BitTorrent Inc. just confirmed to TorrentFreak that their popular uTorrent client has just broken the magical milestone of 100 million active monthly users. This makes uTorrent the most used BitTorrent client around, and it also shows that BitTorrent as a means to download has become more mainstream than ever before.
Following the example of OpenBitTorrent, another major BitTorrent tracker has now abandoned the resource-intensive TCP protocol. 1337x switched to a UDP-only tracker a few days ago after several hosting providers kicked the tracker out for the “broadcast storm” that resulted from the millions of connections BitTorrent users were making.
The uTorrent team is working on a paid version of the leading BitTorrent client that will enable users to convert videos and transfer files to external devices. Branded uTorrent Plus, the extended uTorrent client will be be released to the public this coming fall. uTorrent’s parent company BitTorrent Inc. hopes the Plus version will bring in some extra revenue, but considering the target audience it is expected to ‘suffer’ from piracy as well.
Torrent Stream Magic Player is a brand new add-on that allows users to stream video and music torrents directly in their browser. The Magic Player works with Chrome, Firefox, Opera and supports dozens of popular torrent sites including The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, BTjunkie and EZTV. It’s one of the first solutions to create a true video-on-demand experience directly in the browser.
After LimeWire was shut down last year FrostWire took over as the leading file-sharing application on the Gnutella network. But this didn’t last long. Today FrostWire announces that it will leave Gnutella entirely and focus on BitTorrent instead. This decision may very well signal the end of the once-mighty Gnutella network, while existing BitTorrent networks will only grow stronger.
MediaGet, an all-in-one BitTorrent client developed in Russia, has become increasingly popular recently. Despite being just one year young the BitTorrent client has already been downloaded more than 18 million times. At the moment the majority of its users come from Ukraine and Russia, but the MediaGet developers have translated the client and are ready to conquer the West.
The uTorrent development team officially released version 3.0 of their popular application today. The milestone release adds many new features including torrent ratings, comments, streaming, and drag-and-drop sharing. One of the main goals is to appeal more to novice BitTorrent users, who often drop out after using uTorrent only once or twice.
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Left Quote“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.
Peter Sunde Left Quote
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