Crenk

Opera Browsers is Now the Default Browser on Toshiba’s Folio 100 Tablet PC

Steven Finch — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:42:43 +0000

Toshiba has just announced that they will be pre-loading Opera Mobile Browser on their new Android powered tablet the Folio 100. Opera has been gaining a huge amount of marketshare and popularity with their mobile mini browse, and its great to now see them moving onto more and more devices.

According to a company announcement, the Android-base tablet PC would become available for purchase in Europe, the Middle East and Africa starting the fourth quarter of 2010.

Lars Boilsen CEO, Opera Software:

We are going to work continuously with Toshiba to keep improving the browser for tablet users. Tablets are attracting a lot of attention all over the world, and the market has become highly competitive. Having high-speed Internet functionality on devices is the key to offering a great user experience.

Folio 100 is based on the Android with a NVIDIA Tegra 2 SoC on a 10.1-inch touchscreen display delivering a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution with multi touch support.

I find it quite interesting that Google isnt pushing their Chrome browser onto mobile devices running Android!

Energizer Announce First Qi-Enabled Charger for Consumers: Qi Sleeve and Qi Door

Steven Finch — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:45:41 +0000

Qi is a new universal charging standard developed by the Wireless Power Consortium, and Energizer are the first to launch a Qi-enabled charger. Appearing in stores next month, the Energizer Inductive Charger lets you easily charge your smartphone with a Qi sleeve or Qi door. Soon, however, Qi will be incorporated directly into mobile phones, cameras, MP3 players and a slew of other devices, making charging even more convenient.

Im not exactly sure if charging technology can be exciting, but Qi is considered to be the most compelling development in many years. Qi will bring consumers the freedom to charge their smartphones, MP3 players, cameras – any device 5 Watts or less – on a single charging station, regardless of manufacturer.

“We believe that a universal standard is the future of charging, and by leading the way with one of the first Qi products – the Energizer_® Inductive Charger – we are meeting a clear need for a product that makes charging devices easier by eliminating cords and clutter,” said Jim Olsen, Vice President of Marketing for Energizer North America. “This next generation charger is a natural extension of an innovative product portfolio that brings more freedom for people to live and to work using power that’s reliable and convenient.”

The Energizer_® Inductive Charger will be introduced with a Qi Sleeve for the iPhone® 3GS/3G and a one-time replacement Qi Door for the BlackBerry_® Curve™ 8900, so consumers can enjoy the convenience of Qi right away. Soon, consumers can expect to have Qi built right into many of their devices.

“As one of the first to market with a Qi device, we want to make it easy for consumers to experience how easy and convenient it is to charge their devices using this new universal standard,” added Olsen. “We focused on accessories for popular smartphones, but anticipate that it will not be long before manufacturers roll-out devices with Qi built right in.”

The Energizer_® Inductive Charger will be available at retail this October. Suggested retail price is $89. The removable Qi sleeve for the iPhone® 3GS/3G and the Qi door for the BlackBerry_® Curve™ 8900 will be sold separately for $34.99 each.

For more information, visit www.energizer.com/inductive.

Testing Suggests iOS 4.1 Has Improved for iPhone 3G Users, But Not Enough!

Steven Finch — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:22:38 +0000

iOS 4 has added some much need features to iPhones all around the world, but the software hasn’t played nicely with the old 3G iPhones. A lot of 3G iPhone (including me) have complained about the sluggish performance to the point where it has been much better to downgrade iOS. Apple is soon to be releasing iOS 4.1, by which Apple have tried to address lots of the performance issues.

Testers at Lifehacker got their hands on a pre-release copy of iOS 4.1 and placed it through some trials, then compared that performance against the same 3G iPhone running the initial iOS 4.0. Messages and Maps seemed to show big improvements, but others like Photos and Safari haven’t been improved enough.

Overall, 4.1 does manage to fix lots of performance issues from iOS 4.0, but the OS is still sluggish when compared against previous 3.x versions. If a responsive phone is important to you, the upgrade still may not be worth it.

BBC iPlayer Gets New Look and More Social with Facebook and Twitter Integration

Steven Finch — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:40:28 +0000

The BBC has just launched a completely new design for their very popular BBC iPlayer. The new design offers a much better design with better navigation. Additioanlly, the BBC has added Facebook and Twitter integration to make sharing programs even easier.

Head over to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer to try it out now if you’re in the UK. An international version of the service is promised within a year.

Orange and T-Mobile are Finally Merging Their Mobile Phone Networks

Steven Finch — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:50:36 +0000

T-Mobile and Orange are just about to combined their services in the UK. Recently the two companies merged, but now they are actually merging their network to over 30 million combined customers in the UK. All Orange and T-Mobile customers will be able to share 2G signals, seamlessly switching between networks if a primary signal cannot be found.

Both sets of customers will need to sign up to a free “roaming” service which is likely to be effective from October 5th onwards.

Smoothie Charts is a New Charting Library Specifically for Live Streaming Data

Steven Finch — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:33:06 +0000

The internet moves so fast and webmasters are always trying to better understand their real time data. Smoothie Charts is a new charting library which is designed specifically for live streaming data. Although many of the charting libraries allow you to dynamically update data, none have really been optimized for a constant stream of data.

Smoothie Charts only works on Chrome and Safari. And it doesn’t support legends or pie-charts. In fact, it’s inferior in virtually every way to a library like Flot. But, it’s very good at displaying streaming data.

YouSendIt Raises More Funds for Free Large File Transfering

Steven Finch — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:41:26 +0000

YouSendIt, which helps used to bypass the limits that most email services put on file transfers, announced it raised an extra $15 million in its fourth round of funding on Friday.

YouSendIt currently allows users to send files that are up to 2 gigabytes. YouSendIt isn’t the only player hosting large files for transfer — RapidShare, MegaUpload and drop.io, among others, also offer hosting services for large files.

Currently, YouSendIt has over 13 million registered users and more than 210,000 subscribers, and reportedly delivers 15 million files a month.

Skype Allows 10 Way Video Calling. Could Hit Web Conferencing Software

Steven Finch — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:29:35 +0000

Skype has just released beta 2 for Skype 5 for Windows. The seconds beta is both a large upgrade from beta 1 and it also has a lot of bugs removed. The key addition is simultaneous video calling. Previously, Skype provided a 5-way video calling option but the new beta provides jumps up to 10.

To download the new Skype 5 beta 2, click here.

bxCarousel is a New Free jQuery Carousel Plugin

Steven Finch — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:19:05 +0000

bxCarousel is a new easy to use jQuery carousel plugin. It allows specifying number of elements to display, number of elements to be slided and has optional prev-next controls.

Currently bxCarousel can either be used manually or with the auto mode. In the auto model the user can specify the duration between each item and the speed and direction of each transition.

bxCarousel works as “infinite loop mode” where the items start to be displayed from the beginning once they are over.

Stump the Experts! Ask Your Best Technology Questions and Win Cold Hard Cash!

Steven Finch — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:09:18 +0000

Here at Crenk our team think they pretty much know everything about the technology world. Thus, we are look for people to ask us questions on our Crenk Forum. Anyone who can ask us a technology based question and stump us will win a prize! I’m not exactly too sure what the prize will be yet, but we will definitely make it worth your while (possibly just a cash prize of $10 for every question that stumps us!). We will have 24 hours to post the response with our Crenk account. Lasts until the 10th of September.

All you need to do to compete is head over Crenk Forum, sign up and add your best technology question. Lets see who can outsmart us!

Apple iOS 4.1 Gold Master SDK for iPhone Developers is Live

Steven Finch — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:20:45 +0000

Apple has just released iOS 4.1 which will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users in about a week. Now, they have already started to seed the iOS SDK 4.1 Gold Master to iPhone developers.

As per usual, devs that are part of the iOS Developer Program can grab the latest SDK from the iOS Dev Center.

We’ll let you know if any new discoveries are found in the iOS 4.1 SDK Gold Master.

AOL Sign Web Search, Mobile Search and YouTube Deal with Google

Steven Finch — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:51:02 +0000

As you probably already know AOL has signed a new search deal with Google. AOL announced a new five year deal which includes search, mobile search and YouTube.

Armstrong said in a statement

Today is another important step in the turnaround of AOL…AOL users will be getting a better search and search ads experience from the best search company in the world – Google. After nearly a decade-long partnership in search, we’re looking forward to expanding our global relationship to mobile search and YouTube. All aspects of our partnership will be improved by this deal.

As part of the agreement Google will power search across AOL’s networks, will provide AOL with ad formats, and will power mobile search. And AOL and YouTube have agreed to bring AOL’s video content to YouTube.

I find it amazing how there are now really only two players in the search engine space, Google and Bing. All our companies havent either been able to gain marketshare or revenues. Do you think any other search engines will rise any time soon?

Toshiba Announce Their Multimedia Storage System: StorE TV+

Steven Finch — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:47:01 +0000

Toshiba has just launched their StorE TV+ system which aims to keep multimedia enthusiasts happy.

There’s also plenty of support for the StoreE TV+ which can play Ogg and Flac audio files, among other standard audio options, while plenty of video support is featured including MPEG-1, 2 and 4 plus H.264. The system also offers MOV, MP4, MKV and AVI support alongside VC-1 codec abilities. The StorE TV+ also has a very nice 2TB hard drive and includes an integrated 802.11 b/g/n WiFi connection alongside a 10/100 Ethernet port.

You can pick up your new media drive this September for $307.

Jasmine: Free Javascript Testing Framework

Steven Finch — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:06:35 +0000

Jasmine is a JavaScript testing framework which is simply amazing. It’s heavily influenced by, and borrows the best parts of, ScrewUnit, JSSpec, JSpec, and of course RSpec. Jasmine is not tied to any browser, framework, platform, or host language. It work anywhere JavaScript can run, including browsers, servers, phones, etc.

T-Mobile Announce HTC G2 Specs: 800 GHz Processor and Android 2.2

Steven Finch — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:17:52 +0000

T-Mobile has just announced on their site the official specs for the new HTC G2. The G2 will be running on Android 2.2 and will be powered by an 800 MHz Scorpion processor.

T-Mobile is billing the device as the “fastest smartphone experience in America” thanks to the company’s HSPA+ network with “4G” speeds. The device will come with Adobe Flash 10.1 and the G2 will be exclusive to T-Mobile.

AOL Morphs Yedda into AOL Answers their Basic Questions and Answers Service

Steven Finch — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:37:17 +0000

It has nearly been three years since AOL acquired Israeli question and answer service Yedda. In that time it seems as though AOL has done completely nothing with the product, until now! AOL has just launch AOL Answers which is pretty much Yedda with a pretty AOL title.

AOL Answers is a straight-forward Q&A site similar to the plethora of other services out there, including Yahoo Answers, Answers.com and Ask Answers. I think its a real shame that AOL didnt try to improve this question and answer service, possibly add a lot more social features and get it to compete with Quora and Aardvark.

After using AOL Answers I have found it to be quite boring in general. I really think AOL is just trying to get some SEO traffic, so it will then look even better when they come to try to sell advertising. AOL Answers has a very poor design and it just doesnt hook into Facebook or even Twitter. Would also have been a good idea for AOL to have suggested content below the questions, which then linked to other AOL products.

HP Launch First Ever 3D Laptop: HP Envy 17 3D

Steven Finch — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:27:36 +0000

HP have decided to jump into the market early and launch their first ever 3D technology Laptop. The HP Envy 17 3D Laptop delivers amazing 3D viewing on the large 17.3 inch screen. Fitted with speakers and subwoofer to bring out the best, the company is surely aware that they would be making a big bunch on the name of it being 3D.

Other features include:

Blu-ray player
2TB hard drive for storage
Intel quad core i7 processor backed by the AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5850 Graphics Card

Furthermore, the 3D glasses a powered by Xpan HD which talk to the built-in receiver located where the webcam usually is. It is also heard that HP is offering a bundle of 200 3D games along with the Laptop. The HP Envy 17 3D Laptop is tagged at a price of $1989.00.

iMovieTube: Watch Movies Online Without Downloading Any Software

Steven Finch — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:44:55 +0000

We received a tip this morning about a great movie streaming service. The movie site is called iMovieTube and it allows users to stream movies online without having to download any software. All movies offered on iMovieTube is completely free and legal and it plays in a great high quality movie player.

The movie database itself has some great movies, most are however a little older. Unlike most of free movie sites online, you dont have to fill out any annoying surveys or download any software. iMovieTube lets you stream all the movies directly in your browser with no country restrictions.

Currently, most movies and TV shows online are moving towards a rental type platform, but I can see a service taking off which offers a “Spotify for movies”.

Devillusion Entertianment Launch Browser Based Strategy Game Aloriah

Steven Finch — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:43:57 +0000

Devillusion Entertainment, a Swedish game development company, has just announced their new browser based strategy game called Aloriah. Aloriah took over three years to develop and it was launch just yesterday.

By taking inspiration from real time strategy games and using the latest Web 2.0 technologies to merge these ideas on an online site, a complete and fresh gaming experience is presented to the user. The line between browser games and retail games is getting blurred, something that earlier was an illusion, has come alive.

Im yet to play the game, but from the look of the screenshots it seems pretty good.

Need Your Suggestions! Crenk Community Site Looking for Your Thoughts and Comments

Steven Finch — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:02:54 +0000

Here are Crenk we are testing out a new community site which we have developed with Vanilla. The site is a mixture of a forum / question and answer site. We are asking users to provide some suggestions on what categories they would like to see in this service. Do you want to talk about Apple, Google, Web Apps, Buying and Selling Websites??

If you have any suggestions please make sure you leave a comment below. Additionally, if you want to check out the shell of the site which is in Alpha stage, please click here and help us build this community.

Thanks

Crenk Team

Random Posts

Aljazeera Launch Their All New English News Portal

Steven Finch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:58:18 +0000

Aljazeera, the third largest international news network, has just launch their completely new English website.

The new portal comes with some major improvements the most important would be:

Simpler design with focus on major news topics and the types of media they’re presented in

Bigger more readable text

Improved branding, colors and more whitespace

Better Navigational structure that push three new sections InDepth, Video, and Blogs

Better Sharing capabilities and Social networking integration

Brilliant navigational multipurpose footer

Apple Launch Upgraded iPod Touch

Steven Finch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:24:51 +0000

The new iPod Touch is here! Apple have just announced they will be releasing a new iPod Touch just in time for the holiday season. Apple has also added some great new features to the iPod Touch, which Im sure will only increase their portable device marketshare. The new iPod Touch is only one of the new products Apple will be releasing in time for the holiday season.

iPod Touch new features include:

Retina Display – a much better display which bring everything into focus.
Front Facing Camera
HD Camera on the back
FaceTime application – allows friends to video call each other on iPhone and iPod Touch devices
Game Center – allows friends to play games against each other and compare scores, etc.

All these additions are great and it seems like Apple have really listened to what users are looking for. I personally would have liked to have seen a new shell design (something similar to iPhone 4), but I can see why they aren’t going overboard with this product, especially considering they are dominating the market at the moment.

Are there any additions you would have liked to have seen on the new iPod Touch?

Bye Bye iTV. Apple TV Upgrade is Here

Steven Finch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:08:25 +0000

Here at Crenk we previously reported about Apple and how they were going to rebrand their TV service to iTV. This just simply was a false rumour! Sorry about that!

Anyways, Apple have just announced the upgrade of Apple TV and there is no rebranding in sight. Apple TV allows users to rent from the largest selection of HD movies and tv shows and even hook up to Netflix, photo, Youtube, Flickr and more. Oh and did I mention that its only $99!

I’m loving the fact that with the new Apple TV everything is simple and easy to use. Most customers don’t like the fact that they have to worry about storage and now with Apple TV they dont. Everything available on Apple TV is streamed wirelessly. That way you don’t have to worry about managing storage or syncing to your iTunes library.

Official: Download iTunes 10

Steven Finch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:52:27 +0000

Apple have just announced the release of iTunes 10. Firstly with iTunes 10 Apple have decided to launch a new logo for iTunes. However, the big news from iTunes 10 is the release of a built in music social network called Ping. Ping brings in feeds from Facebook and Twitter, and allows users to follow news from their favourite artists or see what their friends have been purchasing in the iTunes store. The real aim of Ping is to help users find new music within iTunes and then allow them to share it with their friends.

If you want to download iTunes 10 you can download it here.

Imbalance: Free Minimalist WordPress Theme Perfect for Photoblog or Portfolio

Steven Finch — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:53:32 +0000

Imbalance is a free wordpress theme in modern-minimalist style. Imbalance is a very user friendly, jQuery powered theme which looks really well under any browser and OS. Perfectly fits for your blog, online magazine or portfolio websites.