Monday 17 March 2008, 5:25 PM

The First iPhone Mobile Torrent

Posted by MobileTech

The First iPhone Mobile Torrent Arrives
By: Eric Everson, MyMobiSafe.com

2008 has been dog-eared as the “Year of the Mobile Torrent” so it stands to be expected that the first iPhone torrent has arrived as predicted. For those not yet familiar with mobile torrent technology, the concept of file sharing from one system to others is borrowed from computer-based file sharing applications into the mobile setting.

While that may sound like a natural technology progression, the greatest barriers mobile torrents face is the lack of operating system interoperability that exists in the wireless industry. Where computers are dominated by the Window’s OS, file sharing torrents developed more naturally to create an application that decompiles data on one end to be shared and recompiled at the other end. As demonstrated in computers, this works much better where there is a single OS involved. The wireless industry unlike the computer industry has grown through many proprietary (and now some open source) operating systems. Due to this lack of interoperability created by a myriad of incompatible mobile OS constraints, developing mobile torrent platforms is restricted to a single OS… enter the iPhone based mobile torrent.

Anyone that enjoys “legal” file sharing on their computer, has anticipated the arrival of a comparable technology for their iPhone. This has been the driving force behind one developer’s quest to get the iPhone peer-to-peer (p2p) ready. As reported by Gizmodo.com, “Core, an iPhone Hacker with mad hacking skills, has managed to port to the iPhone a functioning P2P client based on Transmission, which is a popular torrent app for Macs. This is the first time P2P torrent software has run natively on the iPhone…” Essentially this developer has created a platform for what may become the first p2p advance in iPhone mobile torrents.

So if this development conjures up visions of having your favorite share files available in your pocket, don’t get too exited quite yet. The development is not quite packaged for the average user yet. While available online, the current application is a command line client and does not have a user interface so far. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the application completely draining the iPhone battery during file downloads. Due to handset system limitations mobile torrents are notorious for exhausting extensive handset resources which causes the battery to drain very fast. Additionally, due to a small technical user base, this iPhone torrent development still has extremely limited shared content. For many these early issues may make the new iPhone torrent feel more like battery draining malware than like an enjoyable mobile torrent platform. Mobile torrents still have a long way to go until the keys to the mass market ready Universal Mobile Torrent applications are completely uncovered.

As mobile torrents continue to grow in popularity, one must applaud the efforts of “Core” to keep the vision alive. In reviewing this application, Core has provided an awesome platform that is sure to carry iPhone mobile torrent forward. If you have the technical savvy to use the command line client setup of this application, it is definitely worthy of your time… just keep your iPhone plugged in!

Your mobile security expert – Eric Everson, MyMobiSafe.com

For more iPhone Torrent Info visit:
http://gizmodo.com/362823/iphones-first-native-p2p-torrent-app-is-up-and-running

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/02/iphone-gets-native-p2p-torrent-software/

http://mashable.com/2008/03/07/tools-torrents-mobile-phones/

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