uTorrent Takes a Leap to Version 3.0
The uTorrent team has integrated several of its experimental projects into the new 3.0 alpha release. The latest version of the main client now includes remote control, Apps and the ability to stream video torrents. In addition, uTorrent 3.0 has taken measures to protect VPN users from having their real IP-address exposed to the public.
BitTorrent Inc. has been very active with the development of uTorrent during the past months. Earlier this year the company pushed out two experimental clients, codenamed Falcon and Griffin.
The Griffin branch of uTorrent adds Apps for uTorrent support, allowing users to easily install extensions and add custom features. The Falcon project enables users to stream torrent video files and access their client remotely through a secure web-interface.
After having tested the two projects in the wild for a few months, the uTorrent team has now decided to integrate both projects into the alpha release of uTorrent 3.0. With this latest release uTorrent literally takes a giant leap from version 2.1 to 3.0, marking the significance of the fuller featured client.
Aside from merging the two experimental projects, the latest alpha of uTorrent has patched a major security flaw through which VPN users could have their real IP-address exposed. By default, uTorrent has disabled IPv6 which causes this vulnerability, while adding an option in the advanced settings to enable it for those who don’t use a VPN.
Together with the new 3.0 alpha, uTorrent has released several new Apps including µBrowse. “As before, all Apps are completely optional, so you can choose to add only the ones you like in order to keep your client as lightweight as possible,” Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management commented.
The uTorrent Apps specification is expected to be opened up to the public soon, so third party developers can create their own Apps for the client. Among other things this will allow torrent site operators to embed their website’s search functionality in uTorrent.
Although the new features in uTorrent 3.0 are for Windows users only, progress has been steady on the Mac side as well. After several years of development, a stable version of the Mac client finally came out two weeks ago. The Linux version of uTorrent is still a work in progress and will be released later this summer.
