SXSW

SCVNGR at SXSW--high-flying, or head in the clouds?

AUSTIN, Texas--Hailing the 2010s as "the decade of games," Seth Priebatsch, founder of the Google-backed start-up SCVNGR, brought a bright dose of dreamy enthusiasm to the first official keynote of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival on Saturday afternoon.

Plowing through problems from education reform to global warming, and how they could be addressed by applying the principles of games, the skinny Priebatsch showed up for his talk, "The Game Layer on Top of the World," in a bright orange polo shirt with matching sunglasses perched atop his head and spoke with the jerky staccato of … Read more

Jake Gyllenhaal on film, games, and storytelling's future (Q&A)

AUSTIN, Texas--Jake Gyllenhaal is clearly a gadget junkie. A confessed Mac fan who has an iPad but regretfully doesn't yet have his hands on the iPad 2, the movie star is here in the Texas capital this week to promote his new film, "Source Code."

In the film, Gyllenhaal plays decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens, who "wakes up in the body of an unknown man [and] discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train," according to promotional materials for the film. "In an assignment unlike any … Read more

SXSW responds to Japan disasters

AUSTIN, Texas--There may not be a more Net-connected group of people than the tens of thousands that have descended here this week for the South By Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW). And in an attempt to harvest the collective power of these digital powerhouses to help out with relief for the disasters that hit Japan on Friday, conference organizers quickly took action.

Today, SXSW Interactive director Hugh Forrest announced SXSW4Japan, a Web site where conference attendees are being asked to donate a total of at least $10,000 for relief efforts in Japan.

"Can the SXSW community raise $10,000 … Read more

Transportation is prime marketing turf at SXSW

AUSTIN, Texas--Marketers are everywhere here at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, but this year they've discovered some prime new territory: private transportation. The annual geek gathering is nominally headquartered at the Austin Convention Center, but in reality sprawls all across the city's downtown, and given the amount of late-night revelry taking place, cab rides are commonplace. Luckily for this year's attendees, a whole lot of those rides are free--or cheap.

Social-networking site Tagged decided to intercept travelers as soon as they landed at Austin's airport, setting up a display for a "Tagged Wheels" … Read more

Line already forms in front of phantom Apple store

Update, 6 p.m. PT: The pop-up Apple Store in Austin is indeed a pop-up Apple Store in Austin. And it's now open. With a line that stretches more than a full block, the store is slowly processing iPad 2 buyers in town for SXSW. Our gallery has also been updated with pictures of the store's innards.

AUSTIN, Texas--Apple has declined to comment on whether the under-construction space at South Congress Avenue and Sixth Street downtown here is, in fact, a pop-up Apple store created just for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) and the launch this … Read more

Photo app Path gets new features

Path, a photo-sharing app that had previously chosen to eschew the trendy features that have been giving other photo apps a leg up in buzz and viral proliferation, announced on Friday that it is, in fact, adding some of those same trendy features.

More specifically, the "Version 1.5" of the Path iPhone app, which is slated to go live later on Friday, allows users to share photos on Facebook, whereas previously they were limited to a Path friends list--which is capped at 50 people. They can be selected to be visible either only to members of that … Read more

Watch out, Austin, the Startup Buses have arrived

AUSTIN, Texas--And so the Startup Bus has come to a stop.

After three days on the road to get here from San Francisco, the coach full of "buspreneurs" I've been traveling with since early Tuesday morning has arrived for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival--historically abbreviated as SXSWi--and the chance to vie for the title of best startup created on the fly on the highways of America.

Counting those aboard sister buses from Chicago, New York, Miami, and Cleveland--as well as on a second bus from San Francisco--about 160 entrepreneurs have crisscrossed the country building all kinds … Read more

Buzz Out Loud live at SXSWi

If you've been anywhere near Twitter in the last week, you know that the South by Southwest Interactive, Film, and Music festival (known lovingly as SXSW to just about everyone) starts this week. Last year was the first time that interactive registrants outnumbered even music festival attendees, so it's more than safe to say the Internet portion of the program has become the biggest part of the program (probably to the dismay of Austin's old-school music fans!). But hey, we can take a hint. If you're anyone at all online, you're at SXSW. So, we'… Read more

Get a look at SXSW's rumored Apple pop-up store

AUSTIN, Texas--Word broke earlier Thursday that Apple would be constructing a temporary "pop-up" store here this week, a move that would permit the thousands of geeks who have descended upon Austin for the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) to obtain shiny new iPad 2 devices when they go on sale Friday. Downtown Austin does not have a permanent Apple retail store.

The Austin American Statesman reported that Apple would be taking over a 5,000-square-foot space in the historic Scarbrough Building on Sixth Street and South Congress Avenue. So, armed with a camera, I went right … Read more