Crenk

Last week I ran into a small problem when trying to put an audio book onto my iPod.  The audio book was in .wma, or Windows Media Audio format, my iPod doesn’t like that format.  A quick Google searches lead me to one of the simplest pieces of conversion software that I’ve used in some time.

Switch is a multi-platform dead simple program to use.  Simply tell it where the directory of files lives that you want to convert, point it to the directory where you want them to end up (or the same one), along with what format you want them converted into and click a button.  I seriously wish more software was this easy to use.

On my core 2 duo Macbook with 2GB of RAM it took about 4 hours to convert 12 .wma files into 192 kb/s .mp3’s.  This isn’t a five-minute job to do, and I fully expected it to take some time, so plan ahead.

Sound quality, to my untrained ears was identical.

Ease of use for this multi-platform software, being able to handle dozens of file formats and being free means this small app will stay installed for some time.

Bittorrent traffic is currently at an all time high with 3 bittorrent sites inside the top 120 on Alexa. There popularity is unquestionable and they will be around for a long time to come, but currently this smart file sharing service is a little difficult for beginners.

That being said a new site called TorrentRelay simplifies the entire bittorrent process. TorrentRelay helps to convert downloaded urls into links in which can be downloaded from within any internet browser. This site is unique because it allows newbies to get their torrents without having to install any extra software. No installations allows this service to be run on any computer, mobile or games console.

There currently is only one problem with this service and it is that users can only downoad files up to 400mb in size, once this can be lifted then torrents with be available to even more of the internet populations without having tech issues.

Kindo is the available in 14 languages. The family networking site has just announced that they have launched their popular network in Chinese and Arabic.

Kindo is where families get together, build their tree, and grow. With Kindo, you can build your own family tree for free, share it with the rest of your family, and learn more about who you are.

The strategy Kindo is adopting to launch into these 2 fast growing internet user bases is a good one. Since 2000 the internet userage has grown by 620% in China and 490% in the Middle East.

“Launching into Chinese and Arabic is a logical step in our truly international strategy. China is a very exciting opportunity for us, and we’re eager to expand further in Asia”, Gareth Knight, co-founder and in charge of product development strategy.

For me, Kindo is a great idea with a huge amount of potential. However, once they have launched for all languages it is hard to see where the business model will head next. The only options then would be to move on to the next startup and try to just promote Kindo as much as possible. Kindo is not going to take over the world, but it is a product that is interesting and something that is worth investing time in.

This has to be the funniest thing i have heard in ages. Microsoft has launched a campaign which states, “they know you’ve got a pirated copy of our software, so register with us and pay a small fee for an official license”???

Basically Microsoft is trying to turn people who are using their software into consumers, which it pretty self explanatory. Microsoft estimates that 35% of the software installed on computers is stolen. Im just not entirely sure why a person who is using pirated software for free would even consider paying. Everyone wants something for free!