Crenk » uk

Microsoft MSN Video: Watch Free TV In UK Without Downloading Any Software

Steven Finch — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:59:31 +0000

Microsoft has just launched their new MSN video player in the UK. The video on demand service competes directly with recently-launched SeeSaw in offering a range of commercial TV shows for viewers to watch for free in their browser. The service is monetised using 30-second preroll ads.

Unlike SeeSaw, Microsoft appears to have done deals with independent TV production companies as opposed to TV stations. As a result, MSN Video Player can’t claim to have a full range of Channel 4 or 5 shows, but what it does have is certainly presented in a much more appealing way than SeeSaw.

Microsoft’s New Bing TV Advertisement for the UK

Steven Finch — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:51:13 +0000

Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, has just launched its first UK TV advert. Its an interesting ad, but doesn’t seem very inventive.

BBC Announce Dedicated News and Sports iPhone Applications

Steven Finch — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:58:38 +0000

The BBC announced they will be releasing standalone iPhone applications for their news and sport content this April with Blackberry and Android versions to follow.

Most people will say that these additions are well overdue, but it is good to see the BBC adopting new media and trying to spread their services to as many people as possible across a multitude of devices.

The Sports application will be online just in time for the World Cup in South Africa this June, and will feature live video and audio commentary from the worlds largest sporting event.

Snoop Dogg Pimps Him Voice Out on Tom Tom

Steven Finch — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:45:37 +0000

I find it funny how Snoop Dogg isnt allowed in the UK or Australia, but he could potentially be in your car. The world famous rapper Snoop Dogg has brought his hilarious “-izzle” speak to TomTom.

The firm behind this is Locutio Voice Technologies which offers novelty sat nav voices, and Snoop Dogg will fit in their stable very well.

According to the firm, Snoop’s navigational wisdom includes:

Take tha third left, and while you’re at it, put in some of that Snoop Dogg!Turn around when possible and keep it ‘G’, ya d-i-g?

Keep left ahead, and you’ll be bonafide.

Snoop’s own brand manager, Nick Adler, assures us that “celebrity voices for GPS are a hot new content category”.

“Snoop is the first real megastar to lend his voice to GPS navigation. As Snoop is a trendsetter, he just had to have his voice tell us all where to go!” he added.

There is a very big novelty factor here, but im not too sure if someone would actually purchase this item more than once! Im curious to see who they can bring on next to top Snoop Dogg, I really would love to hear Yoda or the Cookie Monster direct me through London traffic.

Orange Makes Multimedia on Your Mobile More Accessible With the Launch of New Store

Steven Finch — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:52:07 +0000

Orange have launched a new store in Milton Keynes, UK.

The first Orange UK Multimedia Store opens today in thecentre:mk, Milton Keynes
The world’s first Motorola DEXT™ with MOTOBLUR™* will be exclusively on sale at the new Milton Keynes store on opening day, before anywhere else in the world**
It is also the first Orange store to feature a giant 70-inch cinema style screen and seating area, bringing multimedia to life

The Pirate Party List of Countries

Steven Finch — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:26:36 +0000

With the emergency of the Pirate Party in Sweden in which won a European Parliamentary place at the last elections, I just wanted to run through what countries currently have a Pirate Party.

The Pirate Party – Sweden

The Pirate Party – Canada

The Pirate Party – UK

The Pirate Party – Germany

The Pirate Party – Finland

Sky TV to Launch 3D Channel Next Year

Dean — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:17:09 +0000

Since 3D filming was created the only way to marvel at the spectacle was to go to the cinema and pay extra for the pleasure. At the moment, Ice Age 3D is about as close as you’ll get to the 3D experience. However, recently huge advancements have been made such as Fujifilm announcing the world first consumer 3D digital camera. Now, Sky TV in the UK say that they will be offering Europe’s first ever 3D TV service by next year.

“In the next step in the Sky+HD journey, Sky today announced that it will launch the UK’s first 3D channel next year,” said Sky in a press release

“The service will be broadcast across Sky’s existing HD infrastructure and be available via the current generation of Sky+HD set-top boxes.” This is good news as the UK has just undergone a massive nationwide digital switchover and people having to change their set-top boxes all over again would anger some.

However, those wanting to enjoy 3D films, entertainment and sport will have to change their TV for a 3D ready TV. These are expected from large companies such as Panasonic and will be on sale in 2010 to coincide with the launch of the 3D service.

“3D is a genuinely ’seeing is believing’ experience, making TV come to life as never before. Just like the launch of digital, Sky+ and HD, this is latest step in our commitment to innovating for customers.” said Sky.

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!

Performing Rights Society Force YouTube to Remove All Music Videos for the UK

Steven Finch — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:31:53 +0000

There has been a lot of talk overnight about YouTube (owned by Google) not being able to come to a royalty deal with the PRS in UK, thus leading to all music videos being removed from YouTube effective immediately. Here are links to the statement about the situation from YouTube and the PRS.

I don’t want to just run through what many other sites and news sources are writing about, I wanted to discuss why a solution didn’t happen and what is going to happen next to both the PRS and YouTube.

YouTube and the PRS couldn’t come to a royalty deal mainly because the PRS were asking for a lot and they were providing no real information in return. The PRS were asking for blanked royalties but weren’t able to specifically say what artists would receive the royalties and what amounts they would receive. YouTube stated the following:

“PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our license than before…we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback. In addition, PRS is unwilling to tell us what songs are included in the license they can provide so that we can identify those works…that’s like asking a consumer to buy an unmarked CD without knowing what musicians are on it.”

It is kind of like the PRS just expected YouTube to meet their demands no matter what they asked. In addition, on the PRS statement for some reason they mentioned Google’s last quarter revenues for 2008 in which have completely no relevance in this case. The PRS still seem to be using old methods to try to force companies into agreements that just simply aren’t realistic in this current economic climate. Remember that Pandora is not in the UK anymore because the PRS couldn’t offer them a decent agreement and forced them to basically close up shop in this country.

This leads me to believe that there is now a potential for YouTube to launch a spinoff site as already reported with all four major labels, which will attract high levels of advertisers and also possibly sidestep old music companies like the PRS.

UK AdSmart Ad Network Goes Bust

Steven Finch — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:47:35 +0000

UK based advertising network AdSmart, which also had its presence in India through its Delhi-based venture AdRevenue, has gone bust.

A source at AdRevenue informs Crenk that the closure of AdSmart won’t affect the business of AdRevenue, but the company will now operate under a new name, E-Spot Media Pvt Ltd.

There are obviously several sites that will now be out of pocket from this closure, such as Games2win who has already published an article about their loss.

If you have more information on the closure or have been using Adsmart please drop us a comment.

Has Gigaom Been Affect From Moving Away From Federated Media and to IDG?

Steven Finch — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:33:47 +0000

I have been reading Gigaom a lot lately, which is one of the worlds best technology news companies. Gigaom announced back in November that they will be leaving Federated Media for advertising revenues and move over to IDG. Since this time I have noticed a few key changes at Gigaom and was wondering if the site was being affected by the lack of quality advertising on the part of IDG?

Below is a screenshot of the Gigaom site as seem by a UK ip address.

As you can see from the screenshot Gigaom has been showing a huge amount of advertising from Chitika. These ads seem to just make Gigaom look a lot cheaper and more amateurish. Do you think the look of these ads has been affecting visitors to Gigaom?

I think it must have some affect. I have noticed these ads and from being on Gigaom several times in the last few days they have no put me off from visiting the site and actually just reading the full RSS feed instead.

Amazon Mp3 Store Launches For UK Market

Steven Finch — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:19:48 +0000

Amazon has just launched their Mp3 Music store in the UK. The store can be found at http://mp3.amazon.co.uk. The simple-to-use digital music store offering over 3 million DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) songs which will work on any MP3 player including the iPod™- with top-selling albums from just £3 and individual songs from 59p.

Amazon Mp3 UK has all four major labels signed up, SonyBMG, Universal Music, EMI Music and Warner Music – and leading independents such as Cooking Vinyl, Harmonia Mundi, Beggars Banquet, The Orchard, Concord and IODA.

Greg Greeley, Vice-President of Amazon EU Retail said: “We’re excited to provide our UK customers with more ways to discover and enjoy great music. In addition to the millions of low-priced CDs available in our music store, Amazon MP3 now provides a vast selection of DRM-free albums and songs across every genre you can think of, ready to enjoy in seconds”.

THE UK’S Top UK Marketing Weblogs

Steven Finch — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:07:18 +0000

Over at the Spinning Around blog, James has a great list he is keeping up-to-date of the top UK Marketing weblogs. The list is based upon the AdAge Power 150 and I have attached his most up-to-date list from the 1st May.

If you feel that you should be included, you can get in touch with Ad Age here, who will sort you out. As soon as you’re in, I’ll pick you up in this filleting of the AA chart.

I really looking forward to seeing if James make a nice badge for the sites on the list. I would be sure to place it on Crenk.com. Also, im a little surprised that James doesnt promote the list a little more on his site, because it is a big draw point to the site.

UK	Global	Blog
1 (=)	42 (-17)	David Airey
2 (=)	56 (-10)	Blogstorm
3 (+1)	57 (+4)	russell davies
4 (-1)	61 (-6)	NevilleHobson.com
5 (+1)	80 (+27)	adliterate
6 (-1)	105 (-15)	The Engaging Brand
7 (=)	116 (-2)	PR Blogger
8 (+2)	130 (+13)	Only Dead Fish
9 (-1)	138 (-10)	Crackunit
10 (-1)	166 (-27)	Modern Marketing
11 (+5)	170 (+19)	Make Marketing History
12 (-1)	171 (-24)	Welcome to Optimism
13 (NEW)	173 (NEW)	HERD
14 (-2)	178 (-5)	A PR Guy’s Musings
15 (-2)	193 (-15)	Crenk
16 (-1)	201 (-15)	PPC Blog
17 (-3)	208 (-26)	Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog
18 (+13)	228 (+128)	Blog Till You Drop
19 (-2)	249 (+1)	Hobo SEO UK
20 (NEW)	261 (NEW)	Spinning Around
21 (-3)	266 (-15)	greenormal
22 (+1)	305 (+12)	Drew B’s take on tech PR
23 (-4)	313 (-50)	Life Moves Pretty Fast
24 (+6)	327 (+28)	livingbrands
25 (+4)	328 (+26)	Beyond PR
26 (-6)	329 (-51)	Simonsays
27 (=)	330 (+15)	The Way of the Web
28 (-6)	333 (-24)	mediations
29 (-4)	350 (-14)	Wadds’ tech pr blog
30 (-9)	353 (-45)	Interactive Marketing Trends
31 (-3)	370 (-22)	Faster Future
32 (-8)	375 (-46)	50-Plus Marketing
33 (-7)	379 (-35)	Raw Stylus
34 (+1)	396 (+23)	Lewis 360
35 (+1)	418 (+11)	Brand Strategy Magazine Blog
36 (-3)	446 (-47)	The Friendly Ghost
37 (+10)	454 (+71)	Living in a digital world
38 (+2)	457 (+17)	Nick Burcher
39 (-5)	465 (-57)	(Almost) Always Thinking
40 (+5)	480 (+31)	Pudding Relations
41 (=)	484 (-1)	Simon Wakeman
42 (-4)	492 (-23)	Tell Ten Friends
43 (+1)	494 (+13)	The New Marketing
44 (-5)	495 (-25)	[Bluurb] stuff and things
45 (-8)	504 (-40)	A Mountain Dweller in the Thames Valley
46 (-4)	510 (-26)	Brandgym Blog
47 (-4)	522 (-18)	Unleashed on Marketing
48 (+1)	530 (+18)	All Things PR
49 (-3)	543 (-28)	PR Voice
50 (+1)	562 (+5)	Indolent.com
51 (NEW)	565 (NEW)	In the Cowshed
52 (-4)	567 (-29)	Offer and Acceptance
53 (-3)	588 (-36)	PRwordSmith
54 (NEW)	597 (NEW)	Yet Another Planning Blog

I also just wanted to point out that I came across another great blog that is not UK based, but i thought was worth a mention, DailyWritingTips. There currently is a post that is rising on digg, 44 resume writing tips.

Emote Games To Unveil Social Gaming Technology At GDC

Steven Finch — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:09:54 +0000

Emote Games a specialist production company founded by industry veterans Morgan O’Rahilly and Dave Rose to fund and produce cross-platform, interactive entertainment and to exploit emergent digital channels, will demonstrate its pioneering technology platform to select partners at the forthcoming Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Emote Game’s technologies extend and socially enable brands or games, creating richer experiences for its users. This multi-device technology allows single or multi-player game clients to deliver countless benefits, such as keeping users connected for longer, higher production values, richer game play and brand extensions to new game formats, helping to retain and monetise existing communities of users. The platform offers users the convenience of game access anywhere through a familiar interface. Its core social functions provide users with convenient ways to manage their game and as a result maximise their game time.

Emote’s architecture supports partner content and seamless integration to any external game engine, facilitating access to the game anywhere and granting the power of community to the user wherever they choose to play. Our technology and content approach also embeds game-play within the communities we build, allowing every user to be a participant and not constrained by the limitations of the game or its format, as a result extending game-play in compelling new directions.

The emote technologies harness the power of social networking and cross-platform access enabling users to stay connected to the brand for longer periods, said Morgan O’Rahilly, Emote Games founder and CEO, ” as a result this opens the door vast opportunities including greater brand awareness, broader marketing and distribution possibilities, and expanded revenue opportunities”

Established to work with media companies and brand holders, Emote Games and the emote platforms offer a unique extension and value proposition for your existing brands and forthcoming games.

UK iPhone Released November 9

Steven Finch — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:14:10 +0000

Mike Butcher and other outlets are reporting that the 8-gigabyte iPhone will be in the UK on November 9 for 269 quid or USD $542, a considerable price increase as it leaps over the pond. O2 will be providing service and free WiFi will be available from The Cloud, a UK pay-as-you-go public WiFi provider. The WiFi music store will also appear on UK iPhones next month, allowing for on-the-go downloads from the ITMS.

O2 has been building out its EDGE network to support this launch, which is actually a downgrade of its current European 3G offerings. The move to give away free WiFi is probably an attempt to offset the poor 2.5G data coverage in Europe in general. Jobs said that 3G was not embedded into the phone due to battery concerns, which means the next iPhone will probably come attached to a car battery and itâ€™s own handtruck. This is right in line with TC Franceâ€™s discovery of the FrancoiPhone on Orange.

Via: John Biggs (Techcrunch)