Today, I’m excited to share a few more details about what you can expect in the coming months, and even better, first screenshots!

First and most obviously, BitTorrent Mainline version 8 will feature a radically overhauled user interface, designed to simplify your experience and make BitTorrent easier than ever.

But this isn’t merely an aesthetic redesign. We’ve been listening closely to all of your feedback about how you use BitTorrent, and the features that you believe will enhance your experience.

For example, content you can download will be easily available through channels which will appear along the top of your client, making it especially fast to find new things to download. 

In the following preview screenshots, you’ll notice a few new capabilities. One is a series of stars next to each torrent. This means you’ll be able to easily rate torrents and comment on their file quality, thereby participating in the larger BitTorrent community.

Another new feature, is the ability to shift your content to other devices. With the ability to transcode files and burn to external media, you’ll be able to transfer downloaded content to TVs, tablets, smartphones, media players, DVDs, and USB drives etc.

Today we are also announcing a partnership with ITRI to define device standards. These new standards will make it easy for you to find devices that will make shifting content even easier.

We expect to release a beta build by the end of March, and will keep you informed along the way. Please leave feedback in the comments…we definitely want to know what you think…

Simon

Interested in early access to updates and betas? Sign up here and we’ll keep you in the loop. Expect new forums to launch soon as well. We want this to be a collaborative effort with your input and insight to make BitTorrent easier and more useful than ever.

More details to come. Expect early previews to take flight Q1 2011.

We’ve always strived to make the BitTorrent client simple and useful, basing our design philosophy around this core ideal. At the same time, we recognize there are many features that may enhance your experience – by choice.

The solution? Apps. Available today for the first time in a new release candidate build of the BitTorrent Mainline client (the 7.1 Release Candidate version available below the download button on the homepage, or here), we’re introducing apps to provide a flexible, easy way to add and extend BitTorrent functionality, discover new media/games/software, and lots of other cool things at your leisure.

While only available today as a release candidate, over the next several weeks we will issue the production release to roll it out to all BitTorrent Mainline users.

Apps for BitTorrent are built on a JavaScript-based extension framework and make it easy for users to discover and download digital media without ever leaving the client. To kick off this limited release, we’re launching with 11 apps, ranging from useful to fun, enabling you to create a personalized BitTorrent experience by adding new features and services. For example, add virus protection with Virus Guard (powered by BitDefender), or clean up mislabeled songs in your playlist with TuneUp. See a map of all the peers in your swarm with uMap or organize all your torrents and downloaded files with uBrowse. Even share your torrents with TorrentTweet. More apps are coming soon.

The best part – we encourage all third-party developers to write and publish new apps, meaning that the breadth of creative ideas of apps to come is unlimited. And if you’re a developer yourself, you can now write an app available to BitTorrent’s millions of users using the SDK Developer tools.

The apps platform on BitTorrent Mainline 7.1 is completely open, and allows for easy extensibility by independent developers through a simple API. Partners and independent developers can access all the functionality of the client and offer a simple and more integrated way for consumers to find and download different types of content as well as integrate with external services that add new functionality.  In addition, the SDK developer tools and all the Apps we release from BitTorrent are free software, released with a three-clause BSD license.

Apps are built with JavaScript, the standard language used for Web-based tools and services. They can interact with other Web services and Web content to create rich media experiences for users, and use HTML and CSS for rendering.

Our goal is to provide our users with easy access to quality content and services to improve the experience of downloading and sharing content. This is our first step (of many to come) of our journey into the world of apps – stay tuned. We continue to be excited by the potential and look forward to your feedback!

-Simon-

With the shift from physical to digital media a new breed on artist has emerged in the music scene. This new wave of creators are looking for alternative distribution methods to reach consumers and grow their fan bases organically. They are artists like PAZ.

It was just a few years ago when PAZ entered a MasterCard competition for college musicians. Out of 25,000 aspiring hopefuls, he was chosen to tour with country music legends Tim McGraw and Big & Rich. His unique sound made a big impression on Tim McGraw, who ultimately took PAZ under his wing.

When PAZ began thinking about distribution for his debut mixtape, “Young Broke and Fameless,” he wasn’t looking to get his music on iTunes or Amazon, but wanted an approach that would allow him to establish his name and share his music with the largest possible number of people. So, PAZ decided to join a growing list of creators who are leveraging BitTorrent distribution to tap into a powerful online community and reach millions of consumers for free.

You could say that for PAZ his career has been a bit like a social experiment where he is using a variety of platforms to connect with consumers and incorporate them into every step of the process – including choosing the cover art for “Young Broke and Fameless.” For PAZ, it is about being a trailblazer for a new unified model, and so far his willingness to take risks has paid off. In only a few short months he has built a series of successes on non-traditional platforms and developed a substantial audience.

In today’s digital age, the traditional model that artists once bowed to does not serve them in the same ways. Artists like PAZ are creating a new media model that is not based on selling units of CDs or even downloads. What he is creating is much more important – it is consumer engagement. In doing so, he is building a fan base that will invariably attend shows and purchase merchandise down the road.

The Internet has created a model of empowerment that allows creators to retain full control of their creative works, and now BitTorrent is helping them build a business model that will fit with the new digital realities. We are always interested in working with content creators who want to develop models that play to the strengths of the Internet, and allows them to tune into the distribution potential of BitTorrent to reach millions of people within communities that might otherwise be inaccessible.

For a limited time starting today, PAZ’s mixtape will be available from his website; via our website; with all fresh downloads of the µTorrent client; and at ClearBits. The torrent file is here.

- Simon -

In addition to μTP there are several other improvements in BitTorrent 7 including:

- UDP NAT-traversal – an improved way to find peers who might otherwise be stuck behind firewalls;

- Transfer Cap feature – a way to limit the total bytes transferred by your client in a specific period, to keep you in line with any limits imposed by your ISP;

- UDP Tracker support – a way to reduce the load on trackers and improve performance.

The technology on which the μTP protocol is based is also available as an open source software library published here. Several other BitTorrent clients either have implemented μTP support or are now considering it. We hope we will continue to see wider adoption of μTP across the BitTorrent ecosystem.

In many ways, μTP is a get-smart approach to managing traffic on the network. Where its predecessor TCP could only detect a problem on the network once a packet was dropped and when a user’s Internet connection had slowed to a crawl, μTP can slow itself at the earliest signs that the network is getting overloaded – avoiding problems before they become acute. While some users have been concerned that they don’t want a BitTorrent client that slows itself down, the somewhat counter-intuitive result is that by automatically avoiding over-aggressive behavior, the downloads tend to actually go faster.

We continue to see µTP as a mutually beneficial solution for users and ISPs. Moreover, we believe that it is in the best interest of all parties when all stakeholders do their part to preserve a neutral Internet and self-regulate. BitTorrent Inc. is grounded in innovation, and µTP is the natural progression in ensuring that the Internet can scale and continue to evolve to meet users’ ever-changing demands.

- Simon -

Like uMap and several other Apps, Torrent Tweet is an optional app that we developed in-house at BitTorrent Inc. We continue to be excited about the possibilities of using Apps to mashup popular web services with some of the fundamentals of BitTorrent.

In this case we are relying on the fact that torrents are indexed not by file name but by infoshash, a  digital fingerprint of a file. While you might find the same torrent on dozens of different torrent sites, and get pieces of the associated file from thousands of different peers, ultimately, you can be sure that you’re going to get the torrent you want, not something that shares the same file name.

The infohash is a key foundation of BitTorrent – referring to content by digital fingerprint rather than just a file name is a powerful way of referring to something. Its like referring to a person by referencing their fingerprints rather than just their name. There are many people in the world called “Simon Morris,” but my fingerprints are unique.

The point of Torrent Tweet is to adapt the powerful referencing system built into BitTorrent to the incredible social interaction engine that Twitter has built such that people can have conversations about things they are downloading, and they can be sure that they are talking about the same thing.

Now of course this system has some limitations in that there’s no way of knowing whether someone is telling the truth, but that is the case in all social interactions. In some important way the wisdom of crowds can give you some rough gauge of how likely something is to be true. Our objective with Torrent Tweet is to link torrents with Twitter conversations and see if something useful evolves.

We hope that torrent sites will adopt our convention of referring to torrents using a shortened hashtag prefixed with “#bt” and enhance comments systems that already exist on torrent sites so that discussions can be accessed and propagated there and everywhere that Twitter is available.

- Simon -

Since we are so excited about Apps and exposing the platform to developers, we are going to hold a Hackathon on Thursday, Aug. 5, 6-8 p.m., at the Citizen Space in San Francisco. This will be an opportunity for developers to learn how to download and install the BitTorrent Apps SDK and begin coding on the spot. Also, BitTorrent developers will be on hand to answer questions and help you develop or optimize your App for µTorrent.

There will also be some folks from BitTorrent who will be leading lightning talks to help you learn all about the Apps platform and what Apps mean for BitTorrent users. Among those slated to speak are:

- Bram Cohen, co-founder and chief scientist
- Simon Morris, vice president of products and marketing
- Thomas Rampelberg, software engineer

As if the event couldn’t get any better, we will be offering free pizza and beer too. Space is limited and tickets are going fast, so mark your calendars and reserve your spot today! Also, don’t forget to bring your laptop to the event.

- Simon -

In case you are new to µTorrent Web, we will rewind a bit and tell you exactly what it is. µTorrent Web is a way to allow users to manage their downloads from anywhere on the Internet via a web browser. So, hypothetically, before you leave work or school in the evening you could start a torrent download on your home computer via another PC, iPhone, Android or iPad, so that it is completed by the time you arrive home.

What makes this different from other web-UI-for-bittorrent-client products is the incredible simplicity of setting it up. There’s no complicated port-forwarding or confusing settings in your router or firewall. Just set up a username and password in your µTorrent 3.0 alpha client, and presto you’re ready to go! (Be sure that you have the latest client with µTorrent Web installed on your computer.) It’s also a good idea to check “stay signed in” to ensure quick and easy accessibility in the future.

Just like with µTorrent Web for iPhone, we continue to take users’ privacy very seriously – all your private data is encrypted from the moment it leaves your browser right to the client on the other end. So, as before, you can rest assured that the private details of your µTorrent usage are never exposed to BitTorrent Inc. or any third parties.

We are excited to expand µTorrent Web to other devices, and look forward to continuing to roll it out further. If you have suggestions for other devices, let us know via our Idea Bank.

- Simon -

In case you haven’t noticed, media scarcity has for all intents and purposes disappeared. The Internet is essentially a giant copy machine that makes distribution of content frictionless. So, when you think about the web in these terms, then it makes it easy to understand why pay walls on the Internet do not work.

For example, take The Times of London, which recently implemented a pay wall. Last week, The Guardian reported that since instituting the pay wall The Times had lost 90 percent of its online traffic. The fact is the news that they are reporting is no longer scarce. Readers can easily find something similar (or even identical) on another competing website, or better they can find it on Twitter or a blog. The Times has created a model based on metering access, and in the process has lost eyeballs, which will almost certainly result in lost ad revenue.

As distribution costs reach effectively zero, we believe that there is value to be derived not in just access, but in creating an experience for users. In the future rich media will not have to be held under a lock and key to make money, which could result in a very different business model.

So, creators and organizations that are serious about making a business work on the Internet are looking to alternative media models – many of which fall under an umbrella you might loosely label freemium. The fact is that even with the shift from physical to digital media, the simple Economics 101 notion that consumers will pay for what is valuable and scarce still rings true.

We are partnering with various creators from filmmakers to gamers to software vendors – to enable relationships that bring value to the consumer, but allow the creator to build a business that works. These business models are largely based on this concept of freemium, where they leverage consumer adoption of values freely given to drive an opportunity for value to be captured later. We are still early in this process, but early results look very promising.

If you are interested in learning more about how freemium can be used as part of a business, I will be participating in a webinar with Mike Masnick of the popular blog Techdirt and Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote tomorrow at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET on the topic. Get the details here.

- Simon -

The Yes Men have won tons of awards and accolades for their films – including the Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Their work has been seen at Sundance, Hot Docs and was the closing film at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. The one thing that they have yet to see via traditional distribution is actual money. That is right, these poor suckers are actually broke. So, what are these prankster filmmakers to do? With the help of VODO and BitTorrent, today they are releasing ‘The Yes Men Fix the World – P2P Edition,’ a special cut of their second feature film. What is more this version includes an exclusive video of the Yes Men impersonating the US Chamber of Commerce. It is so outrageous that the US Chamber of Commerce took the Yes Men to court!

So, the filmmakers are asking viewers if they like the film to donate, so that they can create more mischief in the future. They have created different levels of participation, and for as little as $10 someone can become a card-carrying Yes Lab member and be entered into a drawing to win a prize! Learn more about the different levels of participation here.

This release comes on the heels of Pioneer One, which has seen nearly a million downloads and over $40,000 in donations and sponsorship. We continue to be excited about alternative media models that feed off the strengths of the online world, and we’re optimistic about the future that this will create for the Yes Men.

At this point, it is no secret that BitTorrent is an efficient way to distribute content to the masses. The story that is now beginning to unfold is that leveraging BitTorrent distribution, creators can tap into a powerful online community and reach millions of consumers while earning the money that will allow them to continue with their creative endeavors.

The Yes Men’s film is a good example of a film that never would have seen such broad distribution via the traditional model. The Internet has created a model of empowerment that allows creators to retain full control of their creative works, and now BitTorrent and VODO are helping them build a business model that will work in this digital age.

For those who are using Apps for µTorrent, the Yes Men can be downloaded from within the client via the VODO app. Also, for a limited time starting today, the movie will be available with all fresh downloads of the µTorrent client.

- Simon -