Several weeks ago we launched a project called Android Bounty. By offering incentives to developers, we hoped to encourage them to code new ideas. Our first run was a little bumpy, but we acheived what we set out to do. Today I would like to announce our first Bounty winner and give you a preview of his application.
Torrent Droid Home Screen
New visitors can read the original article, but our first idea we set out to create was a Torrent client for Android that could also scan barcodes. The idea sprouted as a technology demonstration to explore the potential, marketable uses of Torrent files. Even though Torrent files are sometimes associated with piracy, there are many commercial uses for distributing media. We do not condone the use of piracy.
Several developers stepped up to the challenge, but Alec Holmes was the first to produce a working application and claim the bounty. His app is named Torrent Droid and meets all the requirements we set. Following is a short video demonstration of the app in use.
Alec had this message to share:
“This version of Torrent Droid is a work in progress but the video shows the core features work. The full consumer version will be released within a month. I enjoyed making this application, and look forward to releasing it soon! To stay up to date visit Zerofate.com“
Call me crazy for uploading this to YouTube, but I wanted to show the app in use. All DVDs seen in the video were purchased by me from Amazon. In this short video I scan a DVD barcode, locate a torrent, and send the file to my laptop. For speed purposes, I performed this demo over a local WiFi network. However, I have also tested it over the Edge network and had no problems.
Torrent Droid Settings
Stay tuned to our site and Alec’s for further developements on this app. If you have any suggestions, comments, or hate mail, please leave a comment. We are also accepting ideas for our next Android Bounty contest. Hopefully for the next contest we can atract more pledges and sponsors to offer a larger bounty prize.
Even if you do not care for this application, do you think the Android Bounty program is something to expand?
UPDATE: Torrent Droid is now featured on TorrentFreak.
40 Comments
how can you award a bounty when its not availible yet?
for search results will there be a way to verify file size and also for TPB to be able to verify if its from a trusted user/etc?
Oh well… Guess I’ll finish and release mine on my own…
Damn, I knew I was too busy to get something in first.
Hey nEx,
Sorry i beat you to the punch but it was a good run. How far are you with your development?
No worries Alec. I’ve learned a lot along the way.
I am maybe a week out. I’m refactoring and reorganizing now.
Spent some good time on UI, which is where I lost the mark.
Will be interested to see how yours works when it’s complete.
We’ve taken very different approaches it seems from the video.
Will this app be able to work with private trackers? Like will be able to add your own.
Freakin amazing that is all I have to say…
Oh man, all the laughs I got from digg, reddit, and torrent freak made this worth it. It is neat to watch things spread across the interwebs.
Congratulations Alec.
This Android Bounty concept sounds great, i cant wait to see what else it brings
p.s i would be even more interested if there was an NZB version that hooked into sabznb+ now that’s something i would love to add to the bounty for
Could we have some similar for NZB files please?
Is support for other torrent clients is planned? Azureus would be fine as for it’s being multiplatform.
The same goes for music support.
Hi there,
How exactly do you send and add a downloaded torrent to a remote computer with uTorrent (or some other clients) running? In the beginning, he demonstrated the “settings” of the app and it included such information as: host, username, password, keyword tolerance (don’t know what that is) and Mini Gui Folder (I suppose its the destination folder where the torrent will be sent on the host).
Is this a feature in Utorrent which listens to incoming connections for the above purpose or did the person write his own server?
its an adaptation to the webUI built into the utorrent pc client. works fairly well on the G1, takes some foolin around around with but works very well.
Dear developer
You must be trippin if you think ppl will PAY for this kind of app…
Pay for torrents…. seriously?
You should get rid of the pirate bay web search and just parse “http://www.mininova.org/rss/full%2Bmetal%2Bjacket/seeds” into your app, would be MUCH cleaner. Try to keep as much of it within one app as possible. Additionally you should have an “I’m Feeling Lucky” option in settings to grab the first match, or a prefered size range match if the user always wants over 1gig, or between 600 and 800 megs, etc and have the client autoselect, download, send the first match which meets those criteria.
How long until this is released?
I can’t wait to start going Torrent Shopping!
Zzzz, and this app is still not released and Zerofate.com is 404.
Lame.
iv modded a app called symtorrent to work from my nokia5800xm
and by the way that web ui can be used in a oridinary browser on the htc tattoo…
wee have no use for this prog at all