uTorrent 1.8 Released, Mac Version Coming Soon
Written by Ernesto on August 10, 2008After months of hard work and more than six months since their previous stable release, the uTorrent team has released version 1.8 of their BitTorrent client, with significant improvements and updates. Adding to the excitement, we were told that a public Alpha of the Mac version will be released in the next few weeks.
uTorrent is the preferred client among many BitTorrent users. In December we reported that the number of uTorrent users worldwide had more than doubled in a year. At the time, 5.1% of all Windows PCs had the BitTorrent client installed, and this number has probably been growing further since then.
Users have had to wait a while for this new release, since the last stable uTorrent, version 1.7.7, was released back in January. A lot of work has been done in the meantime though, and the list of changes and additions that were implemented is “absolutely massive”, to quote Firon. One of the most significant updates in the latest version of uTorrent is that it comes with built in IPv6 support, which improves connectivity and thus performance. Other new features are better Windows Firewall registration on Vista and improved distribution of new connections across torrents.
The journey from 1.7.7 has been a long one, but now that 1.8 stable is out, the uTorrent team will dedicate more time developing the long awaited Mac version of the client. uTorrent developer Greg Hazel told TorrentFreak that they will be “more heavily focused” on the Mac version now, which they have worked on for more than a year already. The good news for Mac users is that Greg hinted that the first public Alpha version will be released in just a few weeks.
uTorrent was initially developed by Ludvig Strigeus, and the first public version of the application was released in September 2005. A year later, in December 2006, uTorrent was acquired by BitTorrent Inc., but it will remain separated from other projects that the company is involved in. As Ashwin Navin, President and Co-founder of BitTorrent Inc. told us last year: “utorrent.com and uTorrent community will exist indefinitely. It’s vibrant and growing, and we value the feedback provided in the forums a lot.”
uTorrent 1.8 can be downloaded from the uTorrent website, and the list of changes, improvements and additions is available in the forum thread announcing the release.
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87 Responses
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Sounds cool. Can’t wait for the mac version to be released
Doesn’t show up on 1.7.7’s check for updates function yet
Taking your time will provide solid results and shows that they are thinking things through!
“One of the most significant updates in the latest version of uTorrent is that it comes with built in IPv6 support, which improves connectivity and thus performance.”
Errr, no, not unless you USE it, and a HUGE majority here don’t. In fact, I dare to say, unless you know you use IPv6, you don’t (since your ISP doesn’t provide it yet).
USE THIS NEW UPDATE TO DOWNLOAD THE NEW AUSTRIAN DEATH MACHINE, YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID. ONE EXTRA HOUR OF WORKING OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ 4 - serenity
Well don’t go over the top mate, there’s a good reason people don’t use IPv6, if your on a home network there’s little point and even if you want to use it, how many standard routers include the ability for it?
well not even DD-WRT supports it so give it about 5 years and it might start to happen.
How exciting, one more crappy uT release that’s going to get banned and then ‘fixed’ within a few weeks. It’s kind of like having a car in and out of the shop 10 times over a year. I don’t know about you, but if I had a car that was broken that much of the time, I would probably stop using it altogether. And, if I was the mechanic responsible for the car upkeep, I sure wouldn’t be proud of my shoddy work.
BT Clients should have lemon laws.
They haven’t focused on the Mac version because they’ve been too busy fixing their mistakes on the Windows releases.
Instead of laying off only 20% of it’s company, Bittorrent, inc. should just fire the whole damn lot (including themselves). The ensuing void would probably produce a better BT client overnight and the quick death would be far less agonizing then this slow painful one.
Larry, Curly and Moe could write better code.
Been using the RC’s for a few weeks. 1.8 is awesome! :)
can’t wait for the mac alpha to come out
Their Mac utorrent client uses libtorrent, it’s not a port of utorrent from windows.
“How exciting, one more crappy uT release that’s going to get banned and then ‘fixed’ within a few weeks. It’s kind of like having a car in and out of the shop 10 times over a year. I don’t know about you, but if I had a car that was broken that much of the time, I would probably stop using it altogether. And, if I was the mechanic responsible for the car upkeep, I sure wouldn’t be proud of my shoddy work.”
IOH NOREZ, DEY GIV US STUFZ 4 FREE BUT I HATE DEM STILL12@!!!
@11 “Their Mac utorrent client uses libtorrent, it’s not a port of utorrent from windows.”
But libtorrent is GPL licenced, so isnt it illegal? Well, unless their Mac version will be opensource…
Well,
there are two projects named libtorrent, one is Rasterbar’s libtorrent (f.e. used in Deluge and BTG)
http://www.rasterbar.com/products/libtorrent/
and then there is Rakshasas libTorrent (used in rtorrent)
http://libtorrent.rakshasa.no/wiki
As Rasterbars libtorrent is BSD-licensed they wouldn’t need to disclose the source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bsd_license#Proprietary_software_licenses_compatibility
while using libTorrent would oblige them to do so (GPL licensed).
@7
What was the last bittorrent program you coded???
@HelloWorld
The libtorrent dev works at bittorrent, inc. so he can license it to anyone.
Arvid Norberg indeed works at Bittorrent Inc.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/977/AB8
But even if he wouldn’t they could use it (BSD-license).
I’m not sure if there’s any difference between µTorrent and the official Bittorrent client, which I understand is µTorrent code with a different nametag slapped on.
If that’s the case, why go to the trouble of keeping two sets of duplicates of everything.
And if the Mac version of µTorrent is based on Libtorrent, how about a (official Bittorrent inc-approved) Windows version of Libtorrent?
Oh great they release uTorrent for Mac a week after I get a Seedbox.
i even use 1.7 on linux through wine :p
its a nice lil application
dMix:
I hope you don’t use OVH, ’cause there are rats on board:
http://forum.ovh.co.uk/showpost.php?p=6346&postcount=92
Don’t you just love it when the Kangaroo Courts stick their noses where they dont belong?
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
the question when it finally comes out on Mac will be if it can stand to Transmission on the Mac
@4: If your only reason not to use IPv6 is that no one else does, then just use it. Otherwise how will the switch take place, if no one wants to use it because no one is using it?
transmission for mac is much better than utorrent, i think there just wasting there time.
@ enter8 How the hell do you know this release is going to be broken? Utorrent has generally been a very stable application so I have no idea wtf you are going on about.
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