A new XPRIZE competition promises part of a $10m bounty for developing a real-life avatar, a robotic stand-in for humans that could virtually take us to distant or perilous locations. Announced at SXSW 2018 today, the new XPRIZE is open to participants globally, though the challenge isn't going to be easy to beat.
There’s no doubt payment at the register is changing, but how ordinary payments will look in the future is still anyone’s guess. Smartphones are currently the most popular method for making mobile payments, but smartwatches and wristbands can also be used. Visa previously showed off an NFC-based payment ring at the Olympics last year, and now it is back with another product, this one in the form of sunglasses.
Although primarily aimed at film, music, and interactive media, SxSW has also become a prime opportunity for some companies to show off products and ideas that lie at the intersection of technology and the arts. Sony has already pre-announced that it would indeed be at the event, showing off some rad prototypes like the "N" from its newly announced Future Lab. Apparently, it wasn't the only head turner from the company, which might have been this "smart projector" that turns any flat surface into an interactive table.
At the beginning of the year, Samsung showed off a few of its employees' experimental products at CES 2016 under the company's Creative Lab, or C-Lab, program. That included a smart belt, a smart wristband, and a virtual reality "handle bar" controller. At SXSW, the company revealed a few more ideas that, if turned into actual products, could be pretty interesting. For example, the Hum On! app can turn any hum or voiced tones into a musical piece. Waffle makes social networking an even more social and collaborative process, while Entrim 4D gives VR users a sense motion delivered through their ears.
While Google Now has grown a following thanks to its timely suggestions and relevant information, it hasn't exactly grown by leaps and bounds, partly because of the limited supply of apps that actually integrate with Google's smart assistant, if you could call it that. Things might change soon, now that Google has, at least informally, revealed that it plans to open up the API for Google Now for other app developers. It's a feature that is truly a long time coming, something that Google Now could have suggested to its own masters.
The music, film, and interactive festival that is South by South West, more popularly known by its SxSW acronym, is happening and, given the growing hype around virtual reality for the past few month, you'd expect Oculus would have some great announcement to make at Austin. If you were one of those who expected such, you might have walked away pretty disappointed. But more than just the admission of having nothing to announce at SxSW, it might be the implication that there might not be anything to announce in 2015 that has some fans worried.
When you find yourself at an event, there’s good reason to drag your smartphone out of your pocket or bag. Not just because you’re filling awkward downtime, but doing so might actually put real-time, contextual information in front of your face. At SXSW this weekend, event-goers will likely want to pull their phone out of their pockets and fire up the official SXSW app, named SXSW Go. The reason? Gimbal has landed at SXSW, and they’re going to light the event up with iBeacon tech.
There are thousands of people attending the SXSW music and tech festival in Austin, Texas. The festival has been around for years and that means that hoards of people from out of town need transportation services. The Austin Police Department is warning SXSW attendees to use only approved transportation services.
Neil young is a musician that has been getting a new high-end music service and media player ready for music fans out there that want the best quality possible. The music service is called PonoMusic and the player is called the PonoPlayer. Young has been working on this project for a while now and said back in January of 2012 that he wanted to continue Steve Jobs' music legacy started with the iPod.
It's quite rare for Google to comment on sales, but now we're getting some idea how the Chromecast dongle fared commercially. This info comes from Google SVP Sundar Pichai himself who said at SxSW that the number of streaming dongles sold reached millions.
Building up the excitement over the upcoming Tuesday event, Apple has just added the official iTunes Festival channel to Apple TV. The channel will whet viewers' appetites with information on the performers as well as the festival itself in preparation for the big event to be held during SxSW this week.
Google helped put wearables on the map with Google Glass and now it's aiming to solidify its position in that market. In around two weeks' time, the tech giant will be releasing an Android-based software development kit (SDK) that will specifically target wearable devices.