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At Google’s panel today at SXSW in Austin, a Gmail team member named Jonathan Perlow asked the crowd to raise their hands if they think Gmail is too slow. We love Gmail, but certainly we can sympathize with the fair percentage of those audience members who raised their hands—the problem is pretty much limited to those, like us, who are power users with hundreds of thousands of messages (most of which are junk, we’re not bragging, but still). Perlow had a response, confidently saying “We are fixing it.” He didn’t elaborate, but Google’s always improving Gmail—hopefully this means we’ll be seeing some improvements for power

Guitar fans out there who are embracing the digital revolution will certainly be glad to hear that Zoom has introduced the G2Nu and the G2.1Nu guitar effects pedals, both that feature 100 preset guitar sounds, 20 of which have been approved by Steve Vai himself. The main difference between the two pedals would be the inclusion of a built-in expression pedal on the G2.1Nu. There’s also a 1.9-inch display to help keep you in touch with the pedal, but more importantly, both units sport integrated USB ports, allowing you to record directly to your computer via these pedals. Too bad there isn’t …

Editor’s note : When venture capitalists invest in early stage startups, more than anything else they are investing in the founders of the company and their ability to lead their employees through the most improbable set of circumstances to take an idea from a germ to a real and profitable business. In this guest post, Ben Horowitz of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz explains the leadership traits he and his co-founder Marc Andreessen look for before they invest in a startup. SOme of their investments include Skype , Zynga , Factual , and RockMelt . Before becoming investing partners, Horowitz and Andreessen co-founded Opsware , which they sold to HP for $1.6 billion, and prior to that Horowitz was an executive at Netscape. At Andreessen Horowitz, we favor founders running the company. The …

There’s something reassuring about the way Asimov speaks on this topic (surely one of his favorites) — even though this clip has got to be 35 or 40 years old, it rings true now and we would do well to take his advice. And how about that transcription? Like human beens indeed. It’s an interesting topic for post-brunch rumination: what would a world built around robots be like? Probably like that nightmare Korean theme park if we’re not careful. [via Metafilter ]

Social media researcher and general internet guru Danah Boyd gave the keynote address at SXSWi earlier today, focusing on matters of privacy. On paper, Google Buzz was a perfect social network. So why did it freak everyone out so much? More

The GigaOM crew is out in full force at this year’s South by Southwest, reporting on all that is nearest and dearest to our readers’ hearts . Need help figuring out what to do and who or what to see? This 10-point cheat sheet will help you navigate everything from the sessions to the parties to the weather . Austin is filled with tech startups, so get away from the maddening crowds and check out some of them on their home turf . And since the one must-have accessory for SXSW attendees is a smartphone, here’s a way to use it to pay for your bar tab . Speaking of mobile, the stress on AT&T’s network last year rendered many …

It’s always hard to confirm whether leaked pictures are authentic or not, but assuming this latest leaked picture of the Nokia C6 is authentic, it looks like the phone will be something like a Nokia Nuron that decided to grow a sideways-sliding keyboard. Do you think that this is what the Nokia C6 will eventually look like, or is it just a clever Photoshop job? Rumors are going around that the C6 is slated to be released in Europe this summer, so if you’re decided on this phone, you’d better start saving those pennies right now. Permalink: Nokia C6 Sports Sideways Sliding Keyboard from Ubergizmo

Intel this week offered a preview of platforms using its Core i7 Extreme Edition processor. Although the company is aiming the processor heavily at the gaming market, analysts said there are also clear business applications for the processor. Code-named Gulftown, the i7-980X Extreme Edition processor is the industry’s first 32nm, six-core processor with 12 computing threads. Intel introduced the i7 family last September with its exclusive Turbo Boost technology and Hyper-Threading Technology. Turbo Boost is built into the latest-generation Nehalem micro-architecture and automatically allows processor cores to run faster than the base operating frequency if the chip is operating below power, current and temperature …

How many e-book readers do you think are out there right now for you to choose from? If you did a little digging, I bet you’d find 50 or so. Maybe 10 really worth checking out. But right now is a bit of a weird period in e-reader history. The Kindle cemented e-readers in the consumer headspace, catapulting them from weirdo alternative technology to mainstream gadget. That’s what the iPad threatens to do with tablets — we’ll see about that. But the Kindle and the iPad are two important forces in the current e-reader wars; the question, upon the answer of which depends the success of many a device, is whether “bonus” features like second screens and…

As part of a graduate show at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, students built miniature cities out of common household objects—including this power strip . They’re just missing mini-people. [ Spoon Tamago via Crib Candy via Boing Boing ] More