Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

AT&T expands its forays into the daily deals space, this time through yellowpages.com. Why a telecommunications company may have a natural advantage in daily deals.

Foggy Bottom has a plan to jump-start a venture-capital approach to the field of humanitarian tech. When the earthquake decimated Haiti last year, technologists around the world converged online to develop tools to help rescuers find victims and raise funds .

Visa is trying out a low-tech location-based offers system with Gap that doesn't require check-ins or even a smartphone. It's clever, but basically is a testing ground for the coming wave of NFC purchases.

Photograph by Douglas Sonders Josh Nesbit CEO, Cofounder, Medic Mobile Washington, D.C. Nesbit, 24, uses mobile phones and open-source software to bridge gaps in health care in low-resource settings. "AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE in Haiti, we had to use the technology that was in everyone's hands, the mobile phone, and the technology that would work with a very limited network, SMS.

After spending a couple days at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW or "South by," as the hipsters call it), my theory that there's a social app for everything is confirmed. While 99% of these social apps seem to add to the chaos of online living, one stood out as simplifying things: GroupMe . There are a lot of others jumping into this space including Mogwee ( owned by Ning ), Twilio , Beluga ( acquired by Facebook ), and numerous others

Who needs paper to share contact info when you've got Blinx and Hashable? For all of SXSW’s cutting edge digital technology, the primary connection tool is still a paper product: the business card. Post-conference, participants may spend spend hours imputing contact info and responding via email

If SXSW serves as a barometer of all trends hot in tech, then group messaging and texting apps are one of the hottest trends--even by Austin, Texas, standards. These days, I can't open my email without seeing yet another pitch plaguing my inbox touting some slight variation on the group messaging formula.

Each day, Inc.'s reporters scour the Web for the most important and interesting news to entrepreneurs. Here's what we found today

"What's the short code for American Idol?" asks Joseph Gillespie, CEO of mobile marketing company Zoove, referring to the show's text-message voting system. "It's the largest use-case in history, but no one can remember it because the number doesn't make any sense." How brands connect to consumers is a huge headache for marketers--not just Idol fans--who've now tried almost every trick in the book to get your attention. SMS messages ("Text YES to 45938993"), QR codes, Facebook profiles, website addresses--you can't find an advertisement today that doesn't feature at least one of these marketing tactics

The mobile for health industry in Africa continues to expand. "We can teach larger organizations a lot," the group's founder tells us.

Our third-annual report on America's most innovative college start-ups features an Iowa hacker-turned-bookworm, a Southern California duo hawking fixie bikes, and a St. Louis sociology student with a website for tween girls valued at $15 million