For the most part, due to limitations in both the hardware and the service contract, you probably won’t be downloading much directly from the Internet to the phone itself.  There are a few beta Android applications that claim to allow for eitherBittorrent or Usenet downloading, but I have not been successful in getting them to work, either with 3G or Wi-Fi connections.  AndroidTorrent can open .torrent files, but does not actually get the download started, while the Groundhog Usenet reader can download the headers from binary newsgroups, but it cannot, as far as I can tell, actually download files in a binary format, much less handle the more complicatedunrar and par operations.  Rapidshare and Megaupload also proved to be unworkable from the built-in Android browser.  And it should be mentioned that large-scale downloading would almost assuredly create problems of bumping into the actual limits to the supposedly “unlimited” data plans (rumored to be around 5GB a month).

Despite those unfortunate limitations, Android-powered phones can be very useful for members of the downloading community, just in the role of portable dashboards for remote operation.  Torrent-fu for Bittorrent, and NZBdroid for Usenet allow users to control downloading from where ever they are via the Android phone, queuing up files to be enjoyed later, but also in the case of Torrent-fu giving users the ability to scan commercial goods via their barcodes, search major Bittorrent portals like BT-Junkie and IsoHunt, and then initiate downloads, all remotely.  And, of course, those files could be accessed by the Android phone if the remote computer is set up to serve files as well (although video files, for instance, would likely have to be re-encoded before they could be watched on the phone itself, but that’s a different article).

Torrent-fu is a free application available from the Android Marketplace and works on all variety of Android phones.  It acts as a client application for uTorrent (or Transmission) when the latter program is set up for control via its Web UI.  A bit of knowledge about port forwarding will be necessary, but without too much hassle you can leave uTorrent running on your home computer, and then both manage and add .torrent files to it completely from your phone.  Downloaded .torrent files, integrated search from within Torrent-fu, or most inventively, via the scanning of barcodes, can all generate downloads.  As a test, I scanned an old Big Lebowski DVD, and Torrent-fu did an excellent job of providing me with a number of different options for download.  Overall, Torrent-fu does an excellent job of giving any Android phone owner the power to amass a large media collection, while entirely away from their main computer.

NZBdroid is also available from the Android Marketplace, for either free or a $.99 donation, whatever the user decides.  It is very similar to Torrent-fu in concept, except that this app remotely controls a user’s SABnzbd+ downloading from Usenet.  As a huge fan of Usenet (and SABnzbd+) I truly love this application.  Since SABnzbd+ is essentially designed for a web-based interface anyway, NZBdroid is a bit easier to set up than Torrent-fu and really just operates in the background, only appearing when an .nzb file is downloaded from the web to the phone.  At that point the NZBdroid icon pops up allows for the information contained in the .nzb file (which is essentially just an XML file anyway) to the SABnzbd+ instance running on the home computer for eventual download.  All the options presented to control SABnzbd+ from the web are present on the phone as well.  NZBdroid is simple, powerful, and is absolutely worth the suggested $.99 donation for anybody seriously into Usenet downloading.

We are still very much in the early days of smart phones, as they continue to evolve from merely portable telephones into what are essentially small but relatively powerful computing devices.  Their processing power, storage limitations and most crucially data transmission bottlenecks (both physical and financial) prevent them from being used currently up to their potential for downloading from Bittorrent, Usenet and direct download sites, but there are some very cool applications like Torrent-fu and NZBdroid that already give them some very interesting functionality.  And in the future we are likely to see even more powerful phones with greater storage and even cheaper bandwidth capabilities that will let users fully take advantage of portable computing.

Have any of you tried out these programs?  Other Android apps for Bittorrent or Usenet?  How do the iPhone or the Pre compare in this regard?  I’d love to hear any other experiences Zeropaid users have had with mobile downloading.

For gPhone users BarTor is a new Android app that lets you browse your local DVD retailer, scan the bar codes  of a desired flic,  and then remotely download onto your PC.

BarTor lets you search by title in addition to bar code and is supported by both the uTorrent and Vuze BitTorrent client WebUIs.

Other features include:

• Load By URL, Load By File
• KTorrent – PHP and HTML Interfaces
• Sort By Publish Date or By Seeds and Leechers (Default)
• Purchase opportunities upon Barcode Lookup – Long Click result to open Browser.
• Choose maximum number of Torrent Search results (25 [Default], 50, 100, 250)
• Google Base product lookup
• Ability to omit results originating from certain torrent sites.
• Multiple “Client Sites” or uTorrent WebUI configurations.
• Download history
• Search history

The program costs $2.99 and can be found in the Market under applications.

Here’s a demo video of BarTor (formerly ScanTorrent).

“We at Mininova are also seeding the torrents with our new servers which are also used for Mininova Content Distribution.” Erik wrote in the official MiniNova blog. As an example, they started seeding Steal This Film 2. They offered a graph and said that it “clearly shows at which point we started seeding (around 15:00) and how popular this movie is so far.”

The service comes at no charge and is intended for authorized content. “Over the past years, Mininova has grown to the number one torrent indexing website. Now we are re-defining content delivery by introducing free Content Distribution.” They explain.

A similar service was launched by the staff at eMule known as the eMule Content Database – though a key difference is that the database merely links to the content on the eDonkey2000 network, not actually hosting it.

LimeWire also launched a DRM-free music store which the content is re-distributed over the Gnutella network – thus making payment optional.

While this is, by far, not the first service offering to host legitimate content over a file-sharing network, the popularity of MiniNova coupled with the popularity of BitTorrent will no doubt help propel MiniNova’s new feature into a major contender.

The content will be hosted on MiniNova’s servers, boosting download speeds on the already efficient network.

The BitComet BitTorrent client makes some interesting new features and updates in its latest stable release, version 0.87. Unfortunately most of them are pretty bad in my opinion and detract from what a good BitTorrent client’s core mission should be — DOWNLOADING CONTENT!!

The first is the incorporation of a new “resource browser” that seems to be an IE clone, something that makes me as a Firefox user cringe just seeing it open on my screen. The developers cal it a way to “accelerate open web pages” but, first of all, IE is no way to do that, and secondly, why are they now concerned with web browsing?

I think the new sidebar ads may be a hint as to where BitComet is headed. It now sports “IN-CLIENT” ADS that actually made me angry after I installed and opened it up. I mean ads? C’ mon now. It’s hard to say that they should be holier than though considering BitTorrent Inc. has its own video store and Azureus has Vuze yet, at least they haven’t resorted to the lowest common denominator and spammed up their BitTorrent clients with ads and other junk.

Moreover, if you are currently using or were think about using BitComet I urge you to think again and run away as fast as you can. Compared to uTorrent, let alone Azureus, BitComet is the now the “Wal-Mart” of BitTorrent clients: cheap, ugly looking, and probably made in China.

Here are the release notes:

GUI Improved: add an option in BT task properties dialog to add this torrent file to my shared torrent list
GUI Improved: add “view task” command to the context menu of my shared torrent list
GUI Improved: add a filter in the toolbar of peer shared torrent list
GUI Improved: display peer shared torrent file number in peer shared node of fav list
GUI Improved: add an option to enable BT task search for HTTP/FTP download source in preferences dialog
GUI Improved: add commands to import/export task list and global settings under file menu
GUI Improved: add “rename task” function in context menu of task list
GUI Improved: detail error information will be displayed in tooltip when mouse cursor hover on the red-cross icon of a task which encounter error like disk full
GUI Improved: task rating information will be displayed in tooltip when mouse cursor hover on comment region of the task list
GUI Improved: add hotkey Ctrl+Home/End to move selected tasks to the top/bottom of task list
GUI Improved: support scroll information in all panes on which the mouse cursor is hovering by rolling mouse wheel
GUI Improved: add an options in preferences dialog to enable submit video file snapshot after task download finish
GUI Improved: add an options in preferences dialog to enable protection against ARP cheating attack from LAN
GUI Improved: new designed BitComet resource browser to accelerate open web page from BitComet
GUI Improved: improve displayed information layout in task summary pane
GUI Improved: add “minimize to system tray” to system menu of BitComet button in windows taskbar
GUI Improved: delete file check box in task delete dialog is displayed in red color
GUI Bugfix: View/download list/Columns menu does not work after switch UI language
GUI Bugfix: all tasks will be displayed as in queue if enabled auto-start task when download rate below specified value
GUI Bugfix: all tasks displayed in task list will be removed if launch clear recycle bin in recycle bin context menu even they are not in the recycle bin
Core Bugfix: fix a bug sometimes lead to memory leakage
Core Bugfix: handle some BT task with zero-size file incorrectly

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/software/New_BitComet_release_adds_own_web_browser_and_sidebar_ads’;

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Designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced client servers like Azureus, uTorrent is widely popular among users in the BitTorrent community.

Here is the list of updates incorporated in the new build:

2007-05-06: Version 1.7 (build 1703)
– Change: Prioritize seed queue based off seed/peer ratio (use_seed_peer_ratio)
– Change: Sort advanced settings by name
– Fix: Some ancient modal dialog bugs where nonmodal dialogs could get activated
– Fix: Bug where one addtorrent dialog could get activated when another was already active
– Fix: Don’t repeatedly retry to start if another uTorrent window is discovered but hung
– Fix: uTorrent continues normal startup if another uTorrent instance is detected and exits; previously it would inform the user uTorrent was already running and exit
- Fix: incorrect DHT announce interval

DOWNLOAD µTorrent 1.7.0 Beta Build 1703

Looking for more stuff to watch or download?
µTorrent WebUI Widget for Google HP
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
Downloading Files on the Go with uTorrent
Controlling uTorrent Remotely: a Beginner’s Guide
3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREE
3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
Watch The Simpsons, The Office, Jackass, South Park, Lost, X-Men, and More, On-Demand For Free

For all you that have brave enough to upgrade from XP, uTorent has just released version 1.7 BETA 1085.

It’s been a while since the last BETA release, no doubt due in large part to the fact that it was acquired by BitTorrent Inc. late last year.

This new release makes quite a few changes and upgrades, the most notable of which is the fact it now has full Windows Vista Support.

RELEASE NOTES:

— 2007-04-05: Version 1.7 (build 1085)
– Change: Tooltips over status bar and toolbar are now native tooltips instead of custom-drawn
– Fix: Bandwidth Allocation selection bug fixed
– Fix: Modal dialog boxes now give focus on close to the proper window (add button in RSS now gives focus back to RSS window, for example)

— 2007-04-05: Version 1.7 (build 1065)
– Feature: Outgoing port range, via advanced settings (net.outgoing_max_port)
– Feature: List number of pieces we have in General tab (as part of Pieces:)
– Feature: Mark unavailable pieces as red in the Files tab (like in the general tab)
– Feature: Auto uplink throttling (beta)
– Feature: List web seeds in General tab
– Feature: Web seed support for single-file torrents
– Feature: NAT-PMP support
– Feature: Local Peer Discovery
– Feature: Option to configure whether rate limits apply to local peers (bt.limit_local_peers)
– Feature: Support for HTTPS links in RSS feeds
– Feature: Next Piece display
– Feature: Remembering the last selected tab in the main view
– Feature: Remembering the last selected tab in the preferences view
– Feature: Vista font scaling support (DPI aware)
– Feature: Secondary column sorting should now be supported by all list views
– Feature: New treeview-based add torrent dialog
– Feature: Added Reboot and Quit on Finished options
– Feature: Tracker “warning message” support
– Change: State files (resume.dat etc) are now hash protected
– Change: Save aside bad state files as .bad for analysis
– Change: Remove modal state file dialogs, instead log a message, only modal at program exit
– Change: UPnP now ignores net.outgoing_port setting
– Change: Added grid lines to speed graphs
– Change: Parse FlashGet client version
– Change: Added Log Errors to Logger context menu
– Change: Reject duplicate IDs (mimic Mainline)
– Change: Remove UPnP unicast
– Change: Send multiple UPnP search messages each time (because UDP is awesome)
– Change: Display client name as advertized in extension header
– Change: The scrolled window in the main tab is now able to receive standard input
– Change: New installation system, including the ability to uninstall
– Change: Now notes if it can’t use APPDATA for settings in the log
– Change: Main window is now clipped to the monitor it is run on
– Change: Search bar is now hidden if the window is too small
– Change: During execution the application no longer prompts the user to save the resume file; only on exit now
– Change: The number of queued items in the create torrent dialog is decreased, which results in a quicker response time when stopping creation
– Change: Several ok/cancel dialogs have been replaced with shorter yes/no versions
– Change: Log listview now selects current item if it is full and keeps getting messages
– Change: New method is used to try to automatically determine an open port for the speed wizard on startup. This same method can be used by setting the incoming port to 0.
– Change: show tooltips for items in listviews with elipses “…”
– Change: Add some keys and input to scrolled window in general tab
– Change: Show torrent creator by the “Created On:” column in the general tab
– Change: highlight existing torrent when duplicated torrent added
– Fix: Various issues with enabling/disabling Verbose in Logger context menu
– Fix: Stopped/paused torrents no longer hold up auto shutdown
– Fix: Make Create Torrent more responsive to Cancel
– Fix: Log the correct internal port in UPnP port mapping log message
– Fix: Eliminate temporary on screen client version corruption
– Fix: Various minor issues with HTTP client implementation (error handling, parsing)
– Fix: Incoming HTTP connections could sometimes go dead (event dispatch problem)
– Fix: Some internal size calculations weren’t 64-bit clean
– Fix: RSS error logging
– Fix: The general tab should now scroll down to and show the full comment field
– Fix: Fix many flicker issues throughout the application
– Fix: Correct WinSock version detection – it should fail now if it detects the wrong version
– Fix: Custom speedlists now show instead of the default in the main listview context menu
– Fix: Correct acquisition of special operating system paths (such as the windows directory) on Windows 95 family
– Fix: Fix shortcut creation for Windows 95 family
– Fix: Fix diskspace information on Windows 95 family
– Fix: Confirmation dialog for resume file saving now actually tries to save the resume file on retry
– Fix: Create torrent dialog now closes all the way when the close button is pressed during torrent creation
– Fix: Cleared progress bar in create torrent dialog when stopping
– Fix: Fix various tab order bugs in main window
– Fix: Shutdown on finish option will now shutdown the machine, even if it is locked
– Fix: Fix file association if uTorrent is installed after BitTorrent mainline client
– Fix: 307 redirection HTTP code is now handled, instead of an error (i.e. jamendo.com)
– Fix: Logging is now done in Unicode, fixing some I18N issues
– Fix: Speed wizard no longer asks you to confirm twice when trying to close it from its close box
– Fix: Log listview no longer shows the horizontal scrollbar if it is past the last visible item but doesn’t need to
– Fix: Pressing ESC on exit dialog will dismiss the dialog
– Fix: Fix z order of searchbox/toolbar on older windows
– Fix: Fix scrolling bug where scrollbar would not redraw sometimes
– Fix: Association check for limited users
- Fix: Enable users to have “maindoc.ico” in the settings folder for associated documents’ icons for fixing them on older windows versions that don’t automatically generate them

http://download.utorrent.com/beta/utorr … a-1085.exe – PECompact compressed (normal)
http://download.utorrent.com/beta/utorr … 85.upx.exe – UPX packed
http://download.utorrent.com/beta/utorr … ressed.exe – unpacked
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/New_uTorrent_BETA_release_supports_Vista’;

RELATED NEWS AND “HOW TO” GUIDES:
uTorrent WebUI Widget for Google HP
Downloading Files on the Go with uTorrent
Controlling uTorrent Remotely: a Beginner’s Guide
BitTorrent tracker sites & search engines
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
Watch The Simpsons, The Office, Jackass, South Park, Lost, X-Men, and More On-Demand For Free
3 Quick Ways to Watch Movies for FREE!
3 quick ways to watch TV shows for FREE

SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”

It’s pretty simple to get it set up and running, the steps to which I’ll cover for you here.

The first thing to do is make sure you have the latest version of uTorrent.

DOWNLOAD uTORRENT VERSION 1.6 NOW

Then we need to find an RSS Feed with which to load in the downloader. There are many public and private torrent tracker sites that offer an RSS Feed to use. To make things easy and avoid the need for any site registration I will use one from a public torrent tracker site to get us started.

The picture below shows where to locate the RSS Feed on TorrentSpy, a public torrent tracker site. Simply “right click” RSS Feed and select “copy link location” to save it on your clipboard. You can also cut and paste a copy of the feed I placed here for you.

http://torrentspy.com/rss.asp

Now open uTorrent and select “RSS Downloader” from the OPTIONS tab.

This will open up the RSS Downloader menu. Click the “Add” tab and then paste the URL of the RSS Feed we copied from TorrentSpy. Then click “OK” to finish.

To set up the RSS Feed and customize what we wish to download, click the “Favorites” tab. Then select “Add” and choose a name for the new filter. I chose TV Shows as you can see. Decide what you want to download, be it CSI, ER, whatever, and also what you don’t want so as to narrow the settings (i.e. no New York for CSI). Pick a folder to save these files in, and then what Feed it is that this filter is for. “Quality” is the final choice, in which case I chose HDTV. The rest of the features are really nonessential but, as you get the hang of this can you can go back and set them up.

Once you enter the details of the feed and filter it will automatically begin to scan the selected feeds for the filter settings you selected. When it finds a match it will then download the torrent tracker and load it into uTorrent for actual file retrieval.

Well, that was uTorrent RSS Feed 101. As I mentioned before Azureus has this feature as well, a guide for which can be found here at Zeropaid. In addition, we also have an extensive list of torrent tracker sites available for you to check out.

BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
Azureus RSS Feed Made Easy
Downloading Files on the Go with uTorrent
PUBLIC vs PRIVATE – BitTorrent download sites explored

SOULXTC: walking the streets of P2P

The first thing you need to do is download and set up the WebUI (Web User Interface) plugin if you haven’t done so already. For those that haven’t, I wrote a guide previously called “Controlling uTorrent Remotely: a Beginner’s Guide” that tells you just what to do.

Controlling uTorrent Remotely: a Beginner’s Guide

So after you have the Web UI plugin installed and set up correctly, log in and open up your Google Homepage. If you don’t already have a necessary g-mail account to do this have no fear. Simply go to the BitTorent Site Invite Trading Post in the forums here at Zeropaid and ask somebody for one. There’s a ton of people out there who have them and are always willing to give them out.

On your Google Homepage select “Add more to this page.”

Then select “Add by URL”

In the box paste the following URL:

http://river.hidden.googlepages.com/uTorrent.xml

After clicking the “add” button of course, return to your Google HP. You should then see the picture below.

What we need to do now is configure the widget so that it will then display the torrent trackers currently loaded in the uTorrent client server.

In the “Address” box you will enter your IP address. If you are unsure what it is go to the IPTools website and it will tell you your address.

The “Port” box is for the port you currently have open as the listening port for incoming connections to the uTorrent client server. You can find it under uTorrent’s “Preferences” tab as shown below.

Lastly, for the “Guest username” type in the username you previously chose to use with the Web UI plugin

When all is said and done you should have all the information entered as shown in this picture below.

Once you’re done just click the “Save” button to proceed.

You will immediately get a prompt from uTorrent asking you to login. This is the username and password you selected when you previously set up the Web UI plugin.

Then presto the widget will load the torrent trackers you currently have running in uTorrent.

The cool thing about this plugin is that it could allow you to monitor the status of you uTorrent downloads from work or school in a fairly easy and convenient fashion.

This is definitely a Google HP widget that is a must have for all of you BitTorrent users out there.

A little while back I posted a thread in the Zeropaid forums that shows just how much difference there is in the memory footprint of a variety of applications, uTorrent versus Azureus being the figures to note. uTorrent’s is much smaller that Azureus and this is why this new WebUI plugin is such a welcome development, as it helps to make uTorrent even more competitive.

For those on the go, be it at school, work, or even play, the ability to control uTorrent remotely is a must have. So let’s get started and get this little bad boy up and running.

INSTALLATION

CONFIGURATION

STARTUP

INSTALLATION

First off, if you don’t have the uTorrent client server already, download and install it now.

Once this is done then download the WebUI plugin.

Now find and locate the folder that contains the SETTINGS FILE for uTorrent, which is usually found in the folder location as pictured below.

Then take the WebUI plugin you just downloaded and drag and drop it into the SETTINGS FOLDER as pictured below. It’s downloaded as a WinRAR archive meaning it must be decompressed into a regular folder, instructions for doing so can be found in Zeropaid’s WinRAR – File Archive Tutorial.

So far so good, now it’s time to configure the plugin and take it for a test drive.

CONFIGURATION

Open up uTorrent and scroll down the OPTIONS TAB to PREFERENCES as shown in the image below.

Select “WebUI” from the ADVANCED OPTION. Then check the “Enable Web Interface” box and choose a username and password to use.

This is all we need to do to configure the plugin, now it’s time to check it out.

STARTUP

First of all we will now need to use uTorrent’s corresponding client server beta version that is located in the folder of the WebUI plugin we recently downloaded. It’s name is as follows:

uTorrent-1.6.1-beta-build-478

The address you need to type in the URL browser is as follows:

http://(your IP address):(Listening Port)/gui/index.html

So for example, we’ll say my IP address is 12.345.67.890 and my listening port is 41000. I’ll then need to type http://12.345.67.890:41000/gui/index.html in my internet browser.

After the page loads it will prompt you to enter your username and password as pictured below.

After selecting “okay,” of course, the browser will load uTorrent’s WebUI control page.

The options are just as they are in the standard uTorrent client server and should be self-explanatory to use. However, for those that either need some refreshing or are simply new to the whole “BitTorrent” thing, check out uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading here at Zeropaid to help u get started.

A recent article here on Zeropaid, Back to School P2P Roundup, chronicles a number of methods of file-sharing and P2P software for those of you out there gearing up for the new school year. To expand on this article is a method whereby you can use the uTorrent BitTorrent client server on portable datasticks so that you can start and stop downloading files from any PC anywhere and at anytime. You can plug it, for instance, into your friend’s laptop in a different building, download some music files over homework, and then take them back to your dorm room and transfer them to your own laptop. The same can be said for multi-tasking at your school’s computer lab, where you can take your downloads with you when you’re done.

To set up uTorrent on your removable disk drive simply do as follows:

1. Download and install uTorrent onto your PC or laptop.

2. Next go to: C:Documents and Settings(name of user account here)Application DatauTorrent on your computer and copy this folder onto your removable disk drive.

3. Then using Microsoft notepad, create a blank text file and save as “settings.dat” in this new uTorrent folder, thereby replacing the older version.

(click on image to enlarge)

4. Copy the downloaded uTorrent file onto the removable disk drive and then run it from this location.

You’ll obviously need to adjust the optimal settings each time the program is run from a different location, a guide to which, uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading, can be found here at Zeropaid.

If you have any questions about where to download files from, a list of BitTorrent Tracker sites can be found here, including the new torrent search site TorrentBoss.com.

Digg It!!