As tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs nursed their hangovers and headed home after SXSW Interactive, there were still newsworthy launches, panels, and campaigns going on at SXSW Music. MOG hinted at its future revenue streams, Sean Parker predicted the fall of iTunes, and products launched from Rap Genius, Monstro, and others.
The second half of SXSW is much more about concerts than… → Read More
TechCrunch TV talked to Path co-founder and CEO Dave Morin last week while we were at the South By Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. It’s always interesting to talk to Morin, who is widely regarded as one of the most well-connected and in-the-know entrepreneurs in today’s web startup landscape.
In this interview, Morin discussed the latest update to the Path app, version 2.1… → Read More
What kind of tech startup can be built over four days, while riding across the country on a bumpy bus with somewhat dodgy Wi-Fi? The people who took the StartupBus to Austin, Texas for the South By Southwest Interactive conference found out. The StartupBus had its biggest year ever this year, with busloads of hacker-entrepreneurs from 11 regions in North America coding their way down to SxSWi with… → Read More
Earlier this week, TechCrunch TV hosted a live show from the floor of the convention center at the South By Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas and we were really pleased to have technology evangelist and early-stage startup hunter Robert Scoble as a guest.
Watch the video above to hear Scoble’s thoughts on how SxSWi has grown over the past decade from a few “geeks off in the… → Read More
The last time TechCrunch checked in with Brittany Morin was in mid-November 2011, when the former Googler had just debuted her own lifestyle brand, Brit Media, aimed at positioning herself as the “Martha Stewart of Silicon Valley.” So TechCrunch TV caught up with her earlier this week in Austin, Texas at the South By Southwest Interactive conference to find out how things have been shaping up… → Read More
Some people are surprised when they find out that Getty Images is just 17 years old — its brand name has become such an institution in the image licensing and stock photography space that many people assume it’s been around for decades longer. But starting in 1995 just at the dawn of the Internet age does make it a veteran in many ways, compared to its much younger peers in the web photo space. → Read More
TaskRabbit, the online marketplace that lets people outsource small tasks and errands to others for negotiated fees, expanded operations into Austin, Texas this past week just in time for the South By Southwest Interactive conference. Now that the Austin launch is out of the way, founder Leah Busque told TechCrunch TV, going forward TaskRabbit will work on deepening its reach in Seattle and… → Read More
Even in an election year where Republicans and Democrats are at each others’ throats even more than usual, there is still one political issue in the United States that both sides have to get behind in order to stay in voters’ good graces: Job creation. And since so many jobs these days are created by startups and small businesses, a number of politicians have started championing initiatives to… → Read More
Trey Ratcliff, the travel photographer known for popularizing HDR (high dynamic range) photo techniques online through his very popular Stuck In Customs blog and more recently his own apps and Google+ page, hosted a photowalk in his hometown of Austin, Texas this week during the South By Southwest Interactive conference. Watch him talk to TechCrunch TV about his one piece of advice for casual… → Read More
Looking for a band for your tech conference, wedding, or launch party? San Francisco startup Hear It Local has just launched a private concert booking and crowdfunding platform that connects you to local musicians, just in time to catch the attention of the music crowd at South By Southwest. Smaller venues can also use Hear It Local to fill their calendars with great affordable bands.
Unique… → Read More
Here is the second half of our two-part interview with legendary inventor and thought leader Ray Kurzweil (you can see part one here.) Here, Kurzweil discusses why sleep is so important for technological innovation (but it’s OK to party and program all night once in a while), why facts are better off on Wikipedia than being drilled into students’ brains, the latest bit of research with which he’s… → Read More
Academy Award winning actor Forest Whitaker was at SXSW this past weekend, where his JuntoBox Films studio — which combines crowdsourcing social media technology with traditional film production — announced it has greenlit its first movie. Watch his interview with TechCrunch TV to see him discuss how technology is democratizing the filmmaking process, how Hollywood is slowly getting over its… → Read More
Legendary scientist, inventor, futurist, and all-around tech icon Ray Kurzweil is attending the ongoing South By Southwest Interactive conference for the first time ever this year, and TechCrunch TV was very excited to be able to sit down with him for an interview. In this first half of our talk, watch Kurzweil discuss why we need more young entrepreneurs, how today’s consumer app landscape proves… → Read More
The history of location-based social discovery apps is a lot longer than the current hype surrounding Highlight and Glancee, currently darlings of the South by Southwest festival.
Back in 2007 TechCrunch’s founder Mike Arrington noted the existence of social mobile apps like Lime Juice, Rummble, Mig33, ZYB, Mocospace, Aka-Aki, Nokia Sensor, Dodgeball, Mobiluck, MeetMoi and Imity, just to name a… → Read More
Instagram, the photo-sharing app that has taken a definitive lead on iOS, said it has surpassed 27 million registered users.
Co-founder Kevin Systrom didn’t disclose daily active users. But he did say of all the users who have been active in the last week, 67 percent of them used the app yesterday.
“It’s Facebook-level engagement that we’re seeing,” Systrom said.
He didn’t really offer… → Read More
Don’t be fooled by Bing Gordon’s buttoned-up sounding job title as a partner at top tier Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers — he’s known as easily one of the most fun people to talk to in the tech industry. So when we saw him in Austin, Texas at the South By Southwest Interactive conference this weekend, we pulled him aside for an interview with TechCrunch… → Read More
There are lots of apps for finding the right people and parties at South By Southwest this year, but what about, you know, actually going to panels and sharing your thoughts about them? Well, there’s Twitter for short-form public sharing, and messaging apps like GroupMe for group chats. But HackPad has a more serious idea: actually taking notes about the panels and keynotes you go to, with other… → Read More
Most of the news around Austin this week is centered around SXSW, naturally, but Texas Governor (and erstwhile presidential candidate) Rick Perry broke some news today that’s unrelated, but still Austin-relevant. Apple, it seems, which has been slowly growing its presence in the state’s tech oasis, chose SXSW weekend as an auspicious time to announce a major new campus in Austin. → Read More
The fundamental mistake companies make when marketing at SXSW is giving away things I can easily buy on my own. Open bars and taco giveaways only attract freeloaders. If brands want influencers to take notice, they have to provide unique experiences.
From my last three SXSWs, I couldn’t tell you who provided the ice cream sandwiches or Lone Star beers. But Zynga’s warehouse concert with TV On… → Read More
StartupBus, the hackathon-on-wheels in which busloads of entrepreneurs make the journey down to the South By Southwest conference with the goal of teaming up to create viable web apps by the time they arrive in Austin, rolled into its third day yesterday. in this video you can see how the buspreneurs’ apps have gone from concept to code with demos from customizable breakfast cereal app Cerealize… → Read More
With a new class of passive location apps on the rise, failed geo-mobile apps of the past need to cut their losses, so Loopt today announced plans to sell to banking and payment solutions company Green Dot for $43.4 million. Green Dot hopes checkin functionality can help it attain and hold on to customers by expanding from prepaid cards into a mobile wallet. And it needs Loopt’s talent to stick… → Read More
There are a few use cases for using hot background location app Highlight, cofounder Paul Davison explains to me. You just met someone and you want them to find out more about you. You want to note that someone is particularly interesting for future reference. And, you want to see which friends are nearby, or have recently left.
The app is getting a set of updates today that should make it more… → Read More
Ask.com, which refocused its efforts on Q&A back in 2010, is rolling out another mobile application in the Q&A genre today. And no, it’s not that Ask.com Q&A app. It’s another one. The new app is called PollRoll, and, as the name implies, it allows you to quickly create polls on your iPhone, then post them to Facebook and Twitter. → Read More
StartupBus, a multi-city Wi-Fi-enabled roadtrip to the South by Southwest Interactive conference with the goal of developing and launching a startup by the time the travelers arrive in Austin, fired up the engines on its biggest year ever this week.TechCrunch TV’s John Murillo is along for the ride all the way from San Francisco to Austin, and he put together an awesome video wrap-up of Day One. → Read More
We’re republishing this timeless classic, because it still stands pretty much as is exactly as is year later.
Believe it or not, I had this very same conversation about Groupme versus Beluga as a preferred messaging app WITH THE SAME EXACT COLLEAGUE today, though yeah, in retrospect, the dude was right, Facebook did “do something” to them.
Also, I’m not hosting a “pussies in tech” panel… → Read More
It’s turning into a battle of apps at SXSW – the sheer number of location-based networking apps hoping to emerge from the conference as this year’s breakout hit is nearly overwhelming. What’s worse, the apps are often so similar in nature, it’s hard to discern the advantages of one over another.
Is the app for business networking or making new friends? Does it use check-in data from other… → Read More
Let’s say you want to use your phone to find interesting new people or reconnect with nearby friends — without revealing your exact location. Glancee is the app for you, particularly if you’re an Android user. And the polished competitor to Highlight is getting a big update today, ahead of South By Southwest. The changes should please the people who want what it already offers.
The most… → Read More
Just when you thought this space couldn’t get any more saturated, yet another ambient location app throws its hat into the ring as SXSW prepares to kick off. Introducing INTRO. But wait, before you groan “enough already!“, you should know that INTRO at least has a unique take on the location-based social introductions market. Unlike the majority of this year’s crop of location-based networking… → Read More
From Foursquare to Pinwheel and Highlight and many, many more besides, we’ve seen a lot of apps created for users to share location, information and pictures with friends and like-minded people. So it seems inevitable that to help set themselves apart from the pack, newer launches will start coalescing more and more around particular features.
The latest is Wallit: a new app that, yes, lets… → Read More
Social discovery service (and TechCrunch Disrupt alumni) Sonar has some big news today, and just in time for SXSW: it’s arriving on Android. According to founder Brett Martin, support for the Android platform has long been users’ most frequent request for the service.
But that’s not the only thing that’s new. Along with the Android launch, the company is also making a slight, but important… → Read More
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