Good morning everyone! SXSWi is just around the corner! Here are some tech and SWSW related news items:

Yesterday, Apple announced a new round of updates. The company added a $2,400 24-inch iMac and a faster Macbook Pro. The processor has been bumped up from 2.53 GHz to 2.66 GHz. Other updates include: Airport Extreme, which adds a duel broadcasting mode on the 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz band and Time Capsule will run duel Wi-Fi streaming at 802.11n and  802.11 g speeds — Time Capsule will automatically pick the right speed allowing for more efficient backups. Apple also announced the new Macbook Mini, which they tout as being more energy efficient. It draws less than 13 watts of power when idle . Speaking of Apple, forget the iPod and get the icePod!

Twitter has gained in popularity since the earthquakes in China last summer. This weekend, Twitter (and Google Maps) was used to track down two missing skiers. Friends of the skiers used the microblogging site to obtain the skiers phone numbers. Then, they used the signals to track the skiers. One person was rescued using Google Maps and GPS. Tragically, the other skier, was not able to be saved. This article on TechCrunch shows a screenshot of the  tweets from the rescue mission.