Category: Introduction

SeedM8 seedboxes

With the release of the (now already in beta) 0.20.1 release 0.21.0 release, Transdroid will offer a new partnership. SeedM8 offers inexpensive GBit seedbox hosting:

Since December 2007, SeedM8 has been providing users with ways to use the BitTorrent protocol to it’s full potential with unparalleled support and inexpensive solutions. Today, SeedM8 is one of the largest seedbox providers with over 375 members and 30+ servers. Our servers pack new stable processors with plenty of RAM and harddrive space to insure your files are getting to their peers. No waiting lines, no subscription requirements, no costly accounts, no weary privacy policies and no unfair agreements are what you are guaranteed with SeedM8.

Users of SeedM8 can start using Transdroid very easily: filling in your server, username and torrent client password(s) and you’re set! If you like, you can use all of Transmission, Deluge and rTorrent (with your RPC password) at once. See what the speed of SeedM8’s hosting can do with the magic of Transdroid: see the offered monthly plans.

Did I already say that Transdroid finally supports The Pirate Bay as in-app search site? 😉

Xirvik seedbox partnership

Seedboxes are servers dedicated to one thing only: torrenting. No need to keep your home machine running all the time and amazing transfer speeds. And it isn’t only for die-hard torrent users as well; new users can benefit from the easy setup. No more need to forward ports on your router and other complex installation tasks!

And from the next release on connecting to your seedbox cannot be easier. Transdroid partnered with Xirvik to offer even easier setup. Depending on your Xirvik server plan (starting at $4,95 a week), you can connect to rTorrent, Torrentflux-b4rt or uTorrent with on 4 simple setttings. Moreover, Xirvik will sponsor Transdroid development to build new features and improve existing ones. Are you a Xirvik user? Make sure to pass them your Transdroid feature requests so they get pushed forward in the work queue. 🙂

New look and icon

When I started development on Transdroid back in May 2009, I stole Transmission‘s icon to feature my application. IT was an innocent choice since Transdroid  would support nothing but that torrent client. Skip ahead 7 months and so much has changed since. Many new torrent clients and many new features were added. So for the app to get its own icon is really overdue already.

Glad to present you Transdroid’s new logo! It is right here next to you. The idea came from the gears in a transmission together with the obvious download arrow. So the logo, as well as the name, still hint at its Transmission-tight past. On the other hand, I think its a fresh start as well.

Although some comments in the Market already explained they miss the old icon, others seem to approve of it. I hope most of you will enjoy it. Leave comments here or twit me at Twitter.

Finally, if someone ever wants to download the new logo, here it is:
PNG logo — PNG icon — PNG tiny icon — PNG promo — PSD logo — PSD icon — PSD promo

Support Transdroid development

Even though I try to update and improve Transdroid often, there is always more to add and make it even better. Of course I will keep doing this, but you can help as well. What can you do?

Donate

Transdroid is free and open-source. Anyone can download it form the Android market or even directly from the web. If you are a Twitter follower you can get beta version too. But if you feel it saves you time (and hence money), maybe you would like to donate some to support future Transdroid development? You are free to pay whatever you like. I do have to pay 30 cents transaction costs though, so please make the amount higher than that. 😉 Hit the large Donate button at the right.

Provide webspace

Maybe you can’t miss any money, but have some connections with web hosts? Transdroid still needs it own domain name (I believe www.transdroid.org is still free) and some web space with a small amount of bandwidth. PHP and MySQL supported will be needed, but that’s about it.

UPDATE: This is taken care of. Thanks!

Become a developer

Transdroid is open-source which means everyone is free to get the Android source code and start coding new features. I tried to build everything using clear and open coding standards and extensively commented. You don’t have to be an experienced Android developer, as it really is pretty much standard Java. So if you want to build some new torrent client support like Torrentflux, Vuze or whatever is to your liking; checkout the SVN and get coding.

Translate

I am a native Dutch speaker and quite apt in English as well, but that’s about it. Currently Transdroid is already offered in German, French, Spanish and Italian. You can help as well! Do you speak another language fluently or want to update one of the languages already supported (especially Italian is old)? It’s as simple as getting the strings.xml file from the source code site. Use the English original in the ‘values‘ directory if your language wasn’t supported yet. Just send the translation to me via e-mail or use the issue tracker.

UPDATE: I have just finished a tool to translate Transdroid right form your web browser, which can be found right here.

Icon and artwork

At the beginng of Transdroid’s development, only Transmisison was supported as a torrent client. Since then, support was extended to 5 6 different apps already. The icon never changed though: it is still the Transmission icon I snitched used back then. So if you are a good designer, why not draw some nice icon and maybe some artwork as well? I don’t have any concrete specs but I guess it should do something with Android’s droid, torrents and maybe ‘remote’.

UPDATE: Please post any artwork and icon you have here on the issue tracker. Transdroid already has a new icon! Without the droid…

Spread the word

If none of the above apply, you can always spread the word to your friends, collegues and all other Android users. Maybe post some praise on Twitter or your blog?

Thanks for any help. I will try to reward all effort with an even more complete, useful, stable and attractive torrent remote app.

Android remote torrent client comparison

UPDATE: I updated the feature table to reflect newer versions of the applications. (24 August 2010)

For some time now, there are four apps on the market that allow you to control your active torrents remotely. So how does Transdroid relate to its three competitors? Droiddog released a nice video review on all four. He tells only about the basic features, but thinks Transdroid and Torrent-Fu are the winners.

What he didn’t cover was the difference in features that the apps have. I have made a little feature comparison table for that. Hope I didn’t leave out any (let me know).

Transdroid Torrent-Fu BarTor Torrent Droid
Website here here here here
Price Free (FOSS) Free $1.49 £1.00
Client support
Multiple profiles Yes Yes No Yes
uTorrent/BitTorrent Yes Yes Yes Yes
Transmission Yes Yes No No
Vuze/Azereus Yes No Yes Yes
KTorrent Yes No Yes No
rTorrent Yes No No No
Deluge Yes (1.2+) No No No
Torrentflux-b4rt Yes No No No
Searching and adding
In-app search Yes Yes Yes No
Torrent sites 9 2 1 Browser-only
Barcode scanning Yes Yes Yes Yes
Add via browser Yes Yes Yes Yes
Add local .torrent Yes No No Yes
Management
In-app listing Yes Yes No No
In-app management Yes Yes No Web-UI
Individual files Yes No No No
RSS feeds Yes No No No
Widget Yes No No No
Alarm service Yes No No No