Yesterday, the Council of Europe released a report recommending that member states rethink the way they look at radiation used in wireless communication, putting it on par with the type of health hazards found in cigarettes and genetically altered foods. The report suggests that member states should push for a return to wired communication and a ban on Wi-Fi in schools. This seems to be a pretty exaggerated response, as most of the research we have on the dangers of wireless communication is inconclusive, at best. → Read More
While doing a little browsing in the Apple App Store this morning, I came across a cute little application that I can totally see myself using just about every day: WillItRain. In most cases, I have no use for the direction of the wind or the level of humidity. I just want to know if it will rain. → Read More
After 30 startups launching on stage at Disrupt NYC, it all culminated in the final battle between six finalists: Getaround, BillGuard, Sonar, Do@, ccLoop, and InvoiceASAP. What made this final battle so fascinating to watch was not only the quality of the startups, but the quality of the judges: Fred Wilson, Ron Conway, Marisa Mayer, Roelof Botha, and Josh Kopelman.
We put together the entire final battle in the embedded video player above. Each demo is a separate video, and you can skip around by hovering over the video and hitting the channel button once it starts to play. Individual videos for all of Disrupt can also be found here. And below are links to our original writeups for each company with videos showing their first demos that got them to the final round. → Read More
You can stick anything into a can. Peaches. Corn. (Very small) Apples. Or an Arduino board and potentiometer. The latter of those items allows you to create a playable pong TV pong game in a container the size of one of the old Pong paddles from the 1970s. While you won’t be able to eat the contents of the Cansole, you can make one yourself and play the age-old game of table tennis right on your TV. → Read More
This week’s Gillmor Gang comes at the end of travel — to New York for TechCrunch Disrupt and Las Vegas for the Forrester Analyst Forum. Disrupt continues to gather a head of steam, with the social effects of an emerging app ecosystem now being built out across the media and the enterprise. Although it seems still to be at the early stages with Twitter heading off a second front from Bill Gross, outbidding UberWhatever to buy Tweetdeck serves mostly to define the shape of the acquisition market as a hedge against IPOdom.
Although the noise has died down about the Microsoft/Skype deal, enterprise analysts are tripping over themselves to handicap Steve Ballmer’s job tenure. George Colony produced a Wave chart with Apple all alone upend to the right, Salesforce.com owning the next space, and as one senior analyst put it, only imaginary companies on the horizon to compete with us. I say us because apparently there are still a few who don’t know I work for Marc Benioff. And Microsoft was well down and to the left in the view Colony calls the AppInternet. What we talk about today on the Gang may have something to with all this. → Read More
Editor’s note: Adeo Ressi, is the founder of The Founder Institute and TheFunded.com In this guest post he argues against ageism when it comes to to entrepreneurs. Ressi is 39.
The recent articles proclaiming that 25 is the peak age for entrepreneurship deserve a considered and factual response. The demographic and racial profiling that has plagued venture capital and tech entrepreneurship has a new friend—ageism. This has to stop. → Read More
There are many local, regional and global startup competitions that startups can compete in. I’m a big believer in the value of these startup competitions for two big reasons—they are a great forcing function to ship your product and refine your ability to pitch your business. Even if you have no plans to raise money, you will have to pitch your business to achieve your goals.
My startup (Avado) is a Patient Relationship Management platform for health and wellness providers such as doctors, physical therapists, nurse practitioners, health coaches, physician assistants and personal trainers. We decided to pursue the opportunity to compete in the TechCrunch Disrupt startup competition.
Each startup competition has its own selection process. In the case of TechCrunch Disrupt, a triumvirate of Erick Schonfeld (Co-editor of TechCrunch), Heather Harde (CEO) and Michael Arrington (Founder) evaluates the companies after they have winnowed down the first list of companies. My understanding is that two out of the three of them need to greenlight a company to be a finalist. During the course of the TechCrunch Disrupt event, Michael referred a couple times to Erick Schonfeld veto’ing a company. It wasn’t clear whether that was a joke or not, but he appeared to be serious. → Read More
The people who have brought you It’sthisforthat have created another way to make your life just a little bit easier and funnier. Meet DryerBro, an app that uses an accelerometer to let you know when you’re laundry’s done.
DryerBro allows you to put your iPhone or iTouch on your laundry machine and it will text you and the remaining members of your household when your laundry’s done. I’m thinking this is going to be HUGE. I mean Facebook took off at colleges right? → Read More
Facebook has no iPad app. It’s ridiculous. Their iPhone app is the most downloaded app in the history of apps. And third-party iPad apps (many of which aim to trick users) constantly dominate the top 10 lists for both free and paid apps. And yet, Facebook doesn’t seem to care at all about the device. Because they’re all about HTML5, right?
Well, someone might want to tell the Seattle office that.
On the jobs page for the relatively new Seattle Facebook office, one of the openings is for “Software Engineer, Desktop Software”. Desktop software. Desktop. Before the damn iPad. Hey Facebook, 1986 called, they want their strategic vision back. → Read More
In the old days, pole-shaping meant something completely different. However, now it is a technique for attaching multiple arms to each other at odd angles that allows them to remain upright with a load without falling. The LusionBloom is a nice example of pole shaping and, more important, is a freaking vase that tilts to the side while keeping flowers and water upright. Perfect for Mother’s Day at Quatto’s house.
The LusionBloom curiously remains upright, even while leaning. It appears as though the LusionBloom defies gravity. Filled with flowers and water, the LusionBloom still doesn’t topple. In addition, steel vases can be attached to one another. How does this happen? A unique arrangement of ferrous material and neodymium magnets (and a technique called “pole shaping”) make this possible and keep your friends guessing as to the method by which the LusionBloom remains upright.
While Baitr didn’t win the TC Disrupt Hackathon, it did win the minds and hearts of those in attendance who had a tendency towards black humor. Baitr, a Launchrock-type viral launch page that does nothing but visualize your email falling into the abyss, isn’t at all useful. But it is funny.
Says creator Peter Watts, “Launchrock is good for entrepreneurialism but it’s also bad [for users] because you sign up for these services, and then you never hear back from them.” Watts hopes that his hack will encourage startups to do something more productive with their beta sign up page. → Read More
Facebook shares on private secondary markets like SecondMarket and SharesPost spiked briefly in March to $34 – an $85 billion valuation. But they settled down to around $31.50 after that and have mostly stayed around that level since then. But something caused the shares to surge past that old record to a solid $35 per share in this week’s auction. Our guess is that newly public LinkedIn’s somewhat impressive P/E ratio of 2,500 may have something to do with it.
$35 per share values Facebook at roughly $87.5 billion. Which is a steal compared to the way the public markets are valuing LinkedIn. → Read More
The latest Disrupt has wrapped, but given the volume of news it created and the rate at which posts were pushing each other off the front page, you could be forgiven for missing a few items or videos here and there. Don’t worry, though: we’ve got the highlights of the show collected right here.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. We still have a ton of backstage talks and other footage we’re editing and processing, so expect more Disrupt content over the next week as we post these candid interviews with CEOs and Battlefield competitors. In the meantime, enjoy this central repository of all things Disrupt NYC 2011. → Read More
For as long as I can remember, there has been one app that has constantly held the top paid app spot in Apple’s App Store: Angry Birds. Sure, other apps surge to the top briefly. But Angry Birds always comes flying right back. But a new app appears to be bucking that trend. Today is day 3 of The Heist‘s reign, and sales are quickening.
As The Loop noted after a partial day 1, The Heist saw download numbers just over 25,000. This was already enough to overtake Angry Birds. But what’s really remarkable are the day two numbers. There were 89,798 downloads of The Heist on day two. Again, that’s for a paid app ($0.99). → Read More
As we found out a few months back, all of the old T-Mobile/Danger Sidekicks out there are headed for greener pastures early next week. Come May 31st, the ol’ Danger data servers will given a belly rub, one last defrag, then will be unceremoniously taken out back and shot.
Here’s something we didn’t know, though: if you’ve still got any important photos, contacts, calendars, or notes on that Sidekick floating around in your sock drawer, you’ll want to get them off your device soon. → Read More
I was just rewatching the 1995 classic Johnny Mnemonic and, nestled amid the overwrought actors and odd storyline, I heard something that stuck out: mention of a Thomson Eyephone… or iPhone. If that doesn’t mean that William Gibson isn’t on the cutting edge of future-tech, I don’t know who is and I find it charming that he once thought that Thomson would survive past the new millenium.
I also suggest that you grab the “I need a computer” audio for your ringtone. It’s a gem. → Read More
This 6-inch screen displays black and white e-ink text and images at 800×600 pixels and can roll around a tube the circumference of a dime. If this isn’t the future of print, I don’t know what is.
Designed and manufactured by Polymer Vision, the screen can be rolled and unrolled 25,000 times. The question, obviously, is why would you need a rollable display? Well, as ereaders become ubiquitous the need for them to be almost indestructible. I could see a day when kids get their own ereaders for the nursery a la the Diamond Age. Interestingly, Polymer Vision isn’t the company of note when you think of e-ink displays so either they will license this technology or they could start taking more and more market shares from leaders like Eink. → Read More
With WWDC quickly approaching, the rumor mills are heating up with what we should expect at Apple’s annual conference known for big announcements. We’ve learned a little bit more that speaks to what to expect — including a couple of big, widely-requested things.
First of all, a lot of sites seem to be working themselves into a tizzy about the so-called “iPhone 4S”. While it has already been widely reported that there will not be any major hardware announcements at WWDC this year, people seem to be letting their imaginations get the best of them anyway. This site, for example, notes that Apple is pushing for British journalists to fly out for WWDC. And today, there’s a report about Australian journalists getting the same message. Both conclude this must be for the “iPhone 4S”. → Read More
It’s hard out there for a ninja these days. It’s difficult to find commissions and getting the right gear and training is becoming increasingly expensive. Where do you buy your katana? Your tabi shoes? And, most important, your collapsable shuriken?
Well, you’re in luck. A young man named Zach wanted to make a collapsable ninja star for his 7 year old brother. With a little plastic and some elbow grease he was able to make a unique, lucite ninja star that can flip out like a switchblade and then fly like the wind into the bushes, where it will eventually be lost, like all ninja stars of our youth. → Read More
Despite the fact the number of PCs in China and the U.S. are pretty similar, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed on Wednesday that the company sees 95 percent less revenue coming from China than the States. Why, you ask? Piracy, of course. Other tech companies have had the same problem in China, which could indicate that the Chinese government hasn’t done enough to stop the acquisition of costly products for free. → Read More
