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After some initial rough spots during the first day of TechCrunch50, yesterday was an incredibly impressive day. I’ve been reluctant to compare TC50 and DEMOfall (aside from the live video stream, of course), but there is one glaring difference between the two conferences: the panels.

While DEMO has a few expert sessions, TC50 had experts ask questions of presenting entrepreneurs immediately after their presentations. And with experts like Don Dodge, Marc Andreesen, Henry Blodget, Ron Coway and Mark Cuban (to name a few), the questions and advice for presenting companies were excellent.

Looking back on the second day of presentations, here are a few companies that impressed me:

Session 5: Collaboration

Popego

Though they are entering the incredibly competitive “filtering the web to find just feeds you want” space, Popego looks to have a slick interface and is definitely trying to solve a very real problem for very active users. Unfortunately it seems Popego wasn’t exactly ready for the deluge of new users as a result of their presentation (I’m getting an “Our servers are having a headache” error still), but when the service is functioning, I’ll be sure to review them here.

Here’s their presentation:

Session 6: Finance and Collaboration

iCharts

ICharts was a favorite among the Finance and Statistics session (a session I admit to having little experience with). They’re incredibly focused on one specific niche: creating slick and attractive charts online on the fly. To me, this is something I’m really interested in. Every week I fumble with excel to make ugly looking charts to visualize metrics. If iCharts works as it has been presented, I’m interested.

Session 7: Mobile

Tonchidot

Tonchidot is absolutely insane. When you use your iPhone camera, tonchitod shows an overlay with tags, giving real time reviews, recommendations and interesting details on what you’re looking for. This demo just blew people away. I can’t do it justice here. Just check out the video.

FitBit

Fitbit is a wearable fitness device that tracks calories burned, sleep quality, steps and distance. It then can upload your stats wirelessly to the web, and you’ll have an online record of your activity. Plus, it’s only $99.

Their video is not yet available, but I will link it here when it is up.

Session 8: Langauge and Communication Tools

Swype

Swype is a technology that lets people type quickly on mobile phones using touch or a stylus. The technology is from the creator of the T9 text input system used on over 3 billion mobile phones. This is the kind of technology that, once one mobile maker implements, will have to be used by all others. Again, not doing it justice, so check out their presentation.

Closing Session With Mark Cuban

Finally, the last session of the day was an hour-long interview with Mark Cuban. This, to me, was the best and most valuable session of the day. The best soundbite?

“When I die, I want to come back as me.” - Mark Cuban

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Filed under: TC50, TechCrunch50, Uncategorized, betas, media discovery, social media