TechCrunch Mobile Conference: Chamillionaire, Foursquare Star

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The stars of this complex, information-stuffed AOl-hosted TechCrunch event? Chamillonaire and Foursquare. In case you’re not in the know, Chamillionaire’s the famous rapper also known for visiting tech events and using the latest in social media platforms. He also thinks Android sucks.

As I type this he’s still behind me, talking about how bad Android is.

(Oh, and for those who may be wondering ‘What’s a rapper doing at TechCrunch Mobile, my question is why aren’t MORE rappers at TechCrunch Mobile. I’ll leave it for you to fill in the blanks.)

That’s one bit of information I gathered – among the thousands of bytes thrown out. The other that struck me, and speaks to the incredible growth of Foursquare over time, is that the around two-year-old platform gets one-half-billion checkins per day. A year ago, according to Dennis Crowley at TechCrunch Disrupt, Foursquare had something like 500,000 check-ins as a record on the Friday of the week of the event. Now, it’s more.

But, OK, what’s TechCrunch Mobile Conference?

It’s called a “mini-conference” and one of many by the now-AOL-owned blog that focus on what’s called the “now” of tech. In this case, the interest is in what’s happening in what’s called the mobile space. The conversations are rapid and all over the place, but the main interest is in Fourscquare, which has become one of the darlings of the mobile location-based space.

The man who made the statement about the “half-billion checkins” was Tristan Walker, the Foursquare’s head of business development, who, with the growth of the company, has become a tech star, of sorts.

But beyond Foursquare, a number of mobile companies are here, and this blogger will feature more of them in follow-ups. As the conference was going on, I was dragged into a tour of AOL’s amazing and vast space here devoted to start-ups of all kinds, and all, in some way, in the – there’s that word again – mobile space.

And in about 30 minutes, the TechCrunch August Capital Party starts and that’s where I’m headed. You can follow the action on my Tout stream below – including Chamillionaire’s shout out to Shaq:

Stay tuned.

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