Crenk » review

Top 3 Netbooks for Home, School and Work

Dean Sherwin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:53:34 +0000

Netbooks are becoming more popular because they’re more portable than the very portable laptop and have all the working power into the bargain. Plus they pack more punch than even the best of smart phones. Here we have what I think are the best three netbooks for their tasks.

Home

Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Netbook

This is a great little curvy computer running the most popular of OS among netbooks – Windows XP. It has 1GB of RAM which is into laptop territory and is great for surfing the internet and taking care of all those tasks. The reason why this is the best netbook for the home is because of the price. At just $299 it’s a fine purchase to make to fill the gap when someone else is using the family PC or you just want to relax in bed and check you e-mail or RSS. It also doesn’t look and feel cheap like other netbooks for the same price. It can run for over five hours playing video and using software so it’s ideal for entertainment and heavy usage.

School

Asus Eee PC

This one is slightly more bulky than the one mentioned above but it packs more of a punch and it has an extended battery life for those long cramming sessions. The keyboard is also much better for typing on than the DELL.

It has 1GB of RAM but a 1.66GHz processor while running XP.

It weighs 3.4 pounds which isn’t too bad when you compare it to the laptop you could have been lugging around between classes. It looks good and ticks all the right boxes for students. The price tag of $400 isn’t to bad either.

Work

HP Mini 5101

This small netbook is definitely the way to go for work and business. It stylish and discreet with a minimalistic design and has sharper angles than the other too. Again, it has 1GB of RAM and a 1.66GHx processor doing all the work for you. It’s really sturdy and solidly built however I don’t like how it lost its Express Card slot which was on the previous model.

Nonetheless, the 160Gb hard drive is more than enough to hold any projects (no matter how big) until you make it back to the office and the 10” display is the perfect screen for working on them along with the comfortable keyboard and track pad.

For ultimate gaming laptops, click here.

HP Pushing the mark with the Mini 311

Dean Sherwin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:16:51 +0000

Netbooks are becoming cooler by the day. I you’re going on holidays, on a journey or just need something light that can get the job done then a netbook is your best bet. However, they have their drawbacks – namely that they run an outdated OS, have bad graphics and are slow.

However, HP is looking to change all of that with their Mini 311 seen here in the picture. Basically, they have amped up the graphics and all of the other innards so that they’re approaching laptop specs (see list below). What’s more, it will soon begin to ship with Windows 7 instead of the current OS on the system – XP.

One bad bit is that you have to pay extra for a white lid and for a netbook, the price is already steep enough at the $400 mark.

Specs:

RAM: 1GB

OS: XP (soon to be Win7)

Hard Drive: 160GB

Processor: Intel 1.6GHz

********************

What do you think about the HP Mini 311?

ClickTale: Track How Users Interact and Use Your Website

Dean Sherwin — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:24:08 +0000

Knowing what users do on your site can be extremely helpful. Why? Simply, because it gives you the opportunity to optimize your pages so that the premium features and advertisements get the very best attention.

ClickTale is a program for websites that records what users do on your website. Basically, it gives you back a video of just what they’re up to showing you where they pause, click, read and ultimately leave your site. This program can help you fix problems with your page to keep users on it longer.

There are four different membership levels. The most basic is ‘Free’ which is recommended for small-time bloggers. This will show you what 400 random users have been up to and give you somewhat of an idea of how to improve your site. However, the real goodies come as you progress up into Bronze, Silver and Gold.

With these membership programs you get a heat map which shows you the most active parts of your webpage, recordings of thousands of visitors and customer support via telephone.

This is a great piece of kit to for any website to have whether your visitor numbers are soaring or floundering. It’s always good to know where you can improve. So whether you blog or own a cool start-up, ClickTale is for you.

Meebo – A Web-Based IM Service

Dean Sherwin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:59:35 +0000

Ever been on a buddy’s computer, at work or just in a very low-tech situation? Yet you still want to chat with your friends on your IM service of choice, or perhaps even chat with friends across all the popular IM services at the same time!? Well Meebo is a cool app that I found that will let you do just that.

It’s entirely web-based so it requires no download. All you have to do is go to the homepage and sign in. It will then detect your current friends on what ever service you decide to use and you can start chatting to them using the messaging window (which is basic but what do you expect?).

It supports several IM services such as MSN, GTalk, AIM and Yahoo IM. And it’s not only for instant messaging. Meebo also carries some of the popular social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace.

When you’re actually using it everything is simple and easy to use. It’s no problem at all to get to grips with – which is handy seeing as you’ll likely only use it a few times as a back-up. To summarise, a great web app that will come in handy for the power user but I fear a little outdated for most situations given the amount of mobile tech we have.

iYunque: Rainforest App with Maps, Routes and More..

Dean Sherwin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:35:51 +0000

So the summer is nearly over and you’re wondering what to do. Sure, it’s not long now until big yellow busses start pulling up outside houses to cart kids all over the US back to school and as such the summer is over and the monotony of life kicks back in for a cold winter. However, there is one app that could appeal to your adventurous side before that too is shut away until next July – it’s called iYunque and it offers advice for, and indeed a virtual experience of the only rainforest in the US – El Yunque.

The main feature of this app is giving advice. There are maps, photographs, warnings and local information about the rainforest that will help you stay on track, literally. The maps are detailed and up to date with all the popular tourist and adventure routes taken today in the rain forest. The maps also point out good places to get a good view and nice places to take a little break and how to get to the area if you have to travel first.

Because it’s a rainforest it also offers a few words of warning about travelling alone into the forest and about the wildlife in there.

The virtual tour feature is also really cool for those who can’t make it. It allows you to tap on the map and it gives you information of that area and some pictures.

iYunque is available for download right here.

Camera Genious for the iPhone Photographer

Dean Sherwin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:36:39 +0000

The camera app that came with the iPhone is quite good. You get all of your basic features but nothing is really shines up to a glistening finish nor does it seem like Apple wants to improve on it. An app development company called CodeGoo seen a gap in the market and decided to make their new iPhone camera app called Camera Genius (well the name says it all really).

It is based more so on taking the right picture rather than just upping the specs of the camera. Take for example their feature called the “Rule of Thirds”. Basically, this feature divides the screen up into nine sections with three horizontal lines and three vertical ones. This technique is used by professional photographers to offset their subject slightly but it’s made really easy in this app.

The zoom feature is also better than the one that comes standard with the phone as it is more refined. Other cool things about this app include sound recorder which recognises a pre-defined noise to take the picture, Big Button which lets you tap anywhere on the screen to take the picture instead of fumbling for the small capture button and anti-shake (well, you figure that one out for yourself).

A cool app for those who are constantly snapping pictures on their iPhone but want more out of them.

IOJ – The Web’s Best Screenshot Service

Dean Sherwin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:22:41 +0000

A picture speaks a thousand words. Well a screenshot speaks ten thousand. Sometimes the only way to get across what you mean is to send someone a screenshot of the problem. Or maybe you want to capture a cool shot of a video game or you are making a step-by-step tutorial on how to do something on a computer. IOJ is without a doubt the web’s best screenshot service.

You go to their website (IOJ.com) and download the software. They have a Windows version and a Mac version which is nice considering the amount of Mac users is growing rapidly.

Having installed the software correctly all you have to do is press the ‘Print Screen’ key on your keyboard and a little window will pop up with some options. You can either take a ‘Full Screenshot’ or a ‘Region Screenshot’. If you select region screenshot the screen will go grey and you can select the area you want to shoot using the mouse.

You can also capture a video of what your doing on you computer by clicking ‘Capture Video’ after pressing the ‘Print Screen’ button. Both the screenshots and the videos are in very high quality.

Once you have taken the screenshot or video you will be given a link to the file in the IOJ server where you can download the image, as seen below. Simple.

This is a great tool – one which I use for all the screenshots in my articles here at Crenk.com. Its worth you while having even if you just use it the occasional time.

Bill.com – The New Way to Pay

Dean — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:40:03 +0000

Even though there is a global recession closing businesses, putting people out of work and somehow still giving top bankers big bonuses, companies still have bills to pay. The most widely used way to pay bills is via the tried and tested paper way. A bill comes in, it’s circulated and approved by all those necessary before being shipped down to accounting where it can sit for weeks before it is paid.

That’s assuming that it makes it that far. Anyone who ever worked in a big company will tell you that invoices and bills seem to grow their own legs and go walkies quite a lot, often unnoticed until an angry supplier calls up.

Bill.com looks to change all that. The company, which has just raised 17 million dollars, takes the whole thing digital. When a paper bill comes into a company, they fax it to a special number and when an e-mail bill comes in they e-mail it to a special address. Then, when they log into Bill.com they will all be there in digitised form. Then all the managers who need to sign off on the bill can simply click ‘Approve’. The bill is then set to a status where by accounting will take control. They can then pay the bill via transfer and all is done and dusted.

Many companies report that Bill.com has halved the amount of man time it used to take in paying bills. This is because everything is all in one place where everyone can approve or pay the bill at a time that suites them. This way, a bill doesn’t become stuck at a managers desk for days because he/she is busy, leaving others waiting around to sign. It also dramatically reduced the chances of the bill getting lost or misconstrued.

This is a great web tool for any medium or large business where bills seem to eat up too much company time.

Jolicloud – The Netbook OS

Dean — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:31:27 +0000

Netbooks are taking the market by storm. While they haven’t overtaken the laptop or notebook in many areas including sales they are ideal for family environments where each person has a netbook for e-mail, internet etc… and perhaps one central computer when you need performance and reliability. Syncing and even using those net-books with a Windows OS can be annoying because the screen is small and there isn’t a lot of RAM to keep you ticking over.

This is where Jolicloud comes in. It’s a new OS designed especially for netbooks. The desktop OS is designed like the main screen of a smart-phone with large icons taking you to your main programs and websites such as Twitter, Google, RSS feeds, E-mail and Skype. This is a great feature. Think about it. On a netbook you haven’t got a lot of things that need to be done. Just basic things so you might as well have them all up on the home screen along with some great search tools and tabs.

The netbook is based around the app idea. You can run a number of apps right on the desktop even if they are web based. For example, Wikipedia and Gmail are all available to open on the desktop. Twitter and Facebook are also available for your social needs. The interactivity and smart-phone feel of Jolicloud makes it so much better than what others would have left it at.

It’s also very easy to install and is designed to be installed on Netbooks with limited performance capabilities. The layout and the themes look great. Its basic but has great colours and is finished nicely. All in all, this is a great OS filled a gap in the market and I’m sure that many will flock to it. 8/10

NASA TV – A Pretty Cool View From Space

Dean — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 08:07:58 +0000

Sixty years ago a fuzzy image of two guy names Neil and Buzz crackled onto TVs around the world with the famous line “One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind”. Every television station seems to be going berserk showing anything remotely related to the event such as nostalgic summaries, conspiracy theories, sci-fi, interviews and documentaries. Here on Crenk however, we like to give you stuff that’s worth your time. Have you ever wondered just what the Russians and the Americans and everyone else in the International Space Station gets up to? Well now you can watch it all live.

NASA TV have set up streaming cameras in the space station that run continuously, streaming it all back down to earth onto your screen. I watched it for a few moments as a NASA technician repaired the US toilet. Apparently, it stopped working and the US astronauts had to ask the Russians if they could use their toilet. Good thing they said ‘yes’ too.

The video and sound quality are superb, keeping in mind that their being streamed from space. There is also a running commentary telling you what each astronaut is up to and why he/she is doing that. They also alternate to different positions around the Space Stations. For example, I seen a Russian chowing down on some space food, an American fixing a loo and two Canadians floating around talking to someone at home about their day.

If you’re into all that space stuff then this is worth a go. You can also get an app for Windows Sidebar in Vista that streams it onto your desk top. NASA TV is also worth a peek if you just want to see where your tax dollars end up. To have a look, click here. 7/10

BookofCooks – Useless, Awful, Frustrating.

Dean — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:12:18 +0000

Bookofcooks.com is just another one of those cool finds on the internet that we’re reviewing here on Crenk lately. These ‘finds’ of ours are useful and insightful – serving a purpose to some if not all people. For example, seathound.com was reviewed here yesterday. That had a bigger market than bookofcooks.com which is, in comparison, rather limited.

I logged in and put my critic hat on. But then I took it off because this was just too easy to review. It serves a purpose. A small one that might come in handy if the yellow pages have spontaneously combusted and every restaurant within a 12 mile radius of your house has “Closed for Renovation”. Basically, if you’re in need of a cook for an event or just want a simple birthday cake whipped up you type in your location. Simple right?

So for example, New York. From this I got … sweet nothing. That stupid map just kept flickering around showing me smiling people in Orlando wearing chef costumes. After a while, I got the thing to work having signed out then back in and was greeted by an indistinguishable list of cooks, caterers and chefs. I was like ‘what use is this?’

I could have swam to Shetland Island near Scotland, found a cook from the rural population, and swam home again with a roasted wild boar on my back by the time bookofcooks.com would have found me a chef called ‘Sandy’ in Orlando. Except, wait, I wanted a chef in NEW YORK!

If you’re a cook, I wouldn’t bother advertising your services here. Just stick to the local flyers or a simple website. You could spend an hour of your time setting up a profile, uploading pics and references only to have someone 200 miles away ask you to cook for them.

I truly wish I had something good to say about this. It’s not like I enjoy slating websites. This could have been good had they developed it right but its just to time consuming, complicated and troublesome to ever be used in an emergency.

Really and truly, this is utterly useless. If you want a chef in your area and the yellow pages has turned to ash, every food business is now populated by shirtless men lifting RSJs and every cook book in the land doesn’t have the right dish…use Google. 3/10

TwiPho: Twitter for Photos

Dean — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:09:47 +0000

Twitter has taken off like a Chinese Firework in the last few months. It wasn’t long before other started to cash in by creating their own Twitter using sites with a twist. For example, we reviewed Trazzler in June and a host of other twitter inspired sites.

Now we have TwiPho.net . Upon seeing the URL, I assumed it was twitter on your phone and I didn’t really see the originality of it all. Then I jumped on in and discovered it was Twitter Photo. Basically, this is a platform whereby people can submit their photos (usually taken at events, news stories etc on mobile phones) and submit them to the service.

Then when a user goes on (such as me) and types in say … Michael Jackson, I’ll be shown the latest Photo Tweets like hundreds of people gathered around the Millennium Stadium in the UK holding candles. Developed by Mark Goddard, it’s still in the Beta phase and as such operates on a small scale in comparison to its older brother.

Where as in Twitter tweets come in on the second, tweets only come by on a specific subject such as Chuck Norris or Dog every few minutes (or even hours depending on how specific you search terms is).

I can’t see it catching on as photos don’t have the same simplicity adored by fans of Twitter. However, it’s a cool website with easy-to-use functions. It serves a purpose – the Flickr of Twitter.

MakeUseOf.com – Solutions to Problems You Never Knew Existed

Steven Finch — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:53:50 +0000

MakeUseOf.com is a good website if you enjoy discovering new things, websites and uses for objects that you may have otherwise discounted as obsolete. So I though I’d give it a go and let you all know what I thought. There’s no thrills, no frills. But isn’t it about time a website came along that just cave you practical information rather than a big song and dance?

The first post I seen demonstrated software that allows you to organize, edit and back up photos you take on your multiple digital cameras. It gave the pros, the cons along with a helpful narrative style that I found appealing. Further posts specified thing like Three Tips to Translate Languages and Make Use Of Guides that are free! (Nice touch)

The layout is basic and easy to navigate but I think they could ad a little more in that department. Its very forgettable but at least there is a little ‘hurrah’ in there. I also have to give them credit for developing a mobile version. It may not exactly be ground breaking but on a long train journey you’ll be glad to learn how to hit a golf ball properly – well, you get the idea!

Overall, it’s a good website but lacking in anything memorable. It has its uses but couldn’t a quick Google search fix problems? I suppose MakeUseOf gives you cool tips and solutions to problems you never noticed. 7/10

Vuze: Bittorrent Media Player That Lets You Download and Stream from the Internet

Dean — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:25:10 +0000

Vuze is a handy piece of kit that lets you stream or download videos from the internet. Similar to services already available such as MegaVideo, only now you have the added functionality of a media player, library and subscription services for podcasts and specific genres.

You download Vuze here (less than 10Mb) and install it in under five minutes. No need to restart your PC or do any complicated set up, so already it was in my good books. Upon opening the program for the first time I was greeted by a fairly simple interface that the average computer user could navigate. Search Bar, Library, Current Downloads and even a helpful ‘Getting Started’ section to guide you through the stages (although you really shouldn’t need it).

One thing that caught my eye was HD. Lucky for me, my new laptop was indeed HD compatible so I decided to search for a HD clip. I typed in ‘Public Enemies’ into the search bar and up popped a load of results. I could either watch the whole movie or simply a trailer. The HD quality was outstanding which surprised me as the download took less than a minute. Sound and playback quality was also top notch. No jumpy movies like you get with browser players.

Another section is ‘Devices’. Now, Vuze is fully compatible with a host of portable devices such as your iPod, iPhone, laptop, and other portables. It also works a treat on the PS3 and XBOX 360.

If you’re a videographer you can also publish your content on the Vuze network. This is great for publicizing your stuff to a large audience and also for Podcasts looking to branch out. It’s really easy to upload etc.. There are also special packages available for those uploading load of content to give them priority and good exposure on the Vuze Network.

One area I think that Vuze could improve is with the extra content. There should be a minimal browser built in to allow you to view the community pages without having to kick-start Firefox. This would give it a seamless affect and just be handy in general.

All things considered however, this is a spectacular piece of software and one I’ll be using a lot from now on. I think web based video torrents are having their final farewells. 9/10

Today.com: Get Paid to Blog for Free

Dean — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:16:21 +0000

Getting paid to blog is a distant dream of most bloggers. The initial high hopes for Google ad sense will have vanished after just a few weeks, even days. So what is one of the fastest, easiest ways to get paid to blog? Today.com seems to have the right idea.

The service allows you to establish your own blog as a sub-domain of Today.com. E.g. Myblogsname.today.com. You can then customise using the Word Press tools and begin blogging as you normally would. I tried this out and my third post was featured on the international homepage within hours of it going live. This got my page quite number of views as I’m sure you would imagine.

Today.com do pay you, however, it’s not a set rate or pay per post (at least for most bloggers – there are some who gain popularity and get a pay per post). Instead they pay you depending on how many impressions your page gets. For each impression you, $0.002 is added to your account ($2.00 CPM). This may seem minuscule but if your blog gains popularity you could be earning hundreds each month.

Today.com is different from other blog providers as they actually publicize your blog on the homepage rather than just leave it to it own devices at the mercy of the search engines. Users can search for terms on Today.com and your blog will appear if appropriate.

All in all, it’s a good service that is a step above the rest with the highest industry payout. However, the blogs themselves are always kept looking similar to Today.com and as such you can only really customize basic features such as colour etc…

It could be a good earner for bloggers but keep in mind – to get regular readers and thus impressions you have to blog regularly (one or twice per day) and also publicise your blog. 6/10

Wakoopa: The New Software Social Network

matt — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:15:35 +0000

Wakoopa is a social network that helps people discover the best software, games and web apps on the market. Developed by a team in Holland, Wakoopa could just be the next best tool you play with.

Do you want to know what apps you use on and off the web, and just how much you use them? Do you want to find new stuff that is useful for the tasks you undertake everyday? Do you want to be introduced to people into the same tools and products as you? Wakoopa can do all of this.

First, all you need to do is sign up and download their tracker program. Now usually I’d run a mile at this, but I couldn’t resist after having had a look at the tools on offer.

Like any data collation software, it takes a few days to get the best results, so it’s worth leaving the program running for a few days and then revisiting your profile and start looking at the graphs…

On your dashboard, you find out the top ten tools you use, how much you use them and what you use them for.

What’s really interesting though, is the ‘recommended’ section, which suggests other tools or services to try based on your overall usage. I was recommended to try Evernote, a service I’ve heard of but not investigated – this is something that appeals to me as it “is a software application that allows users to capture information of various types, including text notes, mobile phone snapshots, printed and handwritten text”. I’ll have to give it a go.

I like the interface, it’s intuitive and not too busy. Each piece of information available is put into a particular type of category and this helps to keep data overload to a minimum. There are also several widgets available, and they even work with the basic Wordpress.com blogs, as you’ll see to the side.

This is a great service and something that I would definitely recommend to try if you are fanatical about trying and finding out about new software on the web. You can follow the latest Wakoopa developments on their blog.

Nokia N97 Analysis: Compared to iPhone 3G and Google G1 Phone

Steven Finch — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:44:10 +0000

iPhones seem to be everywhere these days and even the release of the G1 phone hasn’t really had an impact on their growing marketshare. Palm have also announced that they will soon be launching their new smartphone called the Palm Pre, which is getting a huge amount of buzz at the moment. Thus bringing us to the final major player in the market who is yet to release a smartphone that can actually take marketshare and thats Nokia.

Nokia announced about three months ago that they will be releasing the N97 which is their rival to the iPhone. The N97 will be release in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and its sure to raise some eyebrows.

Here at Crenk we are still yet to get our hands on a new N97 test version, but I thought I would provide our readers with a basic overview of the phone and how it compares to iPhone and G1.

Nokia N97 – compared to the iPhone3G and G1

3.5 inches screen size

( iPhone3G : 3.5 inch ; G1 : 3.2 inch )

640 x 360 pixel resolution

(iPhone3G : 320×480 pixels ; G1 : 480×320 pixels resolution)

16:9 Aspect ratio,the same as that of TV,PC Monitors etc

(both iPhone and G1 have aspect ratio of 3:2 )

Resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback

(both iPhone & G1 boast a capacitive touchscreen(feather touch sensitive) )

Sliding QWERTY Keyboard

( iPhone : No physical keyboard ; G1 : Sliding QWERTY Keyboard )

Inbuilt WiFi,Bluetooth,HSDPA,A-GPS,3G

( Both iPhone and G1 have it )

32GB Onboard memory (expandable through microSD card upto 48GB as total capacity)

(neither iPhone nor G1 go beyond 32 GB as total capacity )

Battery : 1500 mAh (Heavy duty ! )

(iPhone : 1400 mAh ; G1 : 1150 mAh )

5 MP Digital Camera (DVD quality video capture)

(iPhone : 2.0 MP ; G1 : 3.2 MP )

OS : S60 5th Edition

(iPhone : iPhone OS 2.2 ; G1 : Android 1.0 )

Weight : 150 g (approx.)

( iPhone : 133 g ; G1 : 158 g )

Price : $550 (before network subsidies so expect it to go way cheaper than this)

(iPhone : $199(min.) ; G1 : $179(min.) )

Conclusions:

After a direct comparison with all the feature of the n97, G1 and iPhone3G the Nokia is by far the leader from a hardware perspective. However, it terms of the software and the OS, Nokia is a long way behind Google and Apple but this is expected.

The key also is that the App Store has made a huge impact on making the iPhone such a big success, and with the Android Market just being launched I’m sure that the G1 will slowly gain more and more marketshare. Where does this leave Nokia? Nokia really need to think hard and long about how they are going to open up their software to outside developers and then allow the average user the ability to pick and choose the applications that are right for them. OS has never been a strong point for Nokia, but it is about time they actually improved this sector if they are going to continue to be a major player in the smartphone market.

Also that the ‘App Store’ is something that has played a very critical role in making iPhone a worldwide success and now the same thing is occurring in the form of ’Android Market’ for G1, Nokia(being ‘new’ to open developer support for apps) can’t afford to reach the standards set by the other two veteran smartphones(specially iPhone)

SaySoMobile: Make Money Receiving Text Ads On Your Mobile Phone

Steven Finch — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:43:01 +0000

Are you sick and tired of receiving crappy spam messages in your inbox every single day? Well why only receive spam in your inbox when now you can also receive it on your mobile phone! This all comes from a new startup called SaySoMobile.

SaySoMobile is a new startup in which users can sign up and receive advertisements straight onto their mobile phone and in return the user makes a little money. Its that simple!

The idea is simple. Advertisers want access to people which gets their message across as much as possible for as little as possible. This new startup allows advertisers to target certain people in certain countries with advertisements direct onto their mobile phones via messages. Advertisers know that with this method the high majority of ads will be opened before they can be deleted, thus having a higher possibility of providing them a return on their investment.

Im very interested to hear from people using this service to make a little extra money, mainly to see if the money they are making is worth the intrusiveness of the advertisements.

V-Mode Vibe ii Sports Ear Hooks

Steven Finch — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:16:43 +0000

I was lucky enough today to receive some ear buds from v-mode. v-mode are a bit of a strange company in that they make headphones and also clothing under the same umbrella. The earphones that I received were the new vibe ii sports ear hooks.

First impressions from the packaging were good, but there simply just seemed to be a lot of packaging for a simply pair of ear buds.The little piece of novelty was that the box itself has two compartments that were had magnets build in to they stayed together.

Once inside after getting through the packaging (20 min) the speakers themselves seemed to be quite heavy, a lot heavier than a normal pair of ear buds. The Vibe ii is made especially for smartphones and the iPhone because they have included a built in microphone. The design of the microphone and overall look of the product is great, but the ear buds themselves are quite flat towards the end and if you listen to music for long periods on end then you might get a bit of a sore ear.

Obviously the key to a good set of ear buds is the quality of sound and the Vibe ii seems to give off a much better quality to the average ear bud on the market today. Unfortunately for me the quality of depth within the sounds in slightly lacking and the volume of the sounds also seems to be low.

Overall the Vibe ii is a great set of ear buds that I’m sure will last you a long time. Vibe ii is ahead of the average ear buds simply because of the sounds quality but for the price (USD $119.99) it seems to be just not good enough.

Lovely Charts: Best Web Based Tool For Flowcharts and Wireframes

Steven Finch — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:03:05 +0000

Lovely Charts is a slick new web-based tool for creating flowcharts and wireframes. Features you’d expect from a similar desktop app come standard: copy-paste, undo up to 20 steps, and pan/zoom all work the way you’re used to. Objects snap into place, and the basic drawing tools are all there. The only drawback? You can only save one chart at a time until you upgrade to the pro version. Depending on your needs, though, the 18 euro for 6 months might be worth it to you.

The advantages of having a web-based wireframe app are obvious if you’re a designer who works from home and an office. You can access your stuff from anywhere, and let collaborators work on it if need be. Lovely Charts also comes pre-stocked with some network diagram symbols and wireframe templates that could save you a lot of time. You might want to wait to buy until they implement a few more export formats. JPG and PNG are currently supported, with more on the way.

Timecamp: Keep Track of Your Employees Time

Steven Finch — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:23:17 +0000

Are you an employee looking to keep track of your employees time? Are you trying to work out how to best optimise the time of your employees, because they are your largest overhead? Well introducing Timecamp. Timecamp is a new tracking tool that seems to be very similar to Basecamp but for employee tracking. It’s like history book or google analytics, but works with people’s time. Increase team productivity, eliminate “time killers”, get more done and stay focused.

The service seems very straight forward and also seems to be a relatively new startup. Im not so keen on it being so closely based to Basecamp, but it is a simply idea with a simple solution. Currently the have a free pricing for individual users, but also a $8 per month pricing for any other additional users you want to add to the system.

If you have used Timecamp it would be great to hear your feedback.

WinSplit Revolution: Spilt Up Your Screen Space into Several Windows

Steven Finch — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:37:57 +0000

If you constantly have 2, 3, or 16 windows open on your computer, WinSplit Revolution can help you organize your space. This little Windows utility automatically resizes and relocates windows making it easy to stack your programs vertically, horizontally, or in little boxes.

The program isn’t really that useful if you’ve got an 800 x 600 pixel display, but if you’ve got a high resolution widescreen monitor, WinSplit Revolution can help you make the most of your space. You can assign keyboard shortcuts to various positions. For instance, one hotkey can maximize the current window, while another can unmaximize it and drag it to the left side of the screen.

Tsavo Media Purchase Open Source Food

Steven Finch — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:40:58 +0000

Several hundred thousand palates can’t be wrong. With this, Tsavo Media announced that it has acquired Open Source Food (OSF) from Egg & Co., a venture of Tokyo-based web producer Jon Anthony Yongfook Cockle.

With the acquisition, OSF has been renamed NibbleDish and will join Tsavo’s new network of content sites for consumers, currently in development.

Yongfook will remain with the company. A serial web-app builder, Yongfook is also responsible for the popular lifestreaming software Sweetcron and analytics tool Gumtrail. From his base in Tokyo, he works with various Japanese companies as an outside consultant, building web apps and overseeing production.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Stimator: Real Website Valuation Estimator

Steven Finch — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:32:34 +0000

Stimator is a real-time website value estimator that aims to deliver the most accurate economical value that a website could worth by collecting important data from different sources as well as market places.

There are six major factors involved in the calculation:

Top Level Domain – Stimator take in account the strength of a TLD.
Financial - It uses Yahoo Finance to get all data needed to perform the variations of the financial market.
Real Sells – The service was built to delivery real results (at least the most possible ones). The math used to determinate a website value was study using real website sells such as: Sedo, Sitepoint Marketplace etc.
Web Factors – Stimator collects information from the website itself and from several major sources during the calculation stages before presenting the final estimated result.
Estimation - The calculations are made to give what is called the “economic value”.
Observations - The main mission is to avaliate domains and sub-domains. After each calculation, Stimator presents a report with the main relevant factors that it can extract from the examination. This factors will give the users an idea of how the site is performing.

Using Stimator Crenk is worth $17,351 which is kind of a realistic valuation. Anyone interested in offering me that much for the site?

Dataopedia: Look At Your Sites Key Metrics In One Place

Steven Finch — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:37:12 +0000

Not too long ago the guys over at Killerstartups launched a new service called Dataopedia. Dataopedia is a basic solution that allows users to type in any url and find quickly key metrics from various sources.

Metrics that are measured include Google PR, Alexa Numbers, Compete and Quantcast analysis, Social media breakdowns, Twitter news, Technorati links, Friendfeed and url registration information. Currently, Dataopedia pulls in all this information from various partners including Crunchbase, Compete, Digg, Getsatisfaction and more.

There’s also something interesting buried at the bottom of the site profiles: an ability to comment on the site using Disqus. While that’s not likely to have the reach of a Google Search Wiki, it provides yet another way to gather details about the site and its reputation.

Dataopedia does a great job of pulling all the key quantitative and qualitative site measures required in todays world of web 2.0. There is still a lot of improvements that can be made with the user interface, but over it is probably already leading in this specific market, even thought market is very small.