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Posts Tagged ‘Disrupt’

A Walk Through Hardware Alley At TC Disrupt

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Dogs, drones, and digital controllers, oh my! This year’s Disrupt conference in New York was full of amazing webs services and software, but Hardware Alley brought out the best in hardware startups and showed the world that hardware is finally serious business.

Darrell Etherington and I wandered the halls of Hardware Alley today to meet some amazing companies. We met with Fitbark, a way to see how happy your dog is and Thermovape, a way to smoke without taking in harmful carcinogens. We saw Extreme Flyers zip and zoom around the room with their brand new mini drone and Social Bicycles with their new system for bike sharing.

We’ll call out individual hardware alley companies over the next few days but until then enjoy this quick look at the coolness that is Disrupt.

A Walk Through Hardware Alley At TC Disrupt

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Author: Ian Simpson

Dogs, drones, and digital controllers, oh my! This year’s Disrupt conference in New York was full of amazing webs services and software, but Hardware Alley brought out the best in hardware startups and showed the world that hardware is finally serious business.

Darrell Etherington and I wandered the halls of Hardware Alley today to meet some amazing companies. We met with Fitbark, a way to see how happy your dog is and Thermovape, a way to smoke without taking in harmful carcinogens. We saw Extreme Flyers zip and zoom around the room with their brand new mini drone and Social Bicycles with their new system for bike sharing.

We’ll call out individual hardware alley companies over the next few days but until then enjoy this quick look at the coolness that is Disrupt.

Hardware Startups: Spots Are Filling Up For Hardware Alley At Disrupt NYC

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Author: Markus Smith

I love hardware. That’s why I want you guys to bring some of the coolest hardware projects imaginable to Disrupt NY this year. That’s why I want you guys in our Hardware Alley and spots are almost full.

Hardware Alley is a one-day celebration of hardware startups both young and old. The goal has always been to show off amazing hardware that we have written about over the past few months, as well as a few surprises. Last Disrupt we featured the guys from Thermovape, Makerbot, and Lit Motors. This year we want to fill Disrupt NY with more amazing companies.

For more details on Disrupt head over here. We’re looking for new or even unlaunched products, as well as potential Kickstarter projects. Prototypes are fine as long as they’re amazing.

You can see the previous Hardware Alley participants here. You can sign up here. Bootstrappers can contact me directly at john@techcrunch.com if you need a break on price. Hope to see you in the alley… the Hardware Alley.

Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our amazing sponsorship team here sponsors@techcrunch.com.

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Disrupt Darlings GTar Talk About What Happens After You Be successful On Stage, Raise $ 350K, And Have To Ship Product

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Author: JohnnyBells

Last May, Occurrence Tech launched the gTar, a guitar with genuine strings that connected to a smartphone for some outstanding sound processing. In the last few months, the creator, Idan Beck and his group have been active preparing the 800 guitars he pre-sold on Kickstarter for shipment. Theirs is a tale of imagination, cool, and the next generation in music modern technology. I spoke with Idan briefly about his Disrupt experience and how it felt to go from absolutely no to shipping in less than a year.

TC: So exactly how have things been going since Disrupt?

Idan: Things have been extremely active and working out! Soon after disrupt we shifted our primary focus on getting the gTar into automation out in China. While we had actually currently been going out there for virtually a year at that point, we spent the next 6 months hammering out every issue imaginable in manufacturing and finding out about the amount of enters making a thousand of something.

Now we’re beginning to get units out of China in sets and satisfy them out to our amazingly supportive and patient Kickstarter backers. As an outcome of the last 6 months the product has really improved as well, with the end outcome and build quality far exceeding our assumptions, because as a result of manufacturing we had to make certain changes to the design and architecture of the product, enabling us to make some significant renovations to the innovation, along with the direct capacity to update the item in the future through iPhone provided updates in addition to hardware upgrades that our consumers could install themselves.

TC: Tell us about the gTar prior to and after Disrupt. What did you think would occur before you got on stage?

Idan: Before Disrupt the gTar was still a fairly secret job being worked on in a closet-sized office in the flatland of Santa Clara. Before that I had actually originally started building the item in my garage in Cupertino and after that we were bouncing around for a while (even working for a month approximately on an Icelandic ferryboat docked in the SF bay), but once we knew we were going to Interrupt every little thing sort of got authorities. Driven by the pressure to obtain things right, our group pulled together an actually expert looking video and discussion in a matter of weeks while preparing for what we felt was visiting be a make it or break it point for the product.

TC: Were you frightened? Delighted? How does it feel to launch on phase?

Idan: It’s absolutely exciting and virtually foreboding to obtain up on the phase, especially thinking about that you have such a brief amount of time and it’s not actually feasible to leave much to chance. You’re in some way packing 3 years of work into such a short little minute, and hope that people understand implicitly what had to go on under the hood to make all that happen.

It definitely has this type of epic feel to it and we were certainly nervous as all hell. We alloted every waking minute practicing and rehearsing every word and sentence we were going to say. Likewise, our reliance on our early phase prototype hardware was always something we were bothered with. For example, the night prior to our presentation, Josh had to run out to get a Dremel tool that he in some way managed to discover at the just open hardware shop in Manhattan, so that I could possibly make some internal tweaks for us to re-route some wires with the prototype to stay clear of any potential battery issues or audio problems that may turn up on stage.

That prototype is in a case now, and we’re planning to hang it up as a piece of art. It was significantly a super early prototype (and the only fully useful gTar in existence at that point) and we quickly had taken apart and reassembled it at least 10-20 times over those few days. In fact, we did it so much that we were messing up the screws holding on the choice guard and by the last day we just had 3 left!

TC: How numerous did you pre-sell that day?

Idan: We introduced the task around 2PM or something and we struck our $ 100K Kickstarter objective in simply over 11 hours so by the end of the day we had pre-sold north of 200 gTars. The project ended up raising over $ 350k with about 850 individuals pledging to obtain a gTar.

TC: Why didn ’ t you play any really smoking hot-reggae jams on phase? Like “ Stir It Up? ”

To be sincere I think we could have picked a better set of tracks for our demos, however we were also playing it a little safe too because we wanted to pick a tune that I can play well adequate knowing that I ‘d most likely freeze up on phase. I think you could probably see my leg shaking if you look thoroughly enough in the video of the first discussion. We in fact got a great deal of feedback on that demo, so for the second discussion we did change up the tunes around, which absolutely was a great move.

TC: Exactly what ’ s next for gTar? Another version?

Idan: We’re still striving to get a gTar into the hands of everybody that backed us on Kickstarter, and are making strong progress and getting some excellent positive preliminary feedback. We’re excitedly waiting for another large delivery that’s on its means and on the ocean as we speak. We’ll be putting some serious effort into an Android dock and app, in addition to Web web browser based compatibility. We have actually done some light concepts of how various other instruments would work within our platform, however are mainly concentrated on the gTar for the minute.

We’re striving to continuously make the gTar a better item, and as an outcome of some the design changes that entered result during production, the units we are sending today will likewise have the capacity to take advantage of those improvements as we roll them out. This consists of continued renovation to our own app, such as a deeper exploration and development of the social facets of the item.

A few weeks ago we introduced an on-line shop that is currently generating pre-orders for the spring, and we’re developing retail circulation stations for the summertime and vacation periods. We ’ re also wanting to broaden our team over the next year also!

TC: If Disrupt were an EBay account, exactly what would you write in the testimonial?

Idan: I would think that the comparison is a lot more compared to a summer fling. It’s a brief, extreme, and immensely gratifying experience that winds up remarkably thrilling for everyone involved. At the end you may not wind up being first, but the experience will change you for the much better.

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Hardware Alley At Disrupt — From Tele-Presence Robots To Golf Swing Sensors

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Author:

The great thing about Hardware Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt is – apart from the reality that it seems to grow larger at every event – is the sheer selection of companies displaying. There ’ s very much anything you can easily envision, and only two feet can separate a robotics business from a mobile gadget. But it ’ s the opportunity investors try to find I suspect. Here ’ s a list of the companies included in this break-neck video.

Thermo Essence Technologies

Thimble Bioelectronics

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Hardware Alley At TechCrunch Disrupt — From Coffee To Cortexes

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Author: Stefanie Jenkins

With the increase of inexpensive and affordable production facilities, combined with new sources of financing such as crowd-funding, hardware startups are hot once again.

And there is no far better proof of this than a quick dash through the Hardware Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt last week in San Francisco.

We began with a new kind of connected coffee maker and ended with a new venture that lets you look at your ideas. Enjoy.

Blossom Coffee
Boosted Boards
BrightLot
Cerevellum
Devium
Ninjablocks / ninjablocks.com
App Tag
HEXBRIGHT
ImpossibleCamera
Interaxon

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Gadgets Are The Name Of The Game At Disrupt Hardware Alley

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As if our brand-new hardware-based Hackathon opportunities weren ’ t enough, we ’ d love to draw your attention to Disrupt Hardware Alley, a collection of hardware new ventures who are prepared to amaze, delight, and stupefy you with crazy hardware from around the globe.

This year we have over 25 participants and we ’ re sponsored by NewBlue Innovators Program by Greatest Buy. Look for some wild things consisting of a programmable flashlight, a compact and efficient botanical vaporizer, and a robotic that will permit property customers to motor around the program floor and interact with website visitors and exhibitors.

It will certainly be, as they state, a hoot.

Again, special thanks to Greatest Purchase for helping out and thanks for all of our Hardware Alley participants. It ’ s hard out there for little suppliers however as we deliver even more hardware startups into the fold I ’ m sure we ’ ll see more respect offered those hardworking, non-pivoting, and under appreciated electrical engineers who have to get it right the very first time.

Suppliers: There ’ s still time to join. Email me at john@techcrunch.com if you desire a spot. Rush, because tables are closing quickly.

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Backstage At Disrupt NYC 2012 With MakerBot’s Bre Pettis

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Author: Jamie Colby

Bre Pettis of MakerBot stopped by our little show today and spent some time on the stage with John Biggs and other notables in the manufacturing space. But afterwards Pettis, co-founder and CEO of MakerBot, joined me on the TCTV couch to geek out a bit over the fantastic MakerBot Replicator. The company also has two MakerBot Replicators printing out random doodads and toys in our first ever Hardware Alley.

As Bre explained, the original MakerBot buyers were geeks and hackers but now it’s moms and dads (like me). With the MakerBot, kids and parents can create and manufacture toys together. The Replicator can make nearly anything. It is essentially a desktop toy factory — or, for anyone else, a prototype printer allowing for rapid manufacturing.

In short MakerBot is changing the world.

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Incident Launches The gTar at Disrupt, An iPhone-Powered Electronic Teaching Guitar

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Author: Antonio Pierce

The gTar by Incident is disruption defined. It takes the guitar, an instrument with a steep learning curve, and adds a bit of digital wizardry in the form of an embedded iPhone to make learning dramatically easier. The company brags that their modern take on the guitar allows for three levels of difficulty, rather than the traditional single really difficult one. But thanks to the iPhone and a clever app, this $ 450 electronic guitar essentially teaches users the ins and outs of the instrument.

The startup recently turned to Kickstarter to raise $ 100,000. However today they gave the crowd at Disrupt a musical treat — a demonstration at Startup Alley. And the device seemed to work as advertised.

After docking an iPhone in the guitar’s body and loading the app, the neck comes alive with a series of interactive LEDs along the fretboard. In Easy Mode, these lights illuminate in sequence with the teaching app, showing the user which string to play. Medium takes it up a level by forcing the player to use the frets and the strings. However, the gTar’s Smart Play function only plays the correct string.

Thanks to sensors rather than traditional pickups, the guitar will only play the appropriate string. But, as the user improves, the guitar does away with some of the nanny features, allowing the user to have, for better or worse, full access to the guitar’s musical capabilities. The Free Play mode allows for even more options, letting the player turn the guitar into a wide-range of instruments thanks to its iPhone core.

The gTar seems to have all the right goods to disrupt a space as old as string instruments. This could be the high of Disrupt NYC talking, but it feels as if this could be, or perhaps lead to, the guitars for the Guitar Hero generation.

Disrupt Q&A

q: From a user perspective, will gTar players be competent at playing the guitar or is this a way for people to fulfill a guitar fantasy? Or is this an actual learning tool so they can pick up a guitar and jam solo?

a: On one hand, yes this teaches people the fundamentals on how to play the guitar. These are real strings. They take the same amount of pressure.

On the other hand — and I get this all the time — does this actually teach people to play the guitar? That usually comes from people who don’t know how to play. But yes, this teaches people how to play the guitar.

q: How do you handle pace and rhythm?

a: The app does move with the tempo of the song accurately. We were playing with some display techniques to show people. We are going with an MVP solution. The capabilities of the technology is a lot larger than we can demo.

q: From a song library perspective, can you create a song from my iPhone or is it limited to your library?

a: Our content platform is developed on a platform we built and we deliver songs directly from our crowd — kind of seamlessly so that the user doesn’t really see it. The platform doesn’t take the songs from iTunes; that’s definitely not a trivial problem. We have first parties to help get songs onto the platform. It takes about 30 minutes per song.

q: Is there a speaker built-in?

a: So you can either use the iPhone’s speaker and thanks to a cavity in the body under the pickup, it amplifies the sound a bit. we are going to be providing a headphone adapter. But you can pop it into a Marshall amp.

q: Can you say how much it costs wholesale?

a: We’re going to be releasing through Kickstarter. We’re going to release at $ 450. The way we’ve structured our cost of goods, we’re working with a manufacturing partner in China, who are a really great group of people. Out of the last six months, I’ve been there three. We’ve spent the last 3 months with them. We are building it clean and lean.

What Kickstarter really helps us do is to ascertain how many people want to buy it. And for a hardware business that’s very important for us to know.

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The Power Of Disrupt: gTar Raises $30,000 On Kickstarter In Two Hours

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Author: Markus Smith

Incident took the stage this afternoon at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC and debuted the gTar. It’s safe to say that they are already a major contender for the Disrupt Cup.

The startup wowed the crowd with their iPhone-powered teaching guitar. The judges loved it. The crowd loved it. And most importantly, fans turned to the startup’s Kickstarter campaign where funding took off like a rocket. Prior to hitting the stage, the gTar had raised just a touch above $ 10,000. Now, almost exactly two hours after their Disrupt debut, their Kickstarter funding (a.k.a. pre-orders) is north of $ 42,000 and rising fast.

The gTar seems to hit home with most people who see the demo. It promises to take away the massive learning curve associated with playing guitar. With a progressive learning mode, the gTar essentially reinvents guitar lessons. Besides that, experienced players can rock out to the gTar’s synthesized instruments or simply play around with its LED fretboard.

There is a real chance that a hardware startup will win Disrupt NYC this year and that’s very exciting.

Posts Tagged ‘Disrupt’

A Walk Through Hardware Alley At TC Disrupt

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A Walk Through Hardware Alley At TC Disrupt

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Hardware Startups: Spots Are Filling Up For Hardware Alley At Disrupt NYC

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Backstage At Disrupt NYC 2012 With MakerBot’s Bre Pettis

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Incident Launches The gTar at Disrupt, An iPhone-Powered Electronic Teaching Guitar

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