March 2011

AUSTIN, Texas – Day three of South by Southwest held some interesting panels and discussions ranging from keynotes from 4chan founder Christopher Poole to social gurus like Guy Kawasaki. Whereas …

AUSTIN, Texas – Former boxing king Mike Tyson showed up to knockout a promotion and sign autographs for RockLive’s new iPhone/iPad game, “Mike Tyson Main Event” at South by Southwest (SXSW) …

It’s hard to think of a more universally hated piece of software than Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer 6. The aging browser came bundled with Windows XP, which had the unfortunate side-effect of making it wildly popular, as people used it day-in and day-out for their browsing needs, oblivious to the growing security holes and alternatives available.

Christina Nguyen White from Sapient thinks the growing hole in your back jeans pocket is getting a bit too personal. And swiping your card is so 2000-and-late. Why swipe when you can just scan? She asked in her panel “Thin Is In – The Future of Digital Wallets.”

Of all the mobile services I’ve seen at SXSW, Airbnb – which allows you to search for and “rent” properties for any length of time via your phone – is probably the best.

What’s better than a rocket in your pocket when you find yourself in a sticky situation? Buddy Guard from MPower Labs of course! The app, which launched this week at SXSW is a mobile protector in your pocket, alerting friends and family of your whereabouts and status in case of emergency.

Google Inc. veteran and VP of Consumer Products Marissa Mayer took the stage at SXSW in Austin, Texas, today and provided and interesting snapshot of Google’s mapping products. Google Maps is provided on all major handsets, and functions as the default service on iOS and Android, the two biggest fish in the smartphone pond.

It has been rumoured since essentially the dawn of time that Google Inc. is going to launch a social network. Although many of Google’s products, such as Picasa, YouTube, and Buzz include social elements, the search giant has yet to launch a full-on Facebook competitor.

Since last week’s catastrophic earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown triple-threat devastated large parts of northeastern Japan, many large organisations have jumped in to aid donations that will go towards helping those affected by the crisis.

Day two at SXSW proved just as interesting as day one.

Scvngr, the location-based game for mobile phones takes gaming to a new level by building a game around existing reality. Like a combination of Foursquare location-based check-ins and a real game, Scvngr builds a game “layer” on top of the existing world.

RCR caught up with two of the most passionate people in mobile today at the SXSW newsdesk – Harold Neidhardt – Founder of MLOVE – and Torsten Schollmayer, a mobile services expert at Sapient.

An unfortunate side effect of a “cool” conference like SXSW is you find a lot of people who truly, deeply believe that they themselves, personally, are changing the world for the better. It’s somewhat sweet, somewhat cheesy, and very, very naïve.