sxsw

PALM SPRINGS, Calif.--If I've learned one thing during my first, long, day on the Startup Bus yesterday, it's that in a rapid prototyping environment, it's all about "MVP."

For those who think that's a sports term, it isn't. At least not in this context. Here, riding through dry California lowlands at 60 miles per hour on a bus packed with a couple dozen hard-core tech entrepreneurs, it means just one thing: minimum viable product.

I'm on one of two Startup Bus coaches that left San Francisco early yesterday bound for the … Read more

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

Opera launches a mobile browser-based app store

A new iPad magazine app called Zite arrives

Foursquare launches version 3.0 of its mobile app with more emphasis on rewards and recommendations

Mitsubishi has built an elevator that you can operate with voice commands

A new study shows that women who base their self-worth on their appearance share far more photos of themselves on Facebook

Of the several mobile friend-finder apps launching or updating at South by Southwest, Domo has perhaps the most engaging yet inexplicable demo. Two weeks ago at the Launch conference, founder Takahito Iguchi gave a Richard Simmons-like presentation that knocked the crowd flat (video is by VentureBeat). But afterward, few in the crowd could explain what the app actually does.

Here's what it does: It helps you find Facebook people who are near you and share your interests. The mobile app records your interests, musical tastes, work history, and so on, and then lets you find people nearby who match some or all of those categories. If you're at SXSW and want to find someone who shares your interest in a particular musical group, Domo will help you find that person; you can message them through the app as well.

I can see it being useful to connect with friends from work when I'm at big events (the Maker Faire comes to mind). FourSquare will also do this, but FourSquare users have to check in. Domo, I believe, will update your location as long as you have the app running in the background on your phone. (If the app isn't running, and for users who don't have it, it just gets location from Facebook profiles--much less useful.) Domo should also just let you see all users with a public Facebook profile who are nearby. From that list, then, you'll be able to filter to find the people that have compatible interests.

It's actually not a very complex idea, but it is socially powerful. Domo's implementation appears technically adept, even if its user interface is a bit overwrought. As I said, there are other apps launching soon that push social serendipity. It's going to be a big trend at SXSW and likely for the rest of this year.

See also: FourSquare (news); Hurricane Party, Who's Free, Meet Gatsby, MingleBird, Yobongo. I'm sure there are more.… Read more

FIREBAUGH, Calif.--It's standing room only, 25 or so entrepreneurs jammed into the aisles brainstorming ideas, and maybe, just maybe, building the next multimillion dollar business.

This is the San Francisco Startup Bus, one of six coaches ferrying "buspreneurs" to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest interactive (SXSWi) festival. Across the country, 150 people from all over the world have packed up their laptops and iPhones and agreed to spend two days aboard a bus with (near) total strangers. The mission? Build the best business you can before Austin city limits.

My job here is to … Read more

It sounds like the beginning of a joke: a couple dozen coders and geek entrepreneurs step off a shiny, high-tech bus at a barbecue joint in Texas.

But a joke it's not. It's a scenario that will likely play out this week on the Startup Bus, which is, yes, a group of a couple dozen coders and geek entrepreneurs riding a shiny, high-tech bus through the Lone Star State from their hometowns to the South by Southwest Interactive conference (SXSW Interactive) in Austin, Texas, part of the broader SXSW music and film festival.

This is no ordinary bus … Read more

Impulse buyers, beware. Loopt is jumping on the deal-a-day bandwagon, pushing alerts for deeply discounted goods and services in its location-aware social-networking app for iPhone (iOS) and Android.

Loopt's new "Reward Alerts" program, announced today in time for next week's South By Southwest technology and music conference, will push notifications for instantly redeemable deals.

However, to keep its daily deal from being a dime a dozen, Loopt will push a few high-value deals at various times throughout the day. Deals are based on your location, possibly down to the city block if the provider wants, and … Read more

Slacker Radio, the personalized radio service that's available as an app for the iPhone and other mobile platforms, announced that it will let unsigned bands create their own dedicated radio stations on the service.

The mechanics are handled through a partnership with Hello Music: artists create a profile with their name, picture, and bio, then upload a few of their tunes. (Hello Music allows a wide variety of compressed and uncompressed formats.) Hello Music will screen the songs for potential copyright issues--no Zeppelin recordings, please--and recording quality, and submit the necessary information to Slacker. Then Slacker will create a … Read more

Veronica Belmont and Ben Huh join us on stage to talk about the brewing war between Apple and Google, pay walls on the web... and we also wage tiny cute little wars on each other as well.

Gowalla Tops Foursquare at SXSW Web Awards (But Benson Smokes 'em All) http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/03/sxsw-web-awards/

Google admits Buzz mistakes, tries again at SXSW http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/14/google-admits-buzz-mistakes-tries-again-at-sxsw/

Web guru Tim Bray takes Google Android job http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20000423-264.html… Read more

Slacker better light a fire under its keister if it wants to be the first streaming-music service to offer offline song caching for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In the midst of all the SXSW hoopla, Rhapsody has announced its intentions to offer caching as part of the next update to its own iPhone app.

For those not in the know, this feature allows users to save music to the device so that they may continue listening to the content without the use of a constant wireless connection. It's a more compelling functionality for the iPod Touch, but iPhone … Read more