austin

Google and Austin, Texas, have invited press and business leaders to a joint event in the city, which has some people speculating whether Austin might be the next place to get Google Fiber.

The event, which is to be held this Tuesday at 11 a.m., doesn't specify what will be announced. It simply says that "the City of Austin and Google will make a very important announcement that will have a positive impact on Austinites and the future of the city."

Austin city officials are mum on the news. And Google public relations representatives have declined … Read more

SideCar, a company providing a paid carpooling service, has sued the city of Austin, claiming that the city is illegally restricting its business.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, SideCar has sued Austin, the week after the Texas capital's city council ruled that services like SideCar, which enable people with room in their cars to offer rides to strangers for a fee, are illegal.

During SXSW here this week, SideCar has been just one of several services offering riders a free way to get around town. After the city council's ruling, SideCar decided to make all rides free during SXSW … Read more

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

AUSTIN, Texas--SideCar wants to avoid the cops.

Last week, the Austin City Council ruled that services built around drivers charging riders a fee without the appropriate license were illegal and constituted a crime. That meant that SideCar drivers, who are expected to be prowling the streets of the Texas capital during SXSW this week, risked getting arrested.

SideCar is built around letting drivers who have extra seats in their cars make a little money by picking up riders, who use the company's app to call for a lift. The service is similar to that available in a number of … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--The PC is so not dead.

That's what AMD, one of the world's largest makers of processors, wants the world to know. And at SXSW, the chipmaker is putting its money where its mouth is and showing off a collection of modded PCs masquerading as art.

During its Technograffiti event here tonight, AMD will let the world get a glimpse of a series of PC mods that it hopes will convince people who think mobile devices have fully supplanted PCs that there's still some life remaining in the full-size computer.

"We want people to reimagine … Read more

Dear Katrina,

How cool that you're going to be coming to South by Southwest (SXSW) for the first time. You're going to have so much fun, meet a lot of terrific people, and see a lot of cool technology. Sleep? Probably not so much.

I'm glad you asked me for some suggestions on how to get by while you're in Austin. I feel that -- as a seven-time attendee -- I've learned a lot about how to survive. I think I can even help you win SXSW.

So where to begin? A lot of people … Read more

A group inside Microsoft's C++ team has developed a digital note-taking application for Windows 8 that is codenamed "Project Austin."

The app allows users to add pages to a notebook, delete or move them, use digital ink to write or draw and add photos. Notes created in Austin can be shared with other Windows 8 apps, like e-mail and SkyDrive. Users can choose different types of "paper" and view the pages in a variety of ways, including leafing through them like a real paper book.

The Austin team wasn't trying to compete with Microsoft'… Read more

Wheelchair-using British artist Sue Austin can fly... underwater. In a series of live and film events called "Creating the Spectacle," Austin uses a modified wheelchair to move gracefully about in the blue.

Austin is challenging the perception of wheelchairs with her creation. According to BBC News, the wheelchair is fitted with two dive propulsion vehicles to propel it through the water.… Read more

Like your iPad well enough but wish you lived in the heyday of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg? The iTypewriter lets you go all angel-headed-hipster on your tablet.

Austin Yang, a product and industrial designer in Edinburgh, Scotland, conceived of the iProduct as a way to merge new with nostalgia. Just slide your iPad into the landscape iPad dock like a piece of blank paper and start typing. Little mechanical hammers with protective coverings align with the touch-screen keys on your iPad to deliver a tiny electronic discharge as you click-clack away. … Read more