Woodside Media Group » Blog

Don’t splurb too much

Amani — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:36:53 +0000

Tracking what is popular on the internet is very easy with splurb. Splurb is a cross-referenced list of the social web’s most popular links. To get listed, a link must be popular on at least two social websites. After that, Links are sorted by popularity over time and sized by number of sources. This then becomes a very valuable because you can monitor what is hot in the news and within social web/media circles. The topics range from Business, Entertainment, Humor, Gaming and others. You can also adjust the number of sources you require for a story to hit your screen. The maximum is five and minimum is two. splurb currently indexes Digg, RedReddit, Mixx, Propeller, TweetMeme, Yahoo Buzz and Fark. Therefore, you don’t need to visit these sites but come to one hub. Try it out and let me know what you think.

App to Watch: Aloqa

Amani — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:39:03 +0000

Aloqa’s tagline is “Always Be A Local”. After downloading the app for my iPhone, that makes plenty of sense. I recently learned about Aloqa from this blog post by Robert Scoble highlighting startups to watch in 2010. The service intrigued me so I decided to check it out. My first thought is like this is a mobile yellow pages that brings any and everything to my phone without having to search through Google Maps or my Mobile browser. This is especially valuable on a road trip looking for gas stations, ATM’s, liquor stores or anything else unique. I continued to test this app out and noticed that it showed almost 15 different concerts within a 25 mile radius of where I was. All of these concerts were set to occur within the next three days. I can definitely see how valuable this could be if I just landed in a new city and wanted to see what is going on in the local area. The home screen of the app lists different type of places (Pizza, Fast Food, Shopping, Housing, etc) that you may want to search.

In addition, there is a “channel store” where you can access and add other venues/categories such as Gas Stations, Beauty & Spas, Local News and others.

Overall, I can see great value in this application and I look forward to working with it and seeing how the app learns my preferences and molds to my taste. I am also interested to see how it connects with my friends on Facebook and uses the built in notifier. Stay tuned for updated posts from me with regard to this app. Do you have any stories about Aloqa?

Cinch takes the next step

Amani — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:06:27 +0000

Today I am going to discuss one of my favorite “up and coming” services – Cinch. I was turned onto this service by both Louis Gray and Jesse Stay who spoke about it on Friendfeed and their respective blogs. Cinch is a service that allows you to create and share micropodcasts, images and text all on one platform. My main use of cinch will be for interviews of musicians for my Mirth Nadir show. Not only can you record an interview in person (now available through the actual web site) with my iphone, but it also uploads the interview right away to your page on cinchcast.com and gives people an RSS option to follow your “cinches” which makes it super easy (and fast) to spread the word about any new interview you do. Along with the RSS option, you get a unique link with an .mp3 file that you can then cross post to other websites. I am thinking specifically of posting this link to posterous and in a matter of minutes you interview can be shared on your network. The actual website process is very simple. Just log on to your page, title the cinchcast and then hit record and you are off and running. The phone recording process is not as difficult as it might seem. Simply call the other party(or have the other party call you). Then add another call and call the Cinch phone number, link the two calls together, wait for the recording and tone and it begins recording. When you finish, just hang up, wait less than a minute and your recording is waiting for you on the website or within the application for you to listen to. Very simple process but a valuable tool for your toolbelt. You can also follow other people on cinch and listen to their micro-podcasts and share your with them as well. You can automatically share with twitter and facebook as well. I predict that cinch will be one of my “highest use” applications in 2010. Follow me on cinch and let’s get to recording.

Sports Illustrated goes Digital!

Amani — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:00:02 +0000

I was browsing one of my favorite music business sites yesterday and ran across this sweet video. I have been a loyal subscriber to Sports Illustrated since 1986 (the episode with childhood icon Len Bias was my first issue ironically). Take a look at the video below to see how far this publication has come and how it continues to thrive as numerous magazine publications have gone out of business. The detail and sheer volume of one digital issue makes my head spin. As a sports lover with an affection for timely photographer, this has me officially excited in a big way. What are your thoughts?

Sports Illustrated – Tablet Demo 1.5 from The Wonderfactory on Vimeo.

Dropbox – A pleasant surprise

Amani — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:05:45 +0000

I must admit, I am late to the game in learning about Dropbox. Starting in late 2008 and leading into 2009, this application has been getting some great buzz. In simple terms, Dropbox is a file syncing system that allows you to carry your files with you 24/7. You can have your iphone (or any mobile phone), or just web-access and your files are there waiting for you. If you are really into programming you can design some scripts which really turn on the power of Dropbox. For me personally, I use dropbox to carry around my podcast episodes and photographs that I need to use consistently. Specifically, with photographs, it provides the perfect syncing system for getting your mobile phone photos to your computer in a timely fashion without having to use the USB cord. Imagine if you didn’t have a USB cord and you were on the road. As I continue to learn more about this service, I implement it into my daily life. As I prepare to travel for the holidays, many times I find myself at a friends or relatives house and I want to share with them videos that I have acquired … Dropbox makes this easy for me. As 2010 approaches, job searching season will pickup steam. I will have two different resumes loaded in dropbox for easy access at any location I happen to be at. No more waiting to get home to get the right resume version and then sending it out. Just access it, create and email and hit send. As simple as that. I will be headed to the World Cup 2010 in South Africa and all of my itineraries and accommodation info is already in dropbox. I plan to add all photos and videos as well to dropbox during my trip which will automatically have my info backed up.

I am slowly falling in love with dropbox. Take a look at these five creative ways to use dropbox and this quick video as well.