Former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki was at SXSW Interactive this week and I had the chance to catch-up with him and talk about the announcement of My.Alltop, a customizable version of Alltop.com. Alltop is a really good way to quickly catch up on a lot of news about a specific topic. NetNewsWire is another app that's great for that, but I don't always have the time to space-bar my way through the latest news and events.

Alltop started out small, with only a few categories and niche areas. Now it's huge, and it indexes and large number of topics and sites. This is great, but can lead to information overload. With My.Alltop, you can customize a personal page with your favorite links in one place from all across Allto.. As someone who is frustrated by trying to manage RSS feeds on my iPod touch, I prefer the iPhone optimized Alltop interface for getting information quickly.

My.Alltop just launched and it doesn't look like the mobile stylesheets have been rolled out yet. But I'm sure just a matter of time. Guy also said that an iPhone application is in the works so you can add, edit or access your feeds more quickly.

Also, be sure to check out the TUAW MyAlltop page. We've started to load it with some of our favorite Mac, iPhone and general tech links and I know this is what I'll be rocking when I want to read news on the run.

We're right in the middle of convention season and as I noted last night on the Talkcast, I'm here in Chicago (at least the weather's nice) instead of down in Austin with the rest of the gang. But there is a little consolation: I've had a chance to try out SXSW's newest software darling, Foursquare. It's an app (and a social networking site, and a service, and a game) from the guys who made Dodgeball, that social network that just recently got shut down by Google, who bought it out a while ago.

The basic premise is very close to Dodgeball, in that the system basically revolves around "checking in" -- whenever you go out to a bar, you hit a button in the app that says something like "Hey, I'm at Tin Lizzie," and then everyone in your friends list (and your Twitter followers, if you have that option set) sees where you are.

In addition, however, they've added some new features into the mix: you get "scored" on how many times you go out and when you go out to different places. And there are even "achievements" you can earn (eventually user created) for trying a hot dog at everyone's favorite stand, or drinking x number of beers at a popular bar. In fact, there's even awards for going to bars where less-than-fashionable people appear, so watch where you decide to spend your Saturday night, lest you pick up the d-bag award.

Here's a short video from SXSW with DiggNation hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose, where Rose goes through a laundry list of iPhone 3.0 features that will allegedly be announced tomorrow during the Apple Press Event.

This video sounds rather alcohol-fueled -- at least it appears that the audience members, who are screaming out their most-wanted features for most of the video, were rather drunk -- and Rose has a somewhat checkered past with his Apple predictions, but his description of cut & paste on the iPhone sounds quite realistic.

He also states at one point that the point of the 3.0 release is to bring the iPhone's feature set to the level of the Palm Pre. If that's the case, then we should also hear about Bluetooth tethering and integrated MMS messaging for the iPhone -- which I, for one, seriously doubt. Of course, we'll all see what's coming tomorrow, and you can get your coverage of the event here on TUAW. Note that the video contains words that may be offensive to some people.

[via Engadget]

Panels at SXSW range from touchy-feely to nuts-and-bolts. This panel was the latter. The panelists came armed with data and didn't pull punches when it came to criticism of the store or other apps.The panelists: Stephanie Morgan from ngmoco, Danielle Cassley from Aurora Feint, Raven Zachary (moderator) and Brian Greenstone from Pangea Software.

Raven Zachary is the guy responsible for the Obama campaign app, and he started off with some stats from Pinch Media around how many devices are out there: roughly 20-30 million. We don't know exact iPod touch numbers because Apple doesn't publish those, but there was a huge jump in iPod touch browser detection after the holidays.

Thus, factoring in iPhone numbers and an estimate of iPod touches, we get upwards of 20 million devices. Another interesting point: 70% of mobile browsing is done via iPhone or touch. That's a staggering amount, especially in comparison to other platforms, with Java only accounting for 8%, Windows Mobile about the same, and it goes south from there. Plus, games account for most App Store downloads, with puzzle games being the most downloaded genre.

Next up was Stephanie Morgan from ngmoco, who discussed some things we all know: the iPhone is unlike any gaming platform or handheld. She explained a sort of tiered approach to ngmoco's efforts: starting with free apps to build awareness, moving up to building a platform for good games, and ultimately expanding into the paid apps -- where the money is, of course. Stephanie did put some stats on the board, however.

For one, we found out that iPhone games don't have to be designed for McNugget-sized attention spans. According to ngmoco, the average time spent playing Rolando is over 20 minutes each time it is played. Of course, there are lots of levels in Rolando. By comparison, MazeFinger average play time was around 6 minutes.

To find out about Aurora Feint's asynchronous gameplay efforts and Pangea sales numbers, keep reading.

Alternate title: The MacBook Air is a device, but it's not a "Device."

Programmer Michael Nygard is used to travel. He's got the process down, from airport to hotel. Unfortunately, the TSA isn't as prepared.

While passing through airport security recently, he was pulled aside and made to sit in the holding area. He watched as a gaggle of TSA workers examined his things, especially his laptop ...

"'There's no drive,' one says. 'And no ports on the back. It has a couple of lines where the drive should be,' she continues...."

As you've probably guessed, Michael's MacBook Air had them all baffled. Fortunately, a younger member of the team eventually arrived and explained that it's not a "device," but a computer with a solid state hard drive. It's good to know they're keeping up with this kind of thing.

Here's a warning to everyone traveling to SxSW this weekend with a MacBook Air: schedule a few extra minutes for the airport.