New Media Picks Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic 46

New media tools and services are blooming like never before. Here is a new basket full of new media gems for another great technology-rich Sharewood Picnic.

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. These are new media tools and technologies that can facilitate more effective communication, promotion, marketing, networking and your ability to discover like-minded individuals and organizations around the world.

Photo credit: Delphine Mayeur

And here is what I have colected for you this week:

1. Reputation management service applicable to any web site


2. Access online applications via your mobile phone


3. Browser-based toolbar to download rich-media from any web page


4. Online events manager helps track, find, share and promote favourite events


5. Contextual chat service allows interaction with people visiting the same web page


6. Mobile-based event and people finder


7. Contextual advertising service that pays high commissions to web publishers


8. Independent filmmakers resource allows to search festivals and competitions worldwide


9. Directory of selected web sites


10. Upload, read, promote and market your comics strips to iPods


11. Add navigation, images, ads and external links to your video clips and track users selections


12. Zero footprint projectable portable keyboard


13. Telephone interfaceable automatic recording devices

1. EasyUtil Recommendation Service
   
   
   EasyUtil Recommendation web service is for people who want to provide a reputation management and recommendation service (a-la Amazon) to their users, but don't want to spend resources developing it or can't offer it due to limitation on their hosting plans. The service's engine generates recommendations based on the data a client site provides to the engine. The data is fed into the engine using a "this user likes this item" type of request. The items liked by the same user are considered to be related to each other. This information can be retrieved by using a "people who liked this item also liked which items" kind of request. It is currently free to use, but users must expect to be charged of it when it will emerge out of beta.
   http://www.easyutil.com





2. MobileGlu
   
   
   mobileGlu is a service that allows users to access their online favorite applications through their mobile and enables developers to mobilise their existing web services. Basically, mobileGlu pulls the data from your life online and automatically optimises it for your mobile device. This service currently supports del.icio.us, Flickr, moblogUK, upcoming.org, Blogger and RSS feeds with more being added as time goes on. If there are services you wish to see mobilised, you can get in touch with mobileGlu developers and tell them. Check it out. It's free to use.
   http://www.mobileglu.com





3. PimpFish
   
   
   PimpFish is a powerful browser toolbar that enables you to save pics, movies and more in your computer, from any webpage. PimpFish provides an advanced download manager that offers several features such as a mini thumbnail viewer, live statistics, gallery shortcuts and SLAPfiles integration. SLAPfiles is a shared collection of URLs, all gathered in one place, that you can also comment. PimpFish is able to save Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media and other embedded videos; moreover, it offers password management when grabbing file from protected websites and bulletin boards. Free download. For Windows/Internet Explorer (Firefox beta version available).
   http://www.pimpfish.com/
   





4. Eventful
   
   Eventful is a tool that allows users to find events that they care about, share their discoveries with friends and also receive alerts about events that haven't even been announced yet. Events come from the community, as well as EVDB's partners and web crawling. Users can create calendars and then publish them anywhere online using pre-built designs or their own styles. For every event posted, Eventful offers a set of iCalendar and RSS feeds that anyone can subscribe to. Free to use.
   http://eventful.com





5. Gabbly
   
   
   Gabbly is a platform that enables to instantly connect and collaborate around any content, topic or interest by allowing people that are on the same page to chat together via a web-based floating chat window. You can embed the Gabbly chat window into any web page, either by generating a code and pasting it in the HTML of the desired web page or simply by typing "http://gabbly.com/" before the web page's URL. Gabbly is free to use both on personal and commercial web pages. There is no need to download or install anything. You must have a compatible browser in order to chat: Gabbly currently supports all major browsers.
   http://www.gabbly.com







6. BuddyPing
   
   buddyPing is a way to find your friends, events, venues and pretty much anything in your local area with your mobile. You can also post location aware images and chat with local friends and users. You just have to send a text message or use the buddyPing client to specify your location and the service will automatically find any local things and tell you their location. Worth checking out. Free to use.
   http://www.buddyping.com/





7. Premierad
   
   
   Premierad is a contextual advertising technology that maximizes your advertising costs by displaying your advertisement only on relevant web pages. By matching your targeted keywords to content-rich affiliate sites, Premierad can deliver highly targeted contextual ads that go well beyond search engine results. Premierad pays webmasters up to 75% of the advertising revenues to place contextual ads on their websites or bogs. Payments are sent 15 in 15 days bi-weekly schedule (minimum payout is $25) Paypal, check (bank wire for bigger amounts). Webmasters can select from a wide range of advertisements such as text banners, graphic banners, pop-ups, and XML feed to host on websites or blogs.
   http://www.premierad.com/





8. Withoutabox
   
   
   Withoutabox is a resource for independent filmmakers, festivalmakers, writers and audiences. It provides a network that enables users to search festivals and competitions worldwide and submit their own works. Through this service, it's also possible to find festival films, buy tickets or DVDs and rate them. Withoutabox helps organizing submission process, streamline costs and market to the world. Users can upgrade any project from the free "Basic Silver" to a professional "Premium Gold" or "Premium Platinum" level. The complete list of pricing and package variations is also available.
   http://www.withoutabox.com





9. Best of Web Blog Directory
   
   
   Founded in 1994 at the University of Buffalo, Best of the Web is a directory of websites whose aim is to maintain a high standard of listings. Periodical editorial reviews ensure that all sites are appropriately listed in their most relevant category. All sites included must contain substantive unique content,
   navigate in a user-friendly manner, contain no broken links or pictures, be up and running 24/7, and conform to universally accepted web standards. Best of the Web Directory provides a submission service for webmasters, site owners, and marketing organizations who want to have their site reviewed for inclusion in the BOTW Directory. Pricing options range from $49.95 for the annually recurring review to $149.95 for a one-time review.
   http://blogs.botw.org/





10. Clickwheel
    
    
    Clickwheel promotes an innovative way of using your iPod, and a whole new way of reading comics. It is a service that enables iPod users to upload comics on their device by easily adapting them to the iPod format. People who draw comics can take advantage of Clickwheel by submitting their works, which will be automatically converted to the iPod format and made available for download. Files with any of the following extensions are supported by Clickwheel: .gif, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, .pdf. Ideally, you should save each comics at 640x480 pixels, naming them in the order you want them to appear (for
    example 01.png, 02.png etc). You can't charge for your comics, but this service plans to add special "premium" content later for a subscription fee. By the way, Clickwheel will pay a monthly rate for its top 50 most-downloaded features, with bonuses for the top 10. The service is free and you retain all rights to your material.
    http://www.clickwheel.net





11. Syncrocast
    
    
    Syncrocast allows you to add chapter marks to your videos in order to let your viewers jump to their favorite sections. Trough Syncrocast's interface you can modify your video file and create pages that will display banners, images and also add links to them. Playback is monitored from Syncrocast's servers, which also provide reporting features. Through reports, you will be able to track how many times a video was loaded and played. Thus, you will easily get to know which were the most watched segments or chapters and get click through ratio from your banner ads. Take a look at the demo. Free trial sign up.
    http://www.syncrocast.com/





12. Laser Projection Keyboard CL800BT
    
    
    By means of a laser, the Laserkey CL800BT projects a full-scale keyboard (layout measuring approx. 241 x 106 mm) equipped with a mouse feature onto any opaque, flat surface. Keystrokes are recognized and then relayed via an invisible infrared layer combined with an optical sensor. This keyboard is the perfect solution for PDAs, cell phones, smart phones, web-pads and tablet PC'.This keyboard is Wireless (Bluetooth Interface), small and easy to carry around. It is compatible with Palm OS, Windows Mobile 2003/SE and Windows 2000/XP. Price: $199,99
    http://www.projection-keyboard.com/store/...





13. DynaMetric
    
    
    DynaMetric Inc. is a leader in telephone accessories and telephone interfacing technology. Among its products there are two in particular: the first is Call Saver Pro, which allows users record their calls on their PC or any network drive, automatically or on demand; the second one is DynaMetric's NEW Digital Audio Recording Kit, a tool that features up to 48 hours of recording time and up to 512MB of file storage. Call Saver Pro price ranges from $144.95 to $185.95 (depending on the adapter) and it is designed to run on Windows 98/ME/2000/XP; DynaMetric's new Digital Audio Recording Kit comes with 128MB data storage (256MB & 512MB also available) and supports both PCs and Macs.
    http://www.dynametric.com