sxsw

If Grumpy Cat is the biggest news of all, is SXSW in trouble?

AUSTIN, Texas -- Talk to just about anyone who has been at South by Southwest this year, and there's really no doubt what was the biggest news of all: Grumpy Cat.

On the one hand a sweet little cat with a facial expression that looks annoyed, and on the other one, of the biggest Internet memes of the last year, Grumpy Cat has been the unquestioned biggest star of SXSW, thanks to Mashable, which managed to bring the famous kitty to the world's most important interactive conference so that tons of her biggest fans could meet her.

Never … Read more

Project Gamma brings intelligent audio to digital comics

AUSTIN, Texas--From the band Love and Rockets lifting its name from the famous cult favorite Hernandez brothers' comic, to a suspiciously-coincidental Jack Kirby and Frank Zappa meeting, comic books and music have a long history of influencing each other.

The fusion of music and comics as directed by the comics' creators has been limited to a list of recommended tunes in the letters pages of the book -- until now. Today, Marvel Comics raised the curtain on a plan to turn that history on its ear with a digital comics-and-music fusion code-named Project Gamma.

Project Gamma is, in the words … Read more

Google shows off a talking shoe

"I am killing you."

So said the tired foot to the head.

This is just one scenario I envisage with the latest -- and perhaps most imaginative -- product coming out of Google.

Not content with suggesting that you should put on a pair of tasteless glasses in order to get Martha Stewart's latest pierogi recipe, Google yesterday unveiled an even more sensational wearable product from its magic hat.

As Engadget reports, the company peopled its Google Playground with a man holding a pair of Adidas sneakers that talked.

It makes the self-driving car seem like a … Read more

Al Gore credits Snapchat's success to 'stalker economy'

AUSTIN, Texas -- Now you see it, now you don't. That's the playful logic behind Snapchat, a mobile application that's popular with teens for sending disappearing photo messages to friends. But the application's success may be more rooted in a growing collective consciousness around the idea that we're always being watched.

Former Vice President Al Gore told attendees at the South by Southwest Interactive festival, during an animated and often politically charged discussion with journalist Walt Mossberg, that Snapchat's success is likely linked to people reaching their digital gagging points.

We live in a … Read more

Elon Musk at SXSW: 'I'd like to die on Mars, just not on impact'

AUSTIN, Texas -- SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk wowed a capacity SXSW crowd here today with the first public showing of a video of a rocket capable of blasting off and then returning safely and gently to the ground. And he later added he hopes to one day travel (perhaps one-way) to Mars.

The video of the company's Grasshopper rocket, filmed just about a day-and-a-half ago, demonstrates one of SpaceX's key propositions: That it can develop reusable rockets at a fraction of the cost of a traditional NASA mission, and that it can bring them back down … Read more

Mozilla says no plans to return to iOS

AUSTIN, Texas -- Mozilla's Firefox browser will have no place on Apple devices so long as Apple continues its unfriendly attitude toward third-party browsers, Jay Sullivan, vice president of product at Mozilla, said today.

The nonprofit Mozilla, which pulled Mozilla Firefox Home from Apple's App Store in September 2012, is not currently building a version of its Firefox browser for iOS, nor does the company plan to, said Sullivan, speaking on a mobile browser wars panel at South by Southwest Interactive moderated by CNET Senior Reporter Seth Rosenblatt.

The sticking point for Mozilla is not being able to … Read more

At SXSW, brands take over

AUSTIN, Texas -- Meander through the halls of the Austin Convention Center or traverse the city's surrounding streets and you'll soon realize that nothing at South by Southwest Interactive, once the trade show of startups and geeks, is without a sponsor.

In the past few years, big, consumer-facing brands have traversed down south, and, with elaborate setups and fancy door prizes, are drowning out the little guys. This year in particular.

For instance, Oreo, the now on-trend brand that acquired a bit of social-media fame with its savvy Super Bowl tweet, is lining up attendees at a mega … Read more

'Weapons of Mass Destruction' discussion lands at SXSW

AUSTIN, Texas -- Once again, Uncle Sam wants you. This time, the U.S. government is after your nerdy, data- and public policy-obsessed brains.

That was the message delivered by Acting Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller to a small but actively curious group of techie and policy wonks at South by Southwest today.

In a session entitled, "Mobilizing Ingenuity to Strengthen Mobile Security," Gottemoeller and CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman discussed the U.S. government's interest in getting the public more involved in disarmament and the detection of weapons of mass destruction. … Read more

New apps unveiled at SXSW

Every year, the geekiest of geeks make their annual pilgrimage to Austin, Texas, for the increasingly hip and increasingly crowded South by Southwest festival.

The event is split into three branches for film, music, and interactive, but we at CNET tend to focus on the last of these, for obvious reasons. SXSWi, as the tech-focused portion of the festival is sometimes called, acts as a sort of gigantic picnic-slash-cocktail-party for tech entrepreneurs, investors, and even regular enthusiasts to mingle at and talk bits and bytes.

And while the sentiment has noticeably tapered off a bit this year, many app developers … Read more