sylvie barak

There’s a lizard napping peacefully on top of my mosquito net as I type. He looks rested – almost as rested as I did this morning after a blissful seven hours of sleep.

From above, we descended on Haiti through the scattered puffy clouds, as the island’s lush green mountains rolled into view. As our flight descended further, the corrugated blue roofs of the slums, peppered paradoxically with pretty palms peeped into view – sunlight bouncing off the tin and bits of metal holding Port Au Prince’s ramshackle accommodation together.

Mark my words, you don’t want to get on the wrong side of a bunch of Israeli developers, but that’s just what Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, recently did with his rude and curt “no interest” rejection email to Israeli firm, Tawkon.

As if it wasn’t enough to have the girl scouts cajoling cookie sales out of you at home, they can now get to you via your mobile phone too.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Sprint Nextel Corp. is keeping its hands firmly on the wheel this week in honor of National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, with the firm CEO Dan Hesse announcing to attendees of the CTIA 2011 show that his firm will be offering its driver safety product – Sprint Drive First – this year.

When a senior executive leaves his plum position at Intel to pursue “other interests,” you know something’s slightly fishy – and that’s the case with the sudden departure of Intel’s senior VP and GM of mobile, Anand Chandrasekher.

Targeted mobile advertising firm Jumptap has just announced a partnerships with five rich media providers; Celtra, Fluent Mobile, and PointRoll, as well as Crisp Media and Medialets, in order to improve its rich media capabilities and offer advertisers more options when it comes to mobile ads.

MasterImage 3D Inc., which makes auto-stereoscopic 3-D displays, 3-D content creation tools and 3-D digital cinema products, this morning announced it had received a $15 million investment from Samsung Ventures.

Sprint has teamed up with LOC-AID, Neustar, OpenMarket and TechnoCom in a bid to become a one stop shop for developers accessing multiple application programming interfaces (APIs).

Orlando, Fla., – While the world grapples with the news of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, mobile location provider LOC-AID Technologies, Inc., seems to already have found its feet announcing a single API for developers wanting to build location apps for both T-Mobile and AT&T.

Angry Birds isn’t just for touchscreen tablets anymore, with chipmaker Intel making everyone’s favorite furious feathered friends available on netbooks and laptops for the first time – in coordination with Best Buy.

AUSTIN, Texas-Rock Health, a San Francisco-based mobile health and Health 2.0 seed incubator, launched officially at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival last week. The mission of the company is …

The telecom world reeled in shock Sunday afternoon, as AT&T Inc. shattered the weekend calm with news it would be buying T-Mobile USA Inc. from Deutsche Telekom AG for a cool $39 billion. The boards of both firms are said to have green-lighted the deal, meaning it’s now only up to the U.S. government to decide whether the two giants can merge within the year to form North America’s largest carrier.

In a shock move, AT&T Inc. has announced a $39 billion cash-and-stock transaction buyout of T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in what could create the largest GSM conglomerate in the world. The deal would also make AT&T Inc. the largest operator in the U.S. by far.

As many people nurse their hangovers after a day of Saint Patrick’s day excess, it’s sobering to remember that the little Emerald isle is not just an excuse for a Guinness, but a veritable tech hub of innovation and scientific prowess, which rivals and even surpasses many much larger, richer nations.

AUSTIN, Texas – Thirty-two hungry entrepreneurs showed off their products and services at the SXSW Accelerator presented by Microsoft Corp. BizSpark on March 14 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive …

Qualcomm Inc. says it does not foresee any significant impact to its semiconductor supply chain after last week’s earthquake in Japan and says it shouldn’t have a problem in continuing to supply product to its customers.

Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. has decided to cancel its participation in the CTIA Wireless tradeshow in the aftermath of the powerfully destructive earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on March 11.

AUSTIN, Texas – Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said he will introduce antitrust legislation to curb the influence of telecommunications lobbyists, but that effort will ultimately fail without the support of …

AUSTIN, Texas – Our staff was able to view and shoot a demonstration of “Angry Birds Rio,” a take-off of the hit original game “Angry Birds,” at the South by Southwest …

While most of this week is about SXSW interactive, there’s no denying the importance of indie music at the festival and Songkick, the home for live music on the Web is teaming up with Facebook for a digital, social collaboration.

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.

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.