Archive for the ‘Web Apps’ Category
Yes indeed Crenk readers, we have another Twitter web app to tell y’all about. It’s called Twesent. Basically, it takes the normal tweet and turns it into a virtual present for your pals!
You got to Twesent.com and follow the instructions. Then, you select what present you want to send to the people you’re following. For example, I decided to buy a few friends a pint of beer each, what with me being Irish and the hilarity of living up to a stereotype.
So after I selected the pint of beer I continue to sign in with my twitter username and password and select who to send it too. I had fifty free credits and I believe three pints of beer cost me 24 credits. You can but more credits if you wish using PayPal for a small price.
This is cool tool to know about for when a friend’s birthday rolls around or indeed as a very half-hearted apology to you significant other. Or, you know, just for the laugh!
It seems like these days you can’t go anywhere without tripping over a multitude of Twitter Apps, all of them struggling against each other vying for attention of the masses. Much like the people who use twitter. Well now it’s the turn of Filetwt.
It’s all very simple and convenient. Just put in your Twitter name and password, type in a description then upload a file. A link to that file will be posted on your twitter account.
Filetwt is a tool of convenience as it wouldn’t take too much effort to find one of the many other file uploading websites and then manually post the link to twitter yourself. That way you could have files larger than 20 megs. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the more well known uploading websites added a Tweet option.
According to the website if you sign up you can get Private Tweets, faster file uploads, updates and stuff. Personally I try not to sign up for anything if I don’t have to and the upload speed seems reasonable enough.
YourTour is a new fully personalised trip creator. YourTour was just launched at Techcrunch 50 yesterday and it has been getting some great press so far. YourTour has launched in France (and Florida in demo), with other countries and US regions to follow very soon.
Based on a powerful algorithm, the YourTour engine computes and compares millions of trip combinations to deliver a customized trip proposal in a matter of seconds. YourTour is already partnered with leading travel companies such as Booking.com (hotels provider) and Lonely Planet (attractions provider).
The site itself is very easy to use and has a very slick and simple user interface. The user just simply needs to add the region they wanting to visit and then select their dates, once thats done then YourTour will create a great tour for you with activities, hotels and more in the region you specified. YourTour is a great way to receive some interesting ideas for your next trip and what activities are big in the region you are traveling too.
When YourTour provides accommodation ideas it would be great if they also provide a lot of different options, and this could also be helpful with activities. There could a list option which allows the user to see what are the best activities in that region and prices, as well as possible hotels depending upon your budget. YourTour still has a lot to do but it is a great starting platform.
Popscreen is a new video bookmarking service that has just launched into private beta. Here at Crenk we have been lucky enough to test Popscreen for the past few months and we are really excited about their private beta launch and what they are providing.
PopScreen is a quick and simple way to bookmark your favorite tv shows, movies, webcasts, news clips, music and viral videos from hundreds of online sources in one location.
Crenk has been lucky enough to receive 250 Private Invites for people interested in trying out the service. If you want to check it out then head over to the Signup page and use the Invite Code: crenk
Stagevu is a new site in which im not too sure how long it will be around, so make sure you check it out before it is completely gone. Stagevu is a basic service that allows users from all over the world to search and watch movies, movie trailers, tv shows and more, all for free and without having to download any software.
Stagevu to me seems completely illegal and im sure the site will get shut down eventually, but in the meantime it is completely legal for users to use the service. Most of the movies on the service do seem like they have been filmed illegally in China by handycam, but if you keep looking you are bound to find a good version of the movie you are looking for.
Here at Crenk we have previously talked a lot about sites like Movie Watch List and Trailer Reviews in which seem to offer a similar service and have been around a lot longer, so we will see how long Stagevu can stick it out.
There are so many places on the net where you can now see the biggest and best links via Twitter. Today we came across a new site that has high hopes, TweetPortal. TweetPortal does exactly what is says in the tin and show the most popular tweets via channels (business, sport, etc).
TweetPortal is great for quickly seeing what is happening in each area via Twitter, but it still has a lot of work to do to be more efficient than the likes of Tweetmeme.
So what does TweetPortal need to improve? Well here are my thoughts:
- Design – the overall site design isnt great, plus it is actually quite hard to get a good overall look at what is happening in the world via the home page. More tweets need to shown on the home page in a different format, cause the basic boxes dont really work.
- Advertising – Im really not a huge fan of dirty Google adsense ads that ad nothing at all to the design and at the same time seem to cheapen the site quality.
- Channels – there is a great list of channels, however when checking out the channels it still only breaks down into a very limited number of smaller channels.
TweetPortal really has a huge amount to do to become a Tweetmeme competitor let alone a key destination for news via Twitter. It will be interesting to see if they take our advice on board and really try to improve the quality and options within their service.
Despite all the apps, iPhones, e-mail, IM etc… The best way to organise something is with a text. Why? Because not everyone is on call at the same time or checks their e-mails regularly. But they do have their mobile phone with them 95% of the time. So, a group message it is. Say you want to organise a get together with friends, or an office party simply send them all a quick text using Swaggle.
Swaggle is an online service that lets you send pre defined groups text messages. You can have as many groups as you like and sending them all texts is free. All you have to do is log into Swaggle.mobi and select which group you want to contact; family, gym, work, school, friends etc…
This is way handier than doing it on your mobile where it will cost you and take a long time to select the desired contacts in your phonebook; especially if there are over ten people working in your office!
I have several e-mail addresses. One for work, one for personal, one for my social networks and three or four I have simply been forced to abandon due to unmanageable amount of SPAM. In fact, it’s a rare occurrence that you’ll meet someone with only one e-mail address to their name; not that you’d ask.
So remembering these addresses can be difficult. That’s where atmynumber.com comes in. Basically, you sign up for an e-mail address for atmynumber.com that matches your phone number. So if your phone number is 4526985478; then your e-mail address will be 4526985478@atmynumber.com. The service will then forward all incoming e-mails to your real account whether it’s Gmail, Yahoo or indeed…any account!
This eliminates the problem of forgetting your e-mail address due to the half dozen in your name and it’s also easier for people to send you a quick e-mail because chances are they have your number! One bad thing about this is that it’s only available in the US and Canada; looks like all us Europeans will have to make do.
I was lucky enough to receive an invite to Yahoo’s new product Meme. Meme is a micro-blogging service from Yahoo that works in a very similar way to Twitter. You may now ask, whats the difference?
- Yahoo Meme is very fast and stable
- Yahoo Meme makes it very easy to post Video, Music and Photos straight into your stream
- Yahoo Meme has really focused on making it easy to re-post items you like, with just 1 click (Viral focused)
We have joined just to test out the service and even after testing im pretty sure im going to keep using the account, because it is just so simple and easy to use. If you want to follow Crenk on Yahoo Meme our url is: http://meme.yahoo.com/crenk/
So you may be wondering why doesnt everyone just move over to this service from Twitter, well basically its because of the amount of users using Twitter. Additionally its the community of developers who have helped Twitter grow at the rate they have.
What Yahoo Meme really needs to develop:
- Yahoo Meme needs its own URL and identity away from the Yahoo.com domain. It would be good to see this as a standalone service
- Ability to resize pictures and videos down so that a lot more streams can be seen in the same window (problem with media in the stream)
Yahoo Meme is currently in private beta, so to mark its launch we can offer a lucky 5 people into the system. All you have to do is comment on this post and let us know why you want to use the service so badly!
Most people im sure would probably agree that Apple’s iTunes software isnt a lightweight application. I was wanting to put together a great list of free alternatives to iTunes that are actually worth checking out.
Foobar 2000 – A digital music management program for Windows users. It works with Windows 2000, Windows Vists , Windows XP and Windows XP 64 bit edition. To use this program you will need 32 MB of RAM and a display with at least an 800 X 600 resolution. This program is compatible with MP1-4, MPC, AAC, WAV, SND, WMA, Ogg Valis, WavPack, AIFF, CDDA, FIAC/Ogs FLAC and AU. It also supports full Unicode and Replay Gain. Other great features include third party development potential and keyboard shortcut that are fully customizable.
Froddle Pod – Froddle is not as feature rich as iTunes but it provides access to the main features that iPod owners need: It can copy music and videos from and to an iPod which is definitely the main feature that any iTunes alternative should support. The software can also backup and restore all data that is stored on an iPod. Another feature is music normalization for all or selected music on the iPod.
Songbird – Built on the Firefox platform and works with iPods and other media players. In addition to many great features, Songbird has a plenty of add-ons, and because it’s open source, clever programmers will be adding more as time goes on.
YamiPod An interesting iTunes alternative, because you don’t have to install it on your computer at all. Just copy it to your iPod’s hard disk and then you can manage your songs from any computer running Mac OS X, Windows or Linux.
Winamp – Sometimes called the grandfather of Windows music players, Winamp is a full featured music manager, with integrated iPod support and will even play iTunes protected files if QuickTime is installed.
Amarok – A great iTunes alternative for Linux and Unix users. It works with a wide variety of portable music players including: iPod, Creative Zen players, iRiver iFP and T players, Nomad players, generic MTP players and generic USB players. Some of the features that this program has that you are going to love include: album covers, wikipedia integration, last.fm integration, superior visual effects, lyrics support and music tracking capabilities.
Banshee – Linux users are going to enjoy what Banshee has to offer. This free download allows you to do everything that you want to do with your digital music. You can import music, organize music, play it back, share it and rip it on a CD. This is a great program for people who love their music and who want to actively manage it.
Cog – Most people using Mac OSX feel that iTunes is the best option because it was designed for this platform. However, Cog is worth a look for Mac users, because it addresses many of the limitations that iTunes has. It can be used with the following file types: Ogg vorbis, Monkeys Audio, MP3, Wavpack, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Musepack, AAC and WAV/AIFF. Some of the features that make it a worthy alternative to iTunes include: gapless playback, auto updating, preferences, Growl support, global hot keys, seeking, feedback forms, last.fm support, and smart shuffle.
Personal finance tools are currently very popular, especially with the rise of Mint in the USA lately. Green Sherpa is another such personal finance tool that has just been released.
Green Sherpa features include:
- Uses a check-register format to track your transactions.
- Automatically categorizes your spending.
- Allows users to edit transactions and categories as needed.
- Supports split transactions and bank reconciliation.
- Allows users to set and track financial goals.
The key feature that other sites liked about Green Sherpa was its ability to project cash flows.
With Green Sherpa, budgets are a thing of the past, literally. Budgets only represent an AVERAGE, or IDEAL, month. In reality, cash flow is more fluid than that. Green Sherpa’s Cash Flow Projection feature allows you to create a forecast of future cash flow based not only on your historical spending but, more importantly, on your future PROJECTED expenses and income. This feature lets you enter one-time anticipated expenses, or create more complex structures such as bi-weekly or bi-monthly schedules.
Green Sherpa however works on a subscription model rather than a free model like most of its competitors. Green Sherpa has a 14 day trial and then $7.95 per month ($5.95 per month if you sign up for a year at a time).
Many of us have blogs, websites or at least a profile or two on a few social networking sites, right? And many of us are also on twitter. So instead of just posting a link saying “hey, follow me”, you could have a cool, professional looking twitter logo or cartoon for people to click on to go to your Twitter profile.
TwitterLogos.com is a collection of free twitter logos submitted by hundreds of graphic designers for our disposal. On the homepage you can see all the latest posts. Most of them are really good. You have the well-known chubby bird but I also found some new faces…or beaks such as a kind of pelican bird, a cheerleading bird and randomly enough, a can of twitter beer.
When you have found the series that you like, simply click on it and download the file. There will be instructions on how to use the Twitter badges in the .zip file.
These are easy to insert into blogging platforms such as Wordpress or into text for a profile on Facebook, MySpace etc…
