9 SXSW Interactive Sessions Everyone Should Vote For - Now!

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conferences & Festivals - the giant confab of interactive, music and film in Austin, TX, in March, 2013 - is currently working on some 3,656 panel proposals. Which ones actually happen depends on how many votes they get. Here are nine panels that deserve your support. The voting closes on August 31st at 11:59pm Central Daylight Time, not much time to review all those...

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ReadWriteWeb DeathWatch: Zynga

Zynga’s Mafia Wars, Farmville and Bubble Safari are enormously popular pastimes that helped define social/casual gaming. But faced with a changing market and an unpopular leader, can Zynga innovate its way out of the hole it keeps digging for itself?Zynga’s climb to the top of social gaming didn’t take long. In 2007, Mark Pincus launched the Texas Hold'Em Poker app (now Zynga Poker) on Facebook....

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IBM Is Turning Watson Into A "Supercharged" Siri

IBM is working to turn its Jeopardy-winning supercomputer into the newest mobile device personal assistant. Dubbed "Watson 2.0," the system would be a voice-activated "supercharged" version of Siri, at least that's how Bernie Meyerson, VP of Innovation at IBM, described it to Bloomberg this week. We all know Watson is super smart - there are almost a dozen racks of IBM servers in New York that can back up that claim - but is he helpful? Adding the ability to sense and assess real-world...

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YouTube's "Gangnam Style" Viral Hit Portends Kpop Explosion

South Korean popster PSY’s “Gangnam Style” is an absurdist tour de force of a four minute viral video. It's also an object lesson in how YouTube is driving global culture. Now that kpop (short for South Korean pop music) has broken through to the mainstream, get ready for a whole lot more of it.   Uploaded to YouTube on July 15th, Gangnam Style, by 34-year-old singer Park Jae-Sang,  has racked up 52.8 million views, collecting at least 2 million views every day since August 1. The...

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After Instagram: 6 Alternative Photo Apps To Try

Editor's note: This post was originally published by our partners at GeekSugar.com. It's unlikely the public's love of Instagram will die down any time soon, but what if you just want to bring an app of fresh air to your smartphone camera routine? Consider expanding your vision to other apps. Just like the photography service you already know so well, there are plenty of other awesome apps and communities...

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Weekly Wrap-Up: The Future Of Streams, Facebook's New iOS App, Why Topic Pages Are The Next Big Thing

The future of Twitter streams, Facebook's new iOS app, and why topic pages are the next big thing. All of this and more in the ReadWriteWeb Weekly Wrap-up.After the jump you'll find more of this week's top news stories on some of the key topics that are shaping the Web - Location, App Stores and Real-Time Web - plus highlights from some of our six channels. Read on for more.One of the five reasons...

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Facebook’s Updated iPhone App Aids Internet of Things

Buried in the details of last week’s update to Facebook’s now-native iOS app was a small bit of technology that could have potentially big impact on the future of the Internet of Things.The technology is called Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), an IBM-developed protocol for real-time messaging over networks with low power and bandwidth. MQTT is now under the hood within Facebook’s iOS app’s messaging features, part of Facebook’s efforts to pull in the features from its native Messenger...

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Why You Should Be Terrified Of A Free Trade Agreement You've Never Heard Of [Infographic]

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is the most influential piece of recent legal work you’ve probably never heard of. Can a Free Trade Agreement really threaten Internet freedom, redefine copyright and alter the course of global healthcare? You bet.According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and other participating or negotiating members, the TPP is just another Free...

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About the security content of iOS 5.1.1 Software Update

var modelValue = 'SupportApple';var akamaiUrl = "http://km.support.apple.com"; var aiSearchServiceURL ="support.apple.com";var podLocaleValue="en_US"; var aiCrossDomainSearchServiceURL ="support-reporting.apple.com";About the security content of iOS 5.1.1 Software UpdateThis document describes the security content of iOS 5.1.1 Software Update, which can be downloaded and installed using iTunes.For...

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Coming To A Restaurant Near You: Online Food Delivery

This week's eyebrow-raising $49 million round of funding for German food-ordering site Delivery Hero as well as a flurry of similar recent deals, indicate that consumers and restaurant owners want digital delivery. The U.S. restaurant industry is enormous -- $632 billion in annual sales, according to the National Restaurant Association -- but also cruelly efficent. The rate of business failure is legendary. But, online food delivery is growing again after furtive entrepreneurial...

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The Reimagination of Publishing

Last Friday I did a presentation at The Project [R]evolution conference in Auckland, New Zealand. I presented on a topic I've been writing a lot about recently: the reimagination of publishing. I haven't been this excited about innovation in Web publishing since the early, experimental days of blogging, when I started ReadWriteWeb circa 2002-03. In particular, three new products have captured my...

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Futurist's Cheat Sheet: Internet of Things

Through the Internet, humans have connected the world. People are closer to each other than ever while still remaining apart. The next phase of the the Internet will be about connecting things. The Internet of Things will be central to the infrastructure that we build. (The "Futurist's Cheatsheet" series surveys technologies on the horizon: their promise, how likely they are, and when they might become part of our daily lives. This article is Part 5.)Think of a thing. Really, it could be anything....

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Evernote & Moleskine Merge Paper & Pixels in "Smart Notebook"

Evernote signed a treaty with Moleskine Friday at the Evernote Trunk Conference, formally declaring a truce in its war on paper. It announced the Evernote Smart Notebook from Moleskine, along with a new version of Evernote for iOS that will bridge the gap that's familiar to anyone with an urgent need to capture ideas.Despite Evernote’s efforts to move people to go paperless, Moleskine’s fancy...

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Walmart.com's Semantic Search Promises Edge Against Amazon

How much of a difference can better search tools make for an e-commerce site? Wal-Mart is betting on a 10% -15% improvement in sales following the launch of its new Polaris search engine on Walmart.com, developed by its @WalmartLabs division.In the business of retail, it's all about location, That's true for which aisle in the grocery store you display the milk, and its even true for ecommerce sites, which rely on product placement on pages and better search tools to make the difference between...

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How Remove Instagram Filters

Editor's note: This post was originally published by our partners at GeekSugar.com. Have you ever been hit by filtered photo regret? You took a memorable photo, but a hasty filter decision left you with an image too vintage and dreamlike.The Normalize app for iOS ($1) lets you revert your once-oversaturated photos back to their original levels.Take back the natural look of vacation photos with a...

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Twitter Ads Are About to Get More Relevant

If all goes according to plan, ads on Twitter are about to get a lot more relevant to the people that see them. That's the idea behind the interest-targeted ad system the company has been testing. Having presumably ironed out the kinks, Twitter has just rolled the feature out to all of its advertisers. Previously, when Twitter displayed a promoted tweet or trending topic, it didn't take into account whether or not that ad is relevant or useful to a given user.For years, advertisers...

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iPod for Windows: Connecting multiple iPod devices to iTunes

var modelValue = 'SupportApple';var akamaiUrl = "http://km.support.apple.com"; var aiSearchServiceURL ="support.apple.com";var podLocaleValue="en_US"; var aiCrossDomainSearchServiceURL ="support-reporting.apple.com";iPod for Windows: Connecting multiple iPod devices to iTunesWhile iTunes for Windows allows you to connect multiple iPod devices simultaneously to the same computer for charging, you...

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Amazon Kindle Fire Is Sold Out

Less than a year after announcing its Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon says the model is sold out in the United States, and has claimed 22% of all tablet sales. The news comes shortly before the expected announcement of the Kindle Fire 2 on Sept. 6.Amazon is also touting that all of the top-selling products in its store since the launch of the Kindle Fire have been digital.But Amazon has a way of making statements that scratch its back without an excess of facts or context.It doesn't define what...

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Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring

var modelValue = 'SupportApple';var akamaiUrl = "http://km.support.apple.com"; var aiSearchServiceURL ="support.apple.com";var podLocaleValue="en_US"; var aiCrossDomainSearchServiceURL ="support-reporting.apple.com";Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay MirroringUse these steps if: The AirPlay icon doesn't appear on your iOS device, or iTunes on your computer, after following instructions about how...

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New Tech Incubator Focuses on Car-Based Apps

Tech entrepreneur Jim Disanto sees the automobile as the next great platform for connectivity. “There are a more than a billion cars in the world,” he said. “Every automotive OEM and Tier 1 supplier will tell you that within three years, every car will need connected systems, or you’re not going to be able to sell it.” That, Disanto believes, will spawn a new generation of app developers offering Internet-enabled enhancements to the driving experience.However, as large as that opportunity is, the...

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Futurist's Cheat Sheet: Human Augmentation

As long as there have been humans, there have been dreams of super humans. Eyeglasses started sharpening vision in the 1200s, pacemakers have been implanted to extend lifespans since the late 1950s, and the first strength-amplifying robotic exoskeletons shipped earlier this year. But those innovations are only the beginning. With advances in technology, the ability to vastly enhance human capabilities is right around the corner. Here is an overview of current efforts and their potential. (The "Futurist's...

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Does Your Startup Need A Technical Co-Founder?

In today’s startup landscape, practically everything can be outsourced. But when it comes to core technical skills, more and more entrepreneurs are opting to partner with technical co-founders rather than hiring someone for an in-house position. So how do you decide what’s right for your new company?To find the best way to integrate core technical skills into a start up, we asked eight successful young entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) whether startups need tech-oriented founders.If...

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