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BitTorrent Comes to Cell Phones

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the tracker-still-down-anyway dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Finally, a BitTorrent interface for the mobile phone. Dubbed uTorrent mUI, the web user interface allows the end user to control torrent downloads remotely. The interface still lacks the ability to add torrents, however bringing BitTorrent capabilities to the cell phone is a giant step forward."

101 comments

  1. Awesome! by Klickoris · · Score: 5, Funny

    Awesome. I've always wanted to download stuff on the go. Porn on the go, here I come.

    1. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      > Porn on the go, here I come.

      I don't want to be a spelling Nazi, but it's spelled C-U-M, not C-O-M-E.

    2. Re:Awesome! by crazyvas · · Score: 3, Funny

      So now, you can come on the go.

    3. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Actually, to be a _real_ spelling nazi, the word you are think of is spelled c-o-m-e. Look it up some time...

    4. Re:Awesome! by noidentity · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      I hate to be a real word Nazi, but "cum" is only a conjunction; "come" realy is the correct spelling in either case here.

  2. Pretty Misleading by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This technology allows the individual to log into their home machine from a remote location and, among many other things, add torrents, pause a download, or discontinue a download. The title of this article is pretty misleading. It looks like they've basically made a webpage for their BitTorrent and then made a special css for a cell phone viewing it.

    Not extremely innovative, I've seen web interfaces for torrent clients.

    Neat? Yes. A good project? Maybe. "Huge step forward?" Not really, in my opinion.

    I question the motives for bringing torrents to cellphones unless you can use other cell phones as download points (hence the name Peer to Peer). That's where the speedup comes from. I think cell phones are pinched at their access point, P2P apps on the phone aren't going to change that, they will even make it worse if both phones are fighting two separate choke points. Not sure if this is well thought out.
    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Pretty Misleading by Poromenos1 · · Score: 2, Informative

      What a misleading article... I have a BitTorrent client for my mobile phone called SymTorrent (there's also a Gnutella one, Symella). I think it's open source, too, but it only runs on symbian. Still, pretty handy (I don't know for what, but I'm sure it'll prove to be some day!)

      --
      Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
    2. Re:Pretty Misleading by nonsequitor · · Score: 3, Informative

      As the parent poster pointed out, Azureus has had a remote web interface plugin for a long time. Making it able to be controlled remotely from anything with a browser and net access. How is this news? Wake me when the hacked iPhone has P2P song sharing via WiFi with autodiscovery of peers via ad hoc network magic.

    3. Re:Pretty Misleading by Nanoda · · Score: 1

      I agree; I use Torrentflux myself to remotely administer my torrents, but almost always I'm adding torrents during lunch so I have a TV show to watch when I get home. Managing upload rates doesn't interest me at all.

      I can see this being somewhat useful if you have a long bus ride and want to add some torrents, but none of the torrent sites I use seem to have a cut-down mobile interface, so I don't see where you'd get them in the first place.

    4. Re:Pretty Misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wake me when the hacked iPhone has P2P song sharing via WiFi with autodiscovery of peers via ad hoc network magic. No one has whispered softer, sweeter nothings in my ear than you, sir.

      I want to have your abortion.
    5. Re:Pretty Misleading by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1

      You can actually have a real torrent client on your phone (well, not really if it's one of those useless eye-phones that is), with an application like WinMobile Torrent. It seems to have all the main features of a torrent client, including multiple tracker support, partial downloads, priorities, etc.

    6. Re:Pretty Misleading by boldie · · Score: 1

      Yes, KDEs Ktorrent has a plugin that does this. Last time I checked the iPhone has ssh through some web 2.0 thing and that would let you control just about any CLI app.

    7. Re:Pretty Misleading by Firehed · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but this one's rather dangerous. Go to m.utorrentmui.com (or just visit it from any phone that has an address bar) and watch all of the details being passed along as a GET request as plaintext. Honestly, what's the point of obfuscating the password field on the login page when you're going to display it in the address bar? Neither of Azureus' plugins nor uTorrent's WebUI does this as far as I can tell, and both are considerably better in my opinion. Hell, I've now got both of them running and get to take my pick by which port I select when I'm on the road.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    8. Re:Pretty Misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is also a program for PocketPCs that I use called WinMobile Torrent:

      http://www.adisasta.com/wmTorrent.html

      you have to pay for it, however, wouldn't it be ironic if one were to install the trial version then download the full version with their own program?

    9. Re:Pretty Misleading by kwark · · Score: 1

      A torrentsite without RSS! My favorite TV stuff gets downloaded automatically using these feeds, so no need for a mobile interface.

    10. Re:Pretty Misleading by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

      Azureus has had a remote web interface plugin for a long time. Is there an OSX client with similar functionality? Or, better, one you can control via a shell using ssh? It seems like it should be an easy thing to do but the basic bittorrent client for OSX doesn't have it.
    11. Re:Pretty Misleading by Jackmn · · Score: 2, Informative

      Is there an OSX client with similar functionality?
      There is an OSX package available for Azureus.
    12. Re:Pretty Misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As much as I like and use Azureus (as well as its web plugin), I have to point out that Azureus's web interface using a Java applet which won't work on a cell phone. It will only work with anything with a browser that has a Java plugin (which I don't think any cell phones have).

    13. Re:Pretty Misleading by antv · · Score: 1

      Azureus has both OSX port, and Telnet UI plugin. It also has HTML web UI, which works fine with my cell phone (Nokia 9500, uses Opera).

      --
      Obama 2012: our incompetent asshole is slightly less of an incompetent asshole than the other incompetent asshole !
  3. Useless until it can add. by casualsax3 · · Score: 1

    The phone doesn't need to understand trackers, many popular sites have links directly to the .torrent file - you'd just need to copy and paste a link to a .torrent file and be done with it. I'm sure if the phone can throttle the bandwidth on a torrent it can handle that...

  4. Useless by Umbral+Blot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This may be the most uselss application I have ever seen promoted on /. It might be useful if your torrent program was extremely limited, but uTorrent already allows you to schedule torrents, change speed automatically when they finish, and to impose speed and total download caps if you need them. These features make the ability to remotely monitor your torrents relatively useless, unless you are interested in obsessing over exactly when one of them finishes. But the rest of us have the ability to leave our computers and let uTorrent intelligently manage things without us, with no remote monitoring capability required.

    --

    Philosophy.
    1. Re:Useless by posterlogo · · Score: 1

      I often like to start downloading TV shows as soon as they come out. I'm usually at work late or will be going out many evenings, but it's nice to get home and find that the TV show you missed a couple of hours ago is just finished downloading. I'm not that familiar with the uTorrent features, but I'd be interested in anything that helped me pick and start a torrent manually. There are often many versions of a particular piece of media, and I don't want to get the wrong one. So if I could take a minute out of whatever I was doing away from home to search for and start a torrent that may have just been released a few minutes ago (usually shortly after the TV program finished airing in its earliest time zone), this would be be worthwhile for me.

    2. Re:Useless by Umbral+Blot · · Score: 1

      ... which is a feature (ability to add new torrents remotely) the program being promoted doesn't have. (And I agree with you, that it would be the only useful feature such a program could have.)

      --

      Philosophy.
    3. Re:Useless by megaditto · · Score: 1

      You DO know the activity you describe is most likely illegal and is bound to get you jailed for up to ten years (+$500,000 fine)?

      Repeat after me: I do not have the right to steal media content

      --
      Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
    4. Re:Useless by posterlogo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Maybe you're right legally, whatever...TV seems like a gray area. There's probably some rule about rebroadcasting. Morally, you can take your high and mighty attitude and shove it. I've paid my $40+ monthly to the cable monopoly. Setting my DVR or getting it off a torrent, I couldn't care less. Whatever points you want to make about it are legal technicalities that yes, could get potentially be troubling. What's more troubling, though, is your attitude, as illustrated by your use of the word "steal". It must be nice to be naive like you and assume everything in the law is about fair and just and therefore anything "most likely illegal" is morally wrong. I guess some people are OK with enabling the MAFIAA companies to buy legislation to screw over the consumers. I don't know where you get off preaching to people here.

    5. Re:Useless by clang_jangle · · Score: 1

      You DO know the activity you describe is most likely illegal and is bound to get you jailed for up to ten years (+$500,000 fine)? Repeat after me: I do not have the right to steal media content .



      Oh, please. I have never heard of *anyone* getting prison time for downloading protected content. Do try to keep up old boy-- it's a well-known fact nowadays that downloading copies of files is not "stealing", nor is it "piracy". No-one is deprived of anything natural by the act of copying files off the network. The business models which profit only off exploiting "IP" are now obsolete, and the **IA tactics are just the death rattles of that model.
      --
      Caveat Utilitor
    6. Re:Useless by man_ls · · Score: 1

      This post, and another one that talked about downloading "linux distributions" (quotes included) onto their phones are the reasons ISPs are doing packet shaping on torrent connections....with the majority of torrent traffic being used for illegal purposes, its no wonder.

    7. Re:Useless by Don_dumb · · Score: 1

      Would this be different to Azuerus and the RSS reader extension using something like eztvefnet.org's RSS feeds?
      I use it to pick up the Daily Show and Colbert Report each day, I just turn on the client and later the shows are downloaded and ready. The RSS reader has a feature that ensures that only the new episodes are downloaded. And eztv only has one entry for each episode so you don't get hundreds of downloads for each show.
      I know it isn't a mobile access to your client but it might cover the problems you have.

      --
      If this were really happening, what would you think?
    8. Re:Useless by sakasune · · Score: 1

      You sir, just gave me the best news ever. I always get the eztv rips when I download and a few things like the Daily Show are keeping me tied to Comcast tv service. If I could have them automatically downloaded, it makes life that much more sweet and drop cable TV.
      Now all I need is FIOS and I can kiss Comcrap goodbye!

      --
      "You're arguing for a universe with fewer waffles in it," I said. "I'm prepared to call that cowardice."
    9. Re:Useless by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      But the rest of us have the ability to leave our computers and let uTorrent intelligently manage things without us, with no remote monitoring capability required.
      No, the majority on slashdot do not have this ability at all.
      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    10. Re:Useless by kat_skan · · Score: 1

      I was under the impression that most shows have the commercials stripped out when they're distributed like this. You were, of course, never under any impetus to watch the commercials, but is it really still moral to patronize a third party who are distributing a derivative work without compensating the people who actually created it?

      Don't get me wrong, I'm not so high-and-mighty; I do something very similar, only it's shows that are only on in foreign markets. This is convenient, but I think moral is reaching a bit.

    11. Re:Useless by Don_dumb · · Score: 1

      Glad to help, just follow the instructions on eztv's RSS page

      --
      If this were really happening, what would you think?
  5. Wow... by Revenge_of_Solver_Ta · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Isn't something like 50% of the net's total traffic (by volume) torrent?

    Seems this would really tax wireless capacity.

    1. Re:Wow... by dextromulous · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is a "remote control" for bittorrent related things running on other computers, not a bittorrent client.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: those who divide people into two types and those who don't.
    2. Re:Wow... by veganboyjosh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      With all the "who's gonna download crap onto their phone?" posts, this is what occurred to me. Can you use this to schedule/direct torrents to download on another computer? That would be something.

      You know, cos getting in on torrents when their streaming is full force is like getting in at the last second on an ebay auction.

    3. Re:Wow... by Revenge_of_Solver_Ta · · Score: 1

      Ahhh! Thanks for clearing that up.

    4. Re:Wow... by Have+Blue · · Score: 1

      No, actually. "The interface still lacks the ability to add torrents" is right there in the summary.

    5. Re:Wow... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Seems this would really tax wireless capacity.

      It only seems like that because you didn't RTFA. (At least I hope that's why.)

    6. Re:Wow... by empaler · · Score: 1

      Seems this would really tax wireless capacity.

      It only seems like that because you didn't RTFA. (At least I hope that's why.)

      More precisely: he didn't RTFS. Granted, it was very badly worded, which is why he is only one in a never ending stream of people commenting on what they do not understand.
  6. step forward towards...what? by dAzED1 · · Score: 0

    "...however bringing BitTorrent capabilities to the cell phone is a giant step forward."

    a giant step forward towards...what? I mean, seriously...just umm...how much space ya got on your phone there that you need to torrent files to it?

    Is it April 1, 2008, already?

  7. 5-digit phone bills by aeschenkarnos · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Good idea in theory, but the carrier companies aren't even remotely ready for it. As it stands, a simple download of an episode of Heroes would rack up a 5-digit phone bill.

  8. Freed from the Desktop! by greyspectre · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Awesome! Between hosting webservers and downloading torrents, I'll never have to use my desktop again. Does anyone use a cell phone to make a freaking phone call anymore?

    1. Re:Freed from the Desktop! by l33t.g33k · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes. I call my Skype account with it so I can talk to myself late at night.

      --
      My sig is permanently on strike.
    2. Re:Freed from the Desktop! by MyLongNickName · · Score: 1

      Hi,

      I just heard from you (no, the other you). he says you are boring and wishes you would stop wasting all his minutes.

      Thanks,
      Me

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    3. Re:Freed from the Desktop! by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 1

      No, we're using desktops for that now.

  9. Misleading and over-hyped by Wog · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This would be like setting up a very simple web page to control a nuclear missile silo and proclaiming, "NUCLEAR MISSILES NOW LAUNCHED FROM CELL PHONES!"

    All this is is a remote interface, just like the http interface uTorrent already has. Useful? Now for most, but maybe so for some. The fact that you can't add torrents to it is a major limitation, but if you are out with friends and say "So yeah, I hear it's a great film. We can go back to my place and watch it if it's done. Let's see..." then it's a handy little add-on.

    Not worth a breathless Slashdot story, though.

    1. Re:Misleading and over-hyped by Atragon · · Score: 1

      A whole new level of reality added to missile command...

    2. Re:Misleading and over-hyped by Anaerin · · Score: 1

      You know, I used to administer web servers from the pub, using VNC on a Palm m100 and a Nokia 7110 linked by IR. Sure, it wasn't the fastest interface (14.4k on Orange, using dual "Data Call" links, 2x9600 Baud "ISDN"), but it did the job.

      And I'm fairly sure I was shuffling Gnutella (v1.0 - Or whatever the original leaked release was) jobs on my work machine with it too.

      Oh, and IIRC we had monitoring servers set up that exposed a WAP interface so we could override/trigger/clear error conditions after we'd sorted them out, to prevent issue escalation (And the waking of the more senior managers)

      While we didn't have missile launching included, I'm pretty sure there was a plugin available. :)

  10. "Giant step forward"? by Lisandro · · Score: 1

    Now, don't get me wrong - it's a very neat proyect, but is it that far from a BT client with web server capabilities and Opera mini in your cell? I know of atleast one person who used to have his computer bookmarked in his cell for stuff like this.

  11. phone 2 phone download? by z-j-y · · Score: 1

    oops, it is not.

  12. No it's not by AaronStJ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > bringing BitTorrent capabilities to the cell phone is a giant step forward.

    No it's not. It's not really that impressive at all. They made a web remote control UI for the existing PC-based program, and then went to the website from their Palm. This has nothing to do with bringing BitTorrent capabilities to the cell phone.

    --
    Stupid like a fox!
  13. This is lame by diablobsb · · Score: 5, Informative

    good cellphones (pda-like) could always do that....

    there are even bittorrent CLIENTS for cellphones....

    check out...
    http://www.adisasta.com/wmTorrent.html

    --
    I for one, welcome our new hot grits... PROFIT!
    1. Re:This is lame by freedumb2000 · · Score: 2, Informative

      There is also Python for Symbian so could imagine BitTornado working there as well.

    2. Re:This is lame by yohanes · · Score: 2, Informative

      A client for Symbian platform also exist. SymTorrent is a full-featured and complete BitTorrent client for Symbian OS 3rd edition http://www.aut.bme.hu/portal/SymTorrent.aspx?lang= en. s This is a free/open source (GPL) program. As a person who blogs about S60 3rd edition freewares, I have tested it, and it works very well.

      --
      -- tinyhack.com
    3. Re:This is lame by qyiet · · Score: 2, Informative

      Torrent clients arn't restricted to WinCE. I already have a SymTorrent installed on my Nokia N91.

      I must admit I have yet to use it for anything beyond testing, but it's nice to know I could get a "linux distribution" straight to my phone

    4. Re:This is lame by venkateshkumar99 · · Score: 1

      That is the reason I like the Symbian platform. It has two good torrent clients 1. SymTorrent (GPL)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SymTorrent) and 2. Wizbit (www.s60bt.blogspot.com) and for controlling Azureus Opera will do the job over GPRS/3G

    5. Re:This is lame by Damork · · Score: 1

      Then there are already versions for Symbian S60 platforms like:

      SymTorrent (http://www.aut.bme.hu/portal/SymTorrent.aspx?lang =en)

      --
      -- Karri Huhtanen http://www.iki.fi/khuhtanen/
  14. Great... by suitepotato · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...now the **AA can subpoena my cell phone company.

    --
    If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
  15. azureus has that for a long time by old+and+new+again · · Score: 1

    and it works just fine on my cell phone

    --
    Live Electronic Music
  16. infection vector by hguorbray · · Score: 1

    -This should supply the missing vector needed for cellphone virii disguised as ringtones and wallpapers and pr0n dialers which access premium rate overseas #s

    now our phones can be as fsck'd as our PCs -esp the ones running Windows Mobile....

    I'm just sayin'

    1. Re:infection vector by Fizzl · · Score: 1

      Atleast with Symbian based phones, it is pretty impossible to write self propagating virii. Even with silly people happlessly clicking every "Yes" and "Confirm" dialogs.
      The way capabilities locks work, you really have to identify yourself to Symbian signed to get a certificate to use any advanced API's. You can use self-signed certs for simple apps, but with that you cannot really do any damage or access any propagation vectors. Alternatively, you can get a developer cert to use capabilities. With this, your virii will become quite short lived, as dev certs expire in one month (iirc).
      Also, the user has to manually go to app installer settings and enable the phone to install self signed/devcert sis in the first place. Atleast in Nokia phones, the installer gives no indication of what to do if it fails because this setting is disabled. This is to try to ensure person really knows what he is doing when he is enabling said feature.

      If someone knows any progress on breaking the capability locking in Symbian >9.x systems, I'd certainly be interested in reading.

      --
      Bot Assisted Blogging
  17. Dupe wannabe article by SirJorgelOfBorgel · · Score: 1

    This was news years ago.

    A way to control torrents on my PC from my cell? I've never been able to do that with any torrent client that had a web interface. Or just the torrent client through a shell. Or any of a number of remote desktop apps that exists for the cell..

    For God's sake, we've even been able to download torrents on the actual phone for quite a while now, even that is old news.

    Besides, who uses torrents anyways? Usenet FTW!

  18. Big deal by blackmh · · Score: 1

    eMule had this before bittorrent even existed

  19. My NAS has a bittorrent client. by bitserf · · Score: 1

    Somehow that strikes me as being more useful, what with it having 1.4TB of storage and all.

    1. Re:My NAS has a bittorrent client. by Firehed · · Score: 1

      What NAS? Off-the-shelf unit or custom-built? I'm in the market, and something with a bit-torrent client built in would be a huge boon.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    2. Re:My NAS has a bittorrent client. by bitserf · · Score: 1

      I am using the Synology CS407e but even their lowend DS-106j model has a built in client. I believe these devices run some form of Debian too. Works great sharing stuff over SMB to XBMC :)

    3. Re:My NAS has a bittorrent client. by Firehed · · Score: 1

      Awesome. I'd been looking at Infrant units, but those seem even better. I wonder how I'd missed them.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
  20. Buh by obeythefist · · Score: 1

    Because you know, open source eMule mods having a web interface that could be accessed from a phone or, well, anywhere, is completely different. And they've only had that for years.

    I really believe BitTorrent is just a tad overrated. Or maybe I'm just bitter because it's not truly P2P, it's peer to lousy-tracker-with-no-seeds-that-shuts-down-after- a-week-because-mom-cut-the-network-cable-down-to-t he-basement to peer (P2L2P). Or maybe I've just had bad experiences with about 90% of the trackers I ever connected to.

    --
    I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
    1. Re:Buh by Aetuneo · · Score: 1

      The type of content you want is very important. For example, I use Bittorrent primarily to download Anime. It works very well for that, and I haven't had any issues with the Trackers shutting down (and even if that happens, my client can get all the information that a Tracker would give it from other Peers, which is very helpful). It also works very well for downloading new Linux distros. If, on the other hand, you want to download the latest pirated movie, or other illegal/dodgy content (okay, some Anime is illegal due to licensing issues, but that's not the point), you are likely to run against the problem of trackers shutting down. As for trackers having no seeds, you just have to know where to look, and change trackers accordingly. Of course, the community helps a lot with that, so illegal content = fewer seeds.

      --
      Everything is subjective.
  21. Dave Chappelle by Plutonite · · Score: 1

    [To dude masturbating during bus ride]: "Stop it son, stop it..you hittin ma ELBOWS, man.."

  22. Thank you for using BitTorrent! by Token_Internet_Girl · · Score: 2

    Text MONEY to 77733 to donate to Bram Cohen! (He doesn't do this for free you know)

    --
    Sure baby, I'll give you my phone number...in Hex
  23. I wish people would learn to read by dstrek · · Score: 0

    It's only a web interface... nothing new.

  24. Old news by skinfitz · · Score: 1

    I'm sure this is news in iPhone Land but here in Europe we've been doing this for some time now.

  25. The only newsworthy thing here? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    TFA be damned, I'm surprised by the amount of people who don't even read the summary. Well, not very surprised.

  26. Awesome by fat_mike · · Score: 1

    Now I can kill my battery even quicker!

    Screw this crap.

    Hey eggheads, we're all tired of the carrot before the horse crap. Put all your giant brains together and build me a battery. The most amazing, spectacular battery in the world, nay, universe. I want it to power my Treo (which dies after eight hours just sitting there, and yes I have my auto-sync set to 5 minutes and 15 minutes...all the more reason for an awesome battery) for at least five days using 100% of every damn thing its advertised for. I didn't talk my work into spending $650 for nothing.

    And while you're at it, no I don't need Bittorrent on my phone. Why the fuck would I? I have other tools that let me remote control my stuff at home. I don't need another program eating memory that does the same thing.

    At this rate, Star Trek and every other sci-fi communicator will never happen because people are to busy trying to "DOODZ, you can get porn and movies on your phone!!!!". I'm the one with expendable income, I want a tool, not a toy. I have a laptop for the latter and I don't have to squint while watching things on it.

    1. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Now I can kill my battery even quicker! Screw this crap. Hey eggheads, we're all tired of the carrot before the horse crap.

      Hey head apparently-made-out-of-something-other-than-egg, RTFA.

  27. from the article ... from the summary ... by vic-traill · · Score: 1

    From the article:

    Torrent mUI has all the basic features you could want in order to remotely control your Torrent application.

    From the summary:

    bringing BitTorrent capabilities to the cell phone is a giant step forward.

    Yeah, I know I'm selectively quoting from the summary (i.e. another line says "allows the end user to control torrent downloads remotely".I also understand that I'm splitting some hairs here, but there is nothing new on the cell phone. So do we consider it to be bringing capabilities to a phone every time a new web application is built or an old host app has a new web front end built for it? Nothing has changed on the phone. That's the *point* of building web-based apps - dodge the client.

    And (also from the summary a "giant leap forward"? I don't think so. The utorrent web interface allows me to remote control my torrent downloads from any browser which can render the page, and has done so in public availability since sometime last year. I haven't tried to use it from my phone, but there's got to be a phone-based browser out there capable of doing so. Anyone?

    I think it is neat that someone is doing this. Can we just take some of the hyperbole out of summaries? (I can hear the 'you must be new here' comments already).

    From Sept 2006 the announcement on utorrent's web interface and remote control:
    http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=14565

    And a BitTorrent client for mobile devices, article dated mar 13th 2007:
    http://torrentfreak.com/symtorrent-bittorrent-on-y our-mobile/

    Nothing to see here ... nothing new, anyway.

    --
    [17] Leary, T., White, C., Wood, P. R., Bhabha, W. D., and Wirth, N. Lambda calculus considered harmful. In Proceedings
  28. Next step: An actual client by Skeith · · Score: 1

    This made me think of bit torrent over a massive LAN mesh network. I bet the RIAA/MPAA will be angry when that starts, actually so will anyone else in the business of selling software/media.

  29. This has been around for much longer... by acalthu · · Score: 0

    I've been using WinMobile Torrent for over a year now. Very nice application, easy to use. The new version has a lot of features found only on full blown desktop torrent clients. Old news, moving on.

  30. The easiest, lightweight way of managing torrents by wilymage · · Score: 1
    You can do this incredibly easily and in a much more lightweight fashion from any computer/phone/toaster with Internet access.

    1. On your machine you use to download torrents, run rtorrent within screen.

    screen rtorrent
    2. SSH into your box: from Windows try Putty, from your phone try PocketPutty; from Linux:

    ssh youraddress
    3. Reconnect to the screen

    screen -r -x
    Simple. No fancy-schmancy GUIs required.
    --
    The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. -- Albert Einstein
  31. Nothing new... by ph1nn · · Score: 0

    KTorrent has had this for a while too, big deal.

  32. Fwoooosh by empaler · · Score: 3, Funny

    (the sound of a joke, flying over your head)

    1. Re:Fwoooosh by coren2000 · · Score: 1

      Ohhh, that sticky white stuff is a *joke*

    2. Re:Fwoooosh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't miss the joke - like I said, look it up some time. Ejaculatory fluid is c-o-m-e, not c-u-m, despite what millions of illiterate teenagers think. At this point, so many people are convinced that c-u-m is the right word, it essentially is, however if you are going to be a real spelling nazi...

  33. Older than old by Riba · · Score: 1

    I used to have a Treo 270 and run Onager over GPRS to control mldonkey which is a general P2P-tool that also handles bittorrent. That was like five years ago.. Though it didn't last too long; mldonkey evolved faster than onager. Every phone since then has included a webbrowser that you can use to control, for example, mldonkey over a web interface.

  34. Is it just me... by ianpm · · Score: 1

    ...or is this a massive security risk?

    From what I can tell, you are esentially giving him your uTorrent login info.

  35. Probably cheaper to go buy it by forgoil · · Score: 1

    Since I assume that the data-rate costs are pretty astronomical in most countries. Or a people starting to want to pay to pirate now? :)

  36. High phone bill by Yuioup · · Score: 1

    Have you any idea how high my phone bill will be if I use this???

    Imagine seeding for 24 hours with this thing... ai ai ai

    Y

  37. Symtorrent by Tryfen · · Score: 1

    Symtorrent http://symtorrent.aut.bme.hu/ is a Bit Torrent client designed specifically for S60 phones. N70, N95 etc.

    Make sure you have a generous data plan, though!

    --
    If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?
  38. Azureus? Bah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To the "azuereushaditfirst" tagger - yeah, enjoy your bloated piece of Java-based CRAPWARE. uTorrent is a slim beauty. And you don't need an annoying, clunky, system-resource-devouring runtime environment (Java VM) to use it.

  39. Newly added by coren2000 · · Score: 1

    Cellphones, with newly added "bown chicka bow wow"

  40. Seen it (or Fun With Linux and TorrentFlux) by TheGreatOrangePeel · · Score: 1

    Linux personal Web & file server + DDNS + TorrentFlux + Cellphone with data (read: internet) access = BitTorrent WITH file downloads on a cell phone.

  41. What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And not a single, "but can the iPhone do it" joke? Slashdot, you disappoint me.

  42. Tiny phone and tiny functionality by heroine · · Score: 1

    This is such a tiny amount of functionality, it's hard to believe it got ahead of a story about helicopters on space.com. If they had bittorrent downloads to the cell phone through http proxies, that would be worth something, but how often do you start, stop, and pause bittorrent downloads? And when they finally get downloads to the cell phone, they're not going to support http proxies.

  43. Forget Bittorent...Usenet On Your Phone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure a bunch of you use Usenet like myself. For those that do, you may be helped by my php script. It combines Newzbin, Usenet and Sabnzbd and brings it to your cell phone. Check out the article and get the script at www.chrisstarkey.com

  44. Honestly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That sticky white stuff wasn't the joke. Sorry.
    Sorry, didn't see you enter the room while I was watching Voyeurweb videos. Sorry.