Archive for: internet

TubeRadio Redefines Online Music Listening

home_logoIt’s not uncommon for us here at Crenk to come across web applications that do the same thing, the only differences are that some might do it better or worse than another. In this case, the team has come across a very interesting music listening application called TubeRadio.

Once again for the music lover in all of us, this just astounds me. Now it does not have the capability to tap into your own stored music, but as powerful as this search engine is, this could very well replace my Pandora or Last.Fm efforts, even if only for a little while. TubeRadio calls itself the Youtube for music. After you see the video below, you’ll know what I mean.

So what do you think? They search is amazing and very thorough. I’m surprised at how music it can find, and even more so by how seamless the integration of listening and/or watching your music can be. During the video the speaker mentions it being like your personal MTV. Yeah, MTV, from when it used to actually play music.

My experience with TubeRadio has been a good one. I’ve found what I want to listen to, it streams everything smoothly with little problem. In my opinion the only thing really missing is the ability to tap into my own music, but I can overlook that for now since I’m lining up some great music of my own, and of other recommended playlists.

Online Music Search with JukeFly

If you’re a music junkie like I am, chances are you have multiple mp3 players lying around, probably a ton of music on your computer, external drives, and/or stored off-site in cloud storage somewhere. Music for me defines who I am and is attached to a lot of my memories. While some people tie their memories to sights, sounds, and smells, I’ve always tied my memories to music. Which is why when something new makes it easier for me access my music and listen to what I want to when I need to, then I’m all for it.

There’s a web application that I’ve just been introduced to called JukeFly. The concept of Juke Fly is simple, if not multifaceted. For starters it’s a great way to search music. The interface allows you to find your music, but not just the audio, it will pull video from YouTube and a variety of other sources to give you a complete look at the music you’re looking for. It also pulls album covers, lyrics, group information, and other extras that make for an interesting experience. So as a search I was able to find a lot of what I was looking for, and see extras that I have never seen before like live performances, behind the scenes extras, and yes, even other people covering the music. I found this to be an interesting extra to just searching and playing music.

Add on top of that layer the ability to play YOUR music from just about anywhere as long as the main computer you’re pulling from is one and has an online connection. So if you’re traveling and accessing another computer, or if you don’t want to carry your music with you on your laptop, you can simply install the small installer that comes with JukeFly, go through the settings, and that’s it. It will read your music folders, pull the necessary data and you can listen to your music library from wherever you are.

There are some other options out there that offer music search and remote access, so perhaps this is not something entirely new, but I found the interface easy to use, and had a fun enough time finding some old music I had not heard in awhile. Have you used Juke Fly? Maybe you know of another alternative, let me know!

Streaming Music Online Via Browser

I’m a huge fan of music. I’ve got several versions of the iPod for a variety of occasions, I’ve got streaming music players all over my computer, I’ve got sites bookmarked that stream audio from overseas; for me, there’s just nothing better than paying music for inspiration, clarity, and nostalgia. To increase my music listening abilities I’ve used plugins such as FoxyTunes to give me access to my music straight from my browser, but what if I’m not home or on my laptop. There’s a good chance I’ve got my mobile on me and I can stream from there, but for those of us always changing computers, or using public computers, there’s now an interesting option that we can participate with.

Stereo8 is a new stream audio web app that streams straight from your browser. No downloading, no installing, no problems. Just about any browser should work (I tested on Safari, Firefox, IE6 and IE7, Opera, and Chrome). Simply select a genre of music you want to listen to, and let the music play. You can interact with the music by voting on what you like, and those votes determine what’s played. Stereo8 calls it self a true internet radio with a twist. That twist is that listeners can vote and share music with one another making it a social community of sorts.

As I write this article I’ve picked the video game category and have listened to some of the biggest games from my present and past. In some of the other categories I was listening to songs that perhaps I was not a fan of myself, and some more obscure songs that I never even knew existed, which is not always a good thing. But if you’re looking to be introduced to something new and unique, far from the beaten path you’re used to traveling, then perhaps Stereo8 is for you. A few stations I found really solid, and just now they started playing the Terran theme from Starcraft, so that’s just an idea of the kind of music you’ll be listening to (at least on the game channel).

Remote Access Online More Cost Efficient

The world of computing and IT has made some big jumps in the last decade. The once powerful Microsoft has started to take a backseat to other companies gaining a strong market share in a variety of industries such as Google, Apple, Yahoo, to name just a few. As the playing field changes, so do the technologies, and virtualization has become a way businesses are now doing business.

We’ve seen an increase in cloud computing, reducing the need for physical technology expenditures and manpower to maintain them. We’ve seen conferences, webinars, communication, all taking place online using online applications that help facilitate these needs.

Techinline Remote Desktop offers virtualization services that offer secure and trouble free connections between PC’s across the globe. While a powerful tool at the corporate level, Techinline is also useful for small businesses, saving on travel and other related expenses.

This instant connection to solve your customer’s technical needs is useful especially if you’ve got clients in multiple locations. Why hire someone for each location when the technical needs associated to software can be handled virtually from one location with Techinline.

There are a lot of remote pc apps out there, so add this one to the list and give it a try If you’ve used remote PC web applications, I’d like to hear your take on it. And if you used Techinline Remote Desktop, let us know your experience and if you’d recommend it.

Apple & Beatles Finally Come Together…

Just not in the way you think.

For at least two years now there’s been huge speculation and anticipation for the Beatles library to be released on iTunes, and in all this time, with as many teases, it just has not happened. Much to our disappointment we seek out their music elsewhere, having to find a library that has all of the music with the sound quality that can best define the music that defined a generation.
Well in a way, Apple and The Beatles have come together, but it’s not something you can download direct onto your iPod. Instead it’s the Beatles inside an apple. Get the picture?
This this USB stick is filled with the entire Beatles library including all the remastered goodness of the fab four’s Stereo Box Set, including 14 albums in lossless FLAC and 320 Kbps MP3 formats, 13 mini-documentary films, replicated UK album art, rare photos, and expanded liner notes. All of this put onto a 16GB stick for your listening and portable enjoyment.

The green apple is an interesting way to bring the two biggest names in media together, but there’s a limited run folks. Only 30,000 of these babies were made, so if you want it, you better act fast. The cost is $280 and comes out on December 8th, 2009. Sure it’s more expensive then the box set itself, but for collectors this is a dream, and honestly, how cool is the apple idea?

Okay, okay, not that cool, but the content is priceless.

Twitter Peek Offers Lackluster Appeal

Back in the early 90’s there was this song, “Things That Make You Go Hmmm…”. It’s this song that I sadly have to reference when mentioning the Twitter Peek. Unlike the song that had some redeeming qualities this doorstopper is the clunkiest piece of technology I’ve seen yet (a disclaimer, I do not own one).

This product is made by Peek. The same company brought you the horrors that were the Pronto Peek and the Meet Peek. I’m not sure why I would want any of these devices since my smartphone does it all, and when I’m not at my mobile, I’m at my desk.

Perhaps therein lies the truth. It’s not geared towards me, the tech savvy geek, but rather the Twitter uninitiated.Despite the millions of users, there are still many demographics who have not embraced it. What a simple bridge to get them to join.

Clever plan or failure upward? Too early to tell, but one thing is for sure, based on their past successes, the Twitter Peek might make a small splash.

The Twitter Peek can be purchased on their website or via Amazon.

Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication

twuffer-logoHeard of Twitter? Sure the whole world has by now. Lone tribes on far islands have heard about Twitter. This massively immersive and widely used micro-blogging network has become a staple for both our personal and professional lives. The world seems to still be feeling the “Twitter effect” as industries adapt their existing messages to fit the fast paced world of this social network.

But do you ever feel like you’re being left behind? Perhaps not enough time to get the right message in a timely fashion? Now there’s a solution to that.

Twuffer presents itself as the buffer between you and your timed messages. By using the web application, you are able to preset messages on a timed schedule to be released on your network at the times you think most important. The possibilities of this type of functionality are as endless as your creativity.

The web app is easy to use and can serve you to better time your announcements, set reminders for yourself or others, engage in timed online activities, or, as the site suggests, make it appear as if you never sleep. The practicality of this app seems pretty straightforward.

The application is currently in beta, but your able to explore what it has to offer pretty seamlessly. I suggest you give it a try to announce regular days when your podcast or blog post will go live, or perhaps some other similar campaign to see if Twuffer is right for you!

Internet Music Innovation with Songbeat360

songbeat_logoToday finding the music you want, when you want it has been channeled to using sites like the Amazon store or iTunes. Sometimes, when looming for an obscure song that is not mainstream, you’d be lucky to find it. This frustrating experience paired with the perceived greedines of corporate music labels has forced many of us to find our music on peer to peer networks or bitorrent sites such the Pirate Bay.

Songbeat360.com is an amazingly innovative way of integrating a music player with a music search. Now you can listen to your favorite songs while searching for more. You are essentially still building your own station, much like Pandora or Last.fm, but on this music player you have the ability to download your music immediately.

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Bypassing the need to go to the likes of Amazon or iTunes may please some, but does the pricing compare? Based on the site, the application is an Adobe Air app, and comes with 25 free credits. Credits are used when a search is done, and searches are supposedly capable of returning up to 500 results, ensuring you will fond what you need. For further credits, those can be purchased via a stored credit card. For $15 you receive 1000 credits for more music, which breaks down to a whole lot less than $.99 per song on the iTunes store. This is of course assuming you find what you want in one search.

Is the next revolution to your music search? I’d say know, but it’s definitely interesting. The pricing alone is attractive, and if the quality is the same, I can see this web app becoming extremely successful.

Fast Internet: 100 Mb Broadband Speed Going Into Sweden

swedish-flag A while back, the Finnish government announced that it was making high-speed internet access a legal right for all of its citizens. They have a point in making such legislation.

Because the Internet is playing a bigger part in work, education and society everyday it’s essential that everyone has access to it. Now the Swedes are adopting the same approach by promising their citizens 100 MB broadband in just over ten years. Imaging how many movies you could download with that!

In all seriousness though, I think this is great news. When the web grows more complex and starts to broadcast SuperHD videos (due in the next few years) we’ll need a seriously fast connection to keep up. At them moment, the base connection in Sweden is 20kb/s which is extremely slow. You’d have to go back to 1998 to get an internet connection that slow by using dial-up. I don’t even want to imagine loading a web page with that – let alone download a movie.

So come 2010 all the Swedes will be downloading ABBA at lightening speed!

Social Networking with 6rounds Expands Online Community

Social networks as they exist depend on the number of friends you start off with and thus you expand your network based on your existing network and grow from there. For many, not having an online presence makes it heard to start a social network when there is no online network to utilize to start. For many this can be frustrating and for many becomes the reason why they do not adopt the social scene. What if there was simply a network that didn’t rely on existing friendships and paired you with new people based on your profile to participate in unique shared experiences?

6Rounds is the answer and the unique network is sure to make a splash in the world of social engagement.
The network itself is designed to be a fully interactive experience incorporating the best of micro-messaging and video networks. There’s now a space for those not interested in hosting entire video shows, or who lack friends to build on a social profile on Facebook or Twitter.
6Rounds functions as a completely unique and diverse network that no user will get the same experience from their engagement. The network allows users to come together in a “live” setting where they will be challenged with “using a combination of webcams, real-time games, social activities and media engagements, we present a wide range of opportunities: from watching videos, playing real-time games, listening to music, Facebooking and Youtubing, to shopping together and beyond,” says the site.This sound a little like speed dating with the entertainment provided, and none of the relationship awkwardness attached. I can see how this would be appealing to both veteran and new entry supporters of social engagement.

The network is free and looks to combine the best of social networking, instant messaging, and video content to create an ever changing user experience.

Going Backpacking? Then CouchSurf!

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” – Roasalia de Castro

This famous quote and many others like it inspire hundreds of thousands of people to buy a big backpack, a pair of Levis jeans and hit the road every single year between college and ‘life’. Yet, sleeping in a bus stations isn’t too appealing. And seeing as this is a technology site I thought I’d offer a solution – CouchSurfing.

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Couch Surfing basically means living life to the fullest and recharging your batteries on people’s couches. And now there is a social network by the same name that is dedicated to finding you a place to lay your head down at night. They now have more than one million members who are travelers and hosts willing to let you spend the night on their couch. All you have to do is take out your iPhone while you’re on the coach to Budapest, do a little search and give whoever lives there a call to see if you can do a spot of couch surfing. Easy.

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The site covers in excess of 55,000 cities in over 230 countries all over the world so no matter where you’re going you’ll find somewhere.

Startuply – Work for Start-ups

Seeing as Crenk is a start-up review site, it occurred to us during our day of endless pondering that many of you may be interested in working for a start-up. But getting in with one can be tough. By their very nature start-ups are small and have a tight knit staff; normally friends who spotted a gap in the market or had a great idea.

Staruply is basically a job site that serves only to advertise jobs in start-ups where YOU can apply for them. Many of the jobs are for things like PR, development and editing. The homepage has the most recent jobs posted by start-ups looking for staff. This list of jobs gives you basic information such as if it is telecommute, fulltime and the salary.

Start-ups can also post jobs for free by using the ‘Post’ option along the top of the site.

Given the recession, many are out of work but have loads of marketable skills. With thousands of people turning to the internet for employment, you better be quick about applying.

In summary: This is a very useful site for the young glossy-eyed graduates and experienced professionals alike.

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