Apparently they (whoever “they” are) are calling 2008 “The Year of the Mobile Torrent”, and if that’s the case then chances are Apple will undoubtedly be driving that bandwagon (or ambushing it). A “torrent”, as it’s used here, refers to a communications protocol which allows computer users to share files. Or, put more familiarly, a torrent is a course which allows visitors to “do” P2P file-sharing.
Having said that, not just does it appear a P2P file-sharing client for the iPhone might be fast along the way, however in fact it’s already here, though currently in a format considerably inaccessible to most users - but no doubt not for long.
No, not absolutely all file-sharing is illegal. Actually, the only file-sharing that’s against the law is the sharing of copyrighted files (like RIAA’s music and Hollywood’s movies - but that’s why we’ve iTunes, right?). For the sharing of most other kinds of files - personal memoirs, diary entries, and travelogues, recipes, photos, YouTube videos, etcetera, etcetera - P2P file-sharing is perfectly legal, and when you realize that, you are able to only expect that such facility for the iPhone is at least imminent.
Gizmodo was the first ever to report on the innovation, declaring a hacker who goes on the name of Core has just created the initial native P2P client for the iPhone kickass torrentz2. Although program - on the basis of the popular Mac P2P client - Transmission - is still in the command-line stages (in other words: lacking in a simple graphical user interface that the average techno-unsavvy consumer can operate), it is nonetheless a groundbreaking step on the path to peer-to-peer file-sharing between iPhones.
The amount of content worth sharing from iPhone to iPhone may also be stymied until a user-friendly GUI (graphical user interface) is incorporated to the design. Also a buggy hurdle for would-be users to keep yourself updated of is the incompatibility between P2P file-sharing generally speaking and EDGE networks - currently the iPhone’s wireless connection of choice. So in order to utilize this or any torrent on the iPhone, you’ll have to make use of Wi-Fi.
Torrenting - as it’s sometimes called - can also be much burden on the iPhone’s battery and so will require the device be plugged in to make sure that files download completely.
A web search for more information on this subject revealed that several mobile torrents already exist - such as for example SymTorrent and Wizbit for Symbian smartphones and WinMobile Torrent for Windows Mobile Devices - though none (until now) for the iPhone.
Now, there is a µTorrent MUI for the iPhone (called µPhone) nonetheless it doesn’t actually enable you to share files (“yet”, they say); rather it lets iPhone users view the status of active torrents, pause and resume torrents, and type in new URLs to torrent all by way of a PC. Put simply, the µPhone torrent MUI acts as sort of remote control for using µTorrent to share files over a PC.