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Transmission 1.2 released
If you're a fan of the ever so popular BitTorrent client, Transmission, then you might like to hear that a new version was just released. According to the release notes some of the fixes included: You can now reset global statistics Support of multitracker torrents has been improved UPnP port mapping now faster on startup Ability to IP block using the Bluetack Level1 blocklist Dock badge images have been updated The new dock badges provide greater readability of the transfer in progress. Transmission is freeware and can be downloaded from their website.
Tesla's original transmission maker sues for back payment
The drama surrounding the Tesla Roadster's transmission and the company's attempts to build a system that can transmit power from the motor to the wheels without breaking under the strain took another strange twist today, with the revelation the that first supplier Tesla contracted to design the part is suing the company for $5.6M. Magna Powertrain USA says Tesla hired it to develop a two-speed transmission in September 2006, and when things fell behind schedule, Tesla canceled the contract and walked away without paying. Saucy! Of course, problems with the proposed two-speed transmission are why Tesla plans to ship early production Roadsters with "temporary" one-speed units and swap them out later, but there's no word on where the two-speed versions are going to come from apart from Tesla saying "We need to have more control over our fate and manage the process in house." Sure, sure, just as long as we get one for "testing," okay?
Super 3G hits 250Mbps downlink in NTT DoCoMo field test
Just think -- this time next year, we'll all look back at this milestone and wonder how on Earth we thought it was impressive. For now, however, we wouldn't blame you for high-fiving everyone around, as NTT DoCoMo has stretched the boundaries again with a recent Super 3G field test. Reportedly, the outfit was able to record "a downlink transmission rate of 250Mbps over a high-speed wireless network in an outdoor test of an experimental Super 3G system," and while it's not quite the 300Mbps we'd heard about before, you won't find us kvetching. If all goes to plan, the firm is hoping to "complete development of the technologies required for the eventual launch of a Super 3G network" by 2009, but who knows how long we Americans will have to wait to indulge after that.
iPhone gets native P2P torrent software
Your iPhone plays audio. Your iPhone plays video. Until now, you had to sync those suckers. Today, the insanely brilliant iPhone Hacker core announced a preliminary version of a Transmission Peer-to-Peer client for iPhone. The code is ported from the Transmission site to run on the iPhone's ARM microprocessor. Tests on downloaded files produced the identical MD5 checksum as downloading via wget. Now before you start torrenting, there are some important matters you need to know. First: P2P + EDGE do not mix. Let me repeat that for emphasis. They DO. NOT. MIX. That's because EDGE + P2P takes down EDGE faster than toppling a Jenga pile. Update Further testing has gotten 5kb/s over EDGE without crashing but it's an iffy proposition. Use with care. Second, we are posting this because there are many *legal* torrents, including music and video, available for download. So please don't start getting into a "Torrent Good"/"Torrent Bad" flamewar in the comments. Third, this is EXTREMELY preliminary software. It will develop over time -- so you probably don't want to grab a copy and start torrenting right away until it becomes more stable. Fourth, this is a command-line client. As it matures, someone is going to slap a GUI on that baby but at this time, do not look for the software to show up in Installer.app or Cydia. Finally, be aware that torrenting will wear down your battery faster than, um... toppling a Jenga pile. (C'mon folks. We're really short on family-friendly metaphors here. Suggest your own in the comments.) Way to go core!
Note to networks: don't botch the Super Bowl broadcast
When a program nets some 97.5 million viewers, the last thing you want as a broadcaster is trouble with your transmission. Nevertheless, reports are already starting to flow in from towns in which their local FOX affiliate or cable provider somehow bungled what's likely to go down as the biggest night in US sports for 2008. One report out of Kinston, North Carolina, noted that multiple disruptions during kickoff and most of the third quarter had customers at a local restaurant "cursing at the television." As for a particular family near Springfield, Missouri, it's actually considering "canceling the cable service" after SuddenLink's mishandling of the game forced them to watch it via "rabbit ears." Any of you experience unforeseen outages during Sunday's matchup? If so, are you planning a revolt at your carrier's doorstep, or have cooler heads prevailed?[Image courtesy of WiredVision]Read - Television reception leaves many Super Bowl viewers in the darkRead - WYDO Explains Fox Fumble During Super Bowl XLIIRead - Family upset about cable loss during Super Bowl
Clutch provides browser control of torrents
Just yesterday, we told you about the new GUI version of Transmission. For those who prefer remote control, there's also a web UI for the Transmission daemon, called (cleverly enough) Clutch, just updated to version 0.2. Clutch is an easy way to manage your BitTorrent downloads from anywhere you can access the internet. Clutch is a front-end for the Transmission torrent engine; it doesn't require the GUI version of Transmission, and the two tools don't show each others' download results. but if you use both you may see download results from one tool in the other's list, say our commenters. Clutch uses the web server that's built into Mac OS X, along with AJAX and PHP for the web interface. The app is a self-contained package that has all of the software needed to run the web interface; just open, set a few preferences, and then -- boom -- you're done!If you do not have a static IP address, or use a dynamic DNS service (such as DynDNS), then Clutch will give you a link to your current external IP address, so you can find and connect to your computer over the internet. You might ask "Why would I want to do that?" The answer is time management: BitTorrent downloads can take a while, much too long for you to wait around, and with this tool you can manage your downloads from work, school, or at the local Starbucks. Using this software means that you will have to open a port in your firewall (the default port is 9091, however, you may set it to use any inactive port above 1024 that you wish). Clutch 0.2 is open source and is available as a free download from the Clutch website.
Transmission shifts into 1st gear
Transmission, long available in beta form, is one of my favorite torrent clients. BitTorrent, as you probably know, is a way to transfer or share files over the internet, for free, using a 'swarm' model to speed files along. Transmission makes the downloading of those files quite stunning, with its simplicity and ease of use. Transmission's beautiful user interface goes nicely with Leopard, as it has been redesigned; not to mention, it's 100% Leopard compatible. Some of the new updates in version 1.0 include: Group labeling, filtering, and sorting Leopard: Time Machine will ignore incomplete downloads Display remaining time for seeding transfers Ability to set global and per-torrent number of connections Overall, this looks like a very nice release. It is available right now, for free, from the Transmission website.
Tesla clarifies "temporary transmissions," say they're slower, not going to fail
We'd heard that problems with the Tesla Roadster's transmission were going to lead the company to ship the cars with "temporary" transmissions, but our friends over at AutoblogGreen were recently contacted by Tesla and told that while the company is indeed considering shipping cars with a different tranny than originally planned, they won't be designed to fail, as we'd originally heard. Rather, it'll be a single-speed transmission that won't allow the all-electric hot rod to run as fast as the planned two-speed version. Tesla still plans to swap out the units for the real deal when they're finally strong enough to handle the electric's massive torque, but at least now when Tesla owners are stranded by the side of the road they'll just need an extension cord, not a whole new transmission.
Tesla to deliver Roadsters with "temporary" transmissions?
The Tesla Roadster was supposed to be out before the end of the year, but it looks like the wicked-fast electric car won't make that target -- apparently the company is having problems finding a transmission strong enough to handle gear shifts while the car remains at full torque. The problem is somewhat unique to electric cars, and Tesla's got two different suppliers scrambling to find a solution -- but in the meantime, the company is considering providing vehicles outfitted with "temporary" transmissions that are basically guaranteed to fail after a few thousand miles. The first of these has already been built for company chairman Elon Musk, and Tesla is deciding whether to start shipping cars with the temporary units to other customers and then replacing them when a final transmission becomes available. That's the price of progress, we suppose, but something tells us quite a few people would rather just wait for the final product.
Fuji Television demonstrates visible light communications system
It's not like visible light communications is the new kid on the block or anything, but Fuji Television was busy showcasing a new flavor of the technology at Inter BEE 2007 that could assist deaf / hearing impaired individuals when watching TV. In the demonstration, a LED-backlit LCD TV displayed content while simultaneously beaming out information sans wires to a nearby PDA; the handheld was able to receive the textual data and display words to accompany the on-screen action. Not surprisingly, the communications system was developed by NEC, and it even supported selective distribution in order to transmit the correct information to the appropriate individual. No mention was made of an expected commercialization date, but feel free to check out a couple more shots of the setup after the break.
ONFi 2.0 sets the stage for 133MB/sec NAND performance
Flash memory just keeps getting bigger, faster and more irresistible -- and that's just the way we like it. Now, the Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFi) working group is announcing the availability of the 0.9 draft of the ONFi 2.0 specification to member companies, which is a tell-tale sign that the updated spec will be officially loosed in just two months. What's important here is the newly defined NAND interface, which promises to deliver up to 133MB/second compared to the 50MB/second that the legacy NAND interface is limited to. As if that weren't enough to get you all jazzed up, ONFi 2.0 will also be backwards compatible, and infrastructure is reportedly in place to "reach 400MB/second in the third-generation." And just think, soon you'll be chuckling at yourself for asserting that 133MB/sec was "quick" -- onwards and upwards, we say.
OWLink's HD Digital Light Link solves your wiring conundrum
Details are extraordinarily light right now, but the little we do know about OWLink's latest content distribution system has certainly got our attention. Known only as the HD Digital Light Link, this system apparently enables users to run their audio (digital / analog), video and control signals down a single fiber optic cable that can easily be tucked under baseboards. The setup is reportedly HDCP-compliant and can carry your information for 1,000-feet without issue, and just in case you were curious, the ultrathin cable can indeed be painted to match surroundings. We're still waiting on a price / release date (and a photograph not totally ruined by a flash), but when we receive any of the three we'll be sure to pass it along.
Transmission .90 released
Transmission - the open source, lightweight BitTorrent client that is the closest alternative to uTorrent that us Mac users can get - has just released version .90.New features added in this update include: Encryption support (finally!), with an option to ignore unencrypted peers The ability to ban peers that send too much bad data Reporting only downloaded and verified good data to the tracker Improved BitTorrent compliance and more For OS X users, specific updates include:A per-torrent action menu, optimizations to decrease memory usage, and general changes/updates to the interface to make managing files easier and to provide users with more options.Note: Users upgrading from version .72 or earlier will lose any data from uncompleted downloads, so please beware and either move your torrents to another program or finish downloads before installing the upgrade.[via Digg]
Transmission 0.8 released with selective file downloads, UI changes and much more
You TUAW readers have spoken loud and clear: Transmission is your favorite BitTorrent client. If you're nodding your head right now, you'll be happy to know that v0.8 of the cross-platform app has gone official, ushering in a boatload of new features and fixes for all OSes it works on, as well as some great Mac-only goodies. Before we get to the new stuff, however, I have to echo a warning on the main Transmission page: if you're in the middle of any downloads right now, finish them before upgrading; you could lose data if you jump the gun.That said, let's talk about the shiny new changes. First up, here are the new feature highlights that everyone can enjoy: Ability to selectively download and prioritize files Torrent file creation Speed and CPU load improvements Better rechecking of torrents that have many files And here are the new goodies just for Mac OS X users: Overlay when dragging torrent files, URLs, and data files onto window Ability to set an amount of time to consider a transfer stalled More progress bar colors Various smaller interface improvements Italian, Korean, and Russian translations More details and screenshots are available at the Transmission site, and be sure to swing by the Transmission donation page to show the development crew some love.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Sinclair and Cox reach retransmission agreement
Seems like the negotiators over at Sinclair are earning their paychecks this year, as the broadcasting group has now settled with Cox Communications on a four-year retransmission consent agreement that "includes high-definition programming." The deal covers cable systems owned by Cox spanning over 1.25 million subscribers in six markets owned by Sinclair. Notably, Sinclair stated that this agreement has allowed the firm to complete "long-term retransmission consent agreements with all major multiple system operators in its markets," but as we've seen from our Mediacom-strapped brethren, they're still watchin' the locals in SD in some areas.
Internet2 operators set new internet speed record
We all know that data transmission records don't hang around too long these days, but for operators of the Internet2 network, the final "official record" may have just been set. At the Internet2 consortium's spring meeting, it was announced that officials "sent data at 7.67-gigabits per second using standard communications protocols," but crushed even that milestone 24 hours later by achieving 9.08Gbps with IPv6 protocols. Notably, the data had to travel a whopping 20,000 or so miles roundtrip, and it's being suggested that the newest record may be there awhile, considering the theoretical 10Gbps limit on Internet2 transmissions and the requirement for new records to sustain "a ten-percent improvement for recognition." The best bit, however, is the mention of a "a new network with a capacity of 100Gbps," which could see a full-blown DVD shot practically around the globe "within in a few seconds."
Transmisison 0.71 Fixes Announce Issue
One of the things I love about OS X is the fact that for pretty much any conceivable task, there are multiple applications to choose from with which to do it. Unfortunately, this hasn't really been the case when it comes to BitTorrent clients. Yes, there may have been multiple native clients out there, but only two of them were really any good– BitRocket and Transmission– and for the longest time, Transmission was banned on many private torrent trackers. This left only BitRocket, a client lacking some key features such as the ability to view and set upload/download ratios. Until Today. Transmission 0.71 fixes the much hated multiple-announce bug which caused it's banning by many trackers. The new version also includes some other small bug fixes and interface updates. Transmission is Open Source and available as a free download.Goodbye BitRocket![via CrunchGear]
Transmission 0.7 bittorrent client released
Almost a year after the last version, (and sporting a spiffy new icon) the open-source bittorrent client Transmission has been updated to version 0.7. In addition to numerous bug-fixes, highlights of this version include automatic port mapping, individual torrent bandwidth limits, user-ordering of the queue, and more. In many ways, Transmission tries to be the uTorrent for OS X (and Linux), i.e. very light-weight, but still full featured.Transmission 0.7 is available now for free download.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Radiofrequency treatment curbs asthma attacks
Sure, there's quite a few way to circumvent the effects of asthma, but a new development coming out of McMaster University in Canada suggests that radiofrequency treatment can actually curb the amount of asthma attacks suffered by asthmatics. The device, which "uses radio waves to heat the muscle lining of patients' airways," is used to administer a trio of sessions, and while the actual root cause is still unknown, it seems to cause a reduction in the smooth muscle lining the airways, subsequently making breathing less of a chore. The probe isn't the most comfortable, however, as it must first make its way through your nose or mouth in order to reach the lung airways, after which the tip is "heated using radio waves." The procedure is known as bronchial thermoplasty, and while the funding company (Asthmatx) has yet to elicit a thumbs-up from the FDA, it could certainly become a viable alternative for asthma sufferers. It's about time these free-flying transmissions made up for the harm they've caused, eh?
Alcatel-Lucent blows past data transmission record: 25.6Tbps
Data transmission records were just made to be shattered, as we've seen the benchmark go from 2.56- to 14- and now to 25.6-terabits per second within a year (and five days, but who's counting?). The momentary record holder this time around is Alcatel-Lucent, which "successfully transmitted a world record 25.6Tbps of optical data over a single fiber strand' using 160 WDM channels. In case you were wondering, that's enough speed to send about 600 DVDs worth of information to your buddy in one single second, after which you'd likely destroy any and all functionality his / her computer previously had before the bombardment. Now, what's it cost to run one or two of these pipes to Sealand?