TorrentFreak

The BitTorrent Inc. team has just added two of the most interesting apps yet to the popular uTorrent client. The first one allows users to integrate the all-round media player VLC to uTorrent, making it possible for users to play media files from within the client. The second is uCast, an exciting new app which enables users to share a ‘live’ RSS feed of selected torrents with friends.

BitTorrent is a great technology to share files both quickly and efficiently, but like most other P2P-technologies it has an Achilles’ heel. The download process relies in part on central servers that can crash or go offline for a variety of reasons. To address this vulnerability the first truly decentralized BitTorrent/P2P client has been developed, meaning that no central trackers, or even BitTorrent search engines are required to download movies, software and music.

A new BitTorrent client called zButterfly saw the light this week. Based on the Vuze source code, the new client sets itself apart from the competition by offering a searchable catalog of movies in various qualities. The developers of zButterfly are convinced that the movie centric approach will be appreciated by users, but it’s doubtful that Hollywood will be happy with this latest innovation.

The uTorrent team has rolled out the stable release of uTorrent 2.2 today. The highly anticipated release is the first to open up BitTorrent’s App Studio to uTorrent’s 65 million users and introduces optimized proxy privacy settings. To emphasize the collaboration with independent artists, the launch of uTorrent 2.2 coincides with a promotion of the free-to-download film ‘Four Eyed Monsters’.

Last month, the Gnutella-based file-sharing client LimeWire was effectively outlawed after a U.S. federal judge granted a request from the RIAA to shut the software down. Now, not even a month later, LimeWire is back as good as new. Not only has a secret dev team reanimated the hugely popular client, but they have also made a few significant changes which make it better and more streamlined than before.

Streaming capabilities have been added to BitTorrent via the Tribler client, and more recently uTorrent. Thus far the implementation of these technologies into major websites has been lacking. That position changed this week as the Wikimedia Foundation partnered with P2P Next to use BitTorrent-powered streaming for their video content.

Today BitTorrent Inc. announced two new Apps for uTorrent, one in collaboration with the organization that hosts the TED conferences and another that allows users to discover free music. The latter App is the winner of the uTorrent App developer challenge. It’s coded by Steven Viola who happened to have just released a TV-app through which users can download and subscribe to shows published on EZTV.