The latest from TechCrunch
- Welcome To The Future: Polymer Vision Demos SVGA Rollable Screen
- Data Tracking Startup Mixpanel Raises $1.25 Million From Sequoia, Rabois, Levchin, And Birch
- Charlie Cheever Explains The Difference Between Quora And Wikipedia
- A Bit More On WWDC, The Mythical iPhone "4S", and iOS 5
- By Popular Demand, The Music From Disrupt – Available For Download
| Welcome To The Future: Polymer Vision Demos SVGA Rollable Screen | Top |
| 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… | |
| Data Tracking Startup Mixpanel Raises $1.25 Million From Sequoia, Rabois, Levchin, And Birch | Top |
| When it comes to building a web startup, the devil’s often in the details. And keeping track of those details — be it how far users get in your signup process, or how often they’re clicking a certain button — can be a real pain. Mixpanel is a startup that’s looking to solve that problem by giving sites an easy-to-integrate analytics solution. And today it’s announcing that it’s raised another $1.25 million from an all star roster of investors, with new investors including Sequoia Capital (Jim Goetz and Roelof Botha) and Keith Rabois. That’s in addition to existing investors Max Levchin and Michael Birch, who are themselves experts at tracking viral data. The company previously participated in Y Combinator and raised $500k from Birch and Levchin in Feburary 2010. Unlike traditional analytics services that focus on page views and uniques, Mixpanel is all about on-page actions: how many times users are activating a feature, how far in a flow they’re getting, and so on. All of this is tracked in real-time. The startup’s customers include Quora, Bebo, and Slide (which has continued to use the service even after the Google acquisition). Cofounder Suhail Doshi says that they now are tracking data for 2000 sites, many of which are mobile. Not all of these are paid though — Mixpanel also offers a free plan that tracks 25,000 data points per month. Paid plans begin at $150 per month, which includes 500,000 events. Doshi says that the company is already generating a significant amount of revenue, with double-digit revenue growth each month. The funding, he says, will be used toward expanding the engineering team and to make their work environment “the best place for engineers” (sidenote: I’m hearing this mantra more often as the hunt for engineers becomes ever more competitive). Aside from the funding news, Mixpanel hasn’t had much news in the last several months, but Doshi hints that we’ll be hearing some major product announcements over the next six weeks. CrunchBase Information Mixpanel Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Charlie Cheever Explains The Difference Between Quora And Wikipedia | Top |
| Hi Charlie. Charlie Cheever from Quora. Hey . Look excited, your supposed to smile you've got a vast audience out there. Okay. Do you have a lot to smile about, Charlie? Yeah, I think so. Well you're the founder and the CEO. No, I'm not the CEO. You 're just the founder. Adam D'Angelo, the other founder is CEO. So do you have a lot to smile about with Quora at the moment? Yeah, I think things are going really well. I mentioned on stage we had our highest traffic day ever recently. How many people was that? We don't talk about numbers right now. More than a hundred? We don't talk about numbers right now. No? Why? Why? I don't know. We just decided not to. I am curious though, a lot of people talk about this website they say it's a big deal, if it is a big deal why don't you tell people how many people come to the site? I think he main reason we decided to do that is that we're really focused on quality and we think that if stuff gets too focused on other numbers that are too orthogonal to that, then we might lose our focus on like the. But why did you mention that you had the highest traffic number then? Because, I was just trying to, like. Make some conversation. Yeah. So, I've been to Quora a couple of times, and not probably as sophisticated a tech user as some of our audience. What's the difference between Quora and Wikipedia? Well, I think some of the things that make Cora distinctive from most other sites are, where a lot of primary source knowledge. So we're really focused on getting the stuff that's in people's heads that isn't on the Internet, onto the Internet, and so a lot of times, people who are like the authorities or experts will come write sort of a definitive answer on Quora that just wasn't there before. and so. What do you mean definitive? Well so, Chris Dixon tweeted out this question about the Patterson cycle, which is this thing in technology where like there's sort of a boom bust cycle that lasts 14 years. And then a bunch of people sort of responded, sort of explaining why they thought it was that way and why this thing lasted about 14 years, and then Arthur Patterson, who was named after it, came and answered the question. So that sort of is like pretty definitive. But aren't networks like CORA un-pattersoning Patterson in the sense that nothing is all don't think so because I think one thing that we do is emphasis real identity so everyone has to use their real name on the site. Beyond just, like your real name and your picture, we also emphasize like your bios and also your bios on individual topics and so you know, if you're A journalist by day, but then you're also an expert chef then if you're answering some question about cooking spinach, then your expertise in food would be highlighted. Well, I consider myself an expert in cooking, but my children strongly disagree. Who decides there? I think the answer to that is basically like crowd sourcing, for the most part. But with me, how would you crowd source my knowledge of cooking when there's only three people in the world who can comment on it? I think that it, you know, probably those three people would have some input and other people wouldn't, and then there wouldn't be very much data, but it would show. Well back to the distinction between Wikipedia, I think one of the things that I like about Quora versus Wikipedia is the difficulty in being anonymous, which I think that one of the problems with Wikipedia is one never knows who's doing the writing, which lends itself to spamming and lends itself to people who have particular biases. Do you think that's fair? | |
| A Bit More On WWDC, The Mythical iPhone "4S", and iOS 5 | Top |
| 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”. As Electricpig writes: A source tells us that Apple's UK iPhone PR team is approaching journalists from major publications to fly out to the event in San Francisco next month. The obvious conclusion would be that Apple is announcing a new iPhone. Or rather, an updated model. The iPhone 4S is slated as a stop-gap before the appearance of a true, '&%!*, they've done it again!' game-changer next year. In no way is that an obvious conclusion. I’m not disputing the fact that Apple’s iPhone PR team wants people at this event. But guess what else that PR team is in charge of? iOS. Apple is Apple — they may always have a “one more thing” up their sleeve. And at least one of our sources still thinks that Apple will surprise with some new iPhone hardware. But right now, we’re not buying it. All other (solid) indications are that there will still be no hardware announcements at WWDC. None. And the extension of invitations to journalists in no way indicates anything different. Instead, we’re hearing that Apple is pushing for journalists to come to WWDC because the software announcements will be huge (and they likely know that journalists hearing there will be no iPhone 5 announcement may choose to stay home instead this year). And the changes will be vital for all developers in the Apple ecosystem(s) to know about. And remember, this isn’t just about iOS 5. This is about Apple’s entire software backbone. iOS and OS X are both about to receive massive upgrades at the same time. And both will likely be extensively previewed at WWDC. Add to this Apple’s cloud announcements (which may or may not include the “iCloud” music stuff) and you suddenly have a WWDC that looks anything but boring, new iPhone or not. The second bit of information we have heard is about iOS 5 itself. First of all, while we’ve been leading the reports of Nuance technology being fully baked into iOS 5, one place we’ve heard it won’t be used (at least not yet) is Voice Control. That’s odd since it’s perhaps the most obvious usage. But apparently, in the builds of iOS 5 currently being tested, the little-used feature hasn’t changed at all, we hear. That could obviously change before the release (which is still likely months away , even though it will be previewed at WWDC), but apparently the Nuance technology is meant for bigger things more core to the OS than that one feature. The other big news for iOS5 — and yes, I’ve completely buried the lede here, thanks for reading! — two things: completely revamped notifications and widgets. Expect a lot more in a couple weeks. Obviously, we’ll be there live covering the event. CrunchBase Information Apple Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| By Popular Demand, The Music From Disrupt – Available For Download | Top |
| We’ve gotten a lot of requests for our Disrupt conference theme music. Some conference attendees and webcast viewers apparently can’t get the music out of their heads and want to hear it some more. Instead of picking music from a music production library, this year we created custom tracks. The music came to us all the way from New Zealand from a company called Smith & Keats Music . They have a background in creating pop hits and have earned a reputation for specializing in music for the tech industry. Other clients have included Nintendo and Sony-Ericsson. The composers say living in New Zealand gives them exposure to a broader range of artists from around the world. In the US and other countries, the music charts are dominated by local artists. Not so for New Zealand, where they claim only the best of the best makes it to their shores. The time difference in New Zealand was also a plus. TechCrunch gave Smith & Keats direction and feedback on the music via email late at night, which was midday in New Zealand. So, when we woke up the next day, there was new music sitting in our inbox. Tanya Porquez, our Event Director for Disrupt, felt strongly that music was key to creating energy and excitement for Disrupt. The music far exceeded her high expectations and she was happy to hear our own theme song and watch people responding and singing along. Here are the 5 music cuts. Smith & Keats has given us permission to post them online and make them available to download. We even heard about a special dance that developed to them, so dance away. Track 1. Get Ready to Disrupt [ download link ] Track 2. Walk This Way [ download link ] Track 3 TechCrunch Disrupt Theme Song (featuring “TechCrunch Disrupt” audio sample; a crowd favorite) [ download link ] Track 4 Battlefield Rumble (used for the Startup Battlefield segments and the motorcycle giveaway deliberations) [ download link ] Track 5 High Energy Techno [ download link ] Photo credit: Joe Corrigan/Getty Images for AOL CrunchBase Information Smith and Keats Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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