Archive for the ‘Analysis’ Category
Video conferencing used to be a tech heavy, equipment demanding effort that was unheard of for the common person at home. Nowadays with the bevy of online tools available, video conference is accessible to just about anyone with a desktop/laptop and a webcam.
TinyChat helps to facilitate such an opportunity by allowing several people to join a video chat room at once, much like a group IM, only this time you can see everyone!
TinyChat recently did a massive update that propels this online application into the forefront of the video chat options. This past weekend they released not just an updated product, but a new site that really highlights their offerings and the creativity of the team behind it. Looking under the hood first, here’s what we find with the update:
- New design for main page / Chat pages
- “On Focus” Support will alert you of new messages via flashing title and a sound (optional) if the tab or window doesnt have focus.
- More intuitive private messaging system
- Ability to join a chat with pidgin / Trillian / Any Jabber client – We also have a IRC -> Jabber Proxy in place
- Tons of bug fixes, Scalability tweaks and other stuff you wont notice.
- Proper Embed system allowing you to make a room to host on your site
- Moderation system, so you can kick and ban bad users
- Ability to ignore a user
*taken from TinyChat’s blog.
This most certainly makes the service that much more attractive to the already booming user base it has established. Their understanding of the social space is also helping them develop strong ties to their expanding community, listening to the request being made by their supporters. Already in the plans for the next update are things such as country flags associated with the user, private messages via command, recording playback, and the ability to boot people from the chat that are not participating effectively.
There is no doubt that TinyChat is going to experience continued growth and their site welcomes its users and new members alike to interact with them. This easy and free to use application is a must have for anyone who continues to have group chat via IM, and does not want to pay for an account with Skype. With the added benefit of embedding it into your site and sharing it across various social networks, this is definitely an option for the vid-curious.
You can follow them on Twitter and Facebook today!
Do you ever wish you could DJ some of the hottest clubs from around the world? Spinning tracks and creating beats that livened up the party and got the people dancing? Not all of us have that opportunity to be an infamous DJ, but thanks to Grammy-nominated artist, DJ, and label owner, Paul van Dyk, his mobile application can put you on a global stage to make your own hot tracks.
There is no doubt that van Dyk is one of the hottest DJ’s around, appearing on Top 10 lists, featured in some of the biggest music publications, and with popularity the world over. His new iPhone/iTouch app gives you the controls that he uses to make your music on the go. Paul van Dyk’s specially created application by Zip Design, developed by Yuza Mobile will appeal to fans, music enthusiasts and professional DJs alike, featuring a BPM Counter, Frequency Analyser, Decibel Meter, Seismic Reader, Virtual Glow Stick, DJ Check List and an Itinerary Manager. This is no doubt the biggest iPhone app for DJ’s, artists, and music enthusiasts to hit the market, and with over 1 Billion apps already sold in the iPhone App Store, there is definitely going to be increasing demand for this product.
“I have had great fun being a part of the development team for my app over the past few months and think that both aspiring and professional DJs will have great fun using it. On a practical level, it includes everything that a DJ needs.”
(Paul van Dyk)
Watch Paul van Dyk’s introduction to the app here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES8Km5UUn8U
For those of us that have had to make PowerPoint presentations time and time again, using the same templates over and over again, it becomes increasingly frustrating because you think there is only so much youc an do. Well luckily, with some savvy searching, and perhaps a little creativity on your end, Powerpoint can become something new, thanks to the bevy of templates on TemplatesWise.com.
Powerpoint presentations can get a fresh face lift with these new, unique backgrounds that can ressurect the drab into the fab. By what I can tell, this site has hundreds upon hundreds of new templates for you to use, that are easy to find based on their categories. You can preview them, and download the ones you like. They also include packs for charts and graphis, looped music, and other creative for your presentations that will keep your presentation visually attractive while you share the important information.
I’ve used this site for a few public speaking engagements already, I’ve been very impressed with it, and I recommend you give it a try. As PowerPoint has gotten on in age, it’s nice to see creative sites like this offering the facelift that it has so badly needed.
You can follow them on Twitter as well.
PayPal seems to have established itself as the premier method for online payments. I have a paypal account which I use on a regular basis myself, but the process can actually complicate even the simplest of situations. In some cases PayPal seems a bit overkill when something easier could be used. This is where Paystr comes into play.
The online application allows you to set up your own web page for collections purposes. The customization far outweighs the impersonal requests that PayPal creates, with the invoices they allow you to create. Instead Paystr really want you to customize your efforts and your attempts to collect funds for a variety of things. The site declares that its services are great for parties, events, games, gifts or whatever it might be you are collecting for.The focus of Paystr is for the user to focus more on the actual project and less time on the actual collections.
The site is free, creating an account is easy, but standard “PayPal” fees apply. The online site accepts credit cards also, to make it easier for you to collect your funds ahead of time. You can set up multiple payment methods and multiple levels of products or services giving your audience options, ease of use, and safety of knowing their payments are secure.
You can also follow Paystr on Twitter, @Paystr, or connect with them via Facebook.
Grooveshark is an application that was reviewed here on Crenk sometime ago. At the time, I didn’t see the relevance of
Grooveshark awarded CNET's Top 100 Webware Award
the application, though it had some good aspects, I just did not feel comfortable with the entire package. It was not long after that post that officials from Grooveshark contacted me for a dialogue encouraging me to take a look at the offerings again, highlighting features I had not really seen the first time around. In the year that I’ve had with Grooveshark, I’m impressed with the continued efforts it’s making to establish itself as a viable music service for users.
CNET was obviously impressed enough to award it the 2009 Webware Winner for Audio and Music. Grooveshark has indeed come a long way and its user base has grown significantly. With this announcement comes features that again make Grooveshark heads above the rest. For starters their partnership with Ping.fm to build Tinysong API, which allows users to take the code and develop webapps that provide access to Groovesharks extensive library of music. It will be interesting to see what developers come up with as we’ve seen with various other online applications, the opening of the API makes it easy for supplementary apps to proliferate the net.
The second feature that was announced deals specifically with the blogging community. Grooveshark has announced that is now has a Wordpress plugin that allows integration into blog posts for users to set up their favorite songs for specific posts. You can set up just one song, or a playlist of songs for your readers on your site. An interesting option, at the very least you could create a small station of songs on your, possibly with a widget.
Grooveshark is definitely expanding its platform and appeal, and it should be interesting to see how much further they go in 2009!
A while ago I used to check out a new lads site SaltyMilk in which talked about the latest and greatest models on the planet. SaltyMilk used to post pictures from models profiles and photoshoots. About 3 months or so ago the site was sold and since then the owner has just been posting images straight from Magazines. Since this time I have completely gone off the site. I dont really see the point of just posting pictures from magazine photoshoots on a blog and hope for as much traffic as possible from Google. Whats your thoughts?
There are so many user generated video sites available on the internet these days, but sometimes you might not want to see user generated content. Thus, I thought I would put together a very quick list of the best places to view the news online as if you were watching it direct from your television at home.
Livestation – Livestation is a free downloadable video players that streams live news, events, shows from some of the world biggest media companies. Livestation includes services like the BBC, CNN, Fox, MTV, Al Jazeera and more. The service is easy to download and it great to use. The player itself can be changed to any size and you are able to add additional news and radio sources that can be found on the Livestation website.
BBC iPlayer – The BBC iPlayer has been around for quite some time now, and even though they got a lot of harsh press at launch they have been quitely improving the service and it actually now isnt that bad. The iPlayer is a great place to head when you are looking for what has been happening from around the world in the last few days. On the iPlayer they have a dedicated section to BBC News in which will keep you up to date with the major headlines.
Hulu – Hulu is a partnership between News Corp and NBC Universal. Hulu is for USA users only at the moment and it allows them to watch their favourite TV shows, movies and of course news programs all for free. Hulu was born when News Corp and NBC werent happy with the revenues they were receiving from YouTube, so they formed a strategic alliance and launched a free online television service that has been growing at a rapid pace. Hulu has a dedicated news section which allows users to view news from major USA sources as well as smaller sources like Cnet.
There has been a lot of talk about Rapidshare, a free file-hosting service, in which has been handing over information about their users who might have been comitting copyright infringments to major record labels. According to TorrentFreak since the information has been leaked German authorities has raided the home of at least one uploader.
Among other albums, Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” was made available on Radipshare by an anonymous user on the day before its official release.
TorrentFreak cited the German local Gulli, which reported that copyright holders there are citing the law they have used to compel ISPs to disclose the identities of suspected file-swappers, to get Rapidshare to disclose information on its users.
TorrentFreak posited that this strategy could potentially be duplicated to go after other free file-hosting services, such as MegaUpload, and even BiTorrent sites.
Copyright holders have already sued Rapidshare, and a German court ruled in October that the company must work proactively to remove copyrighted material uploaded to its servers.
Apple hits 1 Billion downloads from their App Store! Since launching the App store on the 27 th June last year, Apple has been making big waves with their iPhone and iPod Touch products. Apple currently pays 70% of all revenues from the App store to developers. Thus, if there was an average of $0.50 per download, then Apple would be $150m richer and App developers $350m richer.
There has been a lot of reports this morning about the Pirate Bay and their trial. Im going to list some of the best sources at the bottom of this post if you are interested in reading. Anyways, the Pirate Bay trial was very interesting indeed. At times the trial was just a media circus and it didn’t really have much substance. However, I wanted to just write a few of my thoughts and also pose a few questions because I’m not an expert at copyright law, especially in Sweden.
The Pirate Bay trial came to a verdict stage but after watching Peter Sunde chat about the results Im really too clear on the actual verdict and what is going to happen to the site and also the people involved.
According to TorrentFreak who was the first to report on the verdict (because it was leaked from the court), all four of the guys involved has been fined and also received a jail time of a year each. However, as you can tell from the press conference Peter Sunde did, is that he is not actually in jail. Here in the UK the process is quite simple. A court case is either civil or a criminal. In Sweden it seems as though they first of all don’t define a court case, and considering that copyright law is a civil case that also means that jail time is not an option.
Peter Sunde also suggested that this was only the first verdict and implied that it was in a very low level court and the Pirate Bay is going to continue to appeal and this whole process could take between 4-5 years.
Am I right on all this information or am I missing something here?
What is the future of file sharing
Let’s say this whole thing plays out in the high court and The Pirate Bay loses. Let’s say BitTorrent completely ceases to exist as a result. (Just play along for a minute.) Would that, then, be the end of online file-sharing?
The answer: of course not. Even in that extreme (and extremely unlikely) scenario, little would be accomplished in the grand scheme of things. Technology is constantly evolving. Just as more advanced decentralized peer-to-peer networks sprung up in the wake of Napster’s shutdown, new alternatives would surface once again were a site like The Pirate Bay to lower its sails. Already, countless other methods exist for exchanging data with ease, and more will only pop up as the months wear on.
Other sources of information:
ArsTechnica, PCWorld, Mashable, PaidContent, MusicAlly and Kotaku.
As we mentioned a few days ago Compete was releasing a new user interface on the 15th of April. The time has come and here is what the new interface looks like.
The interface has had a huge makeover, in which now combines all of Compete’s business elements in a much simplier way. All of Compete’s solutions can be now found in a simple hearder bar, which offers everything from Analytics to Keyword tools. The analytics tools has a much cleaner and easy to user interface, but Compete is still trying to push Pro accounts as much as possible.
Overall the feel of the site is much better than before, and with the cleaner finish the usability of the site increases. I just wish my traffic would increase!
