To Utility, and beyond…

Today, we’re shipping a great update to Vuze. Check Chris’ post for the full scoop, but needless to say, there are many things I’m excited about.

First the packaging – We’ve entirely revamped our website. “What’s with the dark background” some of you would ask. Well, our website was about video content, so it made sense to create an immersive look-and-feel. Today, we’re more focused on features, and ease of use. We’re about utility. So it made sense to redesign the site to articulate what Vuze does, with a more “utilitarian” look, and a lot of real estate dedicated to features. And yes, it’s on a white theme.

Speaking of utility and features, we are also releasing Vuze 4.4, with a lot of cool stuff in store, such as a major update of our video player: It’s fast, it supports gorgeous 1080p, and it has subtitles and languages built-in. We’re also upgrading our device playback engine, with faster transcoding and new native support for iPad and connected TVs such as Samsung.

Also, we’re launching a version of Vuze with premium features. Vuze Plus is a new offering that we’re super excited about. We see it as a great way to finance all the innovation that goes into Vuze, and allow the main product to remain free. Some call it a freemium model, I call it a win-win for users.  All Vuze users will benefit from us having more resources to innovate with the product they love, and Vuze Plus users will enjoy top-notch features (DVD burning, better search, torrent virus scanning) neatly integrated into Vuze.

Overall, today’s release is a small “avant-gout” of big things to come later in 2010. We’re working on a new project. It’s about digital media, it’s about your television, it’s not related to bittorrent.  In fact, in many ways, it’s not related to your computer. Quite simply, its about doing more with your digital entertainment.  We can’t say much about it just yet, but we think you’ll love it.

In the meantime, enjoy the new site, Vuze 4.4, and Vuze Plus, and as always, let us know what you think.

Gilles.