MashTalk: Is SXSW finally growing up?
What do Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover and Cory Booker have in common? They were all on Mashable's Twitter Live show at SXSW!
On this week's MashTalk podcast, the Mashable tech team recaps the highs and lows of SXSW, dives into exploding headphones (ugh—more exploding tech to freak out about?!) and discusses why the idea of Facezam (a fake app that would have been the "Shazam for faces") should scare you.
As always, MashTalk is hosted by Tech Editor Pete Pachal with commentary from Chief Correspondent Lance Ulanoff and Senior Tech Correspondent Raymond Wong.
A Twitter spectacular
Viral Content Editor Annie Colbert joins (2:46) to chat all about the insane Mashable Twitter Live Show that went down last week. Not only were Sesame Street's finest on camera, but we got to see lots of cool new tech like the Kuri robot and Levi's Jacquard denim jacket with a built-in touchpad on its sleeve. And... we broke two Guinness World Records.
Though VR and AR were undoubtedly trends at SXSW, there wasn't really a single tech product or service that emerged as the "winner" of the festival, and brands seemed to have toned down on the fancy activations compared to previous years. In Lance's words: Maybe SXSW is starting to grow up (6:14).
Explosions are the new norm
Real Time News Writer Nicole Gallucci chimes in to tell us all about how one passenger's battery-equipped headphones caught on fire (18:09) while she was sleeping during a flight from Beijing to Melbourne. First hoverboards, then the Galaxy Note 7, and now headphones? Should we be worried that every gadget with a lithium-ion battery might explode?
A hoax raises concerns
Finally, Tech Reporter Brett Williams unpacks the mystery behind Facezam (28:23), an app that turned out to be a marketing hoax. The app duped several publications earlier this week when it claimed it would let users upload photos of strangers and then ID them on Facebook.
Aside from the obvious creep factor, such an app would also have violated Facebook's terms of service. That said, while the app is (thankfully) not real and Facebook says it won't let third-party apps automatically scrape this kind of sensitive data, creating something similar is possible and easy with today's advanced facial recognition technologies and databases.
And, as always, don't forget to leave your questions and comments by tweeting @Mash_Talk with the #MashTalk hashtag. We welcome all feedback.
Topics Facebook Facial Recognition SXSW
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
