uTorrent Falcon Offers Remote Web Interface, Simplified Sharing

Where BitTorrent clients are concerned, “µTorrent” (pronounced either as a “u” or “micro”) is in a league of its own. It shares similar goals as other competing clients, but goes just a bit further to pack in as much functionality as possible, without ending up with something that feels a bit bloated (like one certain Java-based client, for example). The difference with uTorrent is that it excels at that goal, and for proof, you need to look no further than its <300KB file size.

It’s amazing to me that such a feature-rich BitTorrent client can come in such a small package, but according to a quick look at TorrentFreak of its upcoming Falcon version (currently in private alpha), it looks like things are only going to continue getting better. Such features include extremely robust Web-integration, streaming across the Web, simplified sharing of torrents, and even easier finding of torrents to download.

Of all the features mentioned, the Web UI is the one I find most interesting. Essentially, when you run uTorrent Falcon, you’re creating a server that you can access from anywhere. You simply load up a Web browser, head to the correct URL, and presto, instant connectivity with your home PC’s torrent client. From here, you can check up on torrents that are downloading, delete or cancel torrents that have died off, or even add new ones.

That kind of functionality isn’t new, but to see it made so simple, and from a completely free client is great. To make that feature even sweeter, you’ll be able to stream content from your home PC through uTorrent, even if the file isn’t completely finished. The success of this will of course vary depending on how far along the file is, and whether or not it’s downloading in a sequential or random order, along with of course, the upload speed of your home PC.

Found a great torrent and want to share it with a friend that doesn’t know the first thing about BitTorrent? Another new feature takes care of that. Right-click a torrent in uTorrent, click ‘Send Torrent’, and the person will receive not only that torrent, but that torrent pre-bundled with a copy of the application. Could it get any easier? There are more features en route, and all are quite fairly unique as far as torrent clients go. The release date for Falcon is unknown, but as the application is currently in its alpha stage, it’s likely a little ways off.

Aside from the added security and easy setup, accessing your torrents via the Falcon web-interface offers another advantage – remote downloading. Once a file has finished downloading you can transfer a copy of the file to a remote computer via the web-interface. This feature is not enabled in the current version of the Falcon web-interface. However, it has been publicly announced in the uTorrent forums so we expect that it will return soon.