Worst Search Software: TorrentSeek .NET v1.0

They Say: “It will search within entire Internet for Torrent links and display them after vereifying [sic] the target link existence / URL clean-up…much faster than other extraction software.” — TorrentSeek Team.

We Say: You’ll find torrents with TorrentSeek, all right. Just not the ones you want. You’ve a better chance at finding what you seek by loading up the mininova page, closing your eyes and just clicking wildly. If there’s an award for ugliest BitTorrent software, this one wins in a landslide. These guys don’t know torrents from tortillas.

The Truth: With over 4,000 recent downloads from softpedia.com… well, that’s 4,000 less people to compete with for those private BitTorrent sites, we reckon. In a “search” for ‘There Will Be Blood’, results included Finger Eleven, King of the Hill and DJ Tiesto.

Runner-up: Movie Torrent v1.6.0 (adware-filled).

Worst Toolbar – Torrent Search Bar v4.5

Thank goodness for Torrent toolbars – without them, how would anyone find torrents? You’ll find more than torrents with this one – it should have been called the “Torrent/Weather/Google Search Bar”.

They Say: “Links to the best private torrents communities. We will always get you the best secret torrent sites.” — torrent-search-bar.com.

We Say: Ooh, secret torrent sites – sounds exciting! TSB includes some not-so-secretive Google ads, weather bars and other shameless advertising stuffed onto your browser.

The Truth: The torrent search page doesn’t work and showed zero search results. Isn’t that supposed to be the marquee feature of the Torrent Search Bar? Without that, all it really is, is a browser bookmark of outdated torrent sites and advertising. Brought to you by the same group that gave us eXeem (the pay-to-use BitTorrent service).

Runner-up: P2P Torrent Toolbar.

Worst BitTorrent Client – TorrenTopia

They Say: “Finally you will be able to search again. Powerful queue system: choose all you want to download and let it work by itself” — torrenTopia.com.

We Say: At last, someone’s come out with a BitTorrent client that does the work by itself!

The Truth: TorrenTopia had an innovative & creative idea – and came up with a BitTorrent client with an integrated .torrent search engine! The major flaw? – the search doesn’t work! We tried a search for ‘mp3′ on The PirateBay and it came back with no results. Worse still, the BitTorrent side of it contains all the features of a bowl of jello. Now if only the search worked, we might be able to overlook its other shortcomings.

Runners-up: Artemis v2.5.7 (Azureus rip-off with removed features), Hermes P2P BT (adware), and other malware supported BitTorrent clients such as Torrent101, BitRoll, TorrentQ and GetTorrent..

Honorable Mention – PKTorrents

We Say: PKTorrents incorporates a nasty Trojan within the release, free of charge. Not only must you worry about malware in the torrents; they put it right in the software.

They Say: “The ‘So Called – TROJAN’ reported in PKTv0.1(beta) Was NOT! I Repeat NOT put in there on purpose to attempt to hack or screw anyone over.” — PKT website rebuttal.

Well, that about does it for this list. Stayed tuned for more, and stay safe!

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Speed, however, has been greatly improved over older codes, as well as hardware impact. Its developers estimate that a site running Gazelle can handle approximately twice the number of users that an existing TBsource based site can, on the same machinery, meaning sites can either add more users, or reduce server costs. Contrary to earlier beliefs, a tracker will be offered with the project when it goes public, meaning that everything needed to create a site will be included in one easy package.

How easy is that package to use, though? For the user, it’s very easy. Many people have got used to uploading a torrent file, then having to re-download it before they can start seeding. It’s annoying, and often confuses first time uploaders. Now, if the private flag is applied when the torrent is made, no re-download is needed. It may be a little touch, but it’s one that helps.

Other small touches include tagging, by genre, or style, or whatever the site wants to allow. For films, it means the likes of ‘Rush Hour’ can be tagged ‘comedy’ and ‘action’, allowing easier navigation, and avoiding those questioning niggles of ‘is it more comedy, or more action’ that existing genre-based category systems cause. Having found the title you want, other versions of the same item, in differing formats can be found there too. Again, all this is customizable by the site admin.

Admin tools also seem easy to use, and manage, with less frustrations. Modifying the code to fit the particular needs of a site will also be relatively easy. That’s not to say it’s going to be for everyone. If you’re looking for a small site, then something along the lines of Diferior may be better.

As for downsides, well, it’s an alpha product at the moment, so there are still a lot of bugs to be worked out. Existing TBsource themes will not work with Gazelle, but i’m told they should be fairly easy to create for anyone with experience in making themes. However, it is a positive step moving tracker software forward. The torrent world has needed an easy to use replacement for the aging TBsource, and Gazelle seems like it will fit the bill. How it actually behaves in practice, and the experiences of those starting to deploy it from scratch, are something we will have to wait and see about. Yet, for only 4 months work, it is showing phenomenal potential.

Screenshots

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Aufero is everything you’d want in a media centre. Here’s a list of features.

It lets you:

• manage any existing media you have.
• create a “wish list” of videos you would like to watch, and then have those videos automatically downloaded once they become available.
• view trailers, reviews and previews, and download torrents related to them.
• manually download torrents you feed it.
• seamlessly playback videos in an array of formats on your Xbox 360 (not just WMVs).
• receive “subtle notifications” on your screen after something on your wish list has been found, downloaded, unpacked, indexed and moved into your library.
• receive e-mail notifications of relevant events when you’re not in front of your TV.
• Lastly, Aufero is simple to use and tries to increase the “wife appeal” by making it easy for less tech-savvy people to make use of.

Best of all, it sounds like the developer is planning to release Aufero under an open source license. I think Microsoft should be thanking him, because he’s just created a worthy Windows-based competitor to the AppleTV. Sadly, there’s almost no chance of that happening. For his own “protection”, the developer isn’t disclosing anything about himself, not even his name. All we know is that he (or she?) is Dutch.

Aufero is not yet available for download, as it’s in the early alpha testing phase. If you look at some of the screenshots, this is made obvious by the current UI, which is rather unpolished. But the developer stresses that it’s not complete yet.



Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

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