Crenk » reviews

gdgt.com: User Generated Gadget Reviews

Dean Sherwin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:18:32 +0000

Gdgt.com is a user generated site, which is kind of like Wikipedia in many regards, that caters for gadgets and electronics reviews. Basically, users log in and add reviews for tech items they own. Other users can then update or edit that review with their own opinion and thoughts.

There is also a questions section normally on the homepage called the ‘Big Debate’ where users ask questions related to tech products. The community is also alive and kicking. When you ask a question you needn’t bother logging off to check back later – just wait five minutes.

Most of the comments made there about products are sensible and well thought out. I didn’t find one comment from some idiot complaining that Blackberries are better than iPhones (nut jobs).

Connection with fellow enthusiasts is also a good feature that I liked as you can follow their own reviews and edits.

Signing up is easy and of course free. So if you fancy venting about your new purchase or want some solid advice about what to buy – and when, head on over to gdgt.com.

Join The Crenk Community

Steven Finch — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:19:22 +0000

Join the Crenk community!

Twitter – Crenk Account – follow us

Subscribe to Crenk – via our RSS feed

Here at Crenk we are looking to build the community and discussions around web startups. If you have any questions or suggestions please get in touch.

Accomedion: Keyboard Harmonica and Accordion iPhone App

Steven Finch — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:21:23 +0000

Accomedion is a new musical instrument application that combines a keyboard harmonica and an accordion.
Sound sources from keyboard harmonica are used, and chord buttons similar to the ones on accordion are attached. The wide range of tunes will be played as accompaniment.

Main functions
- Capable to shift between major chord and minor chord
- Capable to record and replay up to three tunes
- Five demonstration tunes are stored. Capable to play in accordance with the tutorial guide.
- You can play it like a real keyboard harmonica by blowing the microphone. (iPhone only)

You can download this application from the iTunes store here.

Jango Launches Music Vertical Advertising Network

Steven Finch — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:42:10 +0000

US music site Jango announced the launch of Jango Music Network (JMN), dubbing it as the world’s largest and most targeted cost-effective ad network for the music vertical.

The current JMN inventory of music sites reach a collective total of 30 million unique monthly visitors in the US alone. JMN also features a unique methodology that maps brand preference to musical taste and uses it to help advertisers target audiences that will be particularly receptive to their brand.

Techcrunch Changes Its Theme Again!! Oh Come On

Steven Finch — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 09:26:33 +0000

Techcrunch has changed their theme yet again. A few months ago the theme was changed for the 3rd time in a year and I thought it was really moving in the right direction. The navigation was clean, there were a lot more options to find the articles you are looking for, and the theme had some colour and character.

Techcrunch today have launched a new theme which keeps the same navigation principles but totally gets rid of all the character and colour on the page.

Let me know what you think!

Before:

After:

Just Hear It: New Music Streaming Search Engine That Claims To Be Legal

Steven Finch — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:23:42 +0000

In the last week or so we have been really taking a keen focus on music streaming service and even posted a specific review about MixTurtle. Today we have come across yet another music streaming service that might be worth a look. This new streaming service is called Just Hear It. Just Hear It has been created by two college students Nicolae Ivanescu and Cosmin Panait.

Just Hear It is very similar to MixTurtle, Seeqpod and Songza. It lets the user search for tracks that are online and add them to a playlist. Just Hear It claims to be completely legal, following DMCA guidelines, and paying royalties to all of the major performing-rights organizations, like ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. In the future, Just Hear It aims to negotiate licenses to share revenue with labels.

After playing around with the site it still seems to have the same issues as Seeqpod and Songza, every now and then you will find the track that you want to listen to, but it simply wont play or the file is corrupted or incomplete. Im not really too sure if there is anything more annoying than setting up your playlist and half the songs playing.

However, because Just Hear It claims to be completely legal, I’m very curious to see how this business develops. They need to have a very strong business model and I’m guessing that will be based on advertising revenues.

NewsGator Launches AdBurner. Ad Optimisation Tool for Premium Publishers

Steven Finch — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:18:16 +0000

NewsGator has announced today that they have launched a new product called AdBurner. AdBurner is a program that provides a turnkey advertising based solution for premium publishers, which helps them to optimise ad revenues around key web 2.0 technologies with no incremental effort.

AdBurner is aimed at optimizing the CPM for, and process of, inserting and managing advertising into NewsGator’s publisher products suite, including services as diverse as widgets, related content, and iPhone applications. The initiative is built around best of breed advertising partners Technorati, Admeld, Gigya, Medialets, and Tremor Media.

This is a very interesting moving from NewsGator and Im very keen to test the product for them. Currently, the new product doesnt seem available via their website, so would be great to hear from the NewsGator team.

Wired Has Decided To Close Music Related Blogs, Listening Post and Underwire

Steven Finch — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:34:20 +0000

Wired have decided to close Listening Post and Underwire. They are citing a great deal of overlap among Listening Post, Epicenter and Underwire so there is a wisdom to concentrating our fire where it will have the most impact.

Wired have thanks approximately 12 writers who have worked on the blog and it still hasnt been fully confirmed if they will be completely out of a job or not.

This seems to be a very strange move from Wired. It might have just been better to slowly move the Listening post material into another niche instead of just closing down the 40th most linked to blog in the world according to Technorati. I really do think it is a shame because I have been really loving the Listening Posts articles over the last year or so, and if the writers ever need somewhere to write please contact me, because we also have another blog over at RouteNote in which we are always on the look out for writers who can help musicians in the current climate.

Blogs.com: The Blog Directory Profiling Some Of The Best News From The Blogosphere

Steven Finch — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:16:05 +0000

Blogs.com owned by Sixapart has launched a new blog directory. The blog directory is very similar to Blogged.com, providing news from the blogosphere for different sectors with an attached blog directory.

Blogs.com has been a great success from launch and has some great traffic already to the site. However, when I look closer at the site it seems they it is very basic and isn’t providing too much insights, so why such high traffic numbers. For one it is very hard to get your content shown on their, so doesn’t show true news from the blogosphere, just selected information. Additionally, I have submitted Crenk three times to their direct and I don’t even think they have referenced my site yet!

The design itself is very limiting and only allows them to show a certain amount of information on every page. Additionally, when it comes to finding more interesting sites in a particular niche, I think this just doesn’t happen at all. It is hard to find their directory and they don’t seem to want to show information from various blogs, just stick to the top blogs that everyone has already heard of.

Profy: A Technology News and Analysis Site, Which Is a Must Subscribe

Steven Finch — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:13:10 +0000

Profy is probably the first technology related blog I ever read. Since initially launched in September, 2006 Profy has built a loyal readership among startup owners, engineers, bloggers, investors, and general tech-savvy audience.

In the last few months Profy has been having problems keeping its authors, but since then Svetlana Gladkova has taken over the editorial status and the blog seems to be rising again. About three months ago Profy had a redesign and Im really liking the new look, except for the logo change!

Profy release about 3 or so articles per day and these articles are rich in analysis and also hot off the press when related to technology news. I would like to see them get some more authors on board and also incorporate the old green style back into the site. Additionally, they are not promoting the blogging platform they launched about six months ago. However, that all being said, Profy is one of the leading technology blogs on the internet, and it is a must subscribe!

WebHostingRating.com: The Newest Place TO Head to Find Out The Right Hosting Package For Your Needs

Steven Finch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:59:48 +0000

WebHostingRating.com is a new host rating site where they are trying to build the biggest searchable web hosting directory featuring complete information on all web hosting providers, all their web hosting plans, promotional and discount coupons, and unedited reviews by real customers.

From what I can tell this service is built on a Wordpress platform which incorporates a review feature, allowing users to find the right provider and package to suite their needs.

Webhostingrating.com also have other sections on the site, such as a directory, web hosting awards and web hosting tutorials. The articles section is basically their blog in which they discuss everything web hosting. The site itself is brilliantly design and I can see this type of directory really taking off.

Since the site is relatively new, they have only review 4 key web hosting companies at present, but make sure you keep and eye out for more coming in the future. The hosting companies they have reviewed are all Unix hosting, but they have other categories that I’m sure will develop over time, such as Windows hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, collection hosting and managed hosting.

While offering some good reviews on trusted hosting companies, they are also writing their own corporate blog, which discusses everything from the world of web hosting. Currently, they seem to have approximately 100 articles in a variety of categories. These categories range from domain hosting to ecommerce to scripting. All the articles seem to be of good length and are very helpful. It would also have been nice to see them add a few pictures in the posts to mix up just the plain text. Normally, a site with the quality of articles they have would grow in the blogosphere, but add in the reviews section and you have a great site in the makings.

Anyways, make sure you head over to Webhostingrating.com and I’m sure they can help you find the right hosting package to meet your needs.

TradeVibes Will Now Syndicate Crenk Articles

Steven Finch — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:23:06 +0000

Crenk has joined forces with TradeVibes which will see all of the Crenk articles directly syndicated into the TradeVibes database.

TradeVibes is an ever growing company database. The companies posts information about vairous companies, and detailing everything from their address to competitors to its management. In each profiles in the right column it allows the user to stay up-to-date with the news about that specific company. The news is currently being gathered from a variety of sources, such as Techcrunch, RWW and now Crenk.

We have previously written about TradeVibes when they came out of beta. They have since made some big improvements and im looking forward to seeing their site improving in the future.