uTorrent for Mac is Coming: An Early Review
Written by Ernesto on June 26, 2007When BitTorrent Inc bought uTorrent, the most popular Windows BitTorrent client, they announced that they would begin porting it to both the Mac and Linux. They have. Here’s a preview of the “soon to be released” Mac version of uTorrent.
Up until now, BitTorrent users on a Mac haven’t had the chance to use the fastest, smallest, most portable and appealing BitTorrent client ever, but this is about to change. Unfortunately we don’t have a confirmed date for the official release yet, judging on the state of the BETA version that’s being tested at the moment, it wont take long.
Let’s start off with some screenshots.
The Installation Disk Image
Main Window with Downloads
Click to enlarge.
Speed
The main reason I like uTorrent so much is because downloads are considerably faster in it than in any other BitTorrent client. This held true when I compared uTorrent Mac to Transmission and Xtorrent. The downloads speeds in both couldn’t match uTorrent’s. Azureus was the only one that came close, just as I had expected.
Application Launch Time
uTorrent Mac, just like its Windows counterpart, is super-light. It launches immediately (not even 1 bounce in the Dock!). This is clearly one piece of well-coded software. Probably part of the reason why BitTorrent Inc decided to buy it.
Interface
uTorrent Mac has a simple, yet appealing interface that is easy to use and navigate. It’s not as stylish as Xtorrent’s, but then again, no one can create interfaces like David Watanabe.
Search
Though it may seem that uTorrent has some sort of built-in search functionality, currently only offered by BitRocket and Xtorrent on the Mac, it does not. Typing something such as “HDTV” into the search box and hitting return will merely open a BitTorrent.com search page in your default browser.
Conclusion
It’s too early to draw conclusions but it’s a great first impression, especially for a pre-release version.
It’s worth mentioning that some Mac users such as myself like uTorrent so much, we even prefer running it under emulation than using one of the available Mac BitTorrent clients. uTorrent is not only the most popular Windows BitTorrent client according to a poll we conducted last year, but also the winner of our BitTorrent clients comparison.
Many of you are probably dying to download uTorrent Mac. Hang in there, it’s coming real soon.
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I saw, on reference to this, two screenshots, hope to see more, on my Mac!
The logo for uTorrent does not go well with OS X at all, it fits nicely with Windows (not Vista) but I hope they re-design a Mac OS X logo, something smoother with Mac’s colours and transparenty, you know how nicely Apple does their logos (I’ll admit it, Microsoft will never beat them in icons)
“No one is more idiot than a wannabe”
i want it now! For the icon… well, there is Adam Bett or MacThemes
It’s a spitting image of the current bitrocket.
Those dismissing uTorrent because the “UI looks the same as BitRocket” have obviously neither used uTorrent (and BitRocket concurrently) because they don’t realize that the feature set of uTorrent is amazingly more advanced.
Also, these people mostly likely don’t have access to torrent sites that do matter that have strict guidelines on how a client will interact with the tracker.
uTorrent provides (for the first time) a viable solution for BitTorrent on OS X that is lightweight, adequate in features, and compatible with many top private trackers.
So NO IT IS NOT A COPY OF BITROCKET, which is trash software, it is a mac client that will render the rest obsolete.
I think if both UI look the same it might be because jolix (Bitrocket dev) might be the one porting uTorrent to mac. This post doesn’t say yes, but it doesn’t say no either;)
http://www.bitrocket.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=332&pid=1733&st=0&#entry1733
And the fact that the BR SVN hasn’t been updated for more than a month tells me that he might be working on something else…
But one thing I wonder if all that turns out to be true is: Is it gonna be BR with a new GUI or a real port. i.e.; Will it still be using Libtorrent (which doesn’t support encryption as of yet) or the one specific to uTorrent. If yes will it have all the same features as his windows counterpart?
Luigi
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