment is due to the supportiveness and accessibility of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), effective tax incentives and numerous government programmes designed to promote competition and innovation which indirectly support fintechs," the report concluded. These programmes include the FCA's regulatory sandbox, Project Innovate and the Bank of England's fintech accelerator.

Read next: Seven reasons blockchain isn’t ready for mainstream deployment

The Bank of England even conducted a successful proof of concept (PoC) of distributed ledger technology with PwC last year. This approach would strongly suggest that the bank will be providing a favourable regulatory environment for anyone wanting to work with the technology, but only once it matures.

Following the PoC the bank's statement read: "While the technology is still relatively immature, it could provide benefits in the future, and also be complementary to existing systems by, for example, removing the single point of failure of a system, considerably increasing its resilience."

Open dialogue

Guido Branca is CEO of BaBB (Bank Account Based Blockchain), a fintech looking to provide access to banking services based on the blockchain. The Harvard graduate said that he chose the UK to set up his business, "because of the regulators." He said: "We found the Bank of England taking an open approach, so instead of turning people away they engage."

Read next: Deutsche Bank moves blockchain project out of proof of concept stage and voices concerns with the distributed ledger technology

Experienced compliance officer for the financial services industry Richard Levin agreed, saying: "I know people don't like to talk to regulators but you should. Help the regulators understand this industry, help them understand what you want to do, have a dialogue with them, be forthright and try to do it the right way. They will be much more forgiving if you try to do things that way than hiding from them."

However he did add that these conversations are increasingly vital because, "right now the regulations are completely out of step with the technology."

Salmon from Hogan Lovells was also full of praise for UK regulators: "We went from a regulator that never talked to you and said: 'if you mess it up, you are getting sued'. Now we need to talk to them, educate them and it really is a complete sea change and we shouldn't underestimate how brilliant that is."

Social housing is in crisis. There are now more than 1.8 million households waiting for a social home according to Shelter, and landlords are struggling to cope with the needs of residents as budgets dwindle and resources stretch.

Technology offers opportunities to alleviate the sector's ills, but there are barriers to overcome before they can be implemented.

Housing sector solutions agency HACT teamed up with tech trade association techUK in its central London headquarters this week to explain their hopes and concerns about how technology can support social housing and reveal a strategy for change to guide the sector to a higher tech future.

Current failings in social housing

HACT released a manifesto for change in December 2016 titled "Is housing really ready to go digital?" The sector will be unable to answer the question in the affirmative until a number of issues are resolved, which begin with reaching a consensus on what going digital actually means.

"It really is not actually making anything other than reinforcing the existing models," says director of HACT Digital Francis Hipple, who’s been working in social housing for more than 30 years.

"It's not been challenging them and really reshaping ways of doing business and ways of working. In fact, it's pretty much as it was in 1972."

Tenants may have kept up with wider technological changes, but the housing associations that support them have not. Hipple wants more of them to take advantage of tech trends such as big data.

"I know one housing trust actually gets weather data, so if there's going to be a cold snap they will contact particular elderly tenants and say to them it's going to be cold, is your boiler working and actually try to be a little bit proactive," she says.

Read next: Sanctuary Housing rolls out first-of-its-kind social housing platform using SAP

"It hasn't been disruptive, technology so far. It's been reinforcing existing models, making them a bit slicker, making them a bit prettier, but it hasn't completely disrupted the way of actually providing and managing housing in this country, and it has got the potential to be able to do that."

HACT’s report identifies a lack of competition and a lack of innovation. A small market of cash-strapped housing suppliers has stifled radical thinking, and Hipple notes that only one system that's currently live was designed from the ground-up in this century.

Uninformed communication creates an endless circle of discussions between suppliers unsure of need and housing unclear about available solutions. This lack of understanding continues at the board level.

"Most board members have traditionally been retired accountants, retired people that used to be in housing associations, and there are very few really technically competent people in terms of tech on boards," says Hipple.

They compensate for their lack of technical acumen with an over-reliance on external consultants, whose reports and programmes are rarely implemented effectively due to the boards’ insufficient funding and understanding.

Plans for digital changes

HACT hopes to act as a dating agency to engineer discussions and attract technical talent to housing association boards. It wants to make technology an integral part of everything done in the sector, which can only be achieved with a major improvement to data quality.

"Housing associations have horrible data," says Hipple. "They do not maintain it; they do not look back to it. There is no data ownership within an organisation, so it may be collected by some of them but it is never maintained.

"The governance of information is appalling. There is no information governance in most housing associations, and when the new data protection act comes in next year I think there are going to be some nasty shocks for people there."

Initiatives implemented by HACT include UK Housing’s Digital on Board programme to recruit new digital leaders, and a Digital Maturity Audit service to assess and develop the digital capacities of housing provider businesses that will be launched in the coming months.

HACT is also making the long-discussed shared data standard for housing a reality, and has created the HACT Launchpad to bring innovative tech companies and housing associations together to develop new technological solutions.

Many housing innovations are already available, and a number were exhibited on the day. They included EkkoSense's web-based platform for monitoring solar and wind power and Kemuri's smart power sockets, which monitor the movements and temperatures of elderly residents through household devices.

Cultural barriers and financial limitations mean progress will be arduous, but HACT remains confident that the potential is there to digitally transform social housing.

MWC 2017 is fast approaching and the mobile focused show in Barcelona could have a lot of great new products in store. Here we preview the show which starts on 27 February and show you what to expect at MWC 2017 from Samsung, Sony, LG, HTC, Huawei and more. Also see: Best new phones 2017.

Find the best phone deals.

What to expect at MWC 2017: Samsung 

Right off the bat, we know that Samsung will not be announcing the Galaxy S8 at MWC this year. An executive has confirmed that the company won’t follow its usual tradition of revealing the new flagship in Barcelona. It’s unclear when it will arrive but most are tipping April.

So what will Samsung launch at MWC 2017? Well you can bet that it will have a range of products on show with possible devices including the Galaxy Tab S3 and Galaxy TabPro S2 – both tablets but new wearables are always a possibility.

In terms of phones, Samsung already introduced the new Galaxy A range for 2017 at CES and while there are some rumours the Galaxy Note 8 could make an appearance and MWC, we think it’s a long shot.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy S7 review | Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge review.

What to expect at MWC 2017: LG

It’s pretty much a given that the star of LG’s show will be the new G6 flagship smartphone which has been leaked recently. If the information is correct, it seems LG is ditching the modular design of the LG G5 and opting for a sleek design with tiny bezels (see above). Interestingly the phone will also have, we think, a 5.7in display with an unusual 18:9 (2:1) aspect ratio.

The firm is also thought to be launching new Android Wear smartwatches in partnership with Google so we’re keen to see them in Barcelona.

Read more about the LG G6.

What to expect at MWC 2017: Sony

We’re still a bit confused by Sony’s X portfolio of smartphones, having ditched the nice lettering system of Z down to E.

As much as we hope the firm simplifies things up, it’s rumoured to be launching follow-ups to the devices we saw last year – the Xperia X and Xperia XA. Whether the number 2 will be tagged on the end or new names created remains to be seen, but you can expect features like waterproofing and decent cameras.

In fact, going by one leak Sony will announce five devices at the show. The list, via sumahoinfo, suggests two of them will feature 5.5in screens and Snapdragon 835 processors - one will have a 4K screen and 6GB of RAM.

It’s less likely that Sony will announce a successor to the flagship Xperia XZ but we can always hope for the Xperia Z6. We’d really like to see Sony reveal the Xperia Z5 or Z6 Tablet and the Sony Smartwatch 4.

Read more about the Xperia X2

What to expect at MWC 2017: HTC

When it comes to HTC, we’re less sure on what the company will do at MWC. It’s just announced the HTC U Ultra and U Play while confirming they are not new flagships. That suggests we’ll see the HTC 11 then, if that’s what it’s even called, but the HTC 10 didn’t arrive last year so it’s by no means a given.

What to expect at MWC 2017: Huawei

Now getting more traction in the UK and Europe, many eyes will be on Huawei and its 2017 flagship phone. It has a press conference lined up for 26 February and we expect it to be launching the Huawei P10 which will have to take on the likes of the LG G6 and Galaxy S8.

The firm could also announce other products and we wouldn’t be too surprised to see a new tablet or two and hopefully a Huawei Watch 2 with Android Wear 2.0. A leak by Evan Blass says it 'may launch February' and will have optional LTE connectivity.

What to expect at MWC 2017: Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft and Xiaomi

You can expect plenty more phones at MWC this year and both Motorola (Lenovo) and Nokia have sent out invites so that’s a decent bet. The former is tipped to launch the Moto G5 and Nokia might release a P1 phone with a Snapdragon 835 and a tablet.

Also we might final meet the long-rumoured Microsoft Surface Phone so what this space.

If you're wondering if we might see new phones, or other devices from Xiaomi like the Mi 6 it looks like that won't be the case. According to TechCrunch, the firm has no plans of the sort and will be 'skipping the event entirely'.

Finnish escalator and elevator manufacturer KONE was born as a subsidiary from Helsinki-based electric motor manufacturer Strömberg in 1910. Now it operates over 1.1 million units worldwide, and has turned to IBM Watson IoT and Salesforce to manage its enormous operations, used by as many as 1 billion people every day. 

Antti Koskelin, KONE's CIO, tells Computerworld UK that the business is moving towards something called "dynamic dispatching" – by combining intelligent analysis from IBM Watson IoT with Salesforce's Service Cloud Lightning and Field Service Lightning tools, the company will be able to respond to emergencies as they happen.

KONE has come a long way since it first started manufacturing and installing its own elevators in 1918 with a total of 50 employees. Today it's the fourth largest manufacturer of elevators and escalators in the world, and it pulls in billions of Euros in revenue a year while employing more than 50,000 people.

Read more: 16 innovative businesses using IBM Watson: Which companies are using Watson's big data and analytics to power their business?

"If we have an urgent call from a customer, for example, someone is trapped in an elevator, or the elevator is saying something will happen if it's not maintained in the next day or so, we can dynamically schedule our 20,000 service technicians around the world," Koskelin says.

He points to two hypothetical examples that might need maintenance at the same time – a hospital in central London and a residential student building.

"Both of these customers are calling us and saying there's someone trapped in the building, we need your help – which would you prioritise? Naturally the hospital, I would say.

"So if it's a hospital where the reaction time is counted in minutes, not in hours, what we'd do is look immediately to see who the closest service technician is, and who can go there immediately to serve it." 

A more benign example would be a broken down lift in a residential block. Using the combination of the Salesforce field service platform and information sent by IBM's IoT sensors, KONE could look up the elevator online.

By checking that nobody's inside and that it's safely parked at the ground level, the maintenance call would be prioritised accordingly – or if there was a scheduled service technician appointment there booked for the following day, this worker would be automatically equipped with all the new information about the elevator.

Currently, KONE is using a mixture of custom and legacy technology across EMEA, Asia and the Americas, and Koskelin says this initiative is part of a wider digitisation program. The Salesforce Service Cloud Lightning and Field Service Lightning will aim to bring together all of KONE's customer service agents out in the field and on the phones, with real-time service data provided by IBM IoT.

The cloud service will be fully operated by Salesforce.  

The project is only in its initial design phase but should be rolled out in two territories by the end of this year. Salesforce is working with KONE, along with a few other selected pilot customers, to develop the field service from the ground up.

Read more: How British Gas Connected Home is moving beyond Hive and managing an “explosion” of IoT data using an open-source Apache stack

"This is a very new solution that doesn't exist in Salesforce yet," Koskelin explains. "Salesforce is building this partly based on our needs, and partly on a few other customers' needs – so in a way, this is kind of a joint project together with Salesforce to support the business for the next decade or so."

Koskelin says KONE opted for Salesforce because, essentially, it is a Salesforce shop already in CRM. "In 2016 we were celebrating our ten year anniversary with Salesforce, and we've been very heavily implementing their CRM solution for our sales management," Koskelin explains. "That has been a great success already. Now, this contract expands the coverage into field services." 

"What we are planning to do is digitalise our service business with the latest generation technology, and for that we selected Salesforce based on our extremely good experience on the CRM product," he says.

"[Salesforce] are strong partners in development overall. We feel that as we get all of our customers in the service business into one platform,that will help us provide even better services for our customers, in terms of service staff availability, availability to react to customer requests, and so on."

Koskelin says that there were other candidates for the IoT platform itself, but ultimately KONE picked IBM because the company felt confident IoT was high on its agenda. "If we look at the combination of IBM Watson analytics and then the IoT as well, this is a very good combination," he explains.

And how will Koskelin and KONE measure success? He shares two metrics: "For me as the group CIO, my main target is that we are going to get the user adoption as high as possible, and are able then to roll it out as fast as possible to the different businesses," he says.

"And another we'll follow clearly is customer satisfaction," he explains. "Are we able to provide better services for our customers? To provide better proactive services for our customers, are we able to react to their needs in a better way, and send our technicians to the right customers at the right time?"

For now, KONE is recruiting into its technology and IT department, looking for talent with the appropriate skills.

"Digitalisation requires that no matter if we do all the coding by ourselves, we'll still need to have a better understanding of how to utilise this," he says. "And of course, this is a change project as well – we need to train our field technicians to be able to work with the new, more intuitive solution, and dispatch their cases in a dynamic way."

Many people now prefer to watch TV on demand, and much of the content comes from online services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and iPlayer. There’s still some confusion though over the various types of delivery method - such as streaming and torrenting. So we’ve put together this short guide to bring you up to speed.

See also: 16 Best media streamers 2017 | Best Kodi boxes 2017 | Best Kids Media streaming services

Torrent vs streaming: How are they different?

In simple terms torrenting involves the downloading of files to your __computer so you can watch or use them later, while streaming is a kind of real-time feed that you access online but which involves no files being saved on your hard drive. It’s like the difference between recording a program or watching it live.

Typically streaming is done through legal, paid subscriptions services like Netflix, NowTV and many more, although YouTube is an obvious notable exception (not on legality, but because it doesn't require a subscription). Torrenting on the other hand is often touted as illegal and dangerous, and while that can certainly be the case it isn’t really the full story.

Torrent vs streaming: What is torrenting?

Torrenting is a clever way to share large files (torrents) over a network. This is done through software called torrent clients which allow you to search for content. The clever part is that you don’t download the whole file from one place, but rather bits of it from a variety of different users who have that file on their computer. This shares the burden and alleviates the demands on any one server, making large downloads faster. In return you are often expected to reciprocate by sharing parts of the downloaded file with other users. Typically the default is that you share parts of the file while you're downloading it.

Torrenting isn’t illegal. In fact it’s been a great way to disseminate content online for a number of years. Many Linux operating systems (or Distros) are made available via torrenting, as are a number of other big files such as freeware applications, independent movies, and other content that are perfectly legitimate to download.

See also: How to download torrents

The problem comes when users download copyrighted material, which is perhaps the most common use for torrenting. From the latest Hollywood blockbuster to the hottest new album, it rarely takes long for multiple copies to appear on torrent sites, and in some cases even before the official release.

Of course this is illegal and if you get caught you could face criminal charges because essentially you’re stealing the content. There’s also the dubious bonus that you could also be downloading files infected with malware, viruses, or ransomware.

Torrent vs streaming: What is streaming?

Streaming involves a user’s __computer (or a TV or set-top box) accessing content stored on another device, and watching it in real-time via a continuous stream of data. Hence the name. This is how Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, iPlayer, Spotify, and even the videos on this site work.

As there are no files to download to your device it’s a lot safer than torrenting, at least on the professional services mentioned above. The downside is that you need a constant internet connection to enjoy the content, and if your broadband is slow you’ll get the dreaded buffering scenario where the content pauses while it loads the next part.

Some sites will actually let you download content so you can watch or listen to it later - Spotify, iPlayer, Netflix being good examples - but on the whole services restrict users to streaming only.

See also: How to download Netflix

Not all streaming sites are as respectable as those listed above. A quick Google search will bring up various places offering free access to live Premiership Football games, movies, TV series, or a variety of other copyrighted material. Visiting these sites can grant the content that you seek, but beware of messages telling you that you need to download updates to Flash, or any offer to click on links, as this may well be a gateway to malware and misery. Then there’s also the moral quandary of watching material that is copyrighted and therefore should be paid for by viewers.

Technically, because you’re not downloading any copies of files onto your device, the EU courts deem that watching pirated material isn’t a crime. That honour is reserved for those providing the stream. But be aware that you’re still depriving the creator of the material their livelihood, so consider that before you hit the Stream button.

See also: Is streaming pirate movies legal?

Torrent vs streaming: Which is best?

So, should you torrent or stream? Our advice is this: avoid torrenting movies, games, music, software, and anything else you know to be pirated material. It’s not worth the risk and is illegal. Instead enjoy the myriad of content available for free on YouTube, or sign up a proper streaming service. The content is safe, varied, and you won’t be looking over your shoulder.

Try our Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video comparison review for ideas on where to start.