SXSW

South By Southwest, rumor breeding ground: CNN gobbles Mashable for $200 million.

The SXSW show here in Austin has drawn to a close. I'm tired and a little frazzled (like everybody else), but it's three hours until I get on a plane home -- high time to round up my favorite apps from the show.

"Sirius will be around for a long time," said Pandora CTO Tom Conrad in answer to a suggestion by an audience member here that his company will kill Sirius.

Small business owners have very strong feelings about Yelp, the popular social reviews site. A room full of them--many of them restaurateurs and their "social media consultants"--discussed various aspects of the service, and aired complaints and frustrations, at a lively session here at SXSW today.

It's a brave new world. Unfortunately--continuing the literary allusion--Big Brother is watching. As technology makes more information more accessible, it also threatens to expose information that is not intended to be shared. Privacy is a concept that is caught in the middle of the struggle.

Worn Chuck Taylors. Plaid thrift-store shirts. iPhones. Margaritas. Barbeque. Cowboy hats. You guessed it; I'm at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.

In which Elias learns the surprising truth about how AT&T was able to double network capacity in four hours in response to excess iPhone usage during SXSW.

New iPhone Details Leak at SXSW

There is an insanely huge amount of activity at SXSW. Wouldn't it be a remarkable feat to provide attendees with real-time, location-accurate posts about ongoing events, parties, concerts and all the insanity that is SXSW? Ok, so such a service doesn't exist just yet. Until then, here are some ways social networking can help you navigate SXSW.