Archive for the ‘Cool Gadgets’ category

List of startup companies at TechCrunch Disrupt 2010

September 29th, 2010

I couldn’t make the event this year but have been enjoying the webcasts. Some interesting companies that are providing interesting market solutions people might want to start tracking. I’ve noted below a few cool companies that caught my attention but if you want to see the full list of startup companies at TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 Microsoft’s Bing Visual search engine does a really cool job and shows all the company names and logos – looks good Microsoft!. Just click the image below to go to Bing visual search results page.

screenshot of Microsoft Bing visual search results for startups at techcrunch disrupt 2010

TechCrunch Disrupt Startups Listing

UPDATE 21:45 PST. It seems that Bing visual search is no longer displaying these results.You get the same error when searching on “tc disrupt” directly on bing so It might be down now or something. Please try again later if it fails. Sorry.

Here’s some of the companies that caught my attention (no particular order):
Marketfish
Always can use more cloud service providers and targeted, qualified leads and keep costs of starting a newco low.

Qwiki – The presentation was interesting and has me curious to know more. Will definitely want to get my hands on this and see if it’s really that simple and engaging.

GameCrush – This was totally cool and might be very successful…I’m just a bit old and married though so not something for me. where was this when I was in my 20′s! :-) Pretty clever matchmaking service guys. Young, single gamers, men and women, should definitely check this out.

MyBandStock This one seems very cool. The emotional magnetism of music – especially to youth – combined with the ability to actively engage with your favorite musicians seems like a very powerful force. Check em out

Teamly is also very cool. I’m a fan of cloud services like this that help startups lower costs.

Well here’s one that I question will make it. One of the thing most investors ask themselves when investing in a company is if the company is building a feature, product or company. Bubbalon, while cute, is a feature. They are tackling a very short term problem that Yelp can add quickly (and should already offer). Yelp simply has the customer base and I think you will need more than an mobile post, short brief reviews feature to gain any traction. Sorry Bubbalon :-(

UPDATE – 21:57 PST

Something odd is going on with Bing visual search. When searching for “techcrunch disrupt” and #tc disrupt” as I had done earlier i still get the no results found. I took a screenshot of the bing search results listing but when you click through now you get page not found. As you can see from my screenshot above, and from the listing, that Bing DID show the full list of startup companies earlier. Maybe it’s a tech issue or maybe they were asked by TechCrunch to remove the search, does anyone know? Here’s the screen on the search listing. Maybe they will display again tomorrow.

UPDATE – Sep 30 14:55

Looks like Bing is back working…enjoy.

Gesture controls coming on strong as in3Depth Systems gets $10M in funding

September 10th, 2010

I don’t know if gesture controls will be as pervasive as “user interfaces as the touchscreen and accelerometer have become in smartphones”, as Michel Tombroff, chief executive of Softkinetic said in this VentureBeat post. But i do agree that the space is very exciting with numerous possibilities across many different devices.

While video games are an obvious market for gesture tech, Other applications like TV menu navigation (kill the remote :-) , kiosks in malls or public venues like sports arenas, information booths, subway/train/bus ticket purchases. Think of the health benefits by not having people spread germs by all touching the same screen/buttons (I know, so many other places germs get passed but this is a big one and every little bit helps).

I’d love to see someone add gesture on a kiosk and then add holography video. That way you can change the interface from a menu to a person (or whatever you want really). Imagine the possibilities if you enabled interaction with a holographic video of a person. I think such a kiosk would be very cool.

Do ALL Silicon Valley VC’s Avoid CE Hardware Investments?

September 7th, 2010

As I go through the process of speaking to other entrepreneurs to learn from their experience when they started their own companies I keep hearing a common theme – VC’s don’t invest in hardware. Now of course this is a broad statement and it was also coming from entrepreneurs that started software companies and not CE devices. But it makes me wonder if I’ll need to look outside of silicon valley for my funding.

What I’m working on now is a completely untapped MASS-MARKET potential of over $5 billion dollars. Yes, $5 billion dollars! It’s also the first CE product to incorporate IN THE PRODUCT DESIGN social media and UGC. Mine is not a me-too type of product or one that enhances an existing product; its a completely new and innovative product experience that meets an untapped market demand and has never been done before. Of course I plan to have the actual product manufacturing done in China. Lets face it there’s really no where else that can do it as cheap but with quality than China. But what about the innovation factor? Do VC’s value that anymore?

Look at pure digital and the success of their flip video product. While it took them over 7 years to finally make the right product for the market the fact that they did it is impressive.

flip video cameras

I have to believe that while VC’s may shy away from me-too hardware products or those that can be easily duplicated that they will appreciate and fund true innovation in un-tapped markets – especially if it can yield them 100x returns. I’ll keep working on my prototype and eventually see where silicon valley VC’s stand on HW investments for myself but I have to believe that they are open to ideas that can make them money – a LOT of money.

Stay tuned…

Andrew Eisner from Retrevo on Cranky Geeks with John C. Dvorak

August 25th, 2009

Retrevo’s Andrew Eisner talks tech with the famous John C. Dvorak on his tech video show Cranky Geeks. Good show. How come Andrew gets to do all the fun stuff? :-)