Speaking of Mr. Schmidt, goodies from his upcoming book, The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business are beginning to trickle out. Today WikiLeaks released the transcript of a five-hour conversation between Mr. Schmidt and Julian Assange, used for the book. It opens with some really riveting stuff. Mr. Schmidt: "Well do you want us to start eating?" Mr. Assange: "Well, we can do both." Guess there's not much time for leisurely meals in the life of a WikiLeaker.

But the real punch line comes when Mr. Schmidt's co-author, Google Ideas guy Jared Cohen, turns up to the discussion late, blaming Delta. It seems Mr. Assange was expecting someone a little different:

"Larry?" he asks. "Jared," Mr. Cohen replies. "Jared! Jared," Mr. Assange attempts to recover. Now that's the GIF we'd really like to see.

You oughta see the other guy Seems whoever's defacing ads these days as some pretty strong feelings about Mark Zuckerberg. Witness the work of some wag with a marker, as captured by AllThingsD's Peter Kafka.

Lost in translation Speaking of the Facebook dynasty, this week Randi Zuckerberg took to her LiveJournal account digital lifestyle site Dot Complicated to blog hard about her super fun and exciting trip to Japan. She learned so many things, you guys! Well, just a dozen, but still. She reported that the country has many non-spoken societal rules like not speaking on the subways and ratted out her baby for breaking the quiet of the train car. ("Honestly, the loudest person on the subway by far was my son, who would announce, “All done!” every time the subway came to a stop.")

Another nugget: The very first question she asks upon entering a new country is, “What apps and websites is everyone using here?" That puts our "Where the hell is the bathroom?" to shame.

Mr. Photogenic Is there anything that Kevin Rose can't do? (Well, except for save Digg.) Earlier this week Mr. Rose used his Facebook to promote his wife's upcoming book, Foodist, declaring himself "stoked" for the release. But we suspect the post was also just a chance to show off his dashing/dorky appearance in the book trailer. He should pivot to being a Pottery Barn catalog model if his coffee-drinking/investing/oversharing gig fails. Potential clients might want to remember what happened the last time he took a cover modeling job, though.

Bonus: A cameo by Toaster, the dog who gave his name to the Instagram filter.

Everyone's a critic Facebook rolled out a cleaner and more streamlined look this week, but not everyone is enamored with it. Newly minted Yahoo! millionaire, design divo and Summly creator Nick D'Alosio tweeted his meh-bivalence about it. "Good to see the directional change to flat design except the colour used is still heavy and muted." That "u" is adorable even when he throws shade!

Promo FOMO Would-be part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets Alexis Ohanian wants to know why Reddit's logo isn't on his season tickets. Hell, given the price tag, he ought to get a monogrammed commemorative edition.

I'm the trash man Jack Dorsey continues his Sisyphean struggle to clean the streets of San Francisco, all by himself if that's what it takes. Here's his latest snap from the Clean Streets initiative, filter-free and everything. A design enthusiast's work is never done.

https://twitter.com/jack/status/325319564349034497

What's wrong with that? (Photo: Wikimedia)

The Chat-rooming Classes Today, seemingly every tech reporter in the business tuned into Jason Calacanis's "This Week in Startups," presumably in the hopes that Mr. Calacanis would tell all re: the allegations of abuse against Michael Arrington. But as familiar names chattered away in the chat room, Mr. Calacanis had little to say beyond comparing himself to Obi Wan. That would make Mr. Arrington Anakin Skywalker, of course; Mr. Calacanis said he taught him how to be powerful in media, and "I regret that."

As for the allegations themselves, Mr. Calacanis was quick to say he wouldn't be commenting on whether they were true, citing his lack of direct knowledge. (He did, however, openly discuss the time that Mr. Arrington called a PR honcho "the c-word," thereby outing someone who'd never mentioned the incident publicly!) [Correction: Mr. Calacanis first mentioned the incident and the PR exec (Brooke Hammerling) by name in the comments of his Facebook post, prompting Ms. Hammerling to confirm the story, also in a Facebook comment.] All in all, it sounds like he (kinda sorta) regrets getting involved. He apparently thought writing a Facebook note wouldn't go very far. "I thought that that would be a place where it just lived there," he said. (Paging Randi Zuckerberg!) "I got a little P.T. Barnum in me and I feel like me commenting on all this stuff actually detracts from it," he added.

The Biggest Failure Silicon Alley fameballer and Vimeo cofounder Jakob Lodwick took to PandoDaily this week to lament his decision to sell his company Connected Ventures, which included CollegeHumor and Vimeo, to media conglomerate IAC in 2006. In the post, called “An acquisition is always a failure,” Mr. Lodwick wrote that selling the company to IAC was “the worst business decision of his life” because although it fattened his bank account, it stifled his ability to work creatively. Getting acquire is like giving up, he argued, which we’re sure delighted his fellow NYC entrepreneurs who are desperately groping for the exit sign.

We suppose you can’t have your cake and eat it too, even if the cake is made of millions of dollars.

Kenny Lerer's Got Ringtones In the midst of a recent phone call with Ken Lerer about Lure Fish Bar, his favorite power lunch spot, our conversation was interrupted by the dulcet sounds of Jim Morrison from his cellphone. Was that “People Are Strange,” we asked? Yes, Mr. Lerer confirmed, revealing that he spends “way too much time” picking out the right ringtones for the important people in his life. That Doors song was for Brian Bedol, Mr. Lerer’s business partner in the media and entertainment company Bedrocket. "If you knew Brian," he said, "'People Are Strange' is the perfect ring tone for him."

Did he have a ringtone for his son Ben, the cofounder of Thrillist? “Oh this is embarrassing,” he replied, admitting that it was Rod Stewart’s “Some Guys Get All the Luck.” “Not bad, huh?” quipped Mr. Lerer the elder.

Brit’s Got Jokes On Monday, Brit + Co. founder Brit Morin announced on her Facebook page that she was expecting a baby with her husband, Path cofounder Dave Morin. Of course, the update was quickly debunked as an April Fool’s Day prank, despite the fact that she posted it towards the end of the day. “For all of you who wished me congratulations on being pregnant, thank you for being a total sucker!” she wrote.

Apparently, along with making Christmas trees out of cheese and turning Mac extension cords into jump ropes, such personal pranks are part of Ms. Morin’s repertoire.

“The trick is to wait until the evening of April Fools when people think all the jokes are over,” she wrote. “I pull this one every single year and still, so many fall for it ;)” Guess she lost all of next year’s suckers by giving away her secret.

PR darling Brooke Hammerling had a subtweet for the ladies pretending to be with child for April Fool’s Day:

https://twitter.com/brooke/status/319229167046623233

Jack Did it All for the Nookie We knew about Jack Dorsey's nose ring, but we had no idea he used to be in Limp Bizkit. Business Insider uncovered an old photo of the Square cofounder that shows him looking quite different than he does when sporting his current hand-sewn jeans look. The black and white portrait has Mr. Dorsey with full-on 90s rave kid hair. Pass the glowstick, bro.

(Photo: Twitter)

Bloggers! They're Just Like Us! Business Insider editor Steve Kovach gets hearts aflutter, apparently. As overheard by fellow editor (so many over there!) Alyson Shontell, a starry eyed PR person compared their meeting with Mr. Kovach to that of a Hollywood star. It's understandable, we constantly confuse Mr. Kovach with Jake Gyllenhaal every time we see him out with the normals.

http://twitter.com/shontelaylay/status/319838156486758400

Do You Startup, Bro? Silicon Valley's fraternity president and Digg founder Kevin Rose was the subject of an ABC News profile this week which reminded us he's still around! The Google Ventures partner revealed what new apps he's circling to potentially fund, including a personal training app called FitStar. He also revealed that the Instagram filter Toaster is named after his adorable dog and detailed what his typical day is like: "Invest in start-ups. Find the next big thing. Meet with entrepreneurs. Drink coffee. Hang out." Sounds like a Bravo show in the making.

Internet Weak On Thursday, the New York collective of the Web’s  hive mind met up for a low key gathering at the Watch What Happens Live prop closet Design Within Reach showroom in SoHo to celebrate the quickly approaching Internet Week. The festival's new director Caroline Waxler welcomed the sharply dressed but older-skewing crowd. iPads were shuffled around to get attendees to sign up and vote  for the 200+ panels that are in contention for just 13 slots to be showcased at the yearly event. (Holding a drink from the open bar and registering on the iPad was difficult, but we managed.)

Anyway, the annoyingly arranged support columns, a seating arrangement dependent on the furniture layout, and the tri-level setup made it hard to pay attention to Vice editors Kelly Bourdet and Brian A. Anderson. After talking for a half hour about all the cool things Vice does (and plentiful mentions of the burgeoning media empire's massive presence at SXSW), they showed off a drone for people to play with. But that wasn’t enough to amuse the partygoers as throngs of them slinked off shortly after the panel ended. Perhaps that was enough Internet for one day.

(Photo: Flickr/RobertScoble)

Morin needs a Mophie Path founder Dave Morin, he of popped collar fame, did a Q&A with Vanity Fair about his mobile habits. Among the gems revealed is the fact that Mr. Morin boasts a "custom-designed, one-of-a-kind bespoke app" that he built to communicate with his assistant. Guess gChat is too gauche?

But our favorite moment came when the Facebook mafioso revealed that he also has a newfound solution for the fact that his iPhone is always running out of battery. Instead of buying a battery pack or carrying around a charger like everyone else, Mr. Morin has opted to shlep around a second iPhone. "I have two iPhones, one for day and one for the night," he told VF. "When the day phone runs out, the night phone takes over. I never have to worry."

Cool. Cool cool.

NSFWCorp Big week for ex-TechCrunch writer and rabblerouser Paul Carr! He relaunched NSFWCorp and mailed 5,000 copies of a print edition of the site. He also scaled new heights in his commitment to transparency. Witness: Conflict NSFWCorp, a gallery of all of NSFWCorp's backers. Interested parties can buy a "room" in the House of Carr. Prices start at $3 and reach as steep as $1,400, with the top slot already filled by a generous $600,000 in funding from Vegas Tech Fund, Zappos founder Tony Hsieh's investment firm.

In a poetic twist on transparency in journalism, the first room at the top contains an illustration of the firm CrunchFund, including a rather svelte-looking Michael Arrington, a man famous for his conflicts of interest.

Gosling Parker Economically conscious walking Internet meme Ryan Gosling was recently spotted looking dashing in his Warby Parker frames. The company humble-bragged about the royal sighting on its Facebook page earlier this week noting that the frame is the "Preston." We share their exuberance. This is one piece of clothing we don't mind seeing him in.

Reboot that Ho? One hit wonder (#realtalk) Soulja Boy earned that coveted @Windows follow on Twitter. He tweeted "oh hey windows look at my be cool pic," along with a screenshot of the golden moment. What's next? A commercial with Soulja waxing poetically about his swaggy Windows-powered phone?

https://twitter.com/souljaboy/status/317682776788856833/

Living on the Edge On his Tumblr today, LivingSocial cofounder and CTO Aaron Batalion announced that he’s leaving the company.

"After much soul searching, I have decided to leave LivingSocial to pursue some new ideas. No new adventure to announce yet, just a urge to go create… that there is more to do."

That’s probably a hard pill to swallow for investors who ploughed $100 million into the company last month. Guess that makes tomorrow Schadenfreude Saturday for the roughly 400 staffers the company laid off last November.

(Photo: Tipster)

Your Name Here A Silicon Valley source had the pleasure of dining near Path cofounder Dave Morin and his wife, Brit.co founder Brit Morin recently. Mr. Morin spoke about the future of Path while Ms. Morin, a DIY enthusiast, used crayons provide by the restaurant to doodle on the paper table cloth, said the source. There were rainbows, flowers and balloons, but our favorite was a drawing of the Brit.co logo, with "Morin" written underneath and an arrow pointed towards Ms. Morin (just in case the restaurant staff didn't recognize her). That's one way to disrupt advertising, we suppose. Our tipster was kind enough to snap a pic on their way out.

Happy Internet, Mr. President Twice this week in conversation with tech types, Betabeat was asked when Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian was running for office already. The 29-year-old credited with helping to defeat SOPA/PIPA already toured the country (in a bus once leased for John McCain's  “Straight Talk Express") running for president of the Internet. But with Sheryl Sandberg hot on his heels, isn't it time to start campaigning for the real thing?

Last we heard, Mr. Ohanian was rumored to be launching his own startup reality show on MTV. However, he was recently spotted handing out awards on behalf of Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who likes to call himself "the House GOP's chief watchdog."

We've reached out to Mr. Ohanian comment, but perhaps this lulzy tweet is response enough:

Lol RT @michaelpryor: I just realized why Alexis Ohanian's senate race hasn't yet begun. You have to be 30 years old to be a senator!

— Alexis Ohanian (@alexisohanian) March 1, 2013

(Photo: Instagram/Neil Blumenthal)

Here's Looking At You, Kid Warby Parker celebrated its third birthday last night. And what better way to mark a $41.5 million funding round and potential Google Glass partnership than champagne at Grand Central Terminal. Ain't startup life grand?

Duly Noted We're starting to wonder how the geniuses at Rap Genius get any work done. The beef-starting startup promptly uploaded Andrew Mason's farewell letter and started annotating. A sampling of the notes: "Seems like Andrew has too much swag for a public company, they need to find more of a “boring loser” type…" Can't imagine why this team would be so ready to defend "swag."

VC Ben Horowitz also chimed in with a more sedate contribution, saying, "Andrew does the stand up thing and claims accountability. Make no mistake though—although he’s the only one accountable, he’s certainly not the only one responsible for all the things that went wrong." Wait, was that a dig at Eric Lefkofsky?

No Micky D's Please Worth noting: Gross slideshows about how McDonald's terrible blunders of yore perform far better, numbers-wise, than flattering slideshows about a company-funded visit to HQ.

But since McDonald's paid for airfare + hotel, not such a big deal. Also, 4 kinds of mcnugget shapes! h/t @bupbin businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-four…

— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) February 28, 2013

Star Power Hey, what'd you do for the Oscars? Presumably you went over to a friend's house and had a couple of beers and fell in love with Jennifer Lawrence, like most of America. Well, AllThingsD grand dame and Vanity Fair contributor Kara Swisher was there. Like, Hollywood there. NBD! She tweeted Sunday, "Weird Oscars, now onto the party," complete with Insta. On another snap, she added, "Observation on first and only Hollywood party: Celebs are just like us (except prettier and more insecure)."

Snacks You know what's a really great diet, according to former Google employee Mike Dudas? Quitting Google to work somewhere else without that cafeteria. We've always heard free suckling pig goes straight to the hips.

Gizmodo's Sam Biddle sluttin' it up at CES. (Photo: Gizmodo)

News of the first annual Objectify a Male Tech Writer Day swept across the web this morning following an article penned by one of the event's founders, gaming and social media reporter Leigh Alexander. "From booth babes to harassment, snide comments to double standards, women have often had a hard time feeling comfortable around the tech industry," she wrote. In order to demonstrate "the absurdity of objectifying people you claim to agree with or support intellectually," she's encouraging female tech writers to give gendered compliments or make sexist proclamations to men about their work.

Though the actual Objectify a Male Tech Writer Day isn't until February 1st, Betabeat--comprised primarily of female writers--could hardly contain ourselves. Here are 25 gendered comments for 25 of our favorite male tech writers.

Walt Mossberg: What's a pretty face like yours doing buried in those product specs?

Mike Isaac: Shut up, honey, the women (Kara and Liz) are talking.

Ryan Tate: Started a flame war with Steve Jobs just to get some attention.

Sam Biddle: Hey baby, want a massage?

Mat Honan: It's cute how you just discovered two-step authentication last year.

David Pogue: All your scoops come from your PR girlfriend.

Michael Arrington: Swaggy? More like bitchy. Men should keep their opinions to themselves.

Steven Levy: Only wears glasses to look more authentically geeky.

John Herrman: 17 Ways John Herrman Uses His Looks to Get Ahead

Peter Kafka: You smell amazing.

Farhad Manjoo: Maybe I'd take you more seriously if your Twitter avatar wasn't so suggestive.

Anil Dash: Nag!

Peter Ha: Only a celebrated reporter because he can fill out a hoodie.

Carl Franzen: Just because it's an all-night hackathon doesn't mean you shouldn't put in a little effort.

Om Malik: He just googled some companies to look cool, he doesn’t really get tech.

Eric Eldon: We know Alexia does all the work and you were just hired as window dressing.

Ben Popper: Why are you being MEAN to STARTUPS?

Josh Topolsky: Why don't you go back to makeup reviews?

Steve Kovach: Your obsession with Snapchat proves you're a sexting slut.

Jason Del Rey: Your Twitter presence is adorable.

Nick Bilton: Maybe try an industry where you'd fit in better, like construction.

Ashlee Vance: Who'd you sleep with to get on the Techmeme leaderboard?

Bryan Goldberg: We never see you around at tech parties. You should come outttttt more.

Christopher Mims: FAKE GEEK GUY ALERT

Adrian Chen: Pretending to like Reddit so he can be the only boy in a girls' club.

Brian X. Chen: What's a nice boy like you doing at a gadget convention?

(Illustration: Robert Grossman)

Jack Dorsey, cofounder of Twitter and Square, recently tried to disabuse the tech industry of its infatuation with the word ‘disruption.’ “We don’t want ‘disruption,’ where we just move things around. We want a direction. We want a purpose,” he said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, humbly suggesting the biannual conference change its name. But it’s more than just semantics. The tech sector’s claim to produce world-changing products and services often gets drowned out in a chorus of me-too companies solving problems no one ever complained about. The umpteenth nightlife-recommendations tool or empty real-time dating app can obscure the whirr of a nascent robotics sector in Manhattan or a futuristic, even revolutionary, experiment in manufacturing in Queens.

However, there are insurgents in our midst, quietly pushing the city closer to Mayor Bloomberg’s goal of "reclaiming our title as the world capital of technological innovation." To identify those mindful mutineers, we tried to look beyond established leaders (see: Wilson, Fred) to the next class of innovators, who are forcing corporations to come to terms with the mobile revolution or shepherding startups toward making money without selling out. We found investors, developers, educators and agitators. We identified pioneering companies that set off the self-education craze (you’re welcome, Peter Thiel). We spotted a trio of provocateurs in Long Island City and an open-source radical on Roosevelt Island. Looking at this constellation of entrepreneurs, you can start to see the outline of New York’s tech future taking shape.

Valery Komissarova, Grishin Robotics: Rallying the Robots

Phineas Barnes, First Round Capital: the Bottom-Up Investor

Marleen Vogelaar, Shapeways: the Manufacturing Maven 

Anil Dash, Activate and ThinkUp: Amiable Agitator

Alex Taub and Michael Schonfeld, Dwolla: The Credit Card Killers

Mike Karnjanaprakorn, Skillshare: The Principal of New York

Rick Webb, Tumblr: The Undercover Ad Man

Deborah Estrin, CornellNYC Tech: the Entrepreneurial Egghead

Ryder Ripps, Jonathan Vingiano and Jules LaPlace, OKFocus: The Merry Pranksters

Daniel Loeb, Third Point LLC: the Poison Pen

This story appeared on the cover of the November 14, 2012 issue of The New York Observer. 

Get it? Disruptive? (Photo: flickr.com/californiawatch)

We receive a lot of pitches touting "disruptive" technologies. Healthcare, education, banking--name an old-line industry and someone is attempting to yank the rug out from underneath it.

Well, we've got a few pressing requests we'd like addressed. Namely:

1. Dry cleaning: It's expensive, toxic, inconvenient, and it makes your clothes smell funny. Fix it.

2. Transcription: Whoever invents actual functional voice-to-text transcription will get more press coverage than he can possibly cope with. Trust.

3. The fashion industry, for real: We demand fashionable, well-made, reasonably priced non-standard-sized clothing. If your "revolutionary" fashion tech company doesn't include petites and craps out at size 12, we're not interested.

4. Housekeeping: Some of us are slobs. Someone please develop a platform that cleans our room but doesn't just require that we hire a maid, because God help us we are also cheap.

5. The kitty litter industry: Aren't you just dying to put Fresh Step out of business? Lazy cat ladies everywhere will thank you if you create some sort of self-cleaning litterbox.

6. Transportation: Specifically, we want a transporter. That's right: Beam us up, Scotty. Disrupt the ever-loving shit out of the MTA, please, we are begging you.

7. Shake Shack: It's right next to our office but the lines are too long.

8. Email: Specifically, we'd like a platform that requires other people to pay us in order to read their emails.

9. GIF creation: The barrier to entry for gif editors is too high. We demand a product our grandmas/we can use.

Also, we'd like to submit a formal request for "things that evaporate." Perhaps someone could develop magazines that evaporate if we haven't read them after a certain time period? Then maybe instantly appear on Instapaper? We're just spitballing here.

But there are still a few crazy diamonds shining on out there, handy with a quip, ready to leap feet-first into a fight, and generous with the #realtalk. We've therefore rounded up a 100 of them for your enjoyment.

As for the rest of you? Step up your game, pronto.

Here is a Twitter list with all 100 users, for your easy-following pleasure.

But back in the day, those first 23 companies were all the rage. Like shiny new toys, they were exciting and fascinating. There was even a reality television show about them. So even though their three-month, highly-competitive startup accelerator program has ended, these companies are still around. They didn’t just vanish into thin air. (Well, some of them did).

But all of this begs the question, where are these companies now? How have they fared in the big, bad world? Did they flop? Or surpass expectations?

We didn’t know, so we decided to find out. And it turns out that we weren’t the only ones who were curious about what these companies have been up to.

“When we launched, everything was a concern,” managing director David Tisch told Betabeat in an email. “We were new, a startup.” New York City, he said, brought a unique set of challenges and advantages to these first two classes, but you never how things might turn out. So, Mr. Tisch, what’s the verdict? Have the first 23 New York City companies done TechStars proud?

“The progress shown so far is very promising,” Mr. Tisch said, “and I expect a few very big companies to emerge. There are some early standouts who have shown progress on the product side, revenue side, and team side.”

In the last year, about half of the companies raised over a million dollars in funding from investors (in addition to TechStars's initial $18,000 in each company) and only two companies failed. A third company, FriendsList, also failed, but its two cofounders shifted gears and transformed into another company, Timehop, a popular app that has since raised $1.1 million.

“I think the quality of the people we funded stands out to me,” Mr. Tisch added. “[And] as I look back at the companies from our first two classes at TechStars NYC, I am confident we have funded some amazing teams who are building big businesses.” -Jess Schiewe

Soon, there will be no results when we search "wallet" in Google images. (whatsinyourbagnyc.tumblr.com)

Predictions! What do New York techies think will happen to the internet-centric economy in 2012? We asked some smart founders, VCs and members of the startup ecosystem where they think tech, the internet and the New York tech scene are headed in 2012 (assuming the world doesn't end either due to the apocalypse or SOPA, that is). Without further ado!

The internet, united, will never be defeated

"SOPA and PIPA are both soundly defeated by bipartisan popular support and Congress realizes it shouldn't tamper with one of the few American industries still creating jobs and out-innovating the world. We in the private sector will innovate solutions for piracy (people will pay for easy access—like Netflix!); the answer is not government intervention that ultimately doesn't solve the problem and breaks the internet in the process." -Alexis Ohanian, Reddit, Breadpig and Hipmunk

"2012! The tech community has not really seemed to care much about the upcoming election. SOPA and #Occupy pierced that head-down obliviousness during the last quarter. People will start to care, and not just because Ben Smith is going to Buzzfeed (though that was a signal that, folks, a new market is about to be unleashed). This is the first election year that is truly happening in the age of social media. Hopefully it won't mean we have to pay attention to Santorum.

"Also! Something very big, or at least highly embarrassing, is going to be captured/disseminated/hive-mind-sleuthed-out/otherwise made horrifically public during this election season. And it will change the game. (Though if it's that Newt likes to keep his socks on, I don't want to know.)" -Rachel Sklar, Change the Ratio

New York City rises

"NYC will be recognized with the new distinction as being the world's “Startup City Incubator”  for smart young people to come and build their new businesses with the proactive support of the world’s largest and easiest to connect to pool of talented mentors. Also looks like 2012 will be the year that the growing startup community begins to connect to the underserved NYC communities who needs support to help get their entrepreneurs up to speed. More syndication between angels, angel groups and VCs to fund more deals faster." -Brian Cohen, New York Angels

"The Facebook effect on NYC tech talent will be a 10 percent lift in compensation for top engineers. Gilt Groupe has a big/surprising exit. Under pressure of thin operating margins, Amazon takes them out (eBay also possible). Marketplaces prove to be superior ecommerce business since no overhead of warehousing inventory.

"$200B online retail market is growing 15 percent per year. 20 percent of that spent on ad tech. Something big is happening in NYC ad tech—maybe just another industry for which NYC is becoming the capital of the universe. Maybe more ad tech startups take root in NYC." -Dave Carvajal, DavePartners.com

"Deciding year for Foursquare, can it turn on a dime? IAC will continue a mild downward trend.  Barry Diller is done.  The building is still cool. The tide turns in my ongoing war against The New York Times Company (who no longer have courage)." -Josh Harris, Pseudo.com

"SxSW Breakout App. Foursquare was the breakout app at SxSW 2009. GroupMe was the breakout app at SxSW 2011. Sonar will be the breakout app at SxSW 2012.

"Brett and team are hard at work on some killer features, with hopes to launch a blockbuster 2.0 in time for SxSW 2012. Their team has had an influx of bright, new talent recently and I’ve spent some time getting to know them. Since they haven’t formally announced anything yet, I won’t say any more than this: look for Sonar to crush it this year in Austin." -David Kay, freelance mobile developer, Xoogler and Startup Bus veteran

Growing influence of women in tech

"My prediction is that 2012 women will find their voice in a big way. They will find other women that they relate to and connect with. Women will become more powerful. The feminine approach and values will matter. The world needs the mind, perspective and strength of women. 2012 will be the time when those elements emerge as important and a force in our world." -Deborah Jackson, JumpThru/My Tech Letter

"I see the rise of something called the 'emotional web.' And I see women at the forefront of this. Web 2.0 has been very much about laying down the 'pipes' of connections and relationships, more and better data and analytics. This is all critical but information is only half of the human equation. Think Maslow's hierarchy. How do take this information and use it to make ourselves better, happier, more effective and more fulfilled? Because at the end of the day, that's what people want.

"Here's an example. Dating sites are a dime a dozen and all about algorithms to match people. But after that, what next? Don't we really want to make our relationships *better*? There are proven techniques in the analog world. Emerging sites such as TheIceBreak are cracking the code—bringing these techniques to users in a scaled way." -Tereza Nemessanyi, Honestly Now

"Hello, ladies: It never sounds un-creepy to say "Hello, ladies" like that but in any case, we'll be saying that over and over again in 2012. Women control upwards of 80% of consumer spending, power social sites, and are identifying untapped markets,underserved constuencies, and new models in droves. It's not to be polite, either - women are moving merch. They're in the mix, they know the people who know the people, and they are getting it done - and getting noticed doing it. This, my friends, changes ratios. Those patterns? Less recognizable. Welcome to 2012." -Rachel Sklar, Change the Ratio

Photo to Go

In terms of mobile photo- things get really interesting. The point and shoot camera is essentially dead as the quality of camera on your phone continues to improve. I think the big thing around photos this year is monetization. Companies are going to try to figure this out and I think it will come in many forms. I think that printing from your mobile phone is going to become more and more attractive as the quality of photos become more "print-ready." I think that Instagram is by far the leader of the mobile photo sharing and will continue that way unless Twitter or the handset makers decide to bake effects into taking the photo. - Alex Taub - Biz Dev Wiz, Aviary

Apps for the 99 percent

"2012 will be the coming out year for entrepreneurs and their eco-system to champion lifestyle products that solve everyday problems... Real life, because people {especially women} outside the tech bubble are anxiously awaiting their own technical revolution.

"There is a direct correlation to the rise of women in technology. Because technical women deeply understand the value of practical problem solving in every aspect of their multi-faceted life and finally have the technology to do something about it." -Erin Newkirk, Red Stamp

"I'm fixated on the phrase "Think globally, act locally." What's needed right now are big, visionary solutions which benefit not only the Silicon Alley e-commerce startup but also the citizen journalist in Syria. Open access, responsive platforms which expand the exchange of information.  And then we need ways to bring all that information really close to home to benefit and enrich the neighborhoods in which we live. Curated, accessible intuitive niche networks of discovery. Oh, and this all needs to be created for and delivered on a mobile device." -Kelly Hoey, Women Innovate Mobile

"While the most insular focus on NYC vs Silicon Valley vs Boston statistics, increasingly, incredible startups from markets with college engineering talent like Pittsburgh (Carnegie Mellon) will produce new companies coastal VCs salivate over." -Michael Duda, Consigliere

"The big gatekeepers won't change—yet—but new ones will come up around the periphery. They'll have money and they'll get it and they'll say yes when the usuals say no. And then things will happen." -Rachel Sklar, Change the Ratio

"I'm eager to see smart entrepreneurs and teams working on melding the connection between our online and offline lives. The average person is striving to make sense of the noise from their composite online presence. In distilling meaningful bits from the multiple feeds, I see a lot of opportunity in bolstering an offline component to help solve this problem. You can see some of this happening today in communities like Reddit where social news is turning into social activism (ie. SOPA v. GoDaddy). It works both ways though, online can help augment our offline lives. One example (and shameless plug for Collaborative Fund portfolio co) is Simple, where our banking and finances (which have traditionally been relegated to brick and mortar venues) are being streamlined through a beautifully designed user experience online." -Craig Shapiro, Collaborative Fund

The death of the wallet

"My prediction for 2012 is that there will be further manifestations of technology that allows us to more seamlessly make transactions and share personal data; for instance, our phones will get much closer to replacing our wallets. This trend will start to really permeate in our everyday lives, and the changing face of privacy will be on everyone's minds." -Maya Baratz, The Wall Street Journal

"In contrast to former CEO Eric Schmidt and in an effort to fortify its 'no evil' positioning, Google's Larry Page will lash out publicly at Verizon and AT&T in the sector battle to lead mobile payments." -Michael Duda, Consigliere

"Finally, after 15 years of waiting, I think 2012 will be the year that mobile payments finally takes hold. Where anyone will be able to pay anyone simply and safely regardless of location or cash on hand. Companies like Square will have huge years as they become the new (and preferred) method of payment of small businesses, artists, farmers, and consumers." -Bo Fishback, Zaarly

"Square blows up. Square is THE startup to watch in the payments space. Moreover, with the launch (and success) of Square Card Case, I wouldn’t be too surprised if they start contesting Google Wallet on both sides of the POS. Especially since they have Visa’s blessing, it wouldn’t be too difficult for them to add NFC support and be off to the races.

"Speaking of NFC, iPhone 5 ships with it. Apple often likes to wait until technologies are ripe before jumping on board. In the case of NFC, they’ve put out some interesting patents in the past indicating their interest in doing NFC for ticket redemption, so don’t be surprised if we see iTunes start offering concert tickets, redeemable by iPhone." -David Kay, freelance mobile developer, Xoogler and Startup Bus veteran

Mobile explosion, still but even more

"I think in 2012 we'll see an explosion of mobile that is much bigger and carries broader implications than almost anyone is anticipating. Specifically, apps are going to quickly become much more important utilities and actually begin replacing existing systems that either live on the desktop or the web today. Basically what we saw the web/cloud do to desktop programs over the past 10 years will happen (and much more quickly) again, but this time fueled by mobile. With over 500,000 new Androids being activated everyday, the boom that mobile has seen in the last couple years will continue accelerating and become even more important." -Bo Fishback, Zaarly

Big Facebook brother

"Personalization gets creepy. As websites and search alike begin to customize feeds for consumers based on personalization, a backlash will start to emerge in 2012 among individuals who worry we're losing the collective experience which made the early internet so powerful. Strong criticism of the "filter bubble"—in which, for example, partisans see only pro-party news and individuals are rarely exposed to dissenting or un-'like'd viewpoints—will lead to toggle options on some pages, meaning you can choose to see your personalized version of the Washington Post's homepage OR the standard one." -Kathryn Minshew, The Daily Muse

"There will be a growing movement to go private, and even dark. Old media will be fetishized (have you noticed it happening lately with typewriters?) The hyper-openness of Facebook, can't escape-it-in-real-time firehose  of Twitter and I-know-where-you-are-that's-a-nice-shirt Marauder's Map of Foursquare will freak some people out and start a movement to 'regain' our privacy/sanctity/sanity or whatnot. We've already seen that begin with Path, and with things like the National Day of Unplugging (and yes, there's an app for that)." -Rachel Sklar, Change the Ratio

"2012 will be a make-or-break year for Google Plus. 2011 has been lukewarm for Plus and they’ll need something just shy of a miracle to compete with Facebook. My bet is that a startup will find a killer use case revolving around API integrations, connecting Google Voice, Gmail, and Google Plus. I’m especially bullish on these opportunities for building a social/personal CRM." -David Kay, freelance mobile developer, Xoogler and Startup Bus veteran

Ecommerce

"Content companies will continue to push into the commerce space as the look to divest their revenue streams. However some companies who do this may experience a fatal blow when their inventory costs overwhelm their cash flow.

"Shopping by tablet, especially via aps will boom in 2012. It will become more of a leisure activity to do while your lying in bed watching Netflix with your Lot 18 Chardonnay." -Michelle Madhok, SheFinds.com

"Live chat everywhere. I see live chat being a basic expectation for customer service on e-commerce sites, but going even further in 2012. Customers will start communicating with companies, friends, and strangers all via chat on their favorite sites.

"Growth of plug & play e-commerce. New plug & play e-commerce tools are being introduced every month. The result will mean 2012 is the year of developerless e-commerce businesses, where basic but highly functional sites can be built by non technical founders while they prove out an idea." -Alexis Tryon, Artsicle

My prediction is that 2012 is the year of commerce. I believe social, mobile, in-store and online commerce will all converge into a unified, transparant and personalize shopping experience. Online shopping will evolve from interactive catalogs to simulated in-store experiences with virtual fittings, social interactions and personalized concierge recommendations. I believe a larger percentage of sales will happen online and stores will start evolving into showrooms rather than true retail venues. -Veronika Sonsev, inSparq.com

New heights of laziness

"On-demand lifestyle. AirBnb finds you a gorgeous apartment. Uber brings you an elegant ride at the touch of a button. TaskRabbit will fetch you a cup of coffee. We're entering the era of the on-demand lifestyle, and 2012 will be the year that a host of new at-will lifestyle options pop up. Rent a dog for the day? Hire a friend? Step onto a private jet, boat, or island? Startups are realizing the value of bringing at-will luxury experiences to a broader population, and the demand for these types of services is only going to grow." -Kathryn Minshew, The Daily Muse

Video killed the imagur star

"This one is both obvious and self-serving, but video is really going to take off in 2012. between the amazing (please, please, please be true) rumors about the 'iTV', to Google's efforts with GoogleTV/YouTube, to all the new devices and apps popping up, it's going to be a fun year for video." -Reece Pacheco, Shelby.tv

Android

"In 2010, we saw “Apps for the Army,” which eventually led to the founding of the Army app store. In 2011, we’ve seen Android adopted by the Army as the basis for their “Joint Battle Command-Platform.” Also, Army Cpt. Jonathan Springer released Tactical Nav, an iPhone app for soldiers in the field. Moreover, the DISA has approved Android for use on DoD networks and released official security guidelines. As if that wasn’t enough, the Special Forces have already been requesting a suite of apps for use on non-sanctioned, off-the-shelf devices. Something like the phone you already have in your pocket. In 2012, now that Android has official Army, Special Forces, and DoD blessing, we’ll see serious RFPs for mobile military technology." -David Kay, freelance mobile developer, Xoogler and Startup Bus veteran

"Android's demise begins. This is ballsy, but here's why: The fragmentation is just creating a horrible experience for users and they're going to take notice that their phones are not getting updated or performing.  Now that the iPhone is on more than one carrier, they will switch at the end of 2 years.  Most of those contracts end in 2012 as Android's uptake started 2 years ago.  As the feature phone market moves towards becoming low end/free smart phones, we will start to see dominance from the Microsoft Nokia alliance. Nokia is the clear leader in this sector with massive distribution abroad." -Jason Baptiste, Onswipe

Education

"Virtual Education. 2012 will be the year e-learning makes a comeback. From the Khan Academy to Code Academy, people are hungry to learn online. The digital economy requires an ever-changing array of skills, and a host of startups and products will begin to target the virtual student. Interactivity, relevance and cost will all be factors here. To offset the risks of charging individuals for training, education tech companies will start to partner with businesses (much like General Assembly does with its company-approved courses) to ensure graduates are instantly rewarded for participation." -Kathryn Minshew, The Daily Muse

Nerding out on personal data

"The quantified self. Although the reception has been mixed with offerings such as the Jawbone UP, there are a few startups that have caught my eye—including Basis (tracking health and heart rate), Massive Health's Eatery App (tracking eating habits, also a Collaborative Fund investment), and LumoBack (tracks posture and core). It is odd that I can rattle off how much cash is on hand (along with their P/E ratio, revenue-per-share, gross profit, EBITDA) and other vitals about Apple Inc—at the click of a button... yet I have no idea what my cholesterol, vitamin D, heart rate, blood sugar (etc) is... and have to go to great lengths to find out." -Craig Shapiro, Collaborative Fund