This January we launched Project Falcon, which introduced on-demand streaming and a secure web access feature called µTorrent Web. The initial release of µTorrent Web was invitation only. Today, we are removing the invitation system for µTorrent Web, and that feature is now in public beta. Users interested in trying the product can download it here.

As mentioned, Project Falcon introduces two new capabilities to µTorrent. First, we are creating a more immediate user experience by allowing users to start to play back or stream content before it has finished downloading. This moves BitTorrent towards more of the point-click-watch experience that users have come to expect for Internet media. In order to preserve the efficiency of BitTorrent the majority of the pieces of a file are still downloaded randomly, but it is now configured so that a few pieces download in order and are sent to the player – allowing users to start playback of content much more quickly.

Also, for the first time we are opening up our µTorrent Web feature, which enables zero-configuration secure web-access to your µTorrent client. It consists of a simple web service that allows users to manage their torrent clients from anywhere on the Internet. Now it is easy to access your client through the web by just setting up a username and password. The service is designed with privacy in mind, so users can be certain that there is no personal information about their BitTorrent usage that is ever exposed to us or any third parties. (Read more about our privacy architecture.)

Project Falcon is one of several projects being incubated in µTorrent Labs, which we unveiled last week. µTorrent Labs is a way for us to share early versions of products with users and solicit feedback. Check out our other projects here.

-Simon-