The latest from TechCrunch
- Connecticut Attorney General Wants To Make Sure Amazon, Apple Aren't Cutting Sweetheart Deals With E-Book Publishers
- Stanford Heats Up Solar Power With New Harnessing Technology
- Gmail Plugin Rapportive Raises Over $1 Million From Gmail Creator, Many Others
- "Good On Video" Is The New "Good On Paper" With YC-Funded Hirehive And YCommonApp
| Connecticut Attorney General Wants To Make Sure Amazon, Apple Aren't Cutting Sweetheart Deals With E-Book Publishers | Top |
| The Connecticut attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, has opened up an investigation into whether or not the deals Amazon and Apple have cut with publishers for the sale of e-books have violated any sort of rules of regulations. The fear is that the deals Amazon and Apple have worked out with top publishers may lock out other companies from entering the e-book business. | |
| Stanford Heats Up Solar Power With New Harnessing Technology | Top |
| A Stanford University research group says it found a way to more than double current solar power production efficiency. The technology uses both light and heat from the sun and is inexpensive enough that, if it pans out, it might be able to compete with oil. Most current technology can either convert light into electricity at relatively low temperatures, or convert the sun’s heat at very high temperatures. Stanford engineers claim they developed a way to do both. The photon enhanced thermionic emission, or PETE, works best at high temperatures, where current photovoltaics struggle. Solar panels usually use silicon to convert photons to electricity, but only from a certain portion of the light spectrum. Unused photons generate heat in the cells, making them perform poorly and losing up to 50% of the energy reaching the solar panel. Professor Nick Melosh, who led the research group, says PETE works best at higher temperatures, making it most effective when used with solar concentrators like parabolic mirrors used in solar farms, rather than as rooftop solar panel replacements. If installed in solar farms, PETE could also pass any waste heat it can’t convert to a solar farm’s thermal conversion system. The team’s vision is to attach PETE devices to existing systems. Solar panels are often expensive because they require a lot of silicon, but one PETE device needs only about a six-inch wafer of semiconducting material, reducing the amount of investment capital needed to get it off the ground. According to the research team’s estimates, the devices could reach 60% efficiency on solar farms. Falling short of that goal could still have significant effects. The team said if they can boost efficiency to 30%, it could make the cost of solar power comparable to oil. This video from Stanford explains more about the project: CrunchBase Information Stanford University Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Gmail Plugin Rapportive Raises Over $1 Million From Gmail Creator, Many Others | Top |
| Rapportive , a startup that looks to make Gmail better by providing contextually relevant information about your contacts, has raised an impressive seed round of over $1 million with participation from some well known angels. The full list: Gmail creator Paul Buchheit , Scott Banister , Jason Calacanis , Gary Vaynerchuk , David Cancel , Dharmesh Shah , Shervin Pishevar , and Roy Rodenstein . Also participating are Dave McClure’s new fund 500Startups , Nivi & Naval Ravikant’s VentureHacks , Charles River Ventures, Kima Ventures, Zelkova Ventures, and BOLDstart Ventures. Rapportive has also announced that it was part of the latest batch of Y Combinator companies — CEO Rahul Vohra says that YC’s Paul Graham has described the round as “stunning”, and that it’s in line with his prediction on how funding rounds will be done in the future, with mass-syndication, and no fixed amounts, closing, or lead. Rapportive uses a browser plugin to display information about your contacts in Gmail’s sidebar (it replaces the ads). This includes information like a profile photo, occupation, and links to their social network presences. The company says it will use the money to hire, improve its existing product, and to expand to other email platforms (in other words, this won’t be Gmail-only in the future). CrunchBase Information Rapportive Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| "Good On Video" Is The New "Good On Paper" With YC-Funded Hirehive And YCommonApp | Top |
| “Good on paper” just became “good on video” with the latest double launch from the Y Combinator crew. With Hirehive , founders Dave Albert and Nick Bergson-Shilcock are attempting to replace at least some part of the unwieldy hiring process with browser-based video questionnaires, on a web platform where applicants can submit video, text or image responses. On the backend, employers can submit a series of questions they want applicants to answer, and Hirehive manages the process. While job boards like Monster.com and Craigslist pretty much dominate the online job application space, Hirehive’s video component may be the killer app as the higher bandwidth of video provides more information than text, which results in better informed hiring decisions. Companies like iViewXpress and HireVue also specialize in video interview services. Hirehive has already been put through the motions by some of the Y Combinator portfolio companies, including AirBnb , which insists that the service has fundamentally changed the way it hires. In fact, one of the unique features of Hirehive is that companies can pool applicants, and the Y Combinator companies were so into the idea that they built the YCommonApp , where you can apply to 25 different Y Combinator companies at once (including some that have not yet launched) using the Hirehive software. Video does come with constraints, and while the Hirehive team does not plan on replacing in person interviews entirely ( “It’s not the goal” ) they do insist that the video questionnaires work better than a resume for prescreening candidates. Albert explains, “Good on paper is an artifact of the narrow channels we used to have, a resume and a cover letter.” Hirehive’s future plans include putting postings-based job boards like Monster.com out of business. Initiatives like the YCommonApp could also work well across other verticals, such as with retail companies like the Banana Republic or GAP. Says Bergson-Shilcock, “We’re still living largely on a job postings and classifieds model, but there’s a lot more change to come, and that’s what we’re gunning for.” And while the YCommonApp is Hirehive’s vision of what will kill Monster.com, it’s only the first step. “Companies collaborating and sharing information is going to be a big part of how hiring is done in the future, but to get rid of job boards, we’re going to have to do more than that, ” says Albert, “We’re working on that as fast as we can.” CrunchBase Information HireHive Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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