The SXSW Interactive Festival is underway in Austin and geeks from the world over have converged on this proudly weird town to make it patently weirder for a few short days. We’re excited to be here and commenting about what we’re seeing for those unable to attend.

Much has been made about the epic War Of The Location Based Services going on, and sure enough, all of the main players in that space are here. Events on the topic are packed, and chalk outlines of FourSquare games dot the sidewalks surrounding the Austin Convention Center. For all the hype though, I’m not seeing amazingly useful applications of this capability just yet. I suspect a critical mass of users to a service like Gowalla is going to be needed before the platform can come into its own as a place to find and enjoy relevant, locally sourced information. On the other hand, some of the new location-enabled augmented reality apps we’re seeing on mobile devices are starting to provide real value. As the next generation of smart phones (particularly the anticipated summer iPhone release) appear with faster processors and expanded graphics capabilities, the experience of using these kinds of apps is going to rapidly improve.
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