Sunday, December 11th 2011

uTorrent Goes Freemium: $24.95/Yr Option For Extra Features

Well, it looks like the freemium model of selling software is working quite well in the industry, as Bram Cohen's very popular BitTorrent application, uTorrent, has just adopted this model. Known for being fast, efficient and light on system resources, it has now gained a few pounds, sorry features in version 3, some of which are available only for a subscription of $24.95 per year. These include things like an antivirus scanner powered by BitDefender, a media player and integrated support for converting popular video file types such as MPEG4, H.264, Theora, and VP8, as well as MP3, AAC and AC-3 audio files. The media player is interesting, in that it allows playback of videos that are still downloading. Note that this feature is also available in the free version.

For those that still want to hang on to the lean and mean free version, it's still available and isn't going away any time soon. Both versions can be compared here. Perhaps it's ironic that this legal application which is often used for software "piracy" can now itself be pirated… Cohen's take on this will be interesting.
Source: TechSpot
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92 Comments on uTorrent Goes Freemium: $24.95/Yr Option For Extra Features

#51
FordGT90Concept
"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Azureus is bloated and likely why uTorrent came about (the exact opposite--get the job done without the bloat). uTorrent is turning into exactly what it was meant not to be--thank you BitTorrent, Inc.
Posted on Reply
#52
Wile E
Power User
OneMoaranyone that buys this garbage is a idiot


and no HTTP > torrents
HTTP is more secure (only one machine has your ip address and knows what you downloaded
Torrents are Murder on routers and isp's ends
torrents rely heavily on seeding OFC no one does that
then again my isp doesn't throttle at all so ...
the file speedtree is as follows
newzbin > Direct Connect\irc-Xdcc+ > torrents (private trackers) > torrents public trackers;
torrents for the most-part are slow,inefficient,insecure,
newsbin costs money and most irc bots do not have a fast connection and aren't all that reliable at times.

Torrents are fast, free and reliable on my end. Torrents have no issues maxing out my connection. And if torrents give your routers problems, you are either misconfigured, or have a really shitty router. Still trumps all other current options, imo. It's pros far outweigh the cons as far as I am concerned.
Posted on Reply
#53
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
Wile Enewsbin costs money and most irc bots do not have a fast connection and aren't all that reliable at times.

Torrents are fast, free and reliable on my end. Torrents have no issues maxing out my connection. And if torrents give your routers problems, you are either misconfigured, or have a really shitty router. Still trumps all other current options, imo. It's pros far outweigh the cons as far as I am concerned.
so many people just go HERP DERP 50000 CONNECTIONS in utorrent and wonder why their equipment crashes... when i go fix peoples dodgy internet connections, its one of the primary causes of problems (usually a sibling/child doing it in secret too)
Posted on Reply
#54
WarraWarra
From their download link obviously they have major issues, there is the plus version with many people complaining about not being able to activate it, some defective 3.1 version with junk / spam features that no one wants and then the only useful free version is not listed for download ie: 2.* version.

Luckily for those that want utorrent and not crap utorrent 3* you can find it at oldapps.com website like so many older pre F*-up program version.

You would think that utorrent would remove the stupid from their website and have basic decent features like download a good version and list version available for download like on oldapps.com .
Maybe the hated google / youtube / yahoo / facebook / ??? new look mental virus has attacked utorrent developers as well. :toast:
Posted on Reply
#55
MilkyWay
I saw an 80gb Lord of the rings extended editions 1080p blu ray torrent. Imagine how long that would take to download!

I use utorrent because that has been installed for ages on my machine, if there's a better alternative? post it and i might use that instead.
Posted on Reply
#56
1freedude
I remember when it was really micro...186kB micro. Azureus was bloated slow system hog. What is the latest utorrent size?...1mB?
Posted on Reply
#57
f22a4bandit
I guess a lot of people are getting throttled connections when trying to d/l torrents. I have the exact opposite experience and can grab 1 GB of data in about an hour or two.

That said, unless people feel sorry for the guy that's charging for these extra services, he's going to find it hard to receive any sort of payment for his efforts.
Posted on Reply
#58
PVTCaboose1337
Graphical Hacker
Wile Enewsbin costs money and most irc bots do not have a fast connection and aren't all that reliable at times.

Torrents are fast, free and reliable on my end. Torrents have no issues maxing out my connection. And if torrents give your routers problems, you are either misconfigured, or have a really shitty router. Still trumps all other current options, imo. It's pros far outweigh the cons as far as I am concerned.
Torrents are as fast as there are people seeding. Problem is, I trust no one. Also, some of us live on university campuses and can't mess with routers, so good luck with port forwarding. The issue with torrents is 0 day stuff. If you want to get something fast, you might be stuck at 99% for hours while the host holds off in order for some people to seed longer. It really depends.
MilkyWayI saw an 80gb Lord of the rings extended editions 1080p blu ray torrent. Imagine how long that would take to download!
And keep in mind after downloading something like that, some don't seed. Also, good luck having tons of people seeding all the correct parts are all the correct times. An 80gb file is huge.

People who automatically discount usenet have never used it, probably because you have to pay. You can get much more done, much faster.

Once you go usenet you don't go back...



Try racking up that kind of content usage with torrents. Also, keep in mind that was done in ~11 days.
Posted on Reply
#59
pantherx12
PVTCaboose1337Try racking up that kind of content usage with torrents. Also, keep in mind that was done in ~11 days.
That friend I mentioned earlier can do 100 gigabyte a day with torrents fairly easily, the only thing that stops him is storage space, he only has external drives to work with :laugh:



I decided to work out how much I upload in the same time period and its 18.1274414 gigabytes lol

I can see why you would go usenet to avoid that wasted bandwidth :p
Posted on Reply
#60
claylomax
MilkyWayI saw an 80gb Lord of the rings extended editions 1080p blu ray torrent. Imagine how long that would take to download!

I use utorrent because that has been installed for ages on my machine, if there's a better alternative? post it and i might use that instead.
For me it would take one day leaving my computer on overnight; as qubit said most ISP throttle users connections.
Posted on Reply
#61
laszlo
my isp don't throttle torrent ;till now i have at least 5 Tb downloaded including HD ;i use also peer guardian which stop undesired/fake connections so i know the bandwidth is fully used;utorrent is good once tweaked and safe also using encryption
Posted on Reply
#62
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
PVTCaboose1337Torrents are as fast as there are people seeding. Problem is, I trust no one. Also, some of us live on university campuses and can't mess with routers, so good luck with port forwarding. The issue with torrents is 0 day stuff. If you want to get something fast, you might be stuck at 99% for hours while the host holds off in order for some people to seed longer. It really depends.



And keep in mind after downloading something like that, some don't seed. Also, good luck having tons of people seeding all the correct parts are all the correct times. An 80gb file is huge.

People who automatically discount usenet have never used it, probably because you have to pay. You can get much more done, much faster.

Once you go usenet you don't go back...

www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=44648&stc=1&d=1323670309

Try racking up that kind of content usage with torrents. Also, keep in mind that was done in ~11 days.
i have a seedbox for $10 a month, and i managed 2.5TB a month from it on an 8Mb connection. people who discount torrents just dont know how to use them properly :nutkick:
Posted on Reply
#63
OneMoar
There is Always Moar
Wile Enewsbin costs money and most irc bots do not have a fast connection and aren't all that reliable at times.

Torrents are fast, free and reliable on my end. Torrents have no issues maxing out my connection. And if torrents give your routers problems, you are either misconfigured, or have a really shitty router. Still trumps all other current options, imo. It's pros far outweigh the cons as far as I am concerned.
not sure what garbage irc bots you are using but mine give a consistent 1.50 >*< 3MB/s :)
I never liked the idea of torrents its a bad fix to a hard problem because it rely' on humans
and all my equipment handles 10 or 15k connections without a issue but not everyone is that knowledgeable

server with a FAT pipe > lots of clients with tiny pipes .......
I torrent some stuff but I avoid it as much as possible its to slow and I don't wanna waste the bandwidth to waste seeding back if I can help it
Posted on Reply
#64
Easy Rhino
Linux Advocate
hey look at all the people fighting over the best way to obtain pirated material!!! or maybe you all just really like linux distros HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!
Posted on Reply
#65
pantherx12
Easy Rhinohey look at all the people fighting over the best way to obtain pirated material!!! or maybe you all just really like linux distros HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!
We all collect linux distros man, it's like pokemons.
Posted on Reply
#66
blibba
Wile EUsing a real patent to make money is not immoral. Only patent trolling is immoral.
That's a more controversial statement than I think you realise.

Anyhow, my point was that for anyone who thinks that pirating is ok, insisting on being paid for intellectual property would be immoral.
Posted on Reply
#67
qubit
Overclocked quantum bit
Easy Rhinohey look at all the people fighting over the best way to obtain pirated material!!! or maybe you all just really like linux distros HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!
Oh, I assure you, people are only discussing the best way to torrent the latest Linux distros, OpenOffice and home made feature length 1080p movies given away free. ;)
Posted on Reply
#68
Drone
ontopic: Paid torrent client = L O L




rant

Unfortunately today the words <file sharing> are becoming a synonym to the word "piracy" which is wrong. Because P2P service was never meant to be like this.

Today Teh Interwebz is chocking under a weight of pornography, lame mainstream music, mediocre video games and crappy series in hd. Because of this we're losing our freedom, we're getting tracked and spied. We get data caps, traffic throttling and all that jazz.

Because of this today, when you say that you download bootlegs, some abandonware or just linux distros nobody will believe you.

I don't wanna fight for someone else's war, honestly :rolleyes:

/rant
Posted on Reply
#69
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
PVTCaboose1337And keep in mind after downloading something like that, some don't seed. Also, good luck having tons of people seeding all the correct parts are all the correct times. An 80gb file is huge.

People who automatically discount usenet have never used it, probably because you have to pay. You can get much more done, much faster.

Once you go usenet you don't go back...

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1306x422.


Try racking up that kind of content usage with torrents. Also, keep in mind that was done in ~11 days.
I actually downloaded a 50GB torrent. It saturated the 6MB/s that I allocate to uTorrent easily the entire download time, and finished in just about 2.5 hours.(129 Seeders and only 19 Leechers:rockout:)


And that kind of usage is easy with torrents, I've done it. The two private tracker sites I'm a member of both have my totals for upload and download in the TB range, and I've only been a member for a few months, and that doesn't include my numbers from the non-private sites that aren't tracked.

I've used usenet, don't make the assumption that those that don't like it have never used it. I stopped using it because I didn't think it was worth paying for because it offered nothing over torrents. If you know how to use torrents and where to find the proper torrents, and join a few private trackers, torrenting is just as good as what you get from usenet so IMO usenet is not worth paying for.

People who use usenet, especially those that say "some people don't seed" have never used a private tracker that requires you to seed 1:1. Private trackers are so much better, and you almost always get saturated connections when downloading because so many people are seeding. Most people on private trackers actually seed more than they download to make sure they keep a good ratio.
Posted on Reply
#70
Easy Rhino
Linux Advocate
i've been using usenet for 10 years now. i still pay $10 month and it maxes out my 25Mbps line. the reason i use usenet over torrent is because i like getting all of those free 30 minute tv shows 10 minutes after they have finished airing. i don't trust anyone, only the service provider, and it uses an SSL connection so my isp has no idea what free to use material im downloading. i also hate uploading material (seeding) which is the real crime in the eyes of U.S. law.
Posted on Reply
#71
Black Hades
There are few and far between the servers that can provide me with content as fast as using torrents can.

My top speed downloading from a single server is around 6Mbyte/sec whilst by using a torrent client I can easily and frequently get up to 10,8Mbyte/sec (saturating a 100mbit fttb connection). I have no problem finding 720/1080p content. Just get a decent router worth more than 40$.
Posted on Reply
#72
Wile E
Power User
PVTCaboose1337Torrents are as fast as there are people seeding. Problem is, I trust no one. Also, some of us live on university campuses and can't mess with routers, so good luck with port forwarding. The issue with torrents is 0 day stuff. If you want to get something fast, you might be stuck at 99% for hours while the host holds off in order for some people to seed longer. It really depends.



And keep in mind after downloading something like that, some don't seed. Also, good luck having tons of people seeding all the correct parts are all the correct times. An 80gb file is huge.

People who automatically discount usenet have never used it, probably because you have to pay. You can get much more done, much faster.

Once you go usenet you don't go back...

www.techpowerup.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=44648&stc=1&d=1323670309

Try racking up that kind of content usage with torrents. Also, keep in mind that was done in ~11 days.
I tried usenet about 2 years ago. Not worth paying for. Torrents do everything I need just as fast, and for free. I have 0 issues with torrents, and can completely max my connection with them. I have to throttle my client because I go over my 250GB limit every single month. Usenet has absolutely no benefits AT ALL for someone like me.

In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that usenet has no benefits to anyone with a bandwidth cap.
OneMoarnot sure what garbage irc bots you are using but mine give a consistent 1.50 >*< 3MB/s :)
I never liked the idea of torrents its a bad fix to a hard problem because it rely' on humans
and all my equipment handles 10 or 15k connections without a issue but not everyone is that knowledgeable

server with a FAT pipe > lots of clients with tiny pipes .......
I torrent some stuff but I avoid it as much as possible its to slow and I don't wanna waste the bandwidth to waste seeding back if I can help it
I pull over 3MB/s on most torrents I grab. I have yet to find a decent anime irc bot. Most of them seem home hosted to me, judging by the connection reliability and speeds.
newtekie1I actually downloaded a 50GB torrent. It saturated the 6MB/s that I allocate to uTorrent easily the entire download time, and finished in just about 2.5 hours.(129 Seeders and only 19 Leechers:rockout:)


And that kind of usage is easy with torrents, I've done it. The two private tracker sites I'm a member of both have my totals for upload and download in the TB range, and I've only been a member for a few months, and that doesn't include my numbers from the non-private sites that aren't tracked.

I've used usenet, don't make the assumption that those that don't like it have never used it. I stopped using it because I didn't think it was worth paying for because it offered nothing over torrents. If you know how to use torrents and where to find the proper torrents, and join a few private trackers, torrenting is just as good as what you get from usenet so IMO usenet is not worth paying for.

People who use usenet, especially those that say "some people don't seed" have never used a private tracker that requires you to seed 1:1. Private trackers are so much better, and you almost always get saturated connections when downloading because so many people are seeding. Most people on private trackers actually seed more than they download to make sure they keep a good ratio.
Exactly.
Posted on Reply
#73
OneMoar
There is Always Moar
Wile EI tried usenet about 2 years ago. Not worth paying for. Torrents do everything I need just as fast, and for free. I have 0 issues with torrents, and can completely max my connection with them. I have to throttle my client because I go over my 250GB limit every single month. Usenet has absolutely no benefits AT ALL for someone like me.

In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that usenet has no benefits to anyone with a bandwidth cap.



I pull over 3MB/s on most torrents I grab. I have yet to find a decent anime irc bot. Most of them seem home hosted to me, judging by the connection reliability and speeds.
Exactly.
Rizon ????????????? hello
Posted on Reply
#74
Wile E
Power User
OneMoarRizon ????????????? hello
Granted, they are probably up in quality since the last time I tried, but meaningless, as torrents perform their duty for me flawlessly. No need for me to fix what isn't broken.
Posted on Reply
#75
Octopuss
qubitWell, it looks like the freemium model of selling software is working quite well in the industry, as Bram Cohen's very popular BitTorrent application, uTorrent, has just adopted this model. Known for being fast, efficient and light on system resources, it has now gained a few pounds, sorry features in version 3, some of which are available only for a subscription of $24.95 per year. These include things like an antivirus scanner powered by BitDefender, a media player and integrated support for converting popular video file types such as MPEG4, H.264, Theora, and VP8, as well as MP3, AAC and AC-3 audio files. The media player is interesting, in that it allows playback of videos that are still downloading. Note that this feature is also available in the free version.

For those that still want to hang on to the lean and mean free version, it's still available and isn't going away any time soon.
I am sad to inform you and everyone else that this is no longer true. I just routinely checked utorrent forums only to find this shit in announcements:
forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=123040

The next major change you will see is a fresh approach to creating a no-nonsense and free torrenting experience. You are all very familiar with how we have paid the bills so far. These new changes mark our next step towards finding that difficult balance between keeping our lights on and providing a positive user experience. This new build will display a featured torrent at the top of your torrent list. This featured torrent space will be used to offer a variety of different types of content. We are working towards bringing you offers that are relevant to you. This means films, games, music, software...basically anything that you will find interesting. We may not get it right on the first try but we will continue to improve our efforts based on your feedback.

We are also leveraging these offers to directly benefit the artist community including filmmakers, recording artists, game developers and more. We are going to show the world what all of you here already know: that torrenting can be used for good.




I knew something worse than the retarded great apps was going to happen and I was right. I'm sick to my stomach what they did with one of my favourite little tools.

Does anyone know a client that does what utorrent was meant to and originally did - just working with damn torrents and nothing else?
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