The scariest tech trend of 2012?

Pete Cashmore predicts "ambient social networking" -- and its inherent privacy issues -- will be a hot topic at SXSW this month.

it 's just over a week until one of the biggest geek gatherings of the year, South By Southwest Interactive, kicks off in Austin, Texas.

SXSW is where fledgling tech companies sink or swim. Twitter and Foursquare caught on in part thanks to massive buzz at SXSW, while thousands of other new companies dreamed the "Southby" dream but went nowhere.
So which new technologies might we expect to see breaking out at SXSW 2012?
Applications set to go mainstream
The iPad 3, which will be announced by Apple two days before SXSW Interactive kicks off, will be a big topic in Austin. Developers at the festival will no doubt be rushing to update their applications to work with what is expected to be a higher resolution screen on the device.