New Media Picks Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic 49

1. Remote access to your PC from anywhere via mobile phone


2. Podcast search engine allows creation and sharing of channels


3. Server monitoring service makes it easy and free to track server status


4. Desktop music player tracks and reports your music preferences


5. Map creation service allows personal life events documentation


6. Spreadsheet hosting editing and sharing online


7. Shareable calendar emails you your daily agenda


8. Photo channels creation software allows album creation and online sharing


9. Custom search engine for your web site leverages users preferences


10. DVD trading service facilitates DVD exchanges among community members


11. online backup service for your iTunes music libraryincluding playlists


12. Applications suite for smartphones manages passwords, photos, financial accounts and more


13. Social networking and sharing hub provides the tools to build your own social web

Photo credit: Peter Guess

Sharing, is becoming an essential asset for those who need to communicate, edit, evaluate and publish information.

The Sharewood Picnic, is my weekly collection of the best, most interesting new media tools, resources and pointers I have run into during my daily research and online explorations.

In it I collect web services, tools, software applications and online resources that are generally free or very cost-effective, and that can run on as many computer platforms as possible. There are of course exceptions allowed by the uniqueness or usefulness of certain new tools independently of their cost and platform compatibility.

And so with this weekly ShareWood Picnic I try to bring you more of the tools and web services that facilitate open interaction, free sharing and the ability to discover and exchange with like-minded individuals.

These are also the new media tools and technologies that can help independent publishers, online authors, webmasters and communication officers to publish, promote, evangelize and network faster, with less effort and cost-effectively, avoiding old, difficult and expensive communication and marketing systems.

1. Avvenu
   
   
   
   Avvenu is a web-based service that allows you to remotely access your home or office PC, or as many computers as you wish, from around the corner or around the world. With Avvenu, your mobile device gives you secure access to any document or image on your computer, whatever its size or file type. The host computer must currently be a Windows-based computer. The Avvenu service supports any browser-equipped mobile phone or PDA. No special software needs to be downloaded to the device. The basic Avvenu service is free.
   http://avvenu.com





2. Loomia
   
   Loomia is a podcast and videocast search engine that will help you discover, share, and manage channels of interest to you. Loomia offers traditional search and browse options with tags, categories, and most popular video and audio, but it's more than just a search engine. Loomia's major bonus is that it will sort content based on personal ratings and interests to provide users with custom recommendations. Free to use.
   http://loomia.com





3. mon.itor.us
   
   mon.itor.us provides 24Ã--7 website and server monitoring service with a personalized interactive interface, where you can add server performance and availability tests, get uptime reports, add contacts to get the alert notifications. You can drag and drop the modules on the same page or drag them to another page. You can create new pages, rename pages directly by clicking on the name of the page. Your changes will be saved in real time and you will find your personalized page next time when you go to your site. Mon.itor.us does not require downloads or software to install and supports all major browsers. The basic version of mon.itor.us is totally free.
   http://mon.itor.us





4. MusicStrands
   
   MusicStrands is a desktop application that allows you to play music in your media player, track what you have been playing and generate statistical music charts of your music consumption automatically. You can share your profile with your friends and get recommendations tailored to your individual tastes. MusicStrands requires iTunes 5.0 or later or Windows Media Player 9 or later. It works on Windows 2000 or XP and Mac OS X 10.4 or greater. It is totally free to use and does require full download and installation.
   http://www.musicstrands.com





5. Wayfaring
   
   Wayfaring allows you use Google Maps data to create maps documenting events in your life, trips that you have taken, and so on. You can even include pictures and video to make the experience more visual. These detailed maps can then be shared with friends, family, colleagues, and strangers through e-mail, your blog, or Wayfaring. You can explore maps created by others and connect and collaborate over a vast social network. You can set your maps public or private, allow others to edit them or lock them down. Wayfaring is a free service.
   http://www.wayfaring.com





6. iRows
   
   iRows is a web-based service that allows you to create, store and access your spreadsheets from any computer with a browser. With iRows you can upload, edit and save Microsoft Excel, CSV and OpenOffice files: the data is stored in one place. Users who are allowed to see your data, all see the same latest version. You don't need to remember who got which version by email, no need to send updates, no need to merge changes. iRows also enables to share data among small communities or worldwide and allows you to display a spreadsheet on any web page. iRows is free to use an works with every operative system and web browser.
   http://irows.com





7. Planzo
   
   Planzo is a super-simple sharable calendar that allows you to track events, write to-do lists, upload and share files, and more. Planzo allows people to view their online calendar in three easy formats - day, week, and month. Simply click the corresponding button above your calendar to view it in that format. Planzo is able to email your day's events to you every morning and send text message events and reminders to your cell phone. No system nor browser requirements. Free to use. Try out the Planzo demo.
   http://planzo.com





8. Slide
   
   Slide is a desktop program that indexes photos on the user's hard drive, automatically groups them into channels, and plays them back via an always-on ticker interface. Slide provides an innovative scrolling "photo playback" model, users can rediscover and enjoy images they would rarely see otherwise. Users can choose to share any photo or invite both registered and unregistered friends and family to subscribe to entire channels of photos. You can also put Slide on any website or blog so others can watch, too. Slide requires download and it's free for Windows and Mac.
   http://www.slide.com/





9. Swicki
   
   Swicki is new kind of search engine that allows anyone to create focused searches on topics you care about. You can add it to your own websites and, unlike other search engines, you and your community have total control over the results. Swicki uses the wisdom of crowds to improve search results and presents search results that you're interested in, pulls in new relevant information as it is indexed, and organizes everything for you in a neat little customizable widget that you can put on your web site or blog. Swicki also adds automatically its own buzz cloud that constantly updates to show you what are hot search terms in your community. There are no system requirements and it's free to use.
   http://swicki.eurekster.com





10. Peerflix
    
    Peerflix is a service which enables members to buy and trade DVDs within an online community. Peerflix does not keep merchandise in warehouses around the country. Instead, it facilitates its members trading directly with one another to enable a fast trading cycle and reduced costs. Peerflix uses trading credits called "Peerbux": when a member sends a DVD to another member, they earn Peerbux, which allows them in turn to receive merchandise of comparable value. With Peerflix, you pay as you go 99 cents per trade. Because only the DVD is traded and not the entire case, it only takes one stamp ($0.39 in the US and $0.51 in Canada) to mail the DVD. Free trial sign up. The service is meant to be accessible worldwide and shipping costs may vary according to the country.
    http://www.peerflix.com





11. MP3tunes Locker
    
    The MP3tunes Locker gives you unlimited online storage to back-up your entire personal music collection, including your playlists. You can play your music collection and playlists in iTunes and anywhere you have an Internet connection. The Basic MP3tunes Locker is free to use and includes webloading, sideloading, MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite, and streaming inside iTunes on the Internet at a medium quality bit-rate (56k). The Premium MP3tunes Locker is $39.95 per year and includes back-up with unlimited storage, syncing, webloading, sideloading, the MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite, and streaming iTunes at a high quality bit-rate (192k).
    http://mp3tunes.com





12. SplashWallet
    
    SplashData (www.splashdata.com) is the leading provider of personal productivity software for smartphones - including Palm OS/Treo, Windows Mobile Smartphone, Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Symbian - as well as Windows and Macintosh platforms. SplashData's flagship product, SplashWallet, is a suite of applications that provides a complete solution for managing passwords, digital photos, financial accounts, lists, notes and more, and then synchronizing this information between a phone or PDA and a PC. The SplashWallet suite costs $59.95 but the single components of the suite can be sold individually as SplashID ($29.95), SplashPhoto ($29.95), SplashMoney ($29.95) and SplashShopper ($29.95). If you buy one of the applications you get another one for free.
    http://www.splashdata.com





13. Ziki
    
    Ziki is your place on the web to tell people about you, piece together your online content, keep in touch with the people you know and make new connections. Ziki can use the information about you to suggest people, businesses and groups you might want to connect with. Ziki also recommends digital content you may enjoy reading, watching or listening to. Ziki provides the tools you need to build your own social web, create your personalized search engine, easily find relevant information and make new and useful connections based on your needs. Ziki supports Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and Mozilla Firefox 1.5. Web-based. Free to use.
    http://www.ziki.com