Since I had just written about Foursquare, I felt obligated to check out Dennis Crowley’s mobile panel with Chris Cox (VP, Facebook) and Vic Gundotra (VP, Google). Before the meat of the panel got under way, Michael Arrington asked the panelist what phones they use after which he whipped out his old school cell that only had income/outgoing calls.
I can’t deny that my favorite phone I’ve ever had was the one I had when was on my semester abroad in Belgium. Two major pluses: I could throw it against the wall without breaking (which I did many times) and it would NEVER drop a call or have any technical malfunctions. My Blackberry stalls, restarts, drops call, internet gets slow, photos are blurry because the lens is dusty, and breaks all the time (thankfully I have insurance). Which causes me to ask myself: what would my ideal phone be.
Coincidentally, Arrington asked the panelists that very same question. Chris’ seemed to be the only with an imagination. “I want to talk to phone. I don’t ever have to type again.” In addition, he kept talking about a phone that evolves with the owners tastes, so if you’re in the Lower East Side, it can suggest a sneaker store, a record store, a restaurant, a bar… NOW THAT WOULD BE COOL, but also creepy at the same time. The more technology, the more things get morally complicated.
I got up and left at that point because I had a paranoid flashback to the Philosophy of Technology class I took in college. When I sat down in the Press Lounge, the special guest of the day, Mayor Bloomberg, hit the stage. Apparently, Big B, as I like to call him, set aside $3M for startup loans, after which Firstmark Capital threw in an extra $19M. Their first public investing is My City Way for $300k.
At times, it’s hard to remember that Bloomberg started as an entrepreneur, so he has a soft spot for the hardships of starting a company. However, I truly believe him when he said that, “too many companies are stuck doing the same thing and don’t evolve.” The music industry is constantly evolving, but as Scooter Braun said this morning, “we can learn more from you guys.” You guys being the tech folk because it’s the technology that will help create the future revenue streams for musicians.
Right before lunch, I stepped in for the panel with 18 year old Chatroulette founder Andrey Ternovskiy. For anyone who doesn’t know about that site, it’s essentially randomize anonymous video chatting…it gets pretty weird. Anyways, the intro video for the site was Ben Folds in concert improvising based on who was on the other side of the screen. See video below:
Before I left, I made a few minutes for Erez from Libox to get a full demo. For brevity, “Libox lets you sync, share and play all of your HD media across all devices, for free.” Expect a larger post about this game changing multi-media software solution next month when they launch on June 15th.
[...] met Erez, who founded Libox, at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference where he gave me an exclusive look at the functionality. Erez, isn’t the most eloquent [...]