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uTorrent Expands, Launches Apps and Labs

The uTorrent team has released a new version of the BitTorrent client that supports extensions, or apps as they call them. The new version, codenamed Griffin, is part of the new uTorrent labs where users will get early access to new projects, including live streaming (Pheon) and remote access (Falcon).

utorrent labs uTorrent has come a long way since it saw its first public release in September 2005. Over the years it grew out to be the most widely used BitTorrent application around with more than 50 million monthly users worldwide.

On the development side the uTorrent team at BitTorrent Inc. hasn’t been sitting still either. Today they launch “uTorrent Apps”, an exciting new project that could be considered another milestone. With apps, users can easily install extensions and add custom features to uTorrent.

“Apps for µTorrent is a brand new web-based extensions framework that makes it easy for users to get more and do more with µTorrent without compromising the client’s renowned lightness and speed,” Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management says.

Similar to other apps, addons and extensions in today’s web browsers and phones, uTorrent apps will allow 3rd party developers to develop applications that will integrate seamlessly with the client. At launch there are already four free apps available, developed in cooperation with uTorrent.

Among the apps that are currently available are a free virus scanner for BitTorrent downloads and the µGadget which allows users to monitor and control torrent downloads more easily from a browser. VODO, the BitTorrent powered distribution platform for filmmakers that is supported by all the major torrent sites, also has an app already.

For developers who want to code uTorrent apps there will soon be an SDK available. “Apps are a new type of file with a .btapp suffix that consists entirely of HTML and Javascript and can be added to the client and displayed using an embedded browser window, so very little extra code is needed,” Morris explains.

The apps can be added to uTorrent from within the client and take just a click to install. We expect that most torrent sites will soon release their own apps to complement uTorrent. That’s just the start though, the possibilities are endless.

The uTorrent Griffin release is part of the new uTorrent labs section where the development team is giving users early access to their latest projects. Besides Griffin, the remote access project Falcon and the live streaming project Pheon are also listed.

We have already covered Falcon in the past. Besides secure remote access, this client also enables users to stream torrent video files files. Pheon is BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen’s pet project and is expected to be released later this year.

uTorrent Apps

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  • Kirth

    Although this idea may be appealing to some. I’m fearing µTorrent to become more and more bloated software.

  • blah

    That really depends on if you install any of that crap, doesn’t it

  • Bpy6

    Just when I started to dream about p2p streaming player in utorrent, it becomes a reality.
    utorrent FTW!

  • x3style

    Now waiting for the right apps for uTorrent to replace what plugins i use for Vuze (Azureus) so i can dump this piece of crap bloat-cash-ware it has become.

    Too bad i will miss Azureus it used to be an awesome client, uTorrent here i come… \o/

  • Seeder

    @1 who cares?

  • piratepal

    I use uTorrent but it slow my computer as it is, any decent alternatives out there?

    Anyone…..?

  • Matthew

    @1 Agreed

  • Kwork

    Now, introducing to you, our faithful users, the unofficial launch of µTorrent Bloatware. Watch our product blow up and expand over time. That’s right folks! µTorrent! a very weighty bit torrent client! Spread the word.

  • Jay

    There should be an app to stream it to your iphone/ipod touch. So I can torrent on my desktop and watch it later some where else without opening itunes.

  • Ettore

    @8, Really, it’s like 300k right now … I would be quite surprised if adding plugin capability would all of a sudden make it “weighty”. Is the “bloat” going to make it load in acrippling .5 seconds instead of the .1 seconds it loads now? Idiots.

  • jumping ship

    cool. I suppose.

    What about an anonymizer. I haven’t the foggiest re: the implementation of such an app, or whether it is entirely feasible, or effective sitting on the client. But that would certainly get my vote.

  • RIAAtarded

    yeah i have to agree… windows apps i really am tired of all the bundled in crap. Hate to see utorrent going the way of azureus. I liked it when it was a simple .exe file. No installer, lightweight it did the job. No I don’t want a toolbar or i’d download it what is wrong with doing one thing well rather then a multitude of stuff poorly.

  • StevO

    With all the money your saving with freeloading, why dont you invest in frickin computer. OMG if you still cant even run a btclient. I can run 5 clients without even knowing their running.

  • a/s/l

    i foresee people developing plugins to cheat ratio and utorrent being banned on private trackers

  • the united hackers association

    @14
    yup
    goooodbye stupidtorrent er utorrent

  • Grammar Police

    @13
    OMG, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’ aren’t the same.

  • Acce

    Still no linux port. Still no access to Anonymous networks like i2p and tor.

  • phishybongwaters

    addons don’t count as bloatware geniuses, it’s an ADDON you can download and install if you so CHOOSE.

    As for cheating, anyone can create a cheat client. The fact that utorrent source is closed means that won’t be much of an issue with putting out an SDK.

    Besides, you don’t even need to hack your client to cheat ratios, you merely need to intercept the http packets being sent from your client to the tracker with something like httpanalyzer, then modify the data it’s sending to say you’d uploading 5 terabytes instead of 5 megs.

    To “cheat” in such as you are not uploading at all, would require modifying the program itself, I’m pretty sure it can’t be done with a plugin.

    Plugin = addon app that isn’t always needed, and doesn’t modify the program, merely offers more, or new features

    Personally I’d rather have the utorrent team stick to making utorrent awesome, side projects equal less quality work, possibly less updates.

    Utorrent is, if not the most lightwieght, extremely lightweight, requires little resources, and if proper configured, provide you with great torrent speeds. DHT support isn’t fantastic, but it does indeed work.

    As for an anonymity plugin, i’m not sure how that would work. for you to be anon you simply can’t be connecting from your ip directly to the swarm, you’d need a proxy, which utorrent already supports. Do you want them to supply you with a free proxy? That’s just crazy.

    And before it gets posted, let me explain something to you all. Disabling the user from seeing the IPs in peer list, as some keep suggesting, will in no way make you safe, the connections are still being made regardless of if the client is actually showing you the ips. you can’t download without connecting to an ip, the only safe, anon, way is a paid proxy that DOESN’T log you, or retain logs.

  • spc

    Winamp was long time ago nice and simple: it played music – period.
    With added , so called “features” Now its crap for years….
    They’re going to turn it into iTunes of torrent..
    That’s begining of the end of utorrent…

  • Anonymous

    Bets on how long before we see a plugin for the Hollywood to track your usage? Wonder what they’ll disguise it as…

  • teknologikl

    Although I think this is a good feature, isn’t this pretty much the same reason Vuze was banned on many popular sites?

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  • Brett

    This is pretty cool. Infinitely better experience than Vuze where they force me to install crap I don’t want; this gives me a choice.

    Just downloaded a game from the games app and it worked quite well. I hope they keep the list updated.

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  • freenet

    i expect payed apps soon :)

  • siljaline

    Surprised to see BitDEfender in bed with uTorrent, just a comment in passing.

    Have spread the word, thanks for this.

  • Anonymous

    Firefox was great until all those third party addons were released. Now it is nothing but bloated crapware. /s

    Idiots.

  • Gumpified

    Firefox was great until all those third party addons were released. Now it is nothing but bloated crapware. /s

  • Dicks

    uTorrent is plenty powerful. I honestly don’t see the point in doing this.

    They should work on a native Linux and OSX port instead. There’s a real demand for that.

  • Anonymous

    uTorrent should stick to BitTorrent only.

  • Anonymous

    And yes a uTorrent for Linux would be nice… but also there is Deluge.

  • sambe

    What are u people, a bunch of f4ckin r3tards?

    How the eff is utorrent turning into bloatware?
    All they are doing is allowing you to install addons IF YOU WISH to do so.. ffs! Otherwise its the same basic stripped client youd be downloading like always..

    If you dont want bloatware then dont install any additional plugins u mor0ns

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  • Nick

    I’ll agree that this is probably not going to make it into a bloated client.

    Take Chrome/Chromium for example. You can install extensions to get whatever features you want, but by default it’s a very lightweight browser

  • John

    Just to give everyone a little perspective

    For developers who want to code uTorrent apps there will soon be an SDK available. “Apps are a new type of file with a .btapp suffix that consists entirely of HTML and Javascript and can be added to the client and displayed using an embedded browser window, so very little extra code is needed,” Morris explains.

    In other words, you will be limited to the functionality already provided by HTML/javascript.

    So if you’re hoping for an anonymizer or streaming content plugin – or infact anything that can manipulate packets going out or data on your hard drive – FORGET ABOUT IT.

    If such functionality where possible, it would potentially open up a massive security hole for uTorrent users.

    I will be particularly interested to see how these plugins update. If it’s a simple ‘check for newer version, if yes, GET update.html and replace existing files’ – then intercepting such HTML requests become childsplay, and uTorrent would no longer be safe to run on an untrusted LAN.

  • Anonymous

    @10

    You seem to obviously not know anything about resources consumption.

  • Hom3r

    I agree with #1. uTorrent is amazing, though I fear for its future. With its popularity comes many inexperienced users who think features may be cool, but don’t understand their consequences or uselessness.

  • John

    @32

    I think you and I are the only one’s who do…

    If it’s already running an HTTP server, we’re talking milliseconds to process even the most demanding of scripts. Searches (which i presume will be the bulk of the Add-ons, directly search TBP form the client, etc) will be limited to your network speed and server load. Your CPU load won’t be effected in the slightest.

  • SL

    More bloat. Im still on version 1.6.1 which is the last version thats known to be 100%safe.

  • Hyde

    uTorrent for Usenet = Unzbin
    http://www.unzbin.com

  • Lilysaidmoo

    uTorrent is already starting to suck. I went back to 1.8.5 as the newer builds download slower for some reason.

    Can’t get past 600KB/s, 1.7MB/s on 1.8.5. I don’t see much difference in the newer builds either – there’s nothing innovative – and I can think of many things they could add that would be very useful.

    Didn’t get a decent response on the forums, I was told that I probably had my client set-up wrong and tried a few solutions that I thought were irrelevant, and indeed, did have no effect.

    It’s not an isolated case. It may be uncommon, but there’s a dozen other people on one tracker complaining about this.

    I’m starting to like uT less and less…

  • mister_playboy

    Looks like Vuze leads and uTorrent follows.

  • HNicolai

    This “Project Griffin” looks nice!

    I have ofc been doing some “research” on it, but unfortunately µTorrent + wine isn’t that good :/

    I have however managed to find this “secret” plugin, that isn’t listed on the “official” list of plugins: btapp://apps.bittorrent.com/tuneup/tuneup.btinstall
    I can’t test whether or not it work because I use linux right now, but I think it work, but your browser might not associate “btapp://” with µTorrent.

    The plugins isn’t going to HTML/JS only, because the currently plugins contain “tracks” of program code and I’ve also found some SQL statement’s, and they also wrote that you can use some kinda API.

    However, one thing I really, really don’t like is the “price”-tag in the “List of currently featured apps.” all the currently “apps” contain this: “price: ‘FREE’,”, but does this means that people can create PAID apps? And who dare to create a paid app right in the middle of the pirate world? :P

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  • Mr. Goobers splooged in the fruit punch!

    @ 36 SL

    Ditto – who the heck needs all this crap?

    1.6 FTW

  • HNicolai

    ^edit^

    The “.btinstall”-files contain program code and SQL statements, but the “.btapp” does only contain HTML (css, json, etc).

    To help develop the app’s, µTorrent has build in support for “Jaml”, “jQuery” & “JSLoad”.

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  • Anonymous

    any version above 1.6 is crap.

  • Lothor The Evil

    Some people here think the apps could later become paid apps where you have to buy the app. I believe, if this did happen, the anti-piracy organizations could shut down uTorrent for allowing copyright infringement for profit, even if they don’t profit directly from it. But either way, I’m staying with uTorrent as I have since 2006.

  • Cyko_01

    ..and utorrent turns into the next firefox. Before you know it people will be creating add-ons so great that people can’t live without them. Features that make people think “why wasn’t his included when I downloaded it?” (think of “adblock plus”, tabmix plus, etc).

    It just goes to show that you can try to create a lightweight client but people will always want more control, and more features. Sooner or later you have to give in or face the consequences.

  • Tiny

    Sweet! Virus scanner is a no-brainer and the games in the free games app are pretty fun. (I still play Runes of Magic) Bravo!

  • Devonavar

    Feature creep at it’s best … or worst?

  • cy

    µTorrent iz simply miles ahead of every bittorrent client for me!! much love <3 for devs

  • Anonymous

    It’s gonna get bloated! Ratio cheating! Spying on us! It’s the end!

    mu ha ha! LOL!

  • Firon

    Someone said for us to work on a Linux port and an OSX port… Well, we’re already working on the Mac client, and it’s out there. It’s called µTorrent Mac and it’s at 0.9.3 right now. :P We’re already working on 0.9.4, and the new features planned are creation of torrents, badging and Growl notifications.

    The great thing about the way we implemented the apps is that it adds almost nothing to the executable. None of the ‘apps’ are bundled. And we rewrote some of the other code and made it smaller too, like the sidebar is better and smaller code-wise.

  • someone

    sounds good, but I hope it doesn’t keep getting bigger and bigger in size like Bitcomet.

  • HOTHOTHOT

    #1 Needed Request:

    Auto anonymizer -no proxy searching needed

    —————

  • gobo

    Hope to see an auto extracting similar to jdownloader.

  • Rasta

    you dont have to use this version check out old releases

    http://www.oldversion.com/uTorrent.html

  • Braggden

    Sounds interesting for me. Interesting. Not more. But what I would like to see would be a crossing link between torrent/dht and darknet/freenet/similar networks, where data of the torrent would be put into the latter to still have a source left, when any other user has stopped seeding.

    I’m aware that I have no knowledge about the workings of p2p-networks and thus I’m probably thinking about something that doesn’t really work. But if it’s theoretically doable, it couldn’t be in an app-kinda way, could it?

  • Sean

    @35

    uTorrent can already search from TPB, or any other torrent site/search engine for that matter. It’s been able to do this as long as I can remember.

  • fsdf
  • ex

    hope µTorrent aka microTorrent won’t become like how microSoft Vista/7 is now.. not very “micro” (bloat by default)

  • HNicolai

    lol, I finally managed to create a “paid” app for µTorrent!

    http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/49/hnicolaiutorrent1.png

    No photoshop or anything, it cost $9.99 (lol).

  • F8*zimmer

    im 12 wat is this

  • dude

    @#6
    If uTorrent slows down your comp. then theirs no hope for you. There is nothing that is lighter than utorrent

  • beh

    I’m surprised anyone uses the closed-source utorrent for anything. If you want something that isn’t a piece of crap, try Deluge on any platform.

  • Whatever

    Streaming and remote control might actually be usefull. They could have integrated those 2 features because an addon system has serious problems if it allows code to be executed (Exception are program specific scripts that have no commands to actually do anything outside their own enviroment). It is just an additional security hazard, makes the main program needlessly bigger/slower (like Nero which has plenty of alternatives).

    In the picture the 2 examples are possibly the most useless purposes of this addon system.

    1. Virus scanner: This is as useless as a so called E-mail scanner (just made for marketing like the term PMPO for speakers). If one already has an ‘active’ scanner it will stop any known virus from trying to execute (from E-mail or here from torrent)

    2. Games: why would one want to launch games through the torrent client (probably ends up being a flashgame in a browser anyhow).

    (Whats next, paint or office programs from within uTorrent? It should then be called uShell, uLauncher or uSkin)

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  • Tweedle Dee Dumb

    Plugins? OH NOES! Now uTorrent will be a massively bloated pile of useless garbage! THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END!!!

    Whats that you say? I don’t have to actually use any plugins if I don’t want to? Um, please disregard my original comment then.

    PS: Zero issues with uTorrent 2.x here. Even the bandwidth management option works fine.

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