Cronycle

Even though the Cronycle Reader iPad app may not have the same ‘collection creating power’ as the web app- this does not mean you cannot create collections with your favourite sources, using Safari.

By using the share feature in Safari, you can use Cronycle to create a collection. After selecting what sources you want to use in the collection- you will then find the collection waiting for you in the Cronycle reader app.

This new feature on Cronycle allows you to search through your sources (RSS or Twitter) when creating a new collection.

This makes it easy to find a specific piece of content in the masses.

We gave a Cronycle Account to a student at Bristol University to see how Cronycle can help her out at home and school. After using it for a month we were keen to find out her thoughts so we asked a bunch of questions to find out more. 

How has Cronycle been helping you so far?

“As a joint honours student it’s quite hard to separate my maths side from my philosophy side and keep my two subjects separate. Cronycle helps me break apart the two subjects and find relevant news about the subjects.”

How easy has it been to find your way around Cronycle?

“Cronycle is as easy to navigate as any other app someone could put in front of me, I found it relatively straight forward and the online video tutorials were really good. I was confident with managing my sources and following new collections from other Cronycle users. “

How did you find creating Collections?

“Quite fun really- having to think about the different elements of my life, such as my hobbies, school work and my personal life was quite interesting to do. Then colour coding the collections was the icing on the cake.”

Did you find the iPad app easy to use?

“yeah, just as easy as the web. Easy to navigate. It also came into it’s own league when taking it into lectures. Being able to see all the content I need to see right in front of me in an organised way is very useful”

Did you find any new interesting content within the public collections?

“I found out more about my favourite bands and found some new artists to listen too as well. I also found the latest news and deals from the clubs and bars around Bristol, with the Bristol Nightlife collection.”

Would you recommend Cronycle to your peers?

New feature added to Cronycle (pro).

For those of you who have used Cronycle recently, you may have noticed a new feature.

You can now comment on the articles within your Cronycle collections.

Comment your opinions on any topic, or on specific pieces of text within the article.

Invite your fellow Cronycle users to comment on your collections, so you can see what they think, and reply to their comments.

In London on February 24th, thinking-persons aggregator The Browser and content filtering service Cronycle are hosting a panel discussion about information overload.

The title of the discussion is: “90% Crap”.  Our discussants will share ideas about how and where to find the best writing online.

The panel will include — Anatole Kaletsky, columnist and economist — Bill Emmott, editor and film-maker — Dayo Forster, international editor of The Browser

After the discussion we will be unveiling a new partnership between Cronycle and The Browser.

To attend, just send an email to [email protected] saying “yes” in the subject line.

Place: The Forge & Co, 154-158 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 Date: Tuesday February 24th Time: Drinks from 6pm; discussion from 6.30pm (until 7.30pm)    

If you read the last blog post, you would have learnt about our new Ipad app. This post will go over how to navigate the app and use it's new features. 

Discover-

From the Discover Section of the app you can view all of the public collections from other Cronycle users. Swipe from the right side of the screen to view the different categories of collections, for example; Tech, Business, Design and News. From the Discover section if you see a collection that catches your eye, you can add it ‘MyCronycle’

MyCronycle-

My Cronycle  where you will find your own collections as well as the collections that you have followed from the discover page. From here, a swipe from the right hand side of the screen, will bring up a list of all your collections, so you can quickly and easily find just what you’re looking for.

How to Favourite-

See an Article you like? Add it to your favourites so you can easily find it again later. To favourite something, just press on the outline of a star- this can be done from within the collection or using long pressure gesture; hold your finger down on the article and select the star.

How to Navigate-

Swiping from the left hand side of the screen, or pressing the hamburger menu in the top left corner, opens up the main menu, from which you can login or out, access the Discover page, MyCronycle and Favourites.

Swiping from the right hand side of the screen will open a list of categories, or collections, dependent on what page you’re on.

Sharing your Content

Much like favouriting, sharing a piece of content can be done within the article itself or by using long pressure gesture.

This Video will walk through the navigation of the app as well as how to add collections to ‘MyCronycle’ and favouriting specific articles.

We’re excited to officially announce our new iOS 8 app which has some cool new features that you won’t find on the web app!

For those well versed in the power of Cronycle you will recognise that you don’t have the same creation ability in terms of adding sources or creating collections, instead you can find new sources of content from your favourite websites by using the cronycle share button in safari.

All of the collections you’ve already created will be synced once you sign in, but if you’ve never used Cronycle before you can still enjoy the app. We have hundreds of collections for you to discover and follow on topics such as business, technology, lifestyle and design.

We’ve improved the reading templates and video player and added a gallery so Cronycle reader is the best way to consume your content whether online or off. Share your content onto social media with one touch, with the long pressure gesture, Cronycle gives you options to share on your Facebook, Twitter or through Email with Google+ and Linkedin coming soon.

  We’ve got lots of plans for new features including filtering and collections based on your location. We’re also looking at introducing some of the editing features from the web so if you have any suggestions contact us.

You can download the app here:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cronycle-take-control-your/id913522991?mt=8

A look at the best Collections from 2014.

By Joe Gauntlett

  2014 was a great year for Cronycle, with many fun, interesting and useful collections popping up in our public collections area. Here are the top five collections of 2014, as judged by Popularity.

1. Bluffer’s by Bluffer's- http://cron.link/LMgOeSc

Bluffer’s Collection is full of useful, fun and knowledgeable links. All links come straight from the Bluffers website, meaning the collection is a refreshing and easier way to view the website.

2. Photography by Joe Gauntlett- http://cron.link/ynxx6Dw

  The Photography collection provides a regularly updated stream of pictures from various different art websites and photography blogs.

3. Cooking & Baking by Anika- http://cron.link/Qcd9K5w

  The best collection if you’re looking for inspiration on what to cook. Filled with recipes from all around the world.  

  4. Smartwatch by Andurance Ventures- http://cron.link/odcLgiQ

  Wearable technology is one of the fastest growing markets, with almost every big name in technology releasing it’s own model. This Collection keeps on top of all the latest releases and news about smart watches.

5.Interior design by Tara Victoria-  http://cron.link/S3j6S0w

Two media powerhouses discuss how the industry’s changed for publishers and reporters alike

by Jacqueline Lisk

Social media has changed the world—for individuals, businesses and entire industries. Its effect on journalism and publishing is particularly profound. Social media is a research tool for reporters and a distribution channel for media outlets. It’s also propelled citizen journalism, allowing laypeople to broadcast news and commentary in real time. We posed a single question to two publishing powerhouses: How has social media changed publishing?

Tim Brooks, CEO of BMJ and former managing director of Guardian News & Media

A: Very profoundly. I was in my previous role of managing director of the Guardian when both Facebook and Twitter took off. They changed the behavior of our journalist team significantly.

It changed both inbound and outbound behaviors. Journalists, at least sensible journalists, are now using Twitter to promote their own work. It’s also changing how they research stories.

During the Arab Spring (anti-government protests that spread across the Middle East in early 2011), we had Arab-speaking people sitting at the news desk with their Twitter feeds, looking at tweets. It provided journalists with a real-time, real-people source of information, which up to that point had been unavailable to them. It radically transformed reporting.

There are other famous examples—Jimmy Mubenga, for instance. He was deported and died after being restrained by guards on the plane, and the incident was subject to criminal procedures. The security company said it was a heart attack, but there were doubts. A reporter tweeted something like, “Was anybody on this flight? Did anybody see this man die?” An oil engineer on a platform in the middle of the Indian Ocean who had never heard of The Guardian saw the tweet and reported, “I saw that poor man die.” This is just one example of social media’s profound effect on journalism.

Barry McIlheney, president of UK’s Professional Publishers Association (PPA)

A: When I think of social media, I think of this unique opportunity to communicate all the time with your audience. I used to work at Heat magazine, and I saw the way social media changed what you had to provide for your audience, and how you had to provide it. Now publishers are responsible for this running dialogue. It has radically transformed the operation. How you monetize that is a whole other phenomenon, but in terms of how it affects the process of running magazines—it is a huge issue.

Then there’s user-generated content. This is completely unscientific, but it feels to me that we went through a big period of that and are coming out the other end. People are realizing that professionally produced, edited and beautifully designed content has actually got a lot going for it, versus the ramblings of somebody who happened to be on the spot at the time. It is very useful for news events, and there is a fantastic rise in appropriate bloggers, but not everybody can do that. Just because somebody has got the platform to spout off about something doesn’t necessarily make someone else want to read it or advertise in it. I think there is a bit of a retreat to professionalism, which isn’t a bad thing. PGC, professionally generated content, that’s the “new” thing.

Cronycle organizes your content streams, making it easy for you to find and enjoy the stories that matter to you. For more information, check out www.cronycle.com

We spoke with Blogger Khaleelah Jones about her content issues

“The content problems i’m facing today are all around being able to balance the three or more projects I am working on, with maximising the time I have to work on them.”

“being able to find content sources, that really talk about the three things I write about on my blog, lifestyle, fashion and travel, to be the first one to find that content, and report it to my followers is really key.”

“I am following about 500 people on Twitter, and that ranges from journalists to academics, and they all provide me with really key information that I need to break news”

Through the use of Cronycle, Khaleelah can sort her various streams of content into different organised collections, making it easier to find a specific piece of content in Lifestyle, fashion or Travel. Saving her time and allowing her to keep ontop of all of her content.

“Cronycle is so much better than other content readers because it allows me to really focus in on the topics that I want to write about on my blog”

Khaleelah also likes the filtering feature in cronycle, allowing her to choose exactly what she wants to see, and to hide the stuff she doesn’t.

“Cronycle allows me to get hold of content in a really organised way. I tell cronycle exactly what I do and don’t want to see, and the context is automatically indexed from behind the tweets and appears on my cronycle collection stream.”

We talked to Data Scientist, Rob Hick, about how cronycle helps in the work place.

“I follow lots of things, It’s really Important to me professionally, but also for my agency, keeping ahead of the market”

Rob talked about what features he like about cronycle

“I really love the events filters, they’re really precise, and once they’re set up they just roll, I can delete them at any time, recreate them.”

“We use Cronycle for all our competitor review work, so we know exactly what they’re up to, what they’re announcing in the press, their products and their services, everything that’s going on really.”

Rob also liked how cronycle can be used for working within a team-

“The most important feature of Cronycle to us is the ability to share the content around the team. So we’re following hundreds of different sources, the ability to get really precise on what we want to read and then share that around.”

We talked to Social Media Strategist, Allan Blair Beaton about the problems he encounters when it comes to organising his content.

“everyone is trying to find content, to write great content, and to share great content”

The Problems were very apparent;

-Having to stay on top of all the content coming through.

-Organising it.

-Being able to find a specific piece of content quickly.

Cronycle Allows Allan to set up collections, filtering content from his Twitter and RSS feeds into different categories, that are easy to search through. Making it simple to find a specific piece of content.

“I’ve got clients who are always asking me about the newest trends and insights, and I tell them that I have found a solution, It’s called Cronycle”

Cronycle even allows Allan to access his content anywhere, useful if, like Allen, you are always moving around.

“Because I’m so busy and I’m always on the move, I can take it with me and stay in touch with my content”