SXSW: Tech Gurus Rank Their Best and Worst Gadgets
Every year, the South by Southwest music, film and interactive technology conference brings together the cream of the tech world crop. Unlike the Consumer Electronics Show, which focuses on companies previewing their gadget offerings for the next year, SXSW focuses on an exchange of ideas, not products .
So where better to measure which technology has reached must-have status than a conference filled with attendees who live on the bleeding edge of the digital world ? InnovationNewsDaily spoke to a range of inventors, start-up founders, analysts, engineers, film industry insiders and all around tech geeks to find out which gadgets they can't live without, and which gadgets they'd like out of their lives.
We captured some in the above video, but read on below for even more opinion from the tech world's top taste makers .
Daniel Geller, co-director of the documentary "Something Ventured":
- Favorite Tech- "As a filmmaker, I love LED lights you can set up that won't blow out fuses or cause people to sweat buckets."
Dayna Goldfine, co-director of the documentary "Something Ventured":
- Favorite Tech- "This [holds up Android phone]."
- Least Favorite Tech- "My box of remote controls. There are a ton of them, and they never seem to work."
Lee Shupp, futurist:
- Favorite Tech- "The technology I can't live without is my electric guitar. I'm a lifelong musician, so I'd give up my iPhone first. But that is a hard choice."
- Least Favorite Tech- "The thing I'd love to rid myself of is email. It was so great when it came out, but now it's so cumbersome. It's an albatross, it's all about other people's agendas."
Daniel Greenwood, consultant at CIVICS.com and a former lecturer of law and technology at MIT:
- Favorite Tech- "My iPad, although soon it will be my iPhone 5, I think, when that comes out."
- Least Favorite Tech- "Probably various livecasting products. The tech's just not there yet. Half the time, it just stops."
Evan Carroll, founder of blog The Digital Beyond:
- Favorite Tech- "iPhone. Absolutely, no question. It's everything I need."
- Least Favorite Tech- "Finding the exact microphone that works with my DSLR (camera). That might just be because I'm cheap, though."
Ariel Waldman, founder of Spacehack.org:
- Favorite Tech- "The thing that delights me is my tea kettle robot. It boils the water to just the right temperature, and then it drops in the tea to steep for just the right amount of time. It's so dorky."
- Least Favorite Tech- "I have a Virgin Mobile MiFi. I tried to set it up, and it was a real pain."
Robson Grieve, business director of the marketing agency Creature:
- Favorite Tech- "My Virgin Mobile MiFi router, because everything needs to be connected. The 3G just saves me."
- Least Favorite Tech- "My iPhone, but maybe that's AT&T's fault. It's the most frustrating thing I love."
Polly LaBarre, co-founder of the Management Innovation Exchange:
- Favorite Tech- "I'm kind of loving my iPad. I am certainly an Apple person from way back. I have four glowing Apple products on my desk."
- Least Favorite Tech- "My microwave? I don't know if I would use something that gave me a lot of problems."
Jeff Howe, founder of Crowdsourcing.com:
- Favorite Tech- "I hate gadgets, but I love my iPad. It's pretty sick, man."
- Least Favorite Tech- "Cellphones. Not my iPhone as a whole, but the phone part of my iPhone. I'm waiting for a cellphone that's anything but exasperating."
