sxsw 2012

AUSTIN, Texas--Despite the success of Spotify and its competitors, music sharing still hasn't caught up to what Napster offered before being neutered by the courts, that service's founders, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning, said today.

During a on-stage discussion at South by Southwest here, Parker and Fanning argued that though new technologies and licensing models finally allow music lovers to legally access and discover vast collections of songs online, even the best new services are still philosophically behind what Napster originally offered its users.

Parker, who appeared earlier this week alongside former U.S. vice president Al Gore … Read more

A nexus tablet, Instagram is here, but not really and google fails to entertain, all that and more on this week's episode of Android Atlas Weekly for March 14th, 2012.

NEWS:

Jessica Dolcourt with the Samsung Galaxy S II on US Cellular -Samsung Galazy S II

-Google Pin Frenzy

-Google’s entertainment strategy is in disarray

-Nokia Maps gives turn-by-turn walking navigation to all

-Hottest new apps out of SXSW 2012

-Instagram coming to Android ‘really soon’

-Android Tablets Will Overtake iPad by 2015, IDC Says… Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Looking out the window of my hotel this afternoon, just across from the convention center here where thousands of South by Southwest attendees have been swarming like ants for days, I saw something altogether new.

Very thin people in with long hair and tight black pants carrying musical instruments were, if not everywhere, then all over the place.

Welcome to the annual population changeover as SXSW Interactive ends and SXSW Music begins.

Technically, those two sides of the festival (there's also SXSW Film, which lasts for ten full days) don't overlap, as Interactive ends today and Music … Read more

PayPal introduced a redesigned digital wallet at SXSW 2012 in Austin on Tuesday, which is promised to launch this spring.

Some of PayPal's new digital wallet amenities go beyond just payments, but rather reinforce the platform as a one-stop shop for mobile commerce in general.

For example, users will be able to create personal lists for different shopping situations as well as create budgets by purchase amounts and other metrics.

Then there are a lot of other features that carry over from PayPal's browser platform such as being able to switch from one funding source stored in your … Read more

commentary AUSTIN, Texas--If you've been reading South by Southwest-centered blogs over the last 24 hours, you've probably gotten a sense of the outrage over what's being called the "homeless hot spots" program.

If you don't know what that's about, let me catch you up. A marketing agency sent some Austin homeless folks out on the streets, wireless hot spots in tote, with the idea that SXSW attendees in desperate search of Wi-Fi would pay a few bucks for the connectivity and for the chance to help out someone in need.

Some of the … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Former U.S. vice president Al Gore and Facebook's founding president Sean Parker argued passionately today that online communities must use the powerful tools at their disposal to save American democracy.

At South by Southwest (SXSW) here, Gore and Parker took the stage to tell an adoring crowd of several thousand that though they should be proud of the mass Internet activism that derailed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), there is still a huge amount of work to be done if Americans want to keep special interests from perpetually forcing their agendas down society's throat.

Fortunately, … Read more

Think of SXSW, or "South-by" as it is affectionately known by its attendees, as a sort of amalgamation of film, music, and interactive media conferences, but topped with copious amounts of booze and barbecue sauce, and neatly packaged in a charmingly chic weeklong festival. It is a geek gathering like no other.

But more than just the expected parties, panels, and conference sessions, SXSW for the past few years has also been seen as a potential springboard to startup success, particularly for mobile apps. Considering the well-documented launch of Twitter at SXSW 2007, and the less epic, though … Read more

AUSTIN,Texas--If you haven't heard of Juan Diego Calle's company quite yet, consider yourself not among the in-the-know here over the last few days.

Yes, the buzz at this year's South by Southwest Interactive has been around social apps like Highlight and Glancee hoping for a Twitter-like breakout. But there's another hot startup here that gets little press and yet is everywhere.

I'm referring to .CO Internet, the Miami company that fought hard to land a contract with the government of Colombia so it could commercialize the country's top-level-domain, or TLD.

At last year'… Read more

The advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty's BHH Labs launched a campaign at the film, music and interactive festival South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, that is raising ire among critics.

In what appears to be a case of poor judgment, BBH Labs kicked off a campaign called "Homeless Hotspots." Yep. It is exactly what it sounds like--walking, talking homeless people who provide access to a 4G network in exchange for a donation (BBH Labs suggests $2 per 15 minutes). … Read more