TechCrunch

911ICE: A social network for the sick and wounded

In 2005, British paramedic Bob Brotchie launched an initiative to encourage people to put emergency contact information in their mobile phone address books, under the name "ICE," which stands for "In Case of Emergency." He hoped that when emergency workers reached a person who had become incapacitated, they would learn to look up the ICE number on the phone to connect to a person who could speak for the one in need.

The program has succeeded in the U.K. and Australia, and is gaining some traction in the U.S., Brotchie says. He was at … Read more

Post-launch frenzy: What can you actually use?

There were over 120 different products launched in the past week and the sad truth is that you're only able to use about half of them.

I spent the greater part of Thursday dropping all of the launch companies from the TechCrunch50 and DemoFall conferences into a spreadsheet and making a note on which ones were open to the public--including technology you might not be running out the door to get, like Microstaq's silicon expansion valve (although it's cool--literally).

Here's what I found:

Of the 124 products between both conferences, CNET covered approximately 60 percent of … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: Standouts from CTIA, Launch Week

The CTIA Wireless show in San Francisco is in full swing and CNET editors have gotten their hands on lots of newly unveiled hardware like the LG Logic and HTC Touch Pro. Hear CNET senior editor Kent German's assessment of the offerings and new trends in the mobile world.

A handful of standout new products have emerged from this week's launch events in California: TechCrunch50 and Demo. Webware editor Rafe Needleman identifies the top five that could have what it takes to become popular and financially successful.

Also, some Windows users report seeing that dreaded "blue screen … Read more

TechCrunch50 swag bag: Room for improvement

No matter how loaded the VC, over-funded the entrepreneur, or jaded the journalist, you won't see many leaving a tech conference without the $15 of tchotchkes in the swag bag that comes with the show's $3,000 admission.

In the past, I've received some pretty sweet bags of stuff from conferences like Demo (although this year, as Center Networks reports, it was mostly air). Of the conferences I attend, though, the only one where the swag is still memorable is the Walt and Kara show, D. See my reports from D5 and from D6.

At TechCrunch50, the … Read more

Best of shows: Top 10 from DemoFall, TechCrunch50

Note: CNET's judges for this article were Dan Farber, Josh Lowensohn, Elinor Mills, Rafe Needleman, and Daniel Terdiman.

Correction at 7:30 a.m. PDT: The current name for the GPS-based ride-sharing product is Mapflow's Avego.

More than 120 companies presented at this week's competing start-up conferences: DemoFall and TechCrunch50.

As usual with conferences like this, many of the products were either derivative or best described as cool, new features that will be commonplace in a year. But there were some breakouts--companies showing unique technology, or standout thinking.

CNET covered the two events extensively. After their conclusions, we gathered to compare notes and select our top products from both shows, the products that we thought differentiated from the pack through innovation, consumer need, business model, or some combination. These are our top 10 products, the CNET Best of Shows:

FitbitSmall, wearable activity monitor and pedometer. Transmits your data to the Web, where you can track your activity and bring in friends to encourage you along. Fitbit was a runner-up for the top product launch at TechCrunch50.

Why we like it: We agree with Josh Kopelman: "Buying this is more of an IQ test than a financial decision."

Chances for success: High. Great idea, great design, great online component. And people need it.

Seen at: TechCrunch50

Fotonauts Beautiful and thoughtful photo sharing site. Being called a Wikipedia for photos, or a more modern Flickr.

Why we like it: Better sharing and management tools than we are accustomed to online; balances presentation controls with the social angle.

Chances for success: Decent. CEO has solid experience (former CTO of NeXT and Apple's application division), and cost of developing is not too high. Potential for viral growth is good.

Seen at: TechCrunch50

GoodGuide Online guide to buying healthy, green, and humane products.

Why we like it: Has great product data presented in a compelling and simple interface. And the timing is right; people care about this information.

Chances for success: Very good. Looks addictive and useful. Great business model. (Site has buying links to products.)

Seen at: TechCrunch50

Getting Hollywood's Web business model up to speed

On Wednesday evening five of Hollywood's content producers gathered at the TechCrunch50 conference to chat about what the entertainment industry is doing to adapt in the ever-changing landscape of content consumption.

The underlying theme of the panel was the "balancing act" that Hollywood has to manage to make sure its response to pirating and user-generated content does not keep legitimate users from bring down the entire system. That said, there was very little discussion of digital rights management.

Of the panelists, Joss Wheton, the creator of the popular TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Internet series … Read more

Goodrec launches mobile recommendation engine

The final start-up presenter at TechCrunch50 summed up many of the themes at the event--mobile, social, and on the iPhone.

Goodrec is a service for mobile browsers that features recommendations from people you trust. Rather than rambling reviews, GoodRec has a simple thumbs up, thumbs down, or mixed rating (no stars) and short text messages for evaluating restaurants, bars, movies, books, and other entities. The service also allows posting of photos and other content associated with making recommendations.

The challenge for GoodRec is getting distribution and users to create a social web of recommendations. Users are already giving recommendations on … Read more

GoPlanit lets you shuffle travel plans like a music playlist

GoPlanit is a service for travelers to find things to do in places they've never been. It removes the need to buy travel books by automatically figuring out your itinerary based on budget, physical health, and how much free time you've got.

The automatic planning feature is only available in a handful of cities, but is quite similar to autofill in Apple's iTunes. Clicking the "plan it" button automatically drops in things to do, and if you don't like one of the picked items you can delete it and get it filled in with … Read more

GoodGuide will save your skin

GoodGuide is a new product recommendation system focused on "safe, healthy, and green products." It will tell you what chemicals are in your toothpaste, or if your socks are made with sweatshop labor.

The company's real value add is in acquiring the data on the products. The packaging of the data into a site is the easy part, but we think they've done a great job at it.

That's it, simple story. Looks like a great product and service. iPhone app coming, and expansion into other areas as well: Food, toys, electronics, adding to the … Read more

Closet Couture gives you a virtual closet with real clothes

Closet Couture is a new shopping site meets virtual closet aimed at women. Its killer feature is that it's got a network of stylists that can improve your look for a fee. They take a look at your picture and virtual wardrobe and tell you what to buy.

The virtual wardrobe actually looks like quite a bit of fun. You upload pictures of your clothes and the site lets you remove the background. You can then stretch the clothes out on a virtual model. This works with clothes you own and clothes you might want to purchase, so you … Read more