Windows only: Free, open-source application Halite is a BitTorrent client with a focus on a small memory footprint. With Halite running and actively downloading on my system, I never saw the memory usage crest 10MB of RAM—which, as BitTorrent weblog TorrentFreak points out, is about half the memory consumption of the popular-for-its-small-footprint uTorrent. Granted, Halite doesn't have near the advanced features of uTorrent, but it does support most basic features, like encryption and selective file downloading. If all you want is a no-nonsense BitTorrent client that can grab your downloads with the best of them, Halite may be just what you need. Halite is free, Windows only.

The p2p-next project, which is trying to develop a system for broadcasting video user peer-to-peer file sharing, has released the first version of its SwarmPlayer and is seeking testers to assess how the software performs as the user base grows. There's currently only a small amount of content to watch (including a BBC weather report live webcam from Amsterdam), since the purpose is testing rather than creating a broadcast network. SwarmPlayer is currently Windows and Linux, but a Mac version is said to be due shortly. [SwarmPlayer via BBC]

The TorrentFreak weblog wants to speed up your BitTorrent downloads with practical advice for getting around your firewall and managing your upload speed. They're mostly beginner tips, so you may also want to try more advanced techniques as well.

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YouTorrent, the BitTorrent search aggregator with a great interface that proved too popular to stay online with a, er, laissez-faire attitude about legality, has re-launched as a meta-search for legal downloads. Grabbing results of verified legal or open-licensed downloads from Jamendo, BitTorrent, Mininova, and others, the site moves as quickly as ever, lets you sort results by relevance, date, or feed statistics, and offers previews of audio files through the Bitlet streaming tool. It's not quite the hyper-organized bazaar of torrents it once was, but if you're looking for something that might be genuinely free to grab, YouTorrent seems like a great place to start.

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Web site Speckly is a barebones BitTorrent search engine that scours multiple popular torrent trackers and returns the results in a simple interface. In fact, you'll notice the site's design is a direct knock off of Google, but it has a few subtle tweaks for BitTorrent. Like previously mentioned torrent aggregator PizzaTorrent, Speckly also allows you to sort results by file type, and according to weblog Mashable, the ad-free site will remain ad-free—an accomplishment for the often pop-up-ridden world of BitTorrent trackers. If you need more robust filtering, we'd recommend PizzaTorrent, but if simplicity is what you're looking for, Speckly looks like a winner.

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Popular BitTorrent tracker Mininova has unveiled a new bookmarking feature that makes it easy to start a BitTorrent download on your home computer from anywhere. The new feature works by creating a personal RSS feed of all of your bookmarks. Since most popular BitTorrent clients support subscribing to an RSS feed of torrents, that means that each time you bookmark a torrent on Mininova, your BitTorrent client will automatically start downloading it. All you have to do is subscribe to your personal feed and get bookmarking. This is a very clever feature, but if you'd prefer even more control of your BitTorrent downloads when you're away from your main PC, check out how to remote control uTorrent or Transmission over the internet.

Windows/Mac only: Free, open-source application Cabos is a peer-to-peer file sharing application with an emphasis on minimalism. That means that unlike other popular P2P apps that run on the Gnutella network like LimeWire or previously mentioned FrostWire, Cabos is completely stripped down and bloat free. Granted, you've probably moved on to downloading files with BitTorrent for most of your file-sharing needs, but for the occasional one-off download, an old-school peer-to-peer app like Cabos is always nice to have in the toolbox.

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Give web site TorrentRelay the URL of any torrent on the internet and it'll automatically download it for you through your web browser. Not only does that mean that you can download files over BitTorrent without installing a new BitTorrent client if you're on someone else's computer, but it also means you can download torrents directly to hardware that doesn't support BitTorrent clients, like your Wii, PS3, or even iPhone. Currently TorrentRelay downloads are limited to 400MB. For a similar solution, check out previously mentioned BitLet.

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Facebook application Morrent controls your uTorrent BitTorrent downloads over the web through your Facebook profile. Through Morrent, you can start, stop, remove, or add new torrents remotely, and since it's happening through your Facebook profile, it's really simple to set up. In fact, the site has excellent installation instructions to walk you through it. On the other hand, if you're not keen about passing your BitTorrent information through a third party, you can set up uTorrent's WebUI to remote control your torrents entirely on your terms.

Web application Glasnost simulates BitTorrent downloads on your computer to determine whether or not your internet service provider (ISP) is throttling your BitTorrent transfers. It does so by measuring the difference between your regular download speed and your BitTorrent download speed, testing against different ports and other variables to get a better idea of what exactly is being throttled. The tool is aggregating the results of the test, which the site is publishing to encourage greater transparency among ISPs. If your ISP turns out to be throttling your BitTorrent traffic, you can still avoid the throttling if you know the right tricks.

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