14 DAY TRIAL // The developers at BitTorrent Inc. handling the Mac version of uTorrent have announced a new Alpha version of their torrent download manager, confirming a completely revamped user interface, improvements in the speed display, and more. uTorrent is a free-to-use application for Mac OS X and Windows, while Linux users can work around incompatibility issues by running the software in Wine.
According to the release notes found at utorrent.com, version 0.9.2 (build 16917) of the software fixed a broken build process generating bad builds. Version 0.9.2 (build 16801) fixed 100% a CPU issue on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). The new Alpha version, uTorrent Mac 0.9.3, now “has a completely redesigned UI with many additional features. It is not quite complete yet and there are known bugs, but it is close to the finished product,” Firon, an admin on the uTorrent forums, says. “Try it out and let us know what you think!” he encourages fans of the BitTorrent client.
As the administrator himself notes, changes in 0.9.3 (build 16930) include a revised UI, an improved speed display, as well as the ability to display region flags. Users should take caution in using this Alpha version, as it is likely not as reliable as stable versions of uTorrent.
For those who are not very familiar with the uTorrent application, the software was written with efficiency in mind and, unlike other torrent clients, it doesn’t take its toll on a system. uTorrent typically uses no more than 6MB of RAM, while the program itself occupies an almost insignificant amount of space on one's hard drive.
“The development team puts in a lot of time working on features and making things more user-friendly,” the people in charge with the uTorrent development say. “Releases only come out when they're ready, with no schedule pressures, so the few bugs that appear are quickly addressed and fixed,” the uTorrent team assures users.
uTorrent for Mac system requirements currently include Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), or 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Intel and PPC architectures are both supported on Mac OS X Leopard.