Archive for February, 2011

New Sick of Sarah Album Rocks the App Studio!

by BitTorrent on February 15, 2011 in Featured Content with 4 Comments

It’s time to set aside the sentimental Valentines Day tunes…today belongs to Sick of Sarah, an audacious all-girl punk band rocking heavy guitar riffs and smart lyrics. Why today? Because they just released their new album (called “2205”) directly to you – the BitTorrent community – at no charge! Go download it in the App Studio (found in your BitTorrent Mainline and µTorrent software interface) – it’s awesome.

It’s also a bold move, and we think it’s very very smart. 

In a digital age where change is inevitable, we honor those artists who take risks, and want to help them thrive. Sick of Sarah, the Adamant-labeled indie band, is looking to experiment with new models of online content distribution and we see them as true innovators. Fans now largely discover music online, so Sick of Sarah is coming to them.

Jamie Holm, Sick of Sarah’s bassist, put it best. “Imagine exposure to the same number of people as a Super Bowl ad. While album sales will remain a critical element of success, we also believe BitTorrent will help us drive new fans to live concerts and purchase our merchandise.“

Sick of Sarah’s progressive approach is inspiring to artists and one of the main reasons we created our App Studio to begin with – to help connect creators to their fans.  Sick of Sarah is our first label-backed BitTorrent release, and we are excited for more to come! You all have been very enthusiastic about our spotlight artists thus far, and we hope you enjoy Sick of Sarah’s new album.

Sick of Sarah has included the full album download plus liner notes, tour dates and links to the band’s Facebook and Twitter pages within the app. “Like” them, go see their shows etc.

And while the album is free, there are many ways to support Sick of Sarah and their efforts to innovate alongside BitTorrent. Spread the word to your friends and support their efforts via donations, especially if you dig the album.

Enjoy!

PS – For more information about Sick of Sarah’s BitTorrent launch, please read our press release.

Khan Academy Education Videos Arrive in the App Studio

by BitTorrent on February 11, 2011 in Other with 13 Comments

Imagine an organization with one mission – to provide a world-class education, for free, to anyone, anywhere. Now imagine having instant access to all that knowledge directly in your BitTorrent or uTorrent client.  

Today we launched a brand-new app in collaboration with Khan Academy, a renowned not-for-profit organization fulfilling the mission of global education through video classes. We are extremely honored to support their vision.

The Khan Academy exemplifies the type of content creators for whom we built the App Studio – independent artists looking to build relationships with our global community of over 100 million users. With the Khan Academy, we have the added bonus of helping to promote a worthy cause through technology innovation.

There are over 2,000 videos in the collection covering high school and college level curriculum. Check out just a sample of some of the cool classes available to you:

  • - Introduction to Evolution and Natural Selection
  • - Introduction to the Atom
  • - Algebra: Solving Inequalities
  • - Scale of the Galaxy
  • - History of the French Revolution

The free app is now available in our BitTorrent App Studio, located in both the BitTorrent and µTorrent clients. Once installed, you may directly access and share free downloads of any of the Khan Academy video lessons.

Khan Academy is committed to helping people learn and there are many ways you can help Khan Academy with their global vision.

  • – Donate! They do it for free so even a little means a lot. You can donate to Khan Academy directly from the App or via the Khan Academy donation site.
  • – Connect: Check out Khan Academy here and you can also stay informed through their Facebook page.
  • – Share: Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell your entire social network. Digg it. Stumble it. IM it. You get the idea…

For additional details about our partnership with Khan Academy, please see our press release. Enjoy the new app and stay tuned; many more exciting releases are on the way!

Android Remote for uTorrent 3.0 Alpha – Now in the Android Marketplace

by BitTorrent on February 4, 2011 in Announcements with 21 Comments

Android fans, you now have a new reason to check out the µTorrent 3.0 alpha…we’ve *just* released a new Android Remote app for µTorrent 3.0, now available in the Android Marketplace (our first Android app!). It serves as a remote control so you can keep an eye on your downloads while at the office, at the store or anywhere.

Key features:
  • - Check the status of a download directly from your Android smartphone
  • - Add, pause or remove µTorrent downloads on your computer
  • - µTorrent remote registers as a .torrent handler so you can browse and add torrents just as if you were on your PC at home.
  • - Start, pause or remove µTorrent downloads in progress on your computer
  • - Update and add torrents from RSS subscriptions
  • - Transfer, save and play any completed file from your PC right to your device.

We are excited to get this release out and wet our feet on the Android platform. Your feedback will help drive the development of new features and platforms so if you download the app, please let us know what you think in the comments below, on our ideabank or on the forums.

On the horizon: a full-featured native BitTorrent for Android client…

In the meantime, join the 1.5 million µTorrent 3.0 alpha testers and take the µTorrent Remote for Android for a (free) spin.

Brett
PS – Here’s a handy QR code to download the app: