Ken McGuire

Author: Ken McGuire

  • Getting Paid To Review In A Nice Way

    Not that you are “reviewing things in a nice way” but its a nice way to get paid to review – ReviewMe. Yesterday evening after mentioning earlier in the week that TLA were getting picked up by Mediawhiz, an email arrives in from TLA alerting me to Reviewme.com, mentioning that I had been preapproved for the publisher system.

    So what is Reviewme? In effect, another site that allows you to earn revenue from reviewing products. Of course, you’re allowed call products or web services as you see them….

    We do not allow advertisers to require a positive review. The vast majority of reviews are measuredly positive, although many do contain constructive criticism. We view this as a bonus: how else can you quickly and cheaply get feedback on a product or service from influencers?

    You’re driving traffic to the advertiser’s site, and in return you’re getting a little something for yourself (namely 50% of the revenue for the review).

    Now, recently I was approached by another blog network to review X amount of links. I could request X links and be paid $5 per post, my posts having to be written within 48 hours of receiving the links (per link – i.e. 2 links = 4 day, 5 links = 10 days etc). In that situation, I would have to blog about plastic surgery in order to get accepted, but could receive better opportunities if I wanted to blog about dogs. For a group that said they were impressed by my technology and Irish related posts, what the hell would readers want with plastic surgery and dogs?

    So you join Reviewme (not an affiliate link) and you’re entering a market place, exactly as TLA (Text Link Ads by the way). Sign up as a publisher or advertiser and if you’re approved you can start earning right away. The site’s interface is pleasant, easy to get around and lays everything on the table for you.

    The payout is reasonable as well, I log in and see that on one particular blog, its worth is $40 per post, with $20 coming to me. $20 a post is a sure way better than a fiver a post, and you still get to select what you want. You do of course have to disclose that your post is a paid or sponsored post and you must meet a minimum word count of 200 words, but if you’re used to writing articles and reviews then it shouldn’t be of any problem to you.

    So far the categories are plentiful, with Technology blogs and Web Development looking like they’re leading the way which can’t be too bad a thing!

    Disclosure: This is a sponsored post

  • The Easiest Way To Get Email On Your Mobile

    “The fastest and easiest way to get email on your mobile” – thats what MovaMail say about themselves. The software itself is aimed at java enabled phones and offers direct downloads from the website or via your mobile by pointing your phone’s browser to http://movamail.com.

    movamail-ss-3.gifCheck some of the features…

    • Speed: MovaMail is up to 10X faster then most built in email clients or WAP based email services.
    • Multiple Email accounts: MovaMail allows you to consolidate all of your email accounts.
    • Compatibility: MovaMail supports POP, IMAP and Webmail (including Yahoo!, MSN, Hotmail, AOL, Gmail and more) ensuring you have the best solution for accessing all your various email accounts.
    • Address Book Integration and Synchronization: Synchronize your mobile phone address book with your MovaMail service for easy email address access.
    • Image Attachments: Full support for viewing, sending, forwarding and receiving image attachments.

    According to Om Malik, who is quoted on the MovaMail website itself –

    Believe me, this is the best email client for mobile phones ever – fast, nimble and intuitive.

    Consider me downloading MovaMail for my new mobile (which also happens to feature on the MovaMail homepage 🙂 ) The download itself is just 121kb… not bad going.

    [Source]

  • Could O2 Improve Their Online Security

    Logging in to O2 today to pay the mobile bill, I’m wondering, could they improve their online security? Or have daily tasks on the web actually become too easy?

    Check the original post on kenmc.com.

  • Paying Bills Online Made Too Easy

    Last week I switched over to a postpay option through O2, picking myself up a Sony Ericsson K800 (very snazzy I might add, nice little RSS reader built in) but when I logged into the O2 site this morning I saw my bill had arrived already. Now, I’ve only had the phone around a week but was alerted to the fact that I’d be inserted into the next billing cycle, which happened to be the 8th of the month. I’m not in a gripe that the first bill was issued only a week after using the phone, but more a little curious as to how EASY it was to pay the bill.

    A little too easy.

    I’ve got a love hate relationship with the O2 website, especially since their changeover to the new version of the site. Logging in to check your account can be an absolute nightmare at the best of times but I reckon if someone got into your account then you could be looking at a nightmare yourself.

    When I had the speakeasy option (which I’ve been using since my days in the secondary school) I used to top up at the pass machine or in the shop. Only a few weeks ago I made the move to register my credit card to top up the phone online, made sense, and I could use the online banking to put the money back on the credit card straight away.

    But why O2, why do you make it so easy to do! Once you get past your username and password there is no more security. No random question, no asking for your DOB or few digits of your mobile number. I went online, saw the bill needed paying and pretty much within three clicks (to see the bill, click continue and click pay) the bill was paid and my credit card charged. I’m all for having things made easy online but does anyone feel thats a little TOO easy, in particular when your credit card details are already stored on the site? Could they not even ask you to reconfirm your password at that stage, just in case?

  • Paul Simon Was Fantastic

    While I managed to sell two of the four tickets I had, it turned out at the last minute that I was actually able to make the Paul SImon gig in Dublin last night and what a gig! So many songs played like you’ve never heard them and hats off for the version of Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes and Mrs Robinson at the close of the night.

    On holidays as kids or anytime heading away in the car there were always three acts that would frequent the ole tape player in the car (upgraded to CD in the mid 90s) – Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. Made it a mission then to go and see each of these acts in concert at some stage before they give up touring or retire from the music scene and last night made it two out of three having been able to catch Mark Knopfler pull off the gig of a lifetime last summer (2005) in The Point. Next Friday makes the trifecta as I’ve got tickets for Bruce Springsteen as he tours the Pete Seger sessions. Roll on next Friday!

    But if you ever get the chance to catch Paul Simon – DO IT! Anyone catch the gig at all last night?

  • Mediawhiz Acquire Text Link Ads

    Excerpt from a mail this afternoon…

    Text Link Ads Inc will be joining forces with MediaWhiz. This will bring some exciting changes to our platform. Here is how this will benefit you in the coming months…

    Publishers: by leveraging MediaWhiz’s agency relationships and sales staff we will be able to sell more ad space on your website. We also will be adding the ability to monetize your website in new ways including: CPA offers and CPM display advertising.

    Advertisers: TLA will be working with MediaWhiz to offer new ways to drive traffic and sales to your website including: email marketing, CPA offers, CPM display ads and more!

    Nice one, another good webservice gets bought up!

  • Sony Ericsson Shopping For UIQ

    Word has it that Sony Ericsson (who I’m enjoying a lot of late with my new K800) are out to snap up symbian software developer UIQ.

    Via iTWire

    UIQ offers excellent technical flexibility enabling us to provide compelling features such as push email, Internet browsing, end user personalisation and enhanced music applications” said Mats Lindoff, chief technology officer at Sony Ericsson. “By acquiring UIQ Technology we will further invest and exploit the full potential of UIQ on Symbian OS for phone vendors, mobile operators, developers and consumers.”

    The move would certainly benefit UIQ who would certainly gain a massive boost in the ability to compete in the software market for mobiles. UIQ itself is owned by Symbian and under the terms of the sale (with no financial details available at this time) UIQ will operate as a seperate subsidy of Sony Ericsson and, according to Business Week, “its products will be openly available, licensed on equal terms to all its licensees”. Sony Ericsson is already a licensee of UIQ.

    The deal, while having been announced, isn’t expected to close until Spring next year.

  • Competition Heats Up For Best Blogger (IIA)

    The Net Visionary shortlist has been announced with Michele, Twenty Major, and Tom Raftery all up for the Best Blogger award.

    Check the shortlist.

  • YouTube Going Mobile Next Year?

    YouTube, recently snapped up by Google are reportedly looking to go mobile in 2007 with Chad Hurley hoping “have something on a mobile device” by next Christmas (via). Whether the transition works or not is the next thing with YouTube trying to work out a mobile advertising option or port their existing advertising model to the mobile experience.

    YouTube themselves already have a mobile service in place and creating a mobile profile when you’re signed in is a breeze, YouTube giving you a unique email address from which to send video from your phone via MMS, alas their present online service is just for uploading videos, not browsing them.

    Getting YouTube straight to your mobile would be a massive achievement and if successful could open them up to another massive revenue stream. Best of luck to them too if they can pull it off.

  • Going Mobile With Google

    Via MobileCrunch we’ve got news that Google have launched a great version of Gmail for java based mobile phones, allowing you all of the common features you would expect from the online version as well (reporting spam, flagging conversations etc.). You can still access Gmail via your phone’s browser directly but this new standalone application should go a long way towards speeding up everything, Mike Arrington saying it was “the best email experience outside of a Blackberry I’ve ever had on a mobile device.” Not bad going there.

    Check the demo here or point your mobile browser to http://gmail.com/app to get cracking…

  • 63rd In The Irish Charts

    Long way off the top and by no means is it my goal to be there, but Justin Mason has compiled a list of the top 100 Irish blogs as defined by Technorati.

  • Got Me A K800

    So today I made the bold move and switched over to an Easy Life plan with O2 having been a prepay customer for all of about six years. The joy of doing so is that I can now enjoy the use of a Sony Ericsson K800 which I may have mentioned earlier. No, I didn’t pick up the limited silver edition but I have to say that over the first day of use of the phone I’m extremely impressed.

    Until recently I had been using a Motorola v360 for personal calls, standing in for my HP iPaq 6515W which I’m disappointed just hasn’t lived up to its enormous pricetag.

    The improved PC Suite (in comparison to the one I picked up with the P900 many moons ago) is a delight, the USB charging extremely handy for mobility (or if like me you tend to leave your phone charger in the office) and the quality of the camera, a mobile option I’ve never had much use for before, is excellent.

    More on the phone as I give it a lengthier run over the next few weeks.

  • OLPC Laptops Will Ship Early 2007

    Looks like the $100 laptops are going to start rolling out in the first quarter of 2007 according to PC Advisor.

    The OLPC initiative is aimed at ensuring school children in developing countries keep up with their peers in modern nations by putting a laptop PC able to wirelessly access the Internet into their hands. The founders of the OLPC group hope the programme keeps people in poor nations from being left behind in the digital age. The $100 laptop PC concept has also prompted companies, including Intel, to start creating lower cost notebooks for developing countries.

    It is already estimated that up to 10m laptops will be shipped with orders already confirmed in each of Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand.

    The laptops will come pretty much barebones and will use Linux as their OS (you’d hardly expect Microsoft to give up 10m copies of Vista now would you?). The laptops are to be produced in Taiwan and will be sold off to various governments who will distribute the laptops on a “One Laptop Per Child” basis (hence OLPC).

    More on the proposed laptop, The Children’s Machine, here at Wikipedia.

  • Irish Courts To Rule On Smart Telecom 3G License

    Smart Telecom will learn today the fate of their proposed 3G license when the High Court rules in Dublin as to whether the troubled telecoms company can retain its license. ComReg (affectionately now known as the Telecoms Poodle in certain circles) had withdrawn the phone license from Smart due to problems surrounding a bond due to be paid by Smart to the tune of €100m.

    Smart recently had its phone service cut by Eircom due to unpaid bills and despite spending millions on advertising, the company remains with just 17,000 broadband customers and debts of €40m.

    Via RTE…

    This afternoon, shareholders will vote on a proposed takeover of the company by businessman Brendan Murtagh.

    Mr Murtagh is proposing a rescue package to buy the company for E1 and take on the liabilities. It would give him control of Smart’s network and 17,000 broadband customers. 40,000 residential phone customers of Smart were recently disconnected because Smart owed Eircom E4m.

  • Paul Simon Tickets Now On eBay

    Those Paul Simon tickets I mentioned before the weekend are now listed on eBay if you’re interested….

    2 X Seated, Block A (Ground Floor), Row WW (Set one)

    2 X Seated, Block A (Ground Floor), Row WW (Set two)

    If you’re interested in all four tickets, the seats are all together. Tickets available for collection in Kilkenny City or posted immediately via registered mail.

  • 3 Announce Christmas Handsets

    3 have announced their Christmas handset releases for the UK which includes the Nokia 6280, already available on the 3 network in Ireland.

    This holiday season they’ll be stocking

    If you”re interested, the K610i is already available on 3 in Ireland for €199 on pay-as-you-go, the Nokia 6280 for €279 (same plan).

  • Tom Tom Navigator 6 Review

    Tom Tom logoSteve Litchfield at All About Symbian has a great review of Tom Tom Navigator 6 for the S60 based phones. The review show how Tom Tom “garners enormous respect and a pretty high score” even if it pays no heed to S60 style designs and doesn’t exactly have the greatest support for non-standard S60 displays.

    Complete with straight comparisons to Navigator 5 and fully loaded with screenshots, you can read the review right here.

  • Windows Live Mobile Edition Launches

    Microsoft today launched Windows Live for mobile at http://mobile.live.com (or http://www.live.mobi).

    The service lets you get access to the most familiar Live elements through your mobile including

    • Live Mail
    • MSN Messenger
    • Live Calendar
    • Fox Sports
    • RSS Feeds

    You can also customise your own Live landing page much in the same way that you would with Google.com/ig. More via MobileCrunch.

    Of course… you’ve still got to pay to use Live Messenger! That and browsing to Mobile.live.com via your PC will lead you to http://ideas.live.com, something which is starting to look a lot more like Google Labs.

  • 4x Tickets For Paul Simon (Seated)

    Here’s the story, I’ve got 4 tickets for Paul Simon, sold out, in The Point on Wednesday November 8th. Turns out one of us going is stuck in Dundalk, one is now stuck elsewhere in Dublin on the night and one won’t go if the others can’t go so I’m not going to take up 4 seats by myself!!

    Bottom line, I’m selling the tickets, face value (inc booking fee) so you’re looking at €350 for the four. I will also sell them in two sets of two tickets, at €175 for a pair. They’ll be posted by registered (insured) priority mail. Offer on the blog will close on Sunday as I’m going to list them on eBay after the weekend.

    If you’re interested, or you know someone who is looking to go, then let me know. Love to see them get to a fan. Bloody missed him the weekend he played in Kilkenny for the Source festival and I’m gutted to give them up but there you go!

  • Follow Up: Eamon Dunphy Press Release

    Just a followup to yesterday’s post on Eamon Dunphy’s new made for mobile show, here’s 3’s press release via 3G.co.uk (photos too).