Xtorrent Public Beta 3 Adds RSS Support
Written by Smaran on February 10, 2007The third public beta test of Xtorrent, the popular Mac BitTorrent client, is now underway. New features that have been added in this release include RSS (torrentcast) support. A limited pre-release sale has also begun.
We first wrote about Xtorrent in September of last year while it was still in private beta, then went on to review the first public beta.
Since then, a lot has changed. As expected, a lot of bugs have been stomped out and the overall performance of the app has been improved. Significant new features include a redesigned swarm column, drag-and-drop support, the ability to browse the file structure of torrents, RSS (torrentcast) support and multi-tracker support.
The most prominent new feature Xtorrent has gained is an in-built RSS catcher. This makes it easy for users to subscribe to BitTorrent feeds right inside the application, instead of having to use a separate RSS reader and then manually (or automatically, depending on your ‘autodownload’ settings) add the torrents to Xtorrent.
Many people seem to be outraged at the fact of paying for a BitTorrent client, but it seems Xtorrent has a lot going for it. Other than Azureus, it’s the only Mac BitTorrent client that can subscribe to RSS feeds, and the only one that can do so without a plug-in. It’s also the only stable client for the Mac with in-built search. BitRocket was the first to implement this, but is still very buggy and crashes often.
David Watanabe, the developer of Xtorrent, says that the first non-beta release is “on the horizon” and that he expects to release it within the next few weeks. The third public beta is pretty stable and doesn’t seem to have any bugs, but Watanabe nevertheless warns that there might “likely [be] undiscovered bugs.” He is currently offering Xtorrent at a discounted pre-release price of $15.89. Once 1.0 is released, the price will go up to $18.99.
Note: Xtorrent is free to use for now, and doesn’t require a license. But despite the fact that it’s a useful app with a sexy UI, it has yet to replace Transmission (beta) as my primary BitTorrent client. I have a soft spot for FOSS.
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16 Responses
Just wanted to point out a small error in this article – I agree that BitRocket is still too buggy to use, but it also has built-in RSS support. It’s accessed by clicking the ‘+’ symboll in the bottom left of the app. Hope there’s a new build soon!
However the BitRocket RSS support works in possibly the stupidest way possible, so it does seems quite natural to discount it.
Unfortunately Azureus is still the only one which lets you download selected files from within a torrent, AFAIK.
Xtorrent is good, but it would have to be THE BEST torrent client ever written, or likely to be written in the foreseeable future, before I handed over any money for it – or for any other client for that matter. Plus Watanabe’s track record is shady at best.
No thanks.
[quote comment="47889"]Unfortunately Azureus is still the only one which lets you download selected files from within a torrent, AFAIK.[/quote]
uTorrent too.
:)
I think he’s talking about Mac clients, which utorrent isn’t one.
@ Andrew: Thanks for the info, I never really got to use BitRocket long enough to find that functionality, as it’s really unstable on my Mac. The developer’s a great guy, though. He’s also the developer of the Mac Gizmo client. We interviewed him a while back.
Could someone tell me why this particular client (and transmission too) is banned on so many individual trackers?
Not actually a bittorrent client, but “Democracy Player” has built in features for subscribing RSS feeds and downloading torrents in it.
@ fork
You’re not the only one who wants that question answered.
So, what do you say Smaran, why is Xtorrent and Transmission banned on many trackers?
Found this in an old article about transiossion, an user writes: ” Transmission is banned on several bittorrent-sites, bacuse of a bug in the program.
It does not follow the bittorrent standard and are “hammering” the bittorrent tracker.
For now, it is only BitRocket and Azureuz that is clean on the mac.”
Does anyone know why large files (0ver 1 gig) download great on Xtorrent until near the end when it stops before completion. This has happened to me several times recently and is very frustrating, Any help would be most appreciated, TIA
@scuba44. It is in beta, submit a bug to the developer.
Hey guys, not a mac user (yet) but would like to know if this client supports encryption, or plans to within the near future?
@cinnix: Nope no encryption. That’s the one feature keeping me from buying it.
No option for encrypted transport means XTorrent devloper does not get my money…It’s hard for me to pay for a Bittorrent client in th efirst, never mind one that doesn’t include encryption to protect it’s customers… Sure is pretty though…I’m sure the Mac “fashionistas” are drooling over each other b/c of the nice gui.
On xtorrent are there any other users to add into the search like axxo who will provide very good copies of movies?
Cheers
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