Just wanted to let everyone know that as of the next FrostWire release, for both Desktop and Android, we’ve added uTP transport support.
uTP transport is a clever way to handle packet congestion in a way that:
1. Won’t mess most Wi-FI routers after doing a lot of BitTorrenting.
2. Won’t choke your internet connection.
Some users often complain that when they’re using FrostWire their entire internet connection gets really slow, or pretty much can’t use anything else. With uTP support this should not happen anymore, so great news!
We’re currently testing internally, in the next hours we’ll be releasing beta installers for desktop and android. Beta installers for desktop will be available on the official download page, and beta installers for android will be available for Google Play beta testers.
#itWasAboutTime
Mainstream centralized digital distribution platforms offer content creators means of monetization and discovery for their works, however these centralized systems often impose censorship and are ridden with middlemen which inevitably add up costs that have made it impossible for a digital media micro-tipping economy to be born.
With the combination of peer-to-peer file distribution through the BitTorrent network and peer-to-peer cryptocurrency networks such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin, our community can help bootstrap the largest micro-tipping economy of the Internet by enabling over a quarter of a billion BitTorrent users world wide to support content creators with tips of any amount, no middlemen involved, no chargebacks and no fees so content creators get 100% of the revenue collected, instantly.
With FrostWire 5.7.1 you will be able to attach Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and donation/tipping urls to torrents, as well as Creative Commons, Open Source and Public Domain license metadata.
5.7.1. also improves local Wi-Fi sharing, does updates on search, bug fixes and performance improvements.
changelog
frostwire (5.7.1) stable; urgency=high
* Wi-Fi sharing discovery improved considerably with JmDNS.
Removed cling library.
* Improvements in .torrent creation window:
1. Web seed url(s) (GetRight style) support.
2. Associate a Creative Commons, Open Source, or Public Domain license.
3. Associate a Bitcoin address for Name-your-price/tips support.
4. Associate a Litecoin address for Name-your-price/tips support.
5. Associate a Dogecoin address for Name-your-price/tips support.
6. Associate a Paypal url for Name-your-price/tips support.
* Transfers and Library tables now able display Tips/Payment options column.
* Transfers and Library tables now able display License column.
* Updated Torrents.fm search engine.
* Removed Clearbits search engine, service offline for ~2 months now.
— FrostWire Team <contact@frostwire.com> Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:25:42 -0500
FrostWire has introduced the possibility for of adding Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin wallet address into metadata of the torrent file format in order to enable optional donations. By eliminating middlemen and transaction costs, microtipping is now fully possible and the recipients can collect 100% of their contributions.
Mainstream centralized digital distribution platforms have been relatively successful at providing big content creators with means of monetization and discovery of their works. In spite of their success however, many self-publishing artists are still struggling with having have to share a significant portion of their revenues with the stores and middlemen, just for being able to bring their works to their fans. The centralized systems also often impose censorship and are ridden with bureaucratic structures that inevitably increase costs, making it impossible for a digital media micro-tipping economy to be born.
The FrostWire team believes that by integrating a free, peer-to-peer payment method, Bitcoin, into the free, peer-to-peer file distribution network, BitTorrent, our community can help bootstrap the largest micro-tipping economy of the Internet.
By enabling over a quarter of a billion BitTorrent users worldwide to support their favorite content creators with tips of any amount, from a fan directly to the artist, for the first time ever we would enable content creators to collect 100% of their revenues, easily and instantly.
This would be the first step towards not only creating an alternative massive monetizable distribution channel, but a decentralized digital media catalog that would make it easier for fans to discover new artists and more beneficial for any content creator to use the power of BitTorrent for a free, uncensored, and direct worldwide distribution.
We also believe that the world cannot experience an evolutionary step in digital media distribution if existing copyright licensing is antiquated and not fit for global reach. We want to help speed up the adoption of alternative licensing models by building the tools that make it convenient for content creators to embrace licensing solutions like Creative Commons.
Content Creators can now select from any of the available Creative Commons licenses available and express in advanced how their content can be used.
As a first step in making this vision a reality, the FrostWire team has developed a way for the payment & licensing information to be included into the .torrent file. Now all BitTorrent Clients and search engines can read that information and present it to their users.
The newest version of FrostWire (5.7.1 beta) can already process the payment information.
After FrostWire starts downloading a torrent file containing metadata related to a Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin wallet or PayPal donation url it will show “Tipping” buttons anyone can use to voluntarily support their favorite content creators. This version of FrostWire already allows for creation of the enhanced torrent, giving the creators an ability to add their Creative Commons License information into the torrent itself.
When tipping options are available these appear bolded, and one click takes them to the payment page.
Just imagine a BitTorrent bundle in which Bono from U2 shares free songs or a free video documentary to raise awareness and collects Bitcoin donations for the (Red) foundation to further the fight against HIV worldwide. We can’t wait to see all the imaginative use cases this integration can inspire!
If you are or know an artists how would like to create their own Bitcoin empowered torrent, please have them contact us at contact@frostclick.com. Before we roll out this particular feature to the general audience, we would like to test to make sure it’s absolutely perfect and bug free.
We encourage to try it out yourself and tell us what you think. We have created beta installers for different operating systems so that you can test the tipping/payment process yourselves.
When tipping options are available these appear bolded, and one click takes them to the payment page.
This is how the tipping page looks like. It presents the cryptocurrency wallet of your choosing in QR, Text and Link forms.
Content Creators can now select from any of the available Creative Commons licenses available and express in advanced how their content can be used.
Content Creators are now able to enter Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin wallet addresses. If they are already using Paypal buttons to collect tips they can also enter the Paypal url.
Mainstream centralized digital distribution platforms offer content creators means of monetization and discovery for their works, however these centralized systems often impose censorship and are ridden with middlemen which inevitably add up costs that have made itimpossible for a digital media micro-tipping economy to be born.
With the combination of peer-to-peer file distribution through the BitTorrent network and peer-to-peer cryptocurrency networks such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin, our community can help bootstrap the largest micro-tipping economy of the Internet by enabling over a quarter of a billion BitTorrent users world wide to support content creators with tips of any amount, no middlemen involved, no chargebacks and no fees so content creators get 100% of the revenue collected, instantly.
Salsa Sara hoops in Wynwood, Miami for the FrostWire Team
What’s new?
Updated BitTorrent Engine to the latest code from the Azureus project along with FrostWire’s Team’s tunning and hacks for energy efficiency (as we reuse this same on code on Android)
Updated Java Runtime to fix compatibility launch issues Windows XP users were experiencing.
IRC Chat replaced for an HTML5 Chat App (Kiwi IRC), bye bye pjirc client.
A new generation of FrostWire is almost here for 2014 and you can try it now before the official release on frostwire.com
FrostWire developers have upgraded the older vuze BitTorrent engine with the latest code from the Vuze/Azureus project, they’ve also replace the java runtime with the latest one from Oracle and this should eliminate binary incompatibility issues some Windows XP users had with the 5.6.x series.
The old chat tab is gone and it’s been now replacd by an IRC Web Client so now FrostWire boots up a bit faster.
Upgrades to search include integration with Torrents.fm a new torrent index with over 3 million torrents and tens of millions of files to search from, as well as bugs and crash fixes.
Help the development team by testing the release candidate installers, if you have any issues with the 5.7.0 RC build 1 installer please leave a message in the comment section below with as much detail as possible about your computer and the conditions under which a problem may have ocurred.
FrostWire is a free, open sourceBitTorrent client first released in September 2004, as a fork of LimeWire. It was initially very similar to LimeWire in appearance and functionality, but over time developers added more features, including BitTorrent support.
In this release we’ve made considerable upgrades to make search more reliable, even in the event of a search engine not being available due to high load, errors, or even blockage by network administrators.
We’ve done away with jDownloader libraries (thank you guys, we learned a lot from you, great project), and found more ways to optimize memory usage, hopefully you will feel the difference when searching and using the application overall as we strive to use less resources with every release.
Here’s the full changelog
frostwire (5.6.9) stable; urgency=high
* Insanely faster cloud search results.
* Significant memory optimizations on search result parsing and display.
* Removed jDownloader libraries, less complexity, lighter app.
* Cloud audio downloads are much smaller, no audio demuxing necessary from
video services.
* Cloud video DASH download support.
* Smarter playlist name suggestion algorithm takes into account ID3 tags.
* Fixes bug where new playlists wouldn’t be saved if default name was used.
— FrostWire Team Mon, 2 Dec 2013 17:49:38 -0500
FrostWire, as a stand-alone application, is 100% safe to use. FrostWire
itself will not install any viruses, adware, malware or spyware. But is
there a way you can get your computer in trouble while using FrostWire?
Sure.
FrostWire connects to other computers & online servers to find the
content you are looking for. FrostWire does not itself create, host or
control the content it finds on the internet – the same way internet
browsers do not create, host, or control the websites & files you view
and download through them. There are some safeguards in place to
recognize and prevent malicious content from showing up in the search
results, but none are perfect. Before you download a file:
1) Check if the file size makes sense for the content type you wish
to download
2) Check the Source link to see file comments other
users have left on the hosting website and most importantly, if you
are a Windows user and do anything online, always
3) Make sure you have an up-to-date anti-virus software installed
and you check any file you download before opening it.
Official FrostWire Blog 