SXSW

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

It might seem like the tech news this week has been all about the new iPad, but speedier browser versions grabbed some big headlines as well.

Google on Tuesday released Chrome 10, endowing its browser with faster JavaScript, password synchronization, and a revamped preferences system. Chrome is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Google announced Chrome 10's stable release on its blog but refrained from mentioning its product number. That's in line with the company's effort to focus on features rather than version numbers, which it calls mere milestones. Google tries to get new versions into users' … Read more

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

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

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

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

The battle is on for two transportation network start-ups that are poised to go head-to-head at SXSW to promote their private car booking applications.

West-Coast-based Uber has a head start over East Coast transportation veteran LimoRes, which is promoting its new GroundLink app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. To close the publicity gap, LimoRes is offering attendees $10 rides in a private car anywhere in Austin, Texas, (including to and from the airport) using the GroundLink iPhone app. Uber, which apparently has appeared at the conference before and so its people know how small Austin is and how … Read more

Austin, Texas, is one of the most civilized cities in America. Except, I am told, when the South by Southwest Interactive Festival comes around. Then, youthful hubris mixed with inebriation can cause the odd ego-laden fracas.

Perhaps mindful of the need to maintain peace and harmony, Apple has, according to the Austin American-Statesman, decided to open a temporary pop-up store in downtown Austin.

SXSW Interactive, you see, part of the broader SXSW music and film event, starts tomorrow. That's precisely the day that the iPad 2 shows off its diminished weight and post-dietary sleekness.

So you can imagine what … Read more

TUSCON, Ariz.--I'm not a stock market whiz, but I'm trying to play one on a bus.

For the last 35 hours, I've been riding on the Startup Bus, chronicling the entrepreneurial exploits of a couple dozen techies trying to build new companies from scratch in just three days. We're all on our way to the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas.

And while that has been an illuminating experience, another element of the project has got me captivated as well: trying to win the Startup Bus stock market game.

This virtual exercise is … Read more