“PINTEREST: Can financial services firms use this new platform effectively?” That was the subject line of an email in my inbox this morning. It came from Corporate Insight, a financial services consulting firm. The email went on to note that “Pinterest values imagery over text and incorporates many social aspects of Twitter and Facebook to … Read more

The tech IPO is back in fashion, with the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and GroupOn dominating the headlines over the past year. One of the lesser known technology brands to have gone public is Splunk, a company hyped by its CEO Godfrey Sullivan as “the Google of Big Data.” Splunk debuted on the Nasdaq last … Read more

Today, April 20, marks the 9th birthday of ReadWriteWeb. Much has changed since 2003! The World Wide Web was not very mobile or social back then. There were no smartphones or mobile Internet (and no I don’t consider WAP as proper Internet!). There was no Facebook, or even MySpace. Twitter was a few years away. … Read more

So far in our series on car connectivity, we’ve focused on infotainment systems. It’s early in the evolution of Internet services in vehicles and up till now, it’s been all about information and entertainment. Early in-car apps have focused on music, navigation and news. The next generation of in-car apps will be about providing “smart” … Read more

On the face of it, the statistics are impressive: 20 million registered users and 2 billion check-ins. But as location check-in app Foursquare celebrates 4sqDay (16 April = 4 squared, geddit?), how many people still regularly use the service? After all, manually checking in to places is going out of fashion isn’t it? Aren’t next … Read more

One of the more intriguing aspects of Instagram’s $1 billion payday from Facebook is that photo sharing was Plan B. Compare that to the other social startup darling of 2012, Pinterest, which has stayed true to its original mission from Day 1. Are there any lessons to be gleaned from this? Which one should you … Read more

Shazam is one of the most popular smartphone apps of all time. Most people know it as that clever app that “listens” to a song and identifies the name of it. Today Shazam released the fifth major version of its iPhone app. But what’s more interesting is Shazam’s increasing focus not on music… but television. … Read more

Electric cars are the biggest trend in new vehicles, at least according to media coverage. But Internet connectivity in cars must run a close second. Of all the car manufacturers, Ford is probably giving online connectivity the biggest push. While at SXSW I checked out the latest version of its infotainment system, SYNC with MyFord … Read more

There were only about 15 people at the Smart Homes Meetup at SXSW, which took place in a meeting room at the Hilton Austin. Ironically, the air conditioning didn’t seem to be working. Not much smart technology in this room, I thought, mopping my brow and pouring myself a glass of iced water. But as … Read more

At this year’s SXSW, I attended a showcase of the latest Chevrolet cars and infotainment technologies. A lead brand for General Motors, Chevrolet had a huge corporate presence at SXSW. But it was the extension of infotainment to backseat passengers, using 4G, that attracted my attention. As I noted when profiling the latest BMW infotainment … Read more

“Would you like to drive it?” asked Rob Passaro, Head of BMW AppCenter, as we finished up our in-car interview from a suburban street in Austin. I’d been admiring the BMW 650i convertible from the passenger seat, particularly the state of the art infotainment system that was the subject of our discussion. But I didn’t … Read more

Ironically we couldn’t find each other. I’d arranged to meet Glancee founder and CEO Andrea Vaccari at 2pm in the Hilton Austin lobby, during the height of SXSW Interactive. But with hundreds of geeks running around, I couldn’t see him anywhere. The wifi, as always the case at SXSW, was spotty and I didn’t have … Read more

On a bone-chillingly stormy Austin Friday, I escaped into the warmth of the upmarket W Hotel and sat down for an interview with Amber Case, technology anthropologist and founder of the location platform Geoloqi. In between wolfing down a plate of gourmet macaroni cheese, Case explained her fascination with pinball machines and how Geoloqi helped … Read more

One of the intriguing aspects of Facebook Timeline, ever since the initial launch last September, is how it highlights the media you consume. Music you listen to, videos you watch, newspapers and books you read, and (more recently) images you “pin” on Pinterest. Facebook termed the concept frictionless sharing, because it allows you to automatically … Read more

Last month Apple announced iBooks 2, the next generation of its e-book app for iPhone and iPad. iBooks 2 was notable for the launch of a new breed of interactive digital textbooks, designed for the iPad. The books feature videos, photos, diagrams, rotating 3D objects, “Study Cards” for notes and highlights, and more. Among the … Read more