SD Card storage coming back to FrostWire for Android, but there’s a caveat.

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Some Android phones are SD Card capable, and this storage extensibility is one of the key attractive features why people use Android and not iOS.

However, as of Android KitKat (4.4) Google removed the possibility for developers to be able to write files anywhere on the SD Card, instead they can now write to a specific location, and all the files written in it are deleted when the application is uninstalled by the user.

Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 9.09.54 PM

The only two logical reasons we can understand Google did this are the following:

1. Cleanliness. Apps leaving a lot of app specific files in the SD card and not being able to clean up on uninstall (as Android does not notify the app that’s being uninstalled of such an important event)

2. Security. Apps being able to write on each other’s folders, which is unsafe and which can lead to other apps breaking.

Now developers can still write to the SD card, but only into a specific Private folder designated for each app, however there is one big caveat, when an app is removed, that private folder is removed and all files in it are lost forever.

but what about apps that need to leave files behind even after being unsintalled?
yeah, apps like photo apps, video apps, downloader apps like FrostWire…

Oh, for that you gotta use the “public folders” in the phone’s internal memory (which by some odd historical reasons they call “external storage”, which is very confusing) which runs out pretty quickly as every other app needs to do the same.

We’ve tried to exhaust every possible option to write files on the SD card on a location that won’t be deleted, but it’s really impossible to do so (and even though we could do it with a  hack, it wouldn’t work on all Android devices)

Google has removed an important freedom, instead of giving developers a persistent app related public location on the SD card that would survive after uninstalling, or to at least leave things the way they were before the KitKat update and add a new ON_UNINSTALL Intent for apps to have a chance to cleanup before being uninstalled.

SD Card Storage is Coming Back as a best effort solution.

device-2014-07-08-154508

We’ve decided to bring SD Card Storage back as an advanced option, it does not make sense to have a downloader application on a phone/tablet with lots of secondary storage and not use it.

We think many users are probably uninstalling FrostWire because they think “it takes too much space” even though this is not our intention, things are this way because Google decided it that way, a-la Apple.

In our next release,  you will be able to change the default storage location into your SD Card, but you will be warned and reminded of the risks you face by doing so, remember to synchronize your FrostWire downloaded files outside of your device, or to make a backup of the files before uninstaling FrostWire, which we hope you won’t have to as we’re working hard to give you the best downloader app in the world.

This is the best we can do at the moment, we hope Google changes its mind, we think these policies reflect poor judgement and decision making on their part, as they are continuosly removing important freedoms that make Android such an attractive platform in the first place.

Gubatron
Lead Developer

New FrostWire 5.7.4 for Windows, Mac and Linux

~ gubatron ~ 2 Comments

Download FrostWire 5.7.4 for Windows (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin enabled .torrent)
Download FrostWire 5.7.4 for MacOSX (.torrent)
Download FrostWire 5.7.4 for Debian/Ubuntu (.torrent)

5.7-is-here

We highly recommend you upgrade your FrostWire to 5.7.4

We’ve fixed issues that would break YouTube downloads, and prevent Torrents.fm search results from appearing.

We’ve also brought back the ability to download soundcloud urls, and included soundcloud playlist downloads if you enter a soundcloud track or playlist url on the search box.

frostwire (5.7.4) stable; urgency=high
  * Fixes issues with youtube downloads.
  * Recovered ability to download soundcloud urls.
  * Can download entire soundcloud playlists from playlist url.
  * Fixed broken Torrents.fm search.
  * Updated Gson library, included the sources into our repo.
        
 -- FrostWire Team   Thu, 26 June 2014 15:44:35 -0500

To MacOSX Yosemite users: We are still working to make FrostWire Yosemite compatible, we’ve found some binary issues that we need to resolve, we hope to have FrostWire ready for you on our next release 5.7.5.

New FrostWire for Android 1.3.3 build 139 available.

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Download FrostWire for Android 1.3.3 from Google Play
Download FrostWire 1.3.3 build 139 (.apk)

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 5.56.30 AM

We’ve addressed a number of crashes and fixes reported by FrostWire users by improving the way FrostWire caches images in memory. We’ve fixed issues related to search (Torrents.fm search was freezing the app) and cloud downloads.

We’ve also added a new feature, try pasting a Soundcloud or YouTube url on your search box or transfer’s screen (+) button to see what happens, you can now search for a specific YouTube video, or download a Soundtrack cloud or playlist if you have the corresponding URL in the clipboard.

Changelog
FrostWire 1.3.3 – JUNE/27/2014
– Improvements in memory consumption and performance for image caching.
– Download Soundcloud Tracks and Playlists by entering URL on search box.
– Download Soundcloud Tracks and Playlists by entering URL on Transfer “+” control.
– Search YouTube videos by pasting YouTube URL on search box.
– Fixes YouTube download error.
– Fixes issue with Connect/Disconnect preferences button.
– Fixes issues with Torrents.fm search.
– Transparent use of ViewHolder pattern in ListViews.
– GSON library update.
– Picasso library update.

FrostWire for Android 1.3.3 build 136 available on Beta Channel

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NOTICE: If you’re currently having issues with search on 1.3.2 and below it is advised that you turn off Torrents.fm search until 1.3.3 is out.

R5ybcdi

How to become a beta tester.

Please test:
– Search (we had an issue where torrent.fm search was broken and slowing down the app from getting any other search results, past whatever came in first before querying torrents.fm)
– Pasting a Soundcloud URL on Search.
– Pasting a Soundcloud Playlist URL on Search.
– Pasting a Soundcloud URL on (+) transfers.
– Pasting a Soundcloud Playlist URL on (+) transfers.
– Searching youtube videos by pasting a YouTube url on search.
– Scrolling through search results, my audio, my pictures should be smoother/faster.

Please report any crashes ASAP.

We are still fixing a few more issues that occur when the internet connection is dropped and recovered, or when the user disconnects the Bittorrent engine from the Preferences screen and tries to re-connect. As soon as we’re done with these fixes and any more reported crashes are fixed we’ll be releasing 1.3.3.

This version should feel a lot faster.

Changelog FrostWire 1.3.3 - JUNE/23/2014

 - Improvements in memory consumption and performance for image caching.

 - Download Soundcloud Tracks and Playlists by entering URL on search box.

 - Download Soundcloud Tracks and Playlists by entering URL on Transfer "+" control.

 - Search YouTube videos by pasting YouTube URL on search box.

 - Fixes issues with Torrents.fm search.

 - Transparent use of ViewHolder pattern in ListViews.

 - GSON library update.

 - Picasso library update.

FrostWire for Desktop’s Lines of Code Count

~ gubatron ~ Leave a comment 
    8724 text files.
    8237 unique files.                                          
    8917 files ignored.

http://cloc.sourceforge.net v 1.60  T=121.17 s (65.3 files/s, 14184.1 lines/s)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Language                      files          blank        comment           code
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Java                           7591         300370         340020        1033777
HTML                            192           2811           2130          21190
C++                              12           1337            510           3207
XML                              17            178            101           1632
C/C++ Header                     20            562           1623           1188
Ant                              19            289            136           1124
Maven                            10             66             20           1073
JSP                              16             64            606            777
Objective C                       7            184            100            675
Objective C++                     1            138             71            583
Javascript                        5             58             25            361
SQL                               1             34              7            288
CSS                               2             63             13            274
Bourne Again Shell                3             45             25            229
XSD                               2             28             57            187
C                                 2             58             14            134
PHP                               1             18              0             73
Bourne Shell                      4             13              1             45
DOS Batch                         7              8              4             41
make                              1              9              0             21
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUM:                           7913         306333         345463        1066879
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Help us over a million lines of code at https://github.com/frostwire

New FrostWire 5.7.3 for Windows, Mac and Linux out

~ gubatron ~ 3 Comments

Download FrostWire 5.7.3 for Windows (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin enabled .torrent)
Download FrostWire 5.7.3 for MacOSX (.torrent)
Download FrostWire 5.7.3 for Debian/Ubuntu (.torrent)

4

This new FrostWire release leans up by removing several third party libraries to do more with less.

It addresses bugs and reported crashes by 5.7.2 users.

In matters of search it fixes EZTV search and introduces a new Yify torrent search.

Download, Install and spread the word.

Oh, and remember to be a good net-neighbor and seed as much as you can.

Picture Credits: Another Night in Paradise by Xavier Jamonet

FrostWire 1.3.1 for Android will have a new Music Player

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Here’s a few screenshots of our upcoming Android update, now featuring a full featured music player which sports a lot of new features, including Lock Screen Integration, notification window integration, gestured based skipping/pausing/resuming/stopping, playlist viewing, horizontal layouts and more.

 

ImageImageImageImage

New FrostWire File Downloader 1.3.0 for Android out

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Install FrostWire now on your Android, 100% Free

A new major release of FrostWire for Android (1.3.0) is finally out after 5 long months of coding and testing. Thanks to everyone supporting the project! be it with code, translations, spreading the word or sending donations, without you this release wouldn’t be possible.

The most important changes done in this release have a lot to do with the Bittorrent core engine, significant improvements in memory handling (less unexpected crashes due to out of memory errors, and the app should feel a lot snappier than 1.2.2 when you switch screens and scroll through search results) and lots of details related to user experience.

BitTorrent Improvements

The entire BitTorrent core was replaced with the latest stable source code from the Azureus Project, during this integration we enabled a few features that we didn’t have before on Android, the most important ones being:

  1. uTP support (which helps FrostWire deal better with packet congestion issues resulting in a better Internet experience on your phone/tablet, even while you’re downloading seeding)
  2. DHT and Magnet support while on Wi-Fi. DHT/Magnet support was there but turned off as it doesn’t really work as expected when you are connected to the Internet via 3G/4G. After 1.3.0 we turn it on when you are connected on Wi-Fi networks, sort of a best-as-you-can approach.
  3. Now that we have DHT/Magnet support, we’ve added several popular Torrent/Magnet search indexes, so you will be getting a lot more search results than before if you are connected to Wi-Fi. Some of the search engines now available are: TPB, Torrents.fm, Monova and Yify.
  4. We’ve joined uTorrent in its initiaive to lower times while connecting to a swarm (which leads to faster downloads for everyone) and to avoid the possibility for a DDoS attack on swarms by implementing the BEP 040 proposal for “Canonical Peer Priority” when selecting what peers to connect to using a new peer prioritization algorithm.

User Interface/User Experience Improvements

The “Transfers” screen got a lot of love.

frostwire_transfers_before_and_after_screenshots

  • You can now paste a magnet URI or .torrent URI to start a transfer from it.
  • Magnet URI Support. FrostWire will now start magnet downloads if you click on a magnet on a web browser
  • Smart Pause/Resume transfer. If you move from a Wi-Fi connection to a 3G/4G network, FrostWire will take a look at your preferences and if you don’t want to use BitTorrent while on a mobile network, we’ll automatically pause those transfers for you, if you come back to any other Wi-Fi network we’ll automatically resume those transfers for you.
  • Transfers can now be filtered by their status (All, Downloading, Completed)
  • Updated icons and new buttons for context menus, the downward arrow we used to have was a bit confusing when compared to the “+” to expand multiple-file transfers.

Other user experience improvements include search result thumbnails (when available), making the search experience more intuitive and less Reading-Intensive if you recognize the thumbnail of what you are looking for.

FrostClick/FrostWire promotional images are now displayed the same way across all devices when you first open the app, please support these artists by downloading and seeding their free content, you might discover a favorite new artist to follow.

You can get FrostWire for Android 1.3.0 on Google Play or on our website
(submission pending for the Amazon App Market)

Full Changelog

FrostWire 1.3.0 - APR/30/2014
 - Upgraded BitTorrent engine with latest code from Azureus project.
 - Added uTP packet congestion support.
 - Added Canonical Peer Priority support. (BEP40)
 - Upgraded Android SDK target to Ice Cream Sandwich's API (15 - Android 4.0.3).
   Users on Android devices running older versions will have to use FrostWire 1.2.3
   or upgrade their operating system to +4.0.3 to receive further updates.
 - Removed cling library for Local peer discovery, switched to JmDNS compatible with
   frostwire for desktop 5.7.1.
 - Considerable memory handling improvements, lots of leaks fixed which should lead
   to very little out of memory errors from crashing the app.
 - Added optional sponsored search results by Appia.
 - Minor upgrades to audio player and Frostclick.com's free promotional downloads.
 - Added TPB, Torrents.fm, Monova and Yify search. Search results available only when on a Wi-Fi connection.
 - Magnet URI support when touching a magnet link on a web site.
 - Paste a magnet or .torrent URI on the Transfers screen to start a download.
 - Some search results now have image thumbnails. More coming.
 - When internet connection is dropped, ongoing transfers are automatically paused and
   restored when internet connection comes back.
 - Corrected file sizes on SoundCloud search results.
 - Multiple bug fixes.

New FrostWire 5.7.2 with uTP support

~ gubatron ~ 1 Comment

Download FrostWire 5.7.2 for Windows (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin enabled .torrent)
Download FrostWire 5.7.2 for MacOSX (.torrent)
Download FrostWire 5.7.2 for Debian/Ubuntu (.torrent)

This release is all about performance and stability.

Some users have complained about what happens to their internet connection when using FrostWire heavily, so we’ve finally added uTP support to solve these issues.

FrostWire can now deal with bandwidth congestion issues in a way that won’t compromise your internet experience while you use it.

You can, for example, see how FrostWire will automatically adjust its transfer speeds to cede network resources to other programs in your computer, like your web browser while surfing the web or streaming a movie from Netflix.

If the connection is not being used by any other software FrostWire will automatically use as much bandwidth as it can, and you don’t have to do this manually using the existing throttling controls, and all this while not clogging up your router’s memory.

Another benefit of having added uTP is that some WiFi/DSL/Cable routers won’t have issues with packet data overflow when torrenting with FrostWire, which in some cases can completely drop the internet connection forcing you to restart your router to reconnect to the Internet.

We’ve also taken care of very important user experience details, that should make FrostWire easier to understand for new users, as well as smaller usability bugs and crashes that have been fixed.

Here’s the full list of changes.

frostwire (5.7.2) stable; urgency=high
  * uTP support enabled.
  * Multiple crash fixes.
  * UX: playable single file torrents now can be played from transfer list.
  * UX: Fixes UI Thread freeze when opening Options > Search.
  * UX: Better error reporting when a torrent can't be fetched from a
        magnet connection.
  * Spanish translation update by @dennistobar.
-- FrostWire Team <contact@frostwire.com> Fri, 11 Apr 2014 14:22:10 -0500

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