Im still in shock that AOL has acquired the Huffington Post for $315 million. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong sent an internal memo to all AOL employees and here is exactly what it said.

AOLers,

We are taking another major step in the comeback of AOL. Today we are announcing that we have agreed to acquire The Huffington Post, one of the most exciting, influential, and fastest growing properties on the Internet. We believe in brands, quality journalism, and the positive role of communities in the world—The Huffington Post shares our values and the combination of the two companies will create the premier global and local media company on the Internet.

Co-founded six years ago by Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer, The Huffington Post has grown to become an industry leader—one of the Web’s most popular and innovative sources of online news, commentary, and information. Arianna and team have created a brand and a destination that focuses on the consumer experience. By combining The Huffington Post with AOL’s network of sites, thriving video offerings, local expertise and enormous reach, we will create a company that is laser-focused on serving our audiences across every platform imaginable – social, local, video, mobile and tablet.

The Huffington Post is core to our strategy and our 80:80:80 focus – 80% of domestic spending is done by women, 80% of commerce happens locally and 80% of considered purchases are driven by influencers. The influencer part of the strategy is important and will be potent.

The Huffington Post is a strong influencer brand and it attracts a valuable audience, including a great focus on women’s content. In addition, Arianna Huffington is a world-renowned expert on women’s topics and issues, and has enabled The Huffington Post to grow rapidly by continually developing new audiences.

In the local area, the combination of the two companies will create a scaled connection between global and local communities on one platform. This will create a new way for people to get local and global information in a timely and entertaining way.

The Huffington Post will join the family of AOL Brands that are destinations for an influencer audience, brands like TechCrunch, Engadget, AutoBlog, and Moviefone. Uniquely, The Huffington Post is the platform for influential people — the people that drive trends, commerce, politics, entertainment, news, and information. Adding this strategic platform to our already strong network of sites, including the AOL homepage, has the potential to make AOL the most influential company in the content space.

Arianna Huffington is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Internet space and someone that is even more successful in building communities and relationships in every corner of the globe. The Huffington Post and Arianna have created a company that has partnered with the most successful and well-known leaders in all aspects of society that touch important topics to give consumers direct access to the most influential decision makers and community leaders.

This acquisition will create a high-quality and diverse digital ecosystem encompassing local, national and international news, politics, entertainment, technology, fashion, sports, health, personal finance, green, lifestyle, the arts and more. This deal will combine the amazing talent at AOL with the innovative and talented staff of The Huffington Post. Here are just a few high-level points around what this deal brings to market:

• Together, AOL and The Huffington Post will have 117MM unduplicated domestic monthly UVs, and ~270MM monthly UVs worldwide (according to comScore Dec 2010).
• The Huffington Post is one of the fastest growing web properties on the Internet. It grew 22% last year – that’s faster than Twitter, which grew 18% – and 15x as quickly as the Internet grew last year (comScore Dec ’09-’10).
• Both AOL and The Huffington Post count powerful, affluent users among their top loyal visitors, significantly over-indexing in $100K+ income users.
• AOL passed Hulu in unique viewers on video in the fourth quarter of 2010; video views on AOL are up 400 percent year-over-year.
• Between AOL’s innovative Project Devil ad unit, engaging users for 27 seconds longer than traditional display ads, and The Huffington Post’s highly-vocal community, with 4MM+ comments per month, we will marry attention-grabbing content and brand experiences for both advertisers and consumers.

In the local area, the combination of the two companies will create a premier global/local syndication network at scale. This will create a new way for people to get local and global information in a timely, informative and entertaining way.

To maximize the strategic advantage of this great deal, we will be creating a new group at AOL called The Huffington Post Media Group. Within this group will be AOL Media, AOL Local & Mapping, AOL Search and our new friends at The Huffington Post. We will continue operating the towns structure, AOL.com and HuffingtonPost.com.

I’m thrilled to announce that Arianna Huffington will join AOL’s executive team as President and Editor in Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. We have asked Jon Brod to lead the overall operational integration on the AOL side of the combined entities. Jon will lead the local group integration and work closely with David Eun and the teams in AOL Media. We will work quickly with The Huffington Post to create a combined organizational design to coincide with the deal closing. While we wait for the required regulatory reviews to be completed and the transaction to close before implementing the design, we will move very quickly to plan the details of the integration of the two companies. To this end, we will announce the new organizational structure as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we will continue creating great content and products for our consumers within the town structure and stay laser-focused on the aggressive goals we have set for our winter luge. We are on the right track and will continue our weekly operating cadence and town structure to drive successful results against our company goals.

Here’s a special message for all of you we taped to welcome The Huffington Post and Arianna to our AOL Family:

http://today.office.aol.com/company-news/2011/02/aol-agrees-buy-huffington-post

And of course we wanted to welcome Arianna to our “You’ve Got” video of the day—check her out on AOL.com.

We will be holding a company all hands meeting to address your questions related to today’s exciting news. We will video conference from our New York office on the 6th Floor at 9:30 AM ET and will be joined by Arianna Huffington and key executives from her organization. We will also be holding a call for our west coast offices at 2:00 PM ET and for our Patch offices at 2:45 PM ET. See below for meeting info (conference rooms will be sent out shortly).

AOL is playing to win…and The Huffington Post and AOL will occupy a unique place in the future of the Internet. Let’s go get it done.

–TA

• AOL Closing Over 30 Sites and Laying Off 900 Employees – March 23, 2011
• Did AOL Really Buy The Huffington Post for the Great Content? – February 8, 2011
• GoViral Video Advertising Network Acquired by AOL Europe for $96.7 million – February 1, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Gdgt Sign Deal with Engadget and in Acquisition Talks with Cnet – October 25, 2011

AOL Acquire the Huffington Post for $315 Million: Internal Email originally appeared on: Crenk
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Kodak Slice offers up 14 mega-pixel photo quality.

on what they trust and feel comfortable with. A company like Kodak carries a longstanding tradition of quality, expertise, and longevity. Recently Kodak has made a surprise jump into the “cool camera” running with the new Kodak Slice which is simply amazing.

The new pocket cam sports a 14 mega-pixel shot, a 3.5 inch touch-screen, 5x optical zoom lens, 720p/30fps HD video recording, and optical image stabilization. For a point and shoot, this little powerhouse is going to capture everything you need and more. Called the slice for the thin design that makes it easy for anyone to toss into their pocket and carry with them. Internally the camera itself can store up to 5,000 HD photos, which is mind blowing when you look at the size of this device.

I thin for many of us just the image stabilization is enough to warrant an eye on this camera. The reduction of unsteady hands can make any picture a worthwhile shot. Your point of reference on the back side, the touch screen, is surprisingly vibrant ensuring your shot is the best quality possible. The Kodak Slice currently retails for $350.

• Explore Prague in 360 – December 23, 2009
• New iPod Nano to Feature 1.3 Megapixel Camera and No Clip – May 12, 2011
• Sony NEX FS-100 Camera Isnt As Good As It Should Be – March 27, 2011
• Aperture 3 Removed From Mac App Store Without Warning – March 22, 2011
• AOL Acquire the Huffington Post for $315 Million: Internal Email – February 7, 2011

Kodak Slice Ambitious Pocket Cam originally appeared on: Crenk
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Apple devices come with a native recording device, and even social networkslike Utterli have functioned as a way to capture audio and share it, but none have been as easy as and intuitive as Audio Boo for the iPhone and the iTouch is. The application takes voice recording to a whole new level with a press of a button. Before you know it, you just might start audio recording a whole lot more than you think.

Audio Boo is both a desktop and mobile app. The desktop app allows you to configure your account, asking you where you’d like your “Boo’s” to post. You can choose from a variety of social networks but it’s also stored in the audio stream for others to interact with and comment on.

With a mic you can simply press record and share your message. When done, you stop the recording and then input a message you want attached to the recording, this message is what is seen when the Boo is posted to your accounts. You’re also able to tag it with keywords for easier finding not just for you but for your listening audience.

Audio Boo is free and easy to use for both the iPhone and the iTouch so get the mobile app, configure on the desktop app and get your recordings started.

• Zemanta Levels Blogger Playing Field – December 8, 2009
• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• Is Foursquare the Perfect Crime? – February 19, 2010
• Foursquare Fans Check-in via Desktop with FoursquareX – January 17, 2010

Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone originally appeared on: Crenk
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There’s no doubt that the skeptics who thought that Apple had no chance in theportable music player department hid when Apple’s iPod hit the market and took the mp3 music players by storm. Very few technological innovations make such an impact on our culture and yet Apple redefined what it is to listen, interact, and engage our music. Their style of minimalist design served them well with the generations of iPods to come down the line, but now times have changed.

The market for mp3 players has widened with lots of entrants, but few are capable of toppling the giant, so instead they offer an alternative to those not willing to give into Apple’s tight restriction to the Apple iTunes store. Nevertheless, iPods have had to redefine how they are interacted with and that’s when the iTouch came out. This unique tactile surface mp3 player gave users a unique experience that was unseen in the market for portable music players. Since then Apple has never looked back, and the iTouch has swelled in huge numbers.

From June to November alone, the market share grew 5%, which in Apple’s world is a huge market. Most of this is attributed to the apps that you can install on the mobile device and the bevy of games that Apple is turning to to keep users entertained and constantly in contact with their device.

But is there a deeper agenda then just the one present? Mac Rumors suggests that Apple is quietly turning the iTouch into the gateway device for future iPhone users. Similar to the concept of a gateway drug, it’s opening doors and increasing familiarity that users will appreciate and then look for something more substantial. That’s where the iPhone comes into play.

It’s not surprising that this agenda may or may not have been planned because in the grand scheme of things it’s almost a natural progression. Users may still be carrying around two devices, interacting with their iTouch much more, but in time, the iTouch user will want to carry only one device but still have the access to the vast library of apps they are familiar with on the iTouch. The iPhone then comes into play, so I’m not quite sure if this was the intended plan or just luck that it’s working out that way, but in either case it’s a moot issue. Apple is still taking this concept all the way to the bank.

• Album Art to Complete Your Collection – February 10, 2010
• iPhone App Reviews for Social Media News – March 2, 2009
• AutoCAD for iPad, iPhone and Mac OS – September 27, 2010
• Sony’s New PSP Phone Threatens Apple? – August 12, 2010
• Apple’s Smart Bike – August 7, 2010

iTouch Acting as Gateway Drug to iPhone originally appeared on: Crenk
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More recently Zemanta has made efforts to level the playing field, finally succeeding in opening up it’s engine to include not just articles of recommendation from relevant sites, but to also include recommendations from other bloggers who, perhaps have not hit their stardom online. This gives an great opportunity for a smaller blog site to be listed as related content and drive traffic to the site while at the same time providing a level of authority they would have otherwise not been able to have.

Naturally the fear of diluting the related content option has been expressed, but by not allowing the larger community of bloggers to be listed also kept users from seeing some of the quality content produced on smaller sites, so in my eyes the door swung both ways.  TechCrunch did make a good point in stating that the service will at least ensure that users will keep returning, and in that perhaps lies the real gem of keeping the community together.

• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• Personally Publish Self Works with Lulu – January 1, 2010

Zemanta Levels Blogger Playing Field originally appeared on: Crenk
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The immersion of Family Guy into our pop culture is undeniable, and so much so, that even George Lucas approved a parody for the recreation of Star Wars, starring the characters of Family Guy fame. The working title which was “Blue Harvest“, the original fake working title for Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Star Wars franchise. This episode showed as the first episode of the sixth season that ran an hour long.

Now fans are rejoicing as the release of the sequel, Something, Something, Something, Darkside, originally scheduled to be the season 7 finale had been pushed back to season 8 opener. The episode is now in all of it’s DVD glory ($15) for the rest of us to enjoy and there’s a lot more attached to this DVD then meets the eye.

In addition to the double length feature, fans will get audio commentary, deleted scenes, a behind the scenes featurette, and a whole lot more. The film is expected to be released on Dec. 22, 2009 and already people have been made aware that a reading for another sequel based on Return of the Jedi has already happened. So get ready folks, the Star Wars franchise is getting turned upside down thanks to the Griffin family.

• AOL Acquire the Huffington Post for $315 Million: Internal Email – February 7, 2011
• Why People Who Work with Computers Have a Lot of Spare Time? – June 2, 2010
• Kodak Slice Ambitious Pocket Cam – January 16, 2010
• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• iTouch Acting as Gateway Drug to iPhone – December 8, 2009

Geeks Rejoice for Family Guy Parody originally appeared on: Crenk
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Recently I’ve found the pleasure of a mobile Scrabble app called Words with Friends. This app replicates everything I remembered from playing Scrabble with my family that I instantly became hooked. Words with Friends has an amazing number of additions that truly define this powerhouse of entertainment.

For starters you are able to connect two of the most popular social profiles, Facebook and Twitter. This will not only announce your scores but also invite your friends to join you in a game. Furthermore the app has the built in ability to run more than one game at a time. When I started playing, it was not unusual for me to be playing four to five games at once. Definitely something you could not do with a Scrabble board.

You are capable of communicating with your competitor via an internal chat system within the game, and the push notifications make it useful for you to play your round and walk away. When your opponent makes their move, your are instantly notified and games continue when you have time. It’s not uncommon for players to carry on multiple games at the same time and all games are time stamped when the last play was made and by whom.

The app is FREE, but be warned, the game is highly addicting and may be responsible for a huge loss of time throughout the day.

• Raptr Is the Ultimate Gaming Service: Connects PSN, Xbox and More – May 16, 2011
• iPhone App Reviews for Social Media News – March 2, 2009
• NVIDIA Tegra 3: Next Generation in Games to Mobile Devices – November 10, 2011
• Microsoft Entering the Mobile Games Market – August 15, 2010
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009

Get Your Word Fix with Word Free originally appeared on: Crenk
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There’s a lot of apps out there, both mobile and desktop, that use the Twitter API to make it more “functional” for power users. What’s a power user? Well if you’ve got more than one account on Twitter, have over 1000 friends, and like to have your posts link to other social networks where you have a community, then you are probably a power user.

In the race to be the most dominant desktop application for Twitter, TweetDeck is definitely one of the leading contenders. Having been around for about a year, TweetDeck has taken the Twitter experience to a whole new level. It’s integrating the use of multiple columns, and attaching itself to URL shorteners, photo posting apps like Twitpic, and the ability link to other network like Facebook, all under one app. But just recently TweetDeck has evolved again, and this time, making it even more useful for power users to extend their reach further into the social web.

Last week TweetDeck released an update that now allows you to link your messages to LinkedIn and MySpace, the option to Retweet the way you want, locating your friends, and the ability to integrate Twitter lists into your columns. If there ever was a center to the social universe, TweetDeck could very easily take that spot.

TweetDeck is an Adobe AIR desktop application compatible with several operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux. An Phone version was released on the 19th June 2009.

• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication – November 6, 2009
• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• Raptr Is the Ultimate Gaming Service: Connects PSN, Xbox and More – May 16, 2011

Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users originally appeared on: Crenk
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For those of us in the business of online marketing, brand building, or building web strategies for companies, Jeremiah Owyang is a familiar name. His innovative thought leadership has defined the world of online web strategies and how companies interact with audiences.

His blogs have been a ranked as one of the top sites in Technorati, and his career board has increased the number of visitors to his website simply because of his strong belief in connecting people. Jeremiah “strives to define and deliver user and community needs, business goals, and web technology to craft and deliver long term successful web programs for companies.”

Most recently the web strategy guru has released a mobile app that now allows fans and followers to keep up with what’s happening on the blog and career board via their iPhone or iTouch. MotherApp‘s creative innovation has brought to life a clean and intuitive application to life. Via the interface you get access to his thoughts via the blog, his Twitter stream, and the ability to favorite tweets or blogs posts you find interesting.

If you’re into online marketing or strategizing web initiatives, check this app out. I’ve found that the information on here is useful and applicable immediately for just about any brand you develop for.

• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• iPhone App Reviews for Social Media News – March 2, 2009
• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• Web Design Ease with Axess.im – November 30, 2009

Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App originally appeared on: Crenk
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With content accessible on our mobile, it’s become more common for us to be productive with our mobile devices to get more work done. Cell phones and other mobile devices have become the digital leashes that collar us to work, but at the same time it also keeps us connected to life’s information flow. As we become a more connected community via social media tools, it’s always useful to hear how others have made it work for them.

Recently I was stuck on a prolonged trip where I could have done one of two things, sit and just let time pass, or find an effective way to keep what I do going. I opted for the latter and as a writer for various websites across the web, I found the magic combination that keeps what I do going even if I’m not on my laptop or desktop.

For starters I have a iPhone and I’ve set up my apps in such a way that I can now more easily stream line the writing process using apps that I’ve linked together because of how they work together. If there’s a Blackberry alternative out there, I’d love to hear how you keep your brand running even if you’re on the go.

Documents2: Is the app I use to write my article. I use this article specifically because when I write I can back up automatically to my Google Docs and send a copy via email if I choose, all without leaving the app. This makes backing up my work easy.

Safari: I use Safari to quickly grab a creative commons photo from Flickr or any other photo site. I save the photo to the device and make sure that I get all relevant information for attribution purposes.

PS Mobile: This free Photoshop tool is great for quick edits to photos like resizing or cropping on the go. I don’t look for this tool to do anything more than I know it’s capable of and save the photo and move on.

WordPress: Using the WordPress app I bring in my copy, insert photos, include attribution, and tag and label my post accordingly. With a press of the button my articles are posted and I move on to my next task.

The above process may seem like it take a lot of moving around from one app to another, and I admit at first it did take more time than I would have liked. But after making this part of your routine, you become faster at it, and grouping icons by purpose instead of type, like most people do, you can easily access your tools to ensure that your posts are published.

Photo Credit Christopher Chan

• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• Linkedin iPhone Update Offers More Functionality – December 29, 2009
• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009

Publish Your Content On Your Mobile originally appeared on: Crenk
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Tracking mentions online is a huge market that has yet to turn any profit. Still, there are a lot of sites out there that track mentions on Twitter, Facebook, various social sites, and a few blog sites as well. Knowing what trending topics are hot and when your name or brand is mentioned is important and becomes  a focal point of tracking your web presence.

Regator is both a web app and a mobile app that allows you to keep up with what is happening in the blogosphere without missing a beat. The unique addition of the mobile app ensures that you never miss a mention. They pay app ($1.99) is a functional addition to any mobile media person’s toolbox.

Regator does little to stop you from jumping right in. Search for keywords, browse the web from within Regator, search real time trends, and even set up a blog monitor for specific names and keywords for daily reports when those words are mentioned.

I also found the ability to favorite posts, entire blogs, and/or topics to be useful for when I needed to come back and read up more in depth later.

Regator definitely explores millions of posts thousands of the best sites out there. I found it an interesting tool for media, business, writing, and news professionals. But just about anyone can find a great use to keep up on their specific keyword choices or trending topics.

• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• Zemanta Levels Blogger Playing Field – December 8, 2009

Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions originally appeared on: Crenk
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The Cinemin Swivel Portable Projector created by WowWee has gotten extremely high reviews on many other sites. This pocket projector ($300) utilizes DLP projection technology to give the user that 60 inch experience. The internal battery is rechargeable for up to 2 hours of use, and overs a 90-degree swivel design allowing the user to choose how they wish to see their display.

This little pocket wonder is great for presentations on the go, watching videos at home, in your office, hotel, or anywhere that has a flat surface and you’ve got time to watch something. Now because the internal battery is only 2 hours, perhaps leaving it plugged into the wall for longer use is wise for movies, but otherwise, this little dynamo seems pretty sweet.

The Cinemin can connect to the iPod, iPhone, Flip Video, PSP, digital cameras, portable DVD players, netbooks, and smartphones with video-out functionality. To make this purchase even more attractive, the purchase includes a variety of international plug adapters to ensure that you are always able to access your media.

• iTouch Acting as Gateway Drug to iPhone – December 8, 2009
• i Life Solutions: Best In Home Personalised Theatre – February 9, 2012
• US Portable Gaming Marketshare by Revenues – November 10, 2011
• Nokia’s Windows Phone 7 Mobile Phones Coming Next Week – October 24, 2011
• Journey from the Phone to the iPhone – October 19, 2011

A Video Projector in Your Pocket originally appeared on: Crenk
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Axess.im is an amazingly intuitive site where just a little bit if knowledge can go a long way. It takes some general understanding of site design and coding, but the ease of being able to publish your content and even get a customized name attached to it seems to be where this web apps excels. Just going to the homepage of this site, I thought I was going to see something cheaply done with little follow through on return. I was surprised.

The site allows for original hand coding to be done and encourages you to preview your work. Don’t like the HTML coding window, then switch to standard view where you get what looks like an MS Word tab at the top with buttons to include various forms of media. This makes it extremely user friendly.

I find it surprising that templates are offered yet, thought it’s shared that they are coming soon. Nevertheless, with just text and media alone, you are able to quickly create a page that can be shared as soon as you hit publish. No messing with DNS changes, domain purchases, or email accounts. A web app like this would be useful in quickly sharing a resume, displaying artwork and videos for others to view, and creating a one stop shop for everyone to see what you do in a quick and dirty kind of way.

• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009
• Regator Tracks Blogosphere Social Mentions – November 30, 2009
• TubeRadio Redefines Online Music Listening – November 20, 2009

Web Design Ease with Axess.im originally appeared on: Crenk
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Blue offers a wide variety of microphone options from stand alone in-studio mics, microphones with webcams attached, and microphones that attach to your Apple mobile devices to capture the best quality audio possible.

I personally use their Yeti desktop model as my main recording device at home, but most recently I’ve looked into their Apple device microphone, the Mikey, which connects where your normal charging adapter would plug in for either recording or listening purposes, basically two birds with one stone.

Ultimately there are a lot of microphone makers out there, but for me Blue Microphone has been a clear winner not just for their products, but for their customer service and their social engagement efforts on Twitter and Facebook which makes it easy to reach out to them.

• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• Crenk Interviews… Zentact – January 7, 2009
• Interview: Cyril Moutran Co-Founder of Friendly: Facebook App for iPad – February 23, 2011
• AOL Acquire the Huffington Post for $315 Million: Internal Email – February 7, 2011
• Download MP3 Music for Free – September 26, 2010

Blue Microphones, Professional Audio Recording originally appeared on: Crenk
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Features include:

• Four USB ports
• New address book feature
• Gloabl search across all drives
• Plus all the PogoPlugs associated with a single account

Here’s the full press release, for your enjoyment:

Second Generation Pogoplug™ Unveiled Today

Next-generation Hardware Design and Software Provide Enhanced Storage, Multimedia and Social Media Capabilities

San Francisco, Calif. – November 20, 2009 – Cloud Engines, Inc. unveiled the second generation of the award winning Pogoplug multimedia sharing device today giving consumers more flexibility to store personal content safely in the home and access, manage, and share it from anywhere on the Internet. The new Pogoplug hardware sports a new design boasting multiple USB ports supporting up to 4 external drives for expanded data capacity. The new Pogoplug also gives users improved sharing capabilities, an easy drag-and-drop interface to create engaging multi-media slide shows, seamless media playback, and enhanced sharing with friends on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Pogoplug acts like a gateway from your home or office through the Internet. It allows you to access, share and even stream your personal digital media directly to anybody, anywhere in the world. Your content always remains physically in your home or office, making it secure, convenient and available on your terms. Pogoplug is perfect for those individuals with increasingly mobile lifestyles and small businesses in need of simple, inexpensive mobile data access solutions.

“The reaction to the Pogoplug has been incredible. By listening to user feedback and following our own product roadmap, we are bringing a great second-generation product that gives our customers access to a host of new features that both improve the function of the Pogoplug, and add to the fun of using it as well.” said Daniel Putterman, CEO of Cloud Engines, Inc. “We are committed to giving our customers the best way to access their data from anywhere in the world, pushing the envelope with both product quality and design aesthetic. The result is what you see here today.”

NEW HARDWARE
The new Pogoplug design retains the simplicity and ease of use of the original while listening to consumer feedback and adding the ability to directly connect up to 4 external hard drives at once. The resulting product boasts an improved design with greatly improved functionality for users with multiple drives and an increasing need for easy synching and sharing of their digital libraries. This upgrade turns the Pogoplug into an even more prominent feature in the modern digital home or small business.

NEW FEATURES
Automatically Synchronize Photos, Videos, Music and Other Selected Content
Users can synchronize their Pogoplug with their PC or Mac to automatically import new content from popular applications such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, and iPhoto. This feature allows Pogoplug owners to “set it and forget it” and always have access to new photos, videos and music from anywhere on the Internet.

Drag-and-Drop Music and Photo Slideshows
Users can easily create and share fun and engaging slideshows using their stored photos, videos and music. Creating a slideshow with Pogoplug is as simple as drag and drop, and sharing these slideshows is just as easy as ever. Once a user’s link is shared and viewed, their slideshow will immediately begin with the photos, videos and music they selected, playing seamlessly in the viewer’s browser.

Easier Sharing with Pogoplug Address Book
Pogoplug Address Book greatly improves the speed and ease of use of sharing with a user’s friends and family. Pogoplug automatically remembers all email addresses entered in a user’s previous shares – even if that share no longer exists – and makes them available in an easy to use address book to make sharing truly one click away.

Global Search Across Multiple Drives and Pogoplugs
With support for multiple drives on a single Pogoplug (and multiple Pogoplugs on the same account) Pogoplug has added “global” search support across all of a user’s Pogoplugs and drives. Search filters are now a distinct feature, allowing users to view all of their photos, videos and music in a single organized view, or to search for a specific file across all Pogoplugs and drives.

Organize Your Music, Photos and Videos
Pogoplug automatically displays music by Album, Artist and Genre, and shows cover art for quick access to a user’s favorite music. Photos are now displayed by photo timeline and videos are only a click away, including the ability to watch a preview in the thumbnail itself.

Play movies directly from my.pogoplug.com, or even to the iPhone
Pogoplug now supports the playback of videos directly from a Pogoplug, with support for the most popular cameras, video cameras and mobile phones. Movies can be shared and viewed directly from the Pogoplug website – or even from an iPhone!

Pricing and Availability
We are currently taking Pre-Orders for Pogoplug at www.pogoplug.com Units will ship before the end of the year – just in time for the Holiday Season. The Pogoplug has a suggested retail price of $129, with no additional service fees.

USEFUL LINKS

• Pogoplug web site: www.pogoplug.com
• Product photos: www.flickr.com/photos/pogoplug
• Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/pogoplug
• Pogoplug online community: www.pogoplugged.com

ABOUT THE POGOPLUG
The Pogoplug is a device that connects up to 4 external hard drives to the Internet. It is designed for consumers who have an external hard drive and have high speed Internet. Consumers can securely access and share all of their content [Files, Photos, and Video] from any Web browser or enabled mobile device with no additional monthly fees. Free your inner drive.

ABOUT CLOUD ENGINES, INC.
Founded in 2007 by experienced entrepreneurs from the digital media and security industries, Cloud Engines is located in San Francisco, California. The company was formed with a mission to change the way personal content is stored and distributed over the Internet. The Cloud Engines philosophy is that by making a product simple, open and affordable, the community will participate in making it better. For more information, please visit our Web site, www.cloudengines.com.

• All Your Data Connected Virtually Thanks to PogoPlug – June 25, 2009
• AOL Acquire the Huffington Post for $315 Million: Internal Email – February 7, 2011
• Kodak Slice Ambitious Pocket Cam – January 16, 2010
• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• iTouch Acting as Gateway Drug to iPhone – December 8, 2009

PogoPlug Version 2 Lets You Access All Your Media Files Worldwide originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

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 – November 17, 2009
• 2 Tools to Turn YouTube into a Genre-Based Radio Station – October 3, 2011
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• Publish Your Content On Your Mobile – December 1, 2009

TubeRadio Redefines Online Music Listening originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Reddit is currently leading with three apps to make the mobile experience much more enjoyable. One of theirs is an official app from the Reddit creators themselves. Will Digg be releasing an official app soon?

I’ve taken the liberty to do a review of the three Reddit apps and Digg app that are in the iTune App Store. I am in no way associated with any of these apps, know any of the owners, or am promoting any of them in any fashion. This is merely a review from an avid Reddit and Digg user with a love for social news and social media.

Shovel – Digg App

Author: Scott Fitzhugh

Price: Free

Ratings: 147 Reviews – (at the time of writing)

iTunes Download Link: http://tinyurl.com/d5yqhu

iTunes Description:

Shovel is an app that provides top stories from the social news website Digg.com in a native application. Browse the front page stories, or delve deeper into an array of topics and subtopics of interest.

Personal Review:

Shovel is a great application for viewing Digg.com content easily on the iPhone. Overall, the design and interface is pretty clean and simple. It gives you a variety of topics and listings to select to view so you can access all of the content on Digg.com. You can view:

• Popular Stories
• Top Stories
• Movers & Shakers
• Brand New Stories

All listings are applicable to any category or sub-category in Digg.com. If you select a Digg story you can then scroll down the commentary to see what people are saying, who’s replied, how many votes each comment has received, etc. After that, you can click further to view the story live on the Web. Which is nice about it is that it doesn’t load Safari as a separate app to view the content so there’s no back-and-forth between the apps.

Unfortunately, what you cannot participate in digging, burying, or commenting through this application. The developer disclaims, “Now we’ve gotten the message loud and clear that the one thing that would turn this 3.5 star app (currently 3 stars) into a 5 star one is the interactivity of the original Digg site. You guys (and gals) want to be able to Digg, comment, and bury, and who can blame you? Right now, however, there is no way to do this using the legitimate Digg APIs, and quite frankly, it makes us sad. I’ve been trying to court the help of Digg in making this app all that it can be, and if you want to help that along, you should drop them a line yourselves requesting the same!”

Another drawback is that you cannot personalize this application because there is no way to login. Therefore you can’t weed out content you don’t want to see, view your account profile, see your friend’s submissions, etc.

In doing some research the Shovel app used to be named “Diggerific”. Apparently, they have changed the name of it and redid the UI just a bit as you can tell from the video review of Diggerific below:

Overview

Pros

• Easy to use
• Clean interface
• Ability to access all Digg content

Cons

• Free of charge
• Can’t Digg, comment, or bury content
• No Digg account profile/community features or functionality

iReddit

Author: CondeNet

Price: $1.99

Ratings: 41 Reviews (at the time of writing)

Feedback Contact: http://getsatisfaction.com/reddit/products/reddit_ireddit

iTunes Download Link: http://tinyurl.com/ce6tt2

iTunes Description:

The official Reddit iPhone app. Never be bored again. With this app, you’ll only be a tap (or shake) away from the most interesting stuff on the web.

All of your favorite Reddit functionality is here: view the hottest, newest, top, and most controversial stories of the moment, explore, individual subreddits, vote, comment, share, and save links for later. The entire commenting system has been optimized for the iPhone app so you won’t have any trouble contributing to an epic pun thread.

Save time by never having to reload the Reddit homepage. You can even use handy next/previous navigation to move between websites without going back to the main list. And those sites work in portrait and widescreen modes too.

It’s never been easier to be entertained. Just shake your iPhone to enter “serendipity mode” where you’ll be served a random, interesting site. Pro-tip: Turn on “play sound on shake” for a special treat with every jostle — the iPhone is an elegant phone for a more sophisticated age.

And if you’re feeling the economic downturn (what are you doing with an iPhone?) there’s a tree, ad-supported version to come.

Personal Review:

The Official Reddit application is pretty cool. You can input your username and password so that you can vote and comment on stories. Initially, you come to the Reddit homepage. Along the top you can choose between “Hot”, “New”, “Top”, and “Controversial” stories. When selecting a story, there is an overlay on the footer that allows you to upvote/downvote the story, go to the comments section of the story, save the story, and email the link.

Three subreddits will fit on the bottom bar overlay that you can quickly navigate to. You can edit the subreddits with the ones you want to use the most, but you only have a small selection of subreddit’s to swap out with. Those subreddits are:

• Programming
• Funny
• Science
• Tech
• World News
• Entertainment
• Business
• Comics
• Gaming
• Best Of
• Economics
• Cappuccino

It is the most expensive application but I feel it’s the cleanest and easiest to use. Unfortunately, you can’t browse all subreddits and there’s no search function. Nor is there a function to view your account’s saves, karma points, submissions, comments, etc.

I would recommend this app to anyone looking to quickly and easily view Reddit news, vote, and participate in the more popular subreddits. The free Reddit app doesn’t allow for this.

Overview

Pros

• Easily vote on stories from the actual story page
• Save links to view/read later
• Comment participation
• Customization of footer subreddits

Cons

• Most expensive Reddit app
• Not a wide-range of subreddits to customize on your footer
• Can’t browse all subreddits
• No search functionality
• No personal account status functionality

Open Source Reddit

Author: Joseph Pintozzi

Price: Free

Ratings: 10 Reviews (at the time of writing)

Feedback Contact: reddit@pintozzi.com

iTunes Download Link: http://tinyurl.com/cpjzvj

iTunes Description:

The Reddit application allows users to view the stories from www.reddit.com without having to deal with loading massive webpages. It displays the stories in a nice table view, providing details about each submission, and allows the user to easily view the submitted content. The ability to vote on a submission is currently being added.

Personal Review:

This app is very bare bones with very limited functionality. If you’re looking to vote on stories or participate in the comments this app isn’t for you. If you’re just looking to read “Hot” news from a select few subreddits then this is a good app for the cost of nothing. The included subreddits to choose from are:

• reddit.com
• bacon
• politics
• pics
• WTF
• funny
• technology
• programming

The nice thing about it is that it’s open source and the developer leaves it open for people to add on what they want to it. Hopefully, in the future, this will be a great application for Reddit.

Overview

Pros

• Open Source
• Free

Cons

• No commenting
• No voting
• Can’t browse all subreddits
• No search functionality
• No personal account status functionality

Satellite Reddit

Author: 3Cube Technologies

Price: $0.99

Ratings: 8 Reviews – (at the time of writing)

Feedback Contact: satellite@3cubetechnologies.com or http://twitter.com/3cube

iTunes Download Link: http://tinyurl.com/cx8eec

iTunes Description:

Satellite 2.0 is now available and brings a host of improvement to the mobile Reddit experience.

Change in this version includes:

• Greatly improved performance
• New, Controversial, and Top views are available for all subreddits
• An overlay displaying the full article title and comments count shows while loading an article
• The subreddit list is reorderable
• A beautiful new icon and splash screen have been added
• New lower pricing.

Satellite is a full-featured client for Reddit.com, a social link aggregation site. With Satellite, you can browse links appearing on the front page or drill down into the Subreddits you are subscribed to. When viewing an article you can vote the link up or down, save it to your Reddit account, or share the link with others. With the click of a button, you can shift into commenting mode to browse comments or post your own back to the Reddit page about the link. The interface provides a substantially more streamlined experience over the mobile Reddit site and incorprates the unique capabilities of the iPhone to make your day to day Reddit’ing much more fun.

Additional Satellite features include:

• Shake the app at any time to explore random content from Reddit
• Next/previous buttons are available at the screen edges to move through content without returning to list view
• Full portrait/landscape modes, including upside down. Great for handing the phone across the dinner table to share your discoveries!
• Returns to the content you were browsing at start-up. Pick up right where you left off when that call came in.
• Highly addictive content discovery available anywhere, at any time!

Personal Review:

This app is definitely worth the 99 cents. After entering in your login information you can view ALL of your subscribed subreddits. It also gives you an option to edit your subreddits for your account. After selecting a subreddit you can choose between “Hot”, “New”, “Controversial”, and “Top” categories in the footer bar. Once selecting a story, it takes you to the story and overlays the story title, submitter, and point count. At the bottom footer you can choose to vote, go to comments, save the link, or email the link. Again though, there’s no search feature with this app either.

This app is a lot like the official iReddit app except it’s more personalized. You can also view your saved Reddits on your account to follow up on how your saves and submissions are doing.

Overview

Pros

• Personalized
• Nice User-Interface
• Good functionality for voting and commenting
• All Reddit content accessible through this app

Cons

• Isn’t free
• Can’t see your karma points
• No search functionality

• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• 26 New And Awesome Web Apps You Probably Don’t Know About – March 3, 2009
• Crenk Interviews… Zentact – January 7, 2009
• AutoCAD for iPad, iPhone and Mac OS – September 27, 2010
• iTouch Acting as Gateway Drug to iPhone – December 8, 2009

iPhone App Reviews for Social Media News originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

What is the Zentact philosophy?
(Jared) We are creating a product that integrates into already existing work flows, helping our users build better relationships. We do this without any BS. (Eric would say the our product will make the baby jesus cry…)

Sharing information with your contacts is something that Mr. Marcoullier seems to be a fan of! What makes Zentact different to other content sharing websites?

(Jared) Social networks are a lot of work for traditionally very little payoff. CRM tools are worse.

(Eric) Zentact aims to flip that on its ear and provide loads of tangible results for little ongoing effort.

(Jared) Typical content sharing websites and apps have focused on the user always remembering whom to share with. We are trying, in effect, to whisper in the user’s ear and suggest whom they can share this with in a meaningful way – we make sure you share what matters. We will be adding more social aspects in the near future as well.

How has the web 2.0 landscape changed since the coneption and subsequent selling of MyBlogLog to now and the work you’re doing with Zentact?

(John) MyBlogLog allowed users to create profiles that traveled with them where they surfed, adding value to both the mybloglog member and website owner. More Web 2.0 apps today are leveraging this concept, be it scripts, widgets, and even in browsers. The value that is created by individual apps and even apps created mashing APIs together is significant.

Some commentators have said that they’d like Facebook integration, in particular to help when tagging – is this something you and the team are looking into?

(Jared) We will be integrating in with Facebook to help with both tagging, tracking last connection and posting to the wall.

Will you be looking to include integration with other social networking services – if so what is the liklihood of this happening before Zentact comes out of Beta?

(Jared) We are in a private beta now and working on launching our public beta. We will likely integrate with other social networking services and other communication platforms before leaving beta. We are also listening to our users – feedback will help lead the way.

What is really exciting you on the web (Zentact aside)?
(Jared) Gnip
(John) Apple app store

I would argue that 2008 has been the year of Twitter and that it will become more mainstream in 2009 – what do you think will be the big social media development in the next 12 months?

(Jared) We think that there will be a big movement towards information – instead of just data. More products will become contextual.

What has been the main challenge for Zentact since you founded the company?

(Jared) Our number one challenge has been to prioritize features since, as a team, we have many features we want to do quickly.

And what has been the achievement that has made you most happy?

(Jared) We have gotten feedback from users ranging for “wow” to “Zentact helped me close a deal”. This feedback is what makes us tick!

What are the next key milestones you’ll be looking to meet?

( Jared) Public beta and our IE version.

What can we expect from Zentact in 2009?

(Jared) A killer product that will seamlessly improve your life.

To try Zentact for yourself, we have a few private invites to test the private beta, which you lucky boys and girls can get here.

• iPhone App Reviews for Social Media News – March 2, 2009
• Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang’s Mobile App – December 1, 2009
• Give Away Of The Day gives you free software everyday – May 5, 2011
• Tweetdeck Evolves For Power Users – December 4, 2009
• 26 New And Awesome Web Apps You Probably Don’t Know About – March 3, 2009

Crenk Interviews… Zentact originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

The New

Zemanta has always offered what it thinks you will need in terms of photos and links, but today Zemanta is launching their public API which will now allow users to build a “user suggestion engine.”

Funding for the company has come from Union Square Ventures, Eden Ventures and The Accelerator Group, along with its win at the fist SeedCamp, this announcement has come out of LeWeb in Paris, France. This announcement is sure to increase not only the number of users, but also the dependency that online writers will have on this dynamic tool.

The Future

Zemanta has now opened itself to a huge reception in the world of online content creators. By opening their API, they can approach content creators to leverage their unorganized with the system, and the users are able to access the content for various needs.

In an article by TechCrunch, they state that “usage of the API is free for up to 10.000 API calls per month, and for a subscription fee above that.” So not only has Zemanta found a way to integrate user input, but they also find a way to monetize their efforts for content creators to get organized.

Zemanta has a bright future ahead of it. I have just recently connected with one of the Founders for Zemanta on Twitter @andraz. He’s easily approachable and seems to be keen on connecting with users around the world.

• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• Zemanta Levels Blogger Playing Field – December 8, 2009
• AOL Consolidating Blog Brands into 20 Power Brands! – July 4, 2011
• WWDC 2011 By Numbers – June 7, 2011
• Pingdom API Has Gone Public: Track Your Sites From Anywhere – March 22, 2011

Zemanta Launches Public API originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Image via Wikipedia

The dictionary, for years, had been the bane of my existence as a kid. I remember when I did not know something I was always told “look it up.” I remember being frustrated tearing through the massive dictionary just to find an answer. As I got older I began to appreciate the dictionary along with its cousin thesaurus. As a communications professional in my adult life, these two, both physical and through various apps, have become the cornerstone of my career as a writer.

We all know dictionaries are not hot properties, and people are not tearing down the house to find new ways to make it better, but in an interesting turn of event, Wordia has done just that. Created by former TV producer Edward Baker, and funded by ex-Bebo employee Michael Birch, Wordia looks to mashup Dictionary, YouTube, and Wikipedia. This hodge podge looks to be more for entertainment rather than serious information, but with Birch’s previous eye for start-up successes, it might have some legs to stand on.

Wordia is the site where everything you get is in video format. Looking up a word will provide you with a video explaining the word, definition, and other vitals you’d need to attain understanding. While there is still text, user generated videos will be attached to the word, and users will be able to rank the videos in term of their favorite, most accurate, and most humorous to name a few options.

This is definitely not your parents dictionary, but I still question whether the videos are necessary as opposed to a major distraction. I look forward to seeing how many users jump on board and the accuracy and reputation the site builds.

• AOL Acquire the Huffington Post for $315 Million: Internal Email – February 7, 2011
• Kodak Slice Ambitious Pocket Cam – January 16, 2010
• Audio Blog with Audio Boo on iPhone – December 15, 2009
• iTouch Acting as Gateway Drug to iPhone – December 8, 2009
• Zemanta Levels Blogger Playing Field – December 8, 2009

Wordia Replacing Dictionary.com? originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook

Just recently I’ve been able to play with the new relaunch of Strands. The social networking site falls in line with popular sites like FriendFeed and PlaxoPulse, and looks to aggregate your social networking habits all in one place, but extend to even recommending things you might like.

Some will say that the multitude of social network platforms are watering down the market, and while that may be so, there are always small distinctions that separate them from one another. I for one thoroughly enjoy my Strands account specifically because of recommendations. Now even though I am new and still meeting people on there, I enjoy going through profiles and looking through recommendations.

Strands single handedly battles the information overload and filters your “feeds” from different social network sites. You set up your profile the way you want Strands to respond. What I find especially interesting is that Strands does not just support the major players in the game, but also reaches out and taps into lesser known social networks such as Hype Machine and Meneame (Spanish Digg clone). This really creates a sense of inclusiveness as opposed to exclusiveness.

Strands “evangelist” Drew Olanoff on Twitter is a great person to follow on Twitter for day to day happenings with Strands. Sure he incorporates details of his personal life, but he works to build strong relationships with the communities he’s a part of and welcomes feedback on Strands.

If you’re looking for a method of “life streaming” that is functional and easy to use, definitely check out Strands. I don’t see it knocking off the heavy hitters like FriendFeed just yet, but I do see some major success for this social networking site.

Currently the site is still under private beta, but you can sign up at their site to receive an invite, or if you’re really nice to a certain someone on Twitter, perhaps…just maybe an invite might float your way!

• Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication – November 6, 2009
• Reputation Management For Your Brand with Verified Pages – July 20, 2009
• Social Networking Site for Collectors – June 29, 2009
• Blellow, Social Network for Freelancers – June 12, 2009
• Use Tweetrush for Your Twitter Addiction – September 3, 2008

Review: Strands to Connect and Recommend originally appeared on: Crenk
Join our Community: Twitter, Facebook