Crenk

Apple has pushed the new iPod Touch Firmware 2.0 to iTunes. All iPod Touch users can upgrade to this latest firmware by paying a one-time fee of $9.25.

iPhone users, however, get to upgrade to firmware 2.0 absolutely free of cost. As I find this kind of unfair on part of Apple to charge only iPod Touch users, so I am going to help you upgrade iPod Touch to firmware 2.0 absolutely for free.

If you want to have an updated iPod Touch 2.0 for free, then just follow the steps below:

1. Download iTunes 7.7 from Here.
2. Hold Shift and click Restore.
3. Select iPod1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw
4. Enjoy!

The iPod1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw firmware can be downloaded from any of the mirrors below. It is the complete stable and final iPod Touch Firmware 2.0 (5A347) and has been checked and tested.

Rapidshare mirror (Join parts using this software)

http://tinyurl.com/ipodtouch-firmware-2-part1
http://tinyurl.com/ipodtouch-firmware-2-part2
http://tinyurl.com/ipodtouch-firmware-2-part3

Uploaded.to mirror

http://uploaded.to/file/ih0z65/iPod1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw

Freakshare mirror

http://freakshare.net/files/30208/iPod11_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw

Once you download the firmware locally on your PC, follow the steps above to update iPod Touch to Firmware 2.0.

Just recently I’ve been able to play with the new relaunch of Strands. The social networking site falls in line with popular sites like FriendFeed and PlaxoPulse, and looks to aggregate your social networking habits all in one place, but extend to even recommending things you might like.

Some will say that the multitude of social network platforms are watering down the market, and while that may be so, there are always small distinctions that separate them from one another. I for one thoroughly enjoy my Strands account specifically because of recommendations. Now even though I am new and still meeting people on there, I enjoy going through profiles and looking through recommendations.

Strands single handedly battles the information overload and filters your “feeds” from different social network sites. You set up your profile the way you want Strands to respond. What I find especially interesting is that Strands does not just support the major players in the game, but also reaches out and taps into lesser known social networks such as Hype Machine and Meneame (Spanish Digg clone). This really creates a sense of inclusiveness as opposed to exclusiveness.

Strands “evangelist” Drew Olanoff on Twitter is a great person to follow on Twitter for day to day happenings with Strands. Sure he incorporates details of his personal life, but he works to build strong relationships with the communities he’s a part of and welcomes feedback on Strands.

If you’re looking for a method of “life streaming” that is functional and easy to use, definitely check out Strands. I don’t see it knocking off the heavy hitters like FriendFeed just yet, but I do see some major success for this social networking site.

Currently the site is still under private beta, but you can sign up at their site to receive an invite, or if you’re really nice to a certain someone on Twitter, perhaps…just maybe an invite might float your way!

WebHostingRating.com is a new host rating site where they are trying to build the biggest searchable web hosting directory featuring complete information on all web hosting providers, all their web hosting plans, promotional and discount coupons, and unedited reviews by real customers.

From what I can tell this service is built on a Wordpress platform which incorporates a review feature, allowing users to find the right provider and package to suite their needs.

Webhostingrating.com also have other sections on the site, such as a directory, web hosting awards and web hosting tutorials. The articles section is basically their blog in which they discuss everything web hosting. The site itself is brilliantly design and I can see this type of directory really taking off.

Since the site is relatively new, they have only review 4 key web hosting companies at present, but make sure you keep and eye out for more coming in the future. The hosting companies they have reviewed are all Unix hosting, but they have other categories that I’m sure will develop over time, such as Windows hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, collection hosting and managed hosting.

While offering some good reviews on trusted hosting companies, they are also writing their own corporate blog, which discusses everything from the world of web hosting. Currently, they seem to have approximately 100 articles in a variety of categories. These categories range from domain hosting to ecommerce to scripting. All the articles seem to be of good length and are very helpful. It would also have been nice to see them add a few pictures in the posts to mix up just the plain text. Normally, a site with the quality of articles they have would grow in the blogosphere, but add in the reviews section and you have a great site in the makings.

Anyways, make sure you head over to Webhostingrating.com and I’m sure they can help you find the right hosting package to meet your needs.

Smashing Magazine has just released On Stage icon set. The set contains 49 free vector icons including PSD which can be useful for both corporate and personal setting. You can use the set for free without any restrictions whatsoever.

The icons are available in the .png-format in the resolution 128×128px. 100% pure shape-based layered PSDs are also included in the package.

Download: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/27/on-stage-a-free-icon-set/

Bit Torrent search engines have been in the news a lot lately. There have been always issues with sites like the Pirate Bay who find it really hard to get out of the news, and with a blog called TorrentFreak you are now able to track all this new instantly. Below are the top 5 bit torrent trackers if you are looking to get your hands on all the free music, games or movies you can get.

• Isohunt.com - If you want to use this tremendous Canadian site, you better use it while you can. Note: any torrent listed as “ISOhunt release” means that it is a file verified by the administrators…a nice feature to help you get authentic torrents, not fake files.)
• The Pirate Bay - by readership size, is the most popular torrent search site today. Pirate Bay also has an immense database of 600,000+ torrents, the single largest database available on the web.
• Torrentspy.com - March 24, 2008: Torrentspy has voluntarily closed its doors. Instead of conforming to the American court mandates to change their privacy policies, the Torrentspy team has opted instead to cease operations. A sad day for downloaders everywhere.
• Torrentscan.com - (a meta-search engine: Torrenscan is a search engine that searches other torrent search engines)
• Bitsoup - Bitsoup is a growing favorite amongst P2P downloaders. As the trend towards private torrent sharing continues, you will need to signup and join as a member to participate in the Bitsoup swarm.

I came across quite and interesting site survey this morning. The survey is based on a highly un-scientific study into your criminal mind. In the end the survey estimates how much you will be able to carry in a bank robbery. This is a pretty cool way to spend a couple minutes or so. Make sure you head to Bank Robbery Talent.

$3,696,390
Quiz brought to you by money.co.uk

A lot of people have been talking recently about Performancing Ads, John Chow, Problogger and Shoemoney to name a few. I totally understand the system they are trying to put in place, but is it actually going to work? For a long time people have been saying that Advertising marketplaces are the way forward, but I dont think that the type of marketplace that Performancing ads has will ever work.

Performancing ads simply will add a banner onto your site so that you can self-serve advertising, a full automated system. While at the same time they gather information about your traffic and user demographics. This is meant to automate the system so the publisher doesn’t have to worry about negotiating individual contracts or the advertiser doesn’t have to worry about having a 5 email exchange before they can purchase.

Advertisers will only purchase advertising in this way on sites that are already major players in their niches, solid brands or emerging sites. Thus, it has a very limited return for publishers. A great deal of smaller sites have joined Performancing Ads in the hope that they will sell more advertising.

Selling advertising in this method for small sites simply doesn’t work, because they don’t have the traffic or brand to actually sell. Smaller sites really need to band together in a particular niche and use the safety in numbers method, cause then they will have a much better chance of getting more top quality advertisers with their broader reach.

This method of self service is great for only a very limited few sites. Therefore, I’m sure that Performancing Ads will only be a fad and they will die off soon enough. The only way this platform can work successfully, is if they have a huge amount of publishers, then a marketplace which makes it very simple to purchase across 10 sites for example, while at the same time they increase their sales team.

Currently, Performancing Ads is a company that medium or small bloggers shouldn’t be taking seriously!

It has been a long time since I tried to get some direct feedback from our readers, so I thought I would send a shout out and see if anyone had any suggestions on what we should be doing here at Crenk.

Recently, we have been focusing on provide reviews, analysis, more information about specific web apps and more. Im looking for suggestions about how we can improve Crenk so that it can be a much better read!

Additionally, if anyone has any ideas about what services we could also add to Crenk, it would be great to hear your thoughts.

Example Ideas:

• Should focus more on just providing product reviews
• Should report more on Technology news
• More articles on analysis
• Add an invite system which allows readers to get sneak peaks at the newest apps or products on the web
• Add a Forum
• Provide more freebies, such as icon sets, wordpress theme, wallpapers and more…

So if you have any ideas at all, it would be great to hear your feedback.

This morning I came across a very interesting new comparison website, Broadband Expert. The first thing I came across was the Broadband USB devices (mobile internet devices), which are affectionately know as dongles here in the UK. The site allows you to compare speed, download limits, monthly contracts, prices and even reviews from other users.

However, one of the downsides is that it only compares 3 of the UK mobile companies, 3, T-Mobile and Vodafone. It would have been nice to see all of the network sites in this list. Additionally, I would really like to see this done on a global scale and not just for the UK market.

This has always made me wonder, do these comparison type websites actually make decent money? Do they receive the majority of their revenues from direct display advertising on the site or is it mostly from affiliate earnings ever time some purchases a contract? I never actually thought they would work, but I do keep seeing tv advertisements for comparison websites like Confused.com. For example Confused.com keep quoting that they have 5 million people use their site for quotes last year, but this seems like a tiny amount. How can they be profitable from that amount of traffic? What are there revenue streams?

Just two days ago, www.feedheads.org was brought to my attention. There are plenty of RSS Reader sites out there, but Feedheads offers a different experience by not reinventing the wheel, but rather attaching itself to an already popular social site, Facebook.

At first glance Feedheads is nothing fancy. It almost reminded me of a Craigslist-like site which little to know aesthetics and a focus on information. Personally I don’t care what a site looks like as long as it’s informative and easy to find what I need, the bells and whistles are just icing. So don’t turn away from Feedheads until you’ve given it a try.

To log into the service you need a Facebook account, and you must allow Facebook to provide access to the site, but once you’ve gotten through the set-up you’re logged right into full access for Feedheads.

I admit at first glance I saw no need to really delve into it since there was no social aspect, but attaching to Facebook makes it very different from other RSS sites. From within the site you can introduce your contacts to stories, have them vote on their favorites and even have them join your networks. You’re given the opportunity to view the stories by three categories, “New”, “Top in 24 Hrs.”, and “7 Days”. A separate link will provide you with the days most popular tags, which is useful for a quick at-a-glance of the days topics.

If you’re a heavy Facebook user and you’re looking for new ways to make that your one stop shop for friends, news, and other information, give Feedheads a try. If you’re stuck on looks then perhaps looking elsewhere would be prudent, Feedheads is definitely for the purist.