Crenk » cheap

Microsoft Project Natal (Controller Free for Xbox 360) Coming November 2010 and Cheap

Steven Finch — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:02:28 +0000

Microsoft’s upcoming Project Natal add-on for the Xbox 360 is one of the most exciting and interesting new gaming peripherals to be announced in some time. Now it has been reported over at Wireninja that the new Project Natal will be coming in November 2010 and will ship 5 million units in its initial batch, which includes 14 games and a super-low price of £50.

One publishing source says Microsoft is “trying to get as close as possible to ‘impulse buy’”. Another even says the camera could even retail for just £30.

Activision, Bethesda, Capcom, Disney, EA, Konami, MTV, Namco Bandai, Sega, Square Enix, THQ and Ubisoft all committed to make games for the device in an announcement made at last month’s Tokyo Game Show.

Recyclable Paper Laptop That Can Actually Be Thrown Away

Steven Finch — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:12:27 +0000

Laptops these days never seem to last that long. I tend to go through a new laptop every couple of years and when I get new laptop I always have the issue of doing something with the old one. Over the year this adds up to a lost of waste for me and im sure millions of people around the world have exactly same issue.

This big issue is something computer companies are always trying to rectify. Designer Je Sung Park has now taken the idea of a recyclable computer to new heights. His Recyclable Paper Laptop is made from pulp and reprocessed materials, and would be broken down into the same when all is said and done.

Advertising on Crenk Has Never Been So Cheap!

Steven Finch — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:49:39 +0000

Here at Crenk we have recently partnered with Adphilia as our new advertising platform. All fixed price advertising will now go through the Adphilia platform as you can already see in our sidebar.

Current Opportunities:

300 x 100 ad = $100.00 per month – Purchase Here.

We will be offering a monthly round up article in which will include details about all our sponsors and what they offer.

Over the next few months we really hope to bring in more cheap fixed sponsorship opportunities on Crenk, with the aim of really helping startups grab cheap exposure that can really help drive returns.

I also wasnt too sure whether to offer 300×100 ads or 125×125. What do most readers and advertisers prefer?

Seat Hound – Ticket Price Comparison Site

Dean — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:25:34 +0000

Ever been dying to go to a concert, football match or F1 Grand Prix but the most plausible thing happened and you went to buy the tickets two seconds too late. Despair and anger (mostly towards yourself). The only chance you stand now is going on a mission to hunt down someone who has tickets (that may or may not be genuine) and pay two weeks wages for them.

Fear not – seathound.com has the answer. It’s a pretty basic idea and that’s why I love it. Ask any businessman/entrepreneur and they’ll tell you that tackling everyday, well-known problems is the way to make millions in this world.

Seat Hound will locate dozens of tickets for sale. Some are on eBay, others are on independent ticket sales sites – but who cares where you get them? The point is that you’re going!

I typed in ‘U2’ to check it out. I was greeted by dozens of search results from their upcoming gig in Croke Park here in Dublin to events as far away as October in Phoenix. The guys at Seat Hound have clearly done their work. Even small artists that you wouldn’t hear of everyday are listed. This is a great service that I fully intend to use – a lot!

It also saves you money as it displays the ticket prices right next to one another so you can get the best one. Seat Hound will also be so kind as to tell you where the ticket is in relation to the stage, pitch or track etc…. so you won’t need to bring the binoculars.

One bad thing that I will say about it however (and I really am nit picking here) is that it is US focused. While you can still find gigs all over the world – the homepage is dominated by the stripes and the stars. A UK or European version wouldn’t go amiss. 9/10

Zero S: Electric Motorcycle with 31 horsepower

Steven Finch — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:47:25 +0000

Zero Motorcycles has put together an electric motorcycle that has 31 horsepower, 62.5 lbs. of torque, and hits top speeds of about 60MPH. The new motorcycle is called the Zero S and it is a follow-up to the Zero X, a bike that had about a 20 horsepower engine.

The Zero S can drive about 60 miles without needing a recharge. To recharge the full battery, it takes about 4 hours. The Zero S is made of aircraft grade aluminum and has a custom Z-Force power pack for acceleration.

The cost of the bike is about $10,000 or putting $1,000 as a down-payment. The Zero S will begin shipping in May.

Nokia Releases The E75 Into Stores

Steven Finch — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:41:58 +0000

Last week we reviewed the new Nokia N97 that is going to hit stores sometime in the next 3 months, but yesterday Nokia has released the E75. The E75 has Nokia Messaging built-in along with 2.4″ display, 3.2 MP camera, aGPS, WiFi, quad-band EDGE/dual-band HSDPA, and QWERTY keypad. The E75 also works with Ovi services and ships with Ovi Files.

Top 10 P2P File Sharing Clients and Applications

Steven Finch — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:28:37 +0000

Previously on Crenk we have discussed the top 5 bit torrent trackers and the top 5 tools for multi-search for torrents, but this time I thought I would go throught the top 10 peer-2-peer clients.

1) Bittorrent :

This is one of best, fastest, safe and widely used p2p program. Performance of BitTorrent is way better then any other available P2P programs.

Supported Operating System: Windows, Linux, Mac
Download Bittorrent Client

2) Limewire:

LimeWire is clean, safe, virus and malware free p2p software.it has build in media player with optimized search result.supportes download from multiple hosts.

Supported Operating System:

Windows, Linux, Mac
Download Limeware Client

3) Shareaza:

This was one of early p2p program when p2p was still new concept. It supports wide variety of networks like Gnutella, Gnutella2, EDonkey Network, BitTorrent, FTP and HTTP network protocols and which can handle magnet links, ed2k links, Piolet links, and the now deprecated Gnutella links.

Shareza has billions of users and uncountable numbers of files shared across shareaza network

Supported Operating System:

Windows XP, Vista
Download Shareaza Client

4) Kazaa:

Like Shareaza, Kaaza was one of best and most popular p2p during early days of p2p evolution. but in past few year due to many issues like virus infected files, lawsuite, spywares, Kazaa has lost its

popularity.

However kazaa has been continually trying to make Kazaa network virus and spyware free with many new features like built in virus scanner, infected file blocking made available in latest Kazaa Client to protect users.

Kazaa Lite is one of best client of Kazaa P2P network for file sharing.
Supported Operating System:

Windows XP, Vista
Download Kazaa Lite

5) iMesh:

iMesh another popular and

spyware, adware free
p2p file sharing with application multi language support. iMesh claims to have over 15 million FREE songs & videos Over 2 million original high quality songs licensed from the record labels.

Personally I liked iMesh for downloading music and videos but haven’t found it good for downloading any freeware software or application.

Supported Operating System:

Windows XP, Vista
Download iMesh Client for Windows

6) Bearshare Lite:

Bearshare is pretty good

p2p file sharing program with having pretty good user base and millions of files shared on Bearshare also supports for Multilanguage.

Bearshare is good for downloading music and mp3 files
Supported Operating System:

Windows XP, Vista
Download BearShare Client for Windows

7) eMule:

eMule is one of the biggest and most reliable peer-to-peer file sharing clients around the world thanks to its open source support and based on edonkey2000 client.

eMule has Multilanguage support with ability to connect to multiple servers and intelligent file corruption detection system to help you in getting genuine files. eMule is free from

spyware, adware and its completely free.

eMule is also available in portable form to run from your USB derive

Supported Operating System:

Windows XP, Vista
Download eMule Client

8 ) KCeasy:

KCeasy is client based on giFT

peer to peer file sharing protocol. This protocol improves the overall usability of peer to peer network, ability to downloads single file from multiple peers simultaneously. KCeasy supports multiple networks for file sharing.
Supported Operating System:

Windows XP, Vista
Download KCeasy

9) Ares Galaxy:

Ares is one of my favorite p2p program and I have been using it from last 4 years, ares network is not that much big as compared to other p2p but its completely free from viruses, spywares and adwares.

I haven’t got any infected files or corrupted installer. Ares List is used more then normal Ares client because of its low size, speed and performance.

Supported Operating system:

Windows XP, Vista
Download Ares for Windows

10) Soulseek:

Soluseek central server type of P2P file sharing application. Soluseek is good old

p2p file sharing program best of sharing music files. i haven’t tried soluseek ever but have heard that soluseek is best of music, audio, Mp3 file download.
Supported Operating system:

Windows XP, Vista
Download Souleseek Client

iCascade: Rotating Addictive Puzzle Game for iPhone / iPod Touch

Steven Finch — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:24:10 +0000

Everyday we get some interesting emails from iPhone application developers who are looking for a bit of extra press and insight into their apps. Today I thought I would run through iCascade a new game for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

iCascade is a puzzle game that comes with a new addictive gameplay. Try to find the right place for your blocks, but think ahead because the playing field rotates! Get points for 3 or more contiguous blocks. iCascade is a very addictive game that really promotes a huge amount of thought process (well for me anyways).

Download from iTunes here.

20 Twitter Applications Everyone Should Be Using

Steven Finch — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:47:46 +0000

Twitter is growing all over the world and thousands of people are joining on a daily basis. I thought we would put together a quick list of our top 20 Twitter applications.

Twitter Toolbar – Downloading this free toolbar gives you instant access to Twitter. You can use the toolbar to access online Twitter tools, check your Twitter stats, post your updates and more. Versions are available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Twitoria – This simple application lets you quickly find out which of your followers has not been actively tweeting. Easily sort through your network of followers and purge the inactive users.

Monitter – Get a live streaming view at what Twitter users in your location are saying about you or your small business. Simply insert keywords you would like to search for and the surrounding area you would liked monitored.

Bubble Tweet – This unique application lets you post a short video message that pops up on your Twitter profile in a bubble shaped player. You can personally introduce yourself and/or your business to anyone who visits your profile.

Twitter Gallery – A collection of free backround themes for your Twitter account. You can use the one click installation or manually install them yourself. Lots of nice designs and colors to choose from.

Tweepler – Simplify the way you manage your Twitter followers. Tweepler enables you to easily sort through new followers and accept them or ignore them on one simple screen. They have made accepting followers easier by giving the Tweepler user the followers stats and last 3 tweets in one screen view. This will save you time by eliminating the need to visit each individual follower’s profiles.

Twit This – Allow visitors to your blog or website to easily post Twitter messages about you or your business. Post the TwitThis button to your website or blog pages with the instructions and coding provided on their site.

StockTwits – Follow and join into conversations with traders and investors. An active community of investors are sharing their views on current market conditions and recent news happenings. You can quickly see what others are saying about investments in your portfolio.

HelloTxt – Update your status to several social networking sites in one simple step. You can choose from over 35 social sites to post to including Twitter.

TwitterFox – This Firefox extension is one of my personal favorites. You can post Twitter updates without visiting the Twitter site each time. A small icon is added to the bottom of your Firefox status bar. The icon opens to reveal your friend’s most current updates. You can add your updates from that dialog box, even for multiple Twitter accounts.

Future Tweets – Do you have something to promote on Twitter tomorrow but are afraid of forgetting to do it? With FutureTweets, you can schedule your tweet ahead of time for a specific date and time. Even schedule reoccuring tweets to post daily, monthly, even yearly.

TwitPic – Share your favorite pictures on Twitter. This would be a good way to introduce your new product to your network of followers.

twtQpon – Create exclusive coupons for your business services or products and share them with your Twitter followers.

Tweetburner – This site is designed to help you track your tweets. With Tweetburner you can shorten URLs and track the clicks your tweets accumulate.

Tweetbeep – Just like Google Alerts, Tweetbeep tracks Twitter conversations that mention you, your business or your products and services. Alerts are sent to you via email.

Twitter Counter – Proudly display the number of Twitter followers on your business blog or website. Add the badge to your site and invite customers to follow you on Twitter.

Group Tweet – This app enables all employees within your company to post updates which can be privately viewed only by your group of approved members.

Twitter Safe – This free service protects your years of hard work building your community of followers. This one click backup will restore your network of followers in the event that your list is compromised.

Twitxr – Post product pictures and updates from your mobile phone directly to Twitter.

Track This – This app enables tracking of any UPS, USPS, FedEx or DHL shipment. Updates are sent to your Twitter account direct messages whenever your package changes location.

Amazon Launches Casual Gaming Download Store

Steven Finch — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:01:51 +0000

Amazon has launched on Tuesday a new video game download store. The site itself can be found here. The initial library offers over 600 games which are all under $10. All casual games are currently for the PC platform, but Im sure this will branch out in the near future.

The store allows customers to download and try any game for 30 minutes, after which point they may choose to pay for the full version.

“We have 88 million active customers who can appreciate the convenience of the true amazon shopping experience combined with the casual games experience,” Greg Hart, VP of video games and software at Amazon, told Kotaku.

While the service currently lacks some of the more popular casual games from top publishers, it will look to expand its selection.

Amazon recently acquired casual game developer Reflexive, which counts a library of over 1,000 games.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster to Merge

Steven Finch — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:46:26 +0000

Are Live Nation and Ticketmaster planning to merge? According to a Wall Street Journal report emerging Tuesday evening, the answer is yes. The paper noted that the pair are “close to a merger,” citing “people familiar with the matter”. The tie-up would effectively combine the largest live concert conglomerate with the biggest ticketing company, resulting in a massive conglomerate. The deal, expected to be cashless, could be announced in a matter of weeks, according to the report.

Sounds like a big deal, though regulators could hold up the marriage. That is no small consideration, especially in light of the massive delays experienced by recent newlyweds Sirius Satellite and XM Satellite Radio. Those partners required both the approval of the US Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), though the Justice approval on its own was quite lengthy.

Other issues are also worth noting. Live Nation just launched a homegrown ticketing service; a merger could effectively nix that attempt. Moreover, it remains unclear which party is actually acquiring, and where the top executives would land.

Only $10 To Now Advertise On The Crenk Sidebar

Steven Finch — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:26:18 +0000

Some of you have already noticed that we have added a new advertising option into the sidebar. The services is provided by BuySellAds, and we are currently offering this direct advertising options (300 x 100px) for only $10 per month. There are currently 6 places on offer so be fast. We are hoping that this ad slot will allow startups get some extra promotion for a very cheap price. The stats for the site havent been updated yet, but as a startup you can expect a minimum of 40k ad impressions per month for only $10, bargain!

Amazon Mp3 Store Launches For UK Market

Steven Finch — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:19:48 +0000

Amazon has just launched their Mp3 Music store in the UK. The store can be found at http://mp3.amazon.co.uk. The simple-to-use digital music store offering over 3 million DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) songs which will work on any MP3 player including the iPod™- with top-selling albums from just £3 and individual songs from 59p.

Amazon Mp3 UK has all four major labels signed up, SonyBMG, Universal Music, EMI Music and Warner Music – and leading independents such as Cooking Vinyl, Harmonia Mundi, Beggars Banquet, The Orchard, Concord and IODA.

Greg Greeley, Vice-President of Amazon EU Retail said: “We’re excited to provide our UK customers with more ways to discover and enjoy great music. In addition to the millions of low-priced CDs available in our music store, Amazon MP3 now provides a vast selection of DRM-free albums and songs across every genre you can think of, ready to enjoy in seconds”.

CD Baby Acquisition for $22m Was Way Too Cheap

Steven Finch — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:33:39 +0000

A couple of months ago CD Baby, one of the largest online sellers of music for indie bands, was acquired by Disc Makers. At that time the price was not disclosed, but now the founder Derek Sivers has disclosed to VentureVoice that the sale price was $22 million. Sivers owned 100 percent of the company he founded in 1998.

A lot of people are talking about a good winfall for Sivers, but Im really too sure what numbers they are looking at. Cd Baby published a report stating their sales from January to July 07, which made up of $21m in revenues, thus by the end of the year Im sure they would have around $50m in revenues. From what I have seen of web based enterprise acquisitions lately, they are normally around 5x revenues, thus placing Cd Baby around the $250m mark. Therefore selling at $22m is just a crazy cheap price and not a winfall!

Seesmic Acquires Twhirl, But Their Still In Alpha Themselves!

Steven Finch — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:41:10 +0000

Seesmic which claims to be the Twitter for video has just acquired Twhirl. Although Seesmic is still in Alpha this seems to be a good purchase on the outside. Twhirl is one of the most popular Adobe AIR apps and allows users to post to their Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce accounts. This is the first acquisition ever of a pure AIR application and im sure it wont be the last.

For other coverage on this acquisition take a look at BlogHerald and Mashable. Im also interested to see what Arrington has to say about the acquisition, because he is an investor in Seesmic, however Mark Hendrickson did the review for Techcrunch of the story.

Crenk – Advertising Network Free!

Steven Finch — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:15:08 +0000

I have long been playing around with the idea of monetizing Crenk but for all the trouble it just doesnt seem worth it at the moment. Ad networks tend to take the majority of the money and dont really give too much back in return. Hence, i thought i would try an experiment, and go Advertising Network Free!

The aim is to provide Advertising on Crenk from an in-house solution and do it cheap. This way i hope that i can provide real value for money and not just give it all to the middleman (ad network). Hence from now until the end of the year the following prices will stand, no matter what my traffic ranking is (and hopefully that should really increase).

125 x 125 Banner Site Wide = $20 per month
Text Ad Link Site Wide = $10 per month

I really want to try to show people that they dont have to use Ad Networks to make a decent amount of money, but we will just have to wait and see if this is viable!

Bid for My Banner

Steven Finch — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:52:57 +0000

Crenk is auctioning off a 125 x 125 banner spot on this site, and the highest bidder as of midnight GMT on the 30th October, will receive that spot for 30 days! from the 1st November. Bidding starts at $1 and each subsequent bid should be made in at least $1 increments. As always, payments can only be made through PayPal.

Crenk has grow rapidly since the 21st August and I am expecting 30,000 impression on the banner in the 30 days. This could be the cheapest banner slot you ever purchase!

Who will win the very first auctioned ad space on Crenk.com? Will it be you? Let the bidding begin!