Crenk » online

Twitter Peek Offers Lackluster Appeal

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:43:29 +0000

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

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:53:50 +0000

Heard 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

Luis Sandoval — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:41:11 +0000

Today 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.

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.

Top Sites for Free eBooks

Steven Finch — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:21:06 +0000

eBooks are becoming more and more popular these days and Crenk just wanted to let you know the best places on the web to find eBooks.

eBook Search Engines

www.pdfgeni.com
www.pdf-search-engine.com
www.data-sheet.net

Scribd.com

Scribd is basically the YouTube of documents. They have a great library of free ebooks to choose from.

Free Ebooks For Your iPod, PDA, Smartphone, Blackberry etc.

www.gutenberg.org
www.manybooks.net
www.feedbooks.com
www.booksinmyphone.com

Free Tech eBooks

www.freecomputerbooks.com
www.freetechbooks.com

Microsoft Start To Sell Computers and Third Party Software on Their Online Store

Steven Finch — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:39:01 +0000

In a very surprising move, Microsoft has started selling computers and even third-party software via its online store.

This is a small part of a much broader push for Microsoft as they think that stores like Apple’s might bring in much higher margins for them and their products. Microsoft had said it would sell PCs at its brick-and-mortar stores, but it plans to open just two of those this year, including a Scottsdale, Ariz., location that opens later Thursday.

Early on Thursday, though, Microsoft revamped its online store, which had been an outlet only for Microsoft products. The remake of the online store comes just as Microsoft is launching Windows 7.

Clicking on laptops brings up a list of 10 models, organized by price, including two models below $750. The site also offers three Netbooks and a single desktop model, Lenovo’s $999 A600 all-in-one.

On the software front, Microsoft is selling Norton 360 and Adobe Photoshop, along with Windows, Office, and other Microsoft products. Accessories include a lot of Microsoft keyboards, mice, and Webcams, along with flash drives and blank DVDs from other companies.

Audience Science Raises $20 million for Their Online Advertising Platform

Steven Finch — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:02:32 +0000

Audience Science, an online advertising firm formerly known as Revenue Science, announced on Tuesday that it has closed $20 million in new venture capital funding.

Investors included Mohr, Davidow Ventures; Mayfield Fund; Meritech Capital Partners; and Integral Capital Partners.

Founded in 2003, New York-based Audience Science offers both an audience technology platform and a targeting marketplace.

The company says it has powered over 50,000 campaigns worldwide, and is the eleventh-largest online ad network in the U.S.

Clients include the Financial Times, Gannett, Reuters.com and New York Times Digital.

The company will use the new funds expand its audience targeting marketplace, and bolster its offering to brand advertisers, premium website publishers and online ad networks.

Monopoly City Streets: A Real World Game of Monopoly

Dean Sherwin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:10:24 +0000

So remember all those times when you ‘accidentally’ tipped the Monopoly board over on Christmas Eve because you sister was winning? Well, you cant do that in the version of Monopoly I’m about to talk about because it would involve tipping over planet Earth which is impossible.

Basically, MonopolyCityStreets.com incorporates a real-world map in which you can buy any street and develop it as you would in the normal game by building houses and hotels. You’re given $3,000,000 to start off with and you’re competing against loads of different players from all over the world.

You can invade their territory by developing around them and eventually demolishing their buildings to force them into bankruptcy. But watch your back because as Shakespeare’s Macbeth said; “there are daggers in men’s smiles”.

Overall, it’s a great game that you can log in and enjoy from anywhere at any time. Well worth a go if you want to sharpen your business acumen. Play here.

StageVu: What Movie Trailers, Movies, TV Shows and More for Free Online with No Download

Steven Finch — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:53:40 +0000

Stagevu is a new site in which im not too sure how long it will be around, so make sure you check it out before it is completely gone. Stagevu is a basic service that allows users from all over the world to search and watch movies, movie trailers, tv shows and more, all for free and without having to download any software.

Stagevu to me seems completely illegal and im sure the site will get shut down eventually, but in the meantime it is completely legal for users to use the service. Most of the movies on the service do seem like they have been filmed illegally in China by handycam, but if you keep looking you are bound to find a good version of the movie you are looking for.

Here at Crenk we have previously talked a lot about sites like Movie Watch List and Trailer Reviews in which seem to offer a similar service and have been around a lot longer, so we will see how long Stagevu can stick it out.

Ebay All the Way for Students

Dean Sherwin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:29:43 +0000

So school and college are starting back soon. Just a few short weeks, in fact. That means thousands, no millions, of young people will be met by costs that would normally have been put on daddy’s credit card. What makes this year worse is that there are few part time jobs around that would have normally paid for the laptops, textbooks, stationary and gadgets that are to be found in the typical student’s backpack. The situation is especially bad in Europe where students and those leaving school have led protests – even violent ones such as those in France and Ireland.

This is good news for Ebay, Amazon and the likes.

The sale of low-end student laptops online is rising. Why pay 600 big ones in store for the latest machine when you could have last year’s model that will satisfy all your needs for a quarter of the price? After all, when at college a decent word processer and internet access is all you need.

Other items which are making big sales in the ‘back to school rush’ are backpacks, art supplies, cameras, suitcases and technical equipment specific to certain courses such as design and engineering.

Here I stand tapping out this article on my phone beside Trinity College in Dublin as I’m away from my desk this week. Students walk by me with iPhones and Macbooks preparing their dorms for their third or fourth year in college. For this year’s freshmen it’s going to be Ebay all the way – in the opinion of this Crenk reporter at least.

Luuvee: Online Dating Service for UK Market

Steven Finch — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:05:45 +0000

Online dating is a huge market online and today I wanted to introduce yet another player to the game, Luuvee.com. Luuvee is a UK based paid online dating service in which users pay £4.50 per month to go through their huge database and hopefully find their love match.

Currently Luuvee is offering one month free if you signup now, but I don’t really understand why this site is technologically better than the leaders in the market, like Match.com and Plentyoffish? Previously we have profile dating sites like Smooch and BuddyFetch, but I cant see Luuvee gaining market share unless they come up with a brilliant piece of technology or become a free dating site and make their revenues from advertising.

What Luuvee say about Luuvee:

We made Luuvee to give people a choice – between the expensive, intimidating, scientific sites and the free sites that offer little in the way of quality people. We made Luuvee to fill that rather large void – oh and to help people have fun. After all, isn’t that what dating should be all about?

I guess they are right and that it is what its all about, however I don’t think can expect to make any money from this service. I simply dont understand why they didn’t put the site into private beta to build up the database and then launch the site for free, probably with some advertising in the footer, then introduce paid options once they have market share and a decent size database!

Microsoft Has Launched Bing

Steven Finch — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:37:48 +0000

Bing is the new search engine by Microsoft which was due to launch on the 3rd of June, but for some reason it has launched today!

After using the service for the last ten minutes or so there seems to be do real major difference between Live.com and Bing.com. Search results are still terrible and it is really only the interface that has improved and only slightly.

I cant see Bing in its current form taking any search share from Google. In fact I think in its current form it is probably going to do the opposite and give Google more share of the market. Im amazed that Microsoft cant get a good search algorhythm and that Google are just so far ahead in actually providing quality results.

Microsoft really seems to just lack originality when it comes to search and the majority of their online products. MSN has never really done too much, Windows media player is completely outdated and hotmail needs a revamp but never seems to change much, now bing is the search engine that couldnt.

It would be great to hear your thoughts on the new Bing search engine. The best example of the results is that I searched ‘Crenk’ and the our own website came up 9th! Terrible!

Where Can I Watch The News Online

Steven Finch — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:01:45 +0000

There are so many user generated video sites available on the internet these days, but sometimes you might not want to see user generated content. Thus, I thought I would put together a very quick list of the best places to view the news online as if you were watching it direct from your television at home.

Livestation – Livestation is a free downloadable video players that streams live news, events, shows from some of the world biggest media companies. Livestation includes services like the BBC, CNN, Fox, MTV, Al Jazeera and more. The service is easy to download and it great to use. The player itself can be changed to any size and you are able to add additional news and radio sources that can be found on the Livestation website.

BBC iPlayer – The BBC iPlayer has been around for quite some time now, and even though they got a lot of harsh press at launch they have been quitely improving the service and it actually now isnt that bad. The iPlayer is a great place to head when you are looking for what has been happening from around the world in the last few days. On the iPlayer they have a dedicated section to BBC News in which will keep you up to date with the major headlines.

Hulu – Hulu is a partnership between News Corp and NBC Universal. Hulu is for USA users only at the moment and it allows them to watch their favourite TV shows, movies and of course news programs all for free. Hulu was born when News Corp and NBC werent happy with the revenues they were receiving from YouTube, so they formed a strategic alliance and launched a free online television service that has been growing at a rapid pace. Hulu has a dedicated news section which allows users to view news from major USA sources as well as smaller sources like Cnet.

Crenk Launches New Web Apps Directory. Help Us Build It!

Steven Finch — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:57:18 +0000

Here at Crenk we have just added a new directory to our site. The directory is for web applications. Every few days we will be adding more and more sites to the directory. Each site in the directory has a brief description and a linkback to their site. We have broken down the directory into 19 different categories including music, photo, mobile, search, bittorrent and more.

To start the directory we have added only 13 of the most popular websites around, but stay tuned for more coming very soon.

If you have a website you would like to see added to the directory, just head over to the directory and at the bottom of every page you will see a suggest a link option, just click on that and suggest something for us to add. Help us build the best web apps directory on the web.

Best Places To Play Risk Online

Steven Finch — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:16:08 +0000

Have you ever wanted to take over the world in the same way as either Microsoft or Google? Well there is a board game called Risk that used to be very popular, and I thought I would provide everyone with a couple of places to play the game for free online.

The Facebook application – At last this may truly be it… a Facebook application that is not either completely pointless or annoys the hell out of me. Attack! is similar to Risk and can be played against your friends or anyone else who has the application (2% of Facebook users apparently). Just be aware, no matter how good you think you are… everyone else is better!

Java Risk – When you visit the download site this game sure may not look pretty and you may even think it not worth downloading at all. However the actual game is fairly decent. There are a large range of options and player AI, and even a number of extra maps to download when you get bored of the original. Luckily too, Java Risk doesn’t seem to have gone the way of most small developer games and still gets the odd update. The last one was only a month or so ago and provided an installer for Vista.

Conquest – If you want a nice simple and easy game of Risk then Conquest is a good choice. Unfortunately the AI is very predictable and can be counted on to make the exact same moves and strategies again and again. What this game is especially suited for is Pocket PC’s and you can download a version designed just for that right here.

Play online with LandGrab – This is maybe the best online Risk game I’ve seen. After registering for an account you can start playing. If you particularly like it then you can also purchase a premium account.

Mooch: P2P Video Game Trading

Steven Finch — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:37:12 +0000

Mooch has just announced that it has launched its peer-to-peer video game trading website to the public. Mooch provides video game players and owners an affordable and simple way to trade their old and used video games.

Instead of exchanging used titles at retail stores for a fraction of the original price, Mooch subscribers can enter a list of the games they have as well as the games they want, and Mooch’s patent-pending trading engine goes to work. Each step of the trading process is intelligently automated, including finding potential trades, balancing each trade, and even allowing users to print postage directly from the site.

A limited number of free accounts will be available during the beta period. Following the free beta, membership to Mooch will require an annual subscription fee of $19.99.

17 New Wordpress Themes That Will Rock Your Personal Blog

Keshav Khera — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:44:51 +0000

Personal blogs are more than a bunch of words put together. A good personal blog reflects your identity, your personality and individualism and a factor of great importace here is the design. It is the first thing that the viewer notices, before making any presumptions about you or your personality. So a good design is necessary to leave a good and long lasting impression on the visitor.

To help you out with the design, we at Crenk have put together 17 new wordpress themes that we believe, will rock your personal blog. Read on.

Crenk » online

Twitter Peek Offers Lackluster Appeal

Web App Buffers Timely Online Communication

Internet Music Innovation with Songbeat360

Top Sites for Free eBooks

Microsoft Start To Sell Computers and Third Party Software on Their Online Store

Audience Science Raises $20 million for Their Online Advertising Platform

Monopoly City Streets: A Real World Game of Monopoly

StageVu: What Movie Trailers, Movies, TV Shows and More for Free Online with No Download

Ebay All the Way for Students

Luuvee: Online Dating Service for UK Market

Microsoft Has Launched Bing

Top 5 Freeware Video Converters

Where Can I Watch The News Online

Crenk Launches New Web Apps Directory. Help Us Build It!

Best Places To Play Risk Online

Mooch: P2P Video Game Trading

Top 10 Video Advertising Networks To Help Your Monetize Your Video Content Online

17 New Wordpress Themes That Will Rock Your Personal Blog

Creative Art

Masinop

Nouice

Scruffy

Vigilance

Simply

WGrey

Simple Pro

Simple Changes

Reviews Theme

ProudBlack

Modicus Remix

Modern

LightWeight

IAMWW W2 DnD

Bright Spring

Elegance

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26 New And Awesome Web Apps You Probably Don’t Know About

Produle: Create Flash Based Applications Online for Free

Smooch: Free Online Dating Site On The Rise

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