In what may prove to be the first “yanked from the App Store” story of 2011, TorrentFreak reports that there’s a new BitTorrent app available for iPhone users. The app, iControlbits (iTunes link), offers an interface for Transmission, the popular BitTorrent client for Mac.
The iControlbits app allows you to control your BitTorrent downloads remotely, with an interface far improved over the alternative – the mobile web version of Transmission.
According to TorrentFreak, frustrations with the features (or lack of features) on the mobile site prompted developer Luka Hlastec to create a native remote access app. iControlbits controls the client daemon via the RPC protocol. Using the app, you can start, stop, pause and remove transfers, as well as connect to multiple Transmission “servers” and change some of your download options.
The app costs $1.99, and Hlastec says he plans to add more features soon, including the ability to add new downloads to your queue.
But a new version of the app would have to pass Apple’s scrutiny, and BitTorrent apps have historically faced rejection and removal from the iTunes store. An app with functionality similar to iControlbits made it into the store in October, but was booted just three days later. Like iControlbits, that app avoided the word “BitTorrent” in its name and description, something that only saved it for a short time.
Hopefully iControlbits will have better luck.
