SXSW - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Meltdown! New Periscope iPhone app live streams ice cream factory's end

  The <a href="http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/article/20150116/News/150117014">teardown of a 50-plus-year-old ice cream plant</a> across from Network World's Framingham, Mass., headquarters today practically screamed to be live streamed via Twitter's new <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id972909677">Periscope app for the iPhone</a>. So I took my iPhone 5 into the parking lot during lunch and brought the action live to a whoever happened to stumble across it.

• Austin declared a drone-free zone during SXSW

  Using a drone at the South By Southwest festival might put you in jail.

• Snowden leaks erode trust in Internet companies, government

  Edward Snowden's revelations about the National Security Agency's data collection practices have eroded the public's trust in major technology companies -- and in the Internet, a Harris Interactive survey found.

• Gov't push for broadband access yields gains; data privacy still a challenge

  President Obama's National Broadband Plan has helped expand Internet access in the U.S., but needs to be updated to account better data protection needs.

• Gates: Microsoft products 'need more than a tune-up'

  Microsoft's software is due for major changes in order to transition effectively into the era of Cloud computing and mobility, the company's co-founder Bill Gates says in a Rolling Stone interview.

• Snowden revelations raise interest in smartphone spyware for business

  As the world still reels over reports of U.S. government surveillance of privately owned smartphones, a spyware industry is growing that's focused on helping employers monitor the ways smartphones and tablets are used by their workers. Parents are also interested in the service to track their children's smartphone use.

• Google to release wearables SDK in few weeks

  Google is getting ready to release a software development kit that will help developers build apps for wearable computers on the Android platform.

• Snowden advocates at SXSW for improved data security

  Encryption technologies can be a powerful tool against government surveillance, but the most effective techniques are still largely out of reach to the average Internet user, Edward Snowden said Monday.

• Would a 3D-printed gun really be legal?

  Defense Distributed, the pro-gun nonprofit working to make 3D-printable gun designs freely available to everyone on the Internet, recently inched one step closer toward achieving that goal. The Austin, Texas-based group last week was granted a federal firearms license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

• SXSW 2013: No new Twitter, but marketing and hardware stand out

  South by Southwest Interactive is best known as the technology festival that put such social networking mainstays as Twitter and Foursquare on the map. But if there was a "next big thing" at this year's event, finding it would be pretty hard.

• Slideshow: SXSW in photos

  South by Southwest Interactive is such a massive technology conference with so much activity and many ideas being thrown around at once that it can be hard to give an overall feel for the Austin, Texas, extravaganza using just words.

• At SXSW, 3D-printed guns get their turn in the spotlight, too

  3D printing's capabilities in art, sculpture and toys have generated considerable buzz at South by Southwest Interactive over the past few days. But one Austin, Texas-based group has a more controversial application in mind: guns.

• SXSW show floor: Beam videoconferencing device takes a spin

  Tech enthusiasts at South by Southwest Interactive exploring the exhibit hall's gizmos and apps on Sunday were greeted a little differently at one booth -- the figure approaching them was not a person but a television-sized monitor mounted to a sleek base on wheels.

• Google's Singhal: speech, natural language recognition among search's biggest challenges

  As Google aims to expand search's ability to answer increasingly difficult questions based on contextual information, several key obstacles still stand in its way.

• At SXSW, techies dish anonymously with GhostPost

  Could anonymous chat be the next big thing? At this year's South by Southwest Interactive, the place that helped put Twitter and FourSquare on the map, a fledgling app for anonymous chatting is gaining some traction.