SXSWi

Foursquare unveils its SXSWi arsenal

With only a few days to go before the annual South by Southwest Interactive, location-based mobile networking service Foursquare has unveiled its plans for the Austin, Texas digital culture festival: 16 new "badges" that users can unlock by "checking in" to certain venues, with cryptic names like "Swimmies," "Decathlon," and "Survivor."

The company says users will be able to score temporary tattoos of the badges if they show the digital badge to a member of the Foursquare team at a designated location, meaning that there will likely be many SXSWi-goers … Read more

For SXSWi, Chevy plugs into social media

For certain brands, a "social media strategy" consisting of a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account is last year's model.

One of the trends you tend to see at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas, is that it's where big, nontech brands show up to test edgy social-media marketing initiatives in the ultimate geek test bed. A brand we'll be seeing a lot of at this year's SXSWi, which starts Thursday, is the General Motors-owned Chevy.

A sponsor of the festival, Chevy is going all-out with just about every … Read more

Gowalla debuts Travel Channel deal, Android app

The Android mobile app for game-like "check-in" app Gowalla is now live, as Mashable noted over the weekend. Launching its first non-iPhone app is an important step for the start-up as it competes fiercely with several other location-based mobile companies that are all trying to break away from the pack.

Additionally, Gowalla is set to announce a partnership with the Travel Channel for its series "Food Wars," a competitive reality show that pits chefs against one another in blind taste tests. When a Gowalla user checks into a "Food Wars"-featured restaurant, they'll … Read more

You, too, can rock a singing tesla coil

If you've never seen a singing tesla coil, an 8-foot-tall mash of circuitry and electronics that matches firing lightning bolts to the beat of DJ music, you are seriously missing out.

These days, your best bet might be to catch Austin, Texas, troupe Arc Attack as it plays events like the anime festival Metro Con in Florida. Or, if you happen to be in Abu Dhabi, you might be able to see the group do its electric best there.

If you can't hop an A380 to the United Arab Emirates, however, you can still get your singing tesla … Read more

Austin 911! Fake police Twitter account gets busted

There's no more @AustinPD on Twitter. That's because it wasn't actually the official Twitter account of the Austin, Texas, police department, according to the Austin Statesman.

The link to the account now reads that it was "suspended for strange activity," and city authorities have asked Twitter to keep tabs on the impersonator's contact information after both the police department and Texas attorney general's office complained to Twitter. The Statesman added, however, that criminal charges are not being sought at this point.

"Although some may dismiss the site as a simple prank or … Read more

At SXSWi, hacking 'The hat game'

AUSTIN, Texas--"Is that the hat, Mr. Terdiman?"

My inquisitor was Alice Taylor, a prominent British video game journalist and, like me, an attendee at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival here this week. But the bowler Taylor--whom I know through professional and social circles--had spotted on my head and was asking me about was most definitely not the hat she thought it was.

And she was hardly the only one seeing this black chapeau resting atop my dome and thinking that it was something other than a stylish headpiece. In fact, all day Monday, strangers and … Read more

At SXSWi, how much should big media be listening?

AUSTIN, Texas--With panels and discussions every year about social engineering, hacking, remixing, and culture jamming, South by Southwest Interactive is the must-attend conference for geeks who want to shake things up.

Maybe that's why the many panels at the conference about the future of media--from print to broadcast to music to film--were tinged with the message that fast, often radical change is necessary. With panel topics like "How Copyright Law Failed The Digital Age," "New Think for Old Publishers," and "Old Media Finds New Voice Through Twitter," this year's SXSWi promised to … Read more

SXSWi 2009: Tech fest in Texas

roundup South by Southwest Interactive in Austin is the ultimate petri dish for tech enthusiasts eager to try out innovative ways to meet up, socialize, and consume media.

Latest coverage Featured stories At SXSW, attendees confront Twitter saturation So many people are using the "#sxsw" tag in their tweets that it has become extremely hard to filter for worthwhile panels and parties. That is creating an opportunity for other services. (Posted in Webware by Daniel Terdiman) March 14, 2009 1:10 PM PDT Facebook: It's party time for the social Web...on the iPhone Facebook Connect for … Read more

Does location-based networking need some direction?

AUSTIN, Texas--There's Loopt, Brightkite, Whrrl, FourSquare, Rummble, uLocate, Google Latitude, Yahoo Fire Eagle, and goodness knows which other ones we haven't heard of yet. The location-based mobile networking space has been front and center at this year's South by Southwest Interactive Festival as hundreds of tech enthusiasts from around the country have been eager to find their friends and learn what's happening.

Perhaps it's fitting that in one of the festival's last panels on Tuesday afternoon, a handful of executives and high-level developers from the location-awareness space got together for a discussion called "… Read more