11 things we leaed at SXSW 2016 - CNET

Here's a look a glimpse of what we leaed during this year's festival. First, let's start with the president:

1. Obama says privacy trade-offs may be worth the extra security

The FBI has been embroiled in a high-profile battle with Apple over data on an iPhone used by one of the San Beardino, Califoia, shooters in November. Obama said Americans have always made privacy trade-offs with the govement when public safety is involved -- for example, when it comes to cases of child poography, or even the aoyance of waiting in a long security line at the airport. The data on someone's phone, he said, shouldn't be treated any differently.

2. People will stand in line for just about everything.

It's not unusual to see a long line of people queuing up to get into a special event on Day 2 of SXSW. But dozens of people lined up in the hot sun on a Saturday moing outside a storefront with a large sign reading #catconconcotions, which begged the question: why?

Answer: to take a photo with social media star, Grumpy Cat. Tara, who joueyed to Texas from Coecticut to check out SXSW, told us she stood in line for about an hour to get her picture snapped.

3. J.J. Abrams doesn't want you to watch Star Wars on your phone.

Or any movie, for that matter. The "Force Awakens" director is a big fan of technology -- he put out an iPhone special effects app in 2011 -- but he also knows when not to use it.

He doesn't want you to use a phone or tablet for watching a movie.. Instead, watch it on a big screen, to get the full experience. "It's the nightmare of every storyteller that people are going to watch it on something so small," he said. But he concedes he's watched films on smartphones too, and doesn't remember the scenes feeling small. So it may just be a case of an artist's protectiveness.

4. Headscarves are actually OK.

Ibtihaj Muhammad, a member of the 2016 US Olympic fencing team, was registering for the festival on Saturday afteoon when she was asked to remove her hijab. Muhammad, who is Muslim, told the attendant she wears the headscarf for religious reasons. The checker still insisted she take it off for her badge photo. They eventually did let her wear the headscarf for the photo, but then gave her a badge with the wrong name and company. Can you guess what happened next? TLDR: Her tweets go viral, many, many news stories are written and apologies are issued by the event organizers. Muhammadd said she hopes that this doesn't happen again, but noted that "Someone asking me to remove my hijab isn't out of the norm for me."

5. South by Southwest? More like South Brands Southwest.

The brands have taken over. That's not new -- SXSW has been overrun with media and product brands trying to get in with the cool kids for the past several years. But this year, the gimmicks seemed bigger. "Mr. Robot", the USA show, had a Ferris wheel downtown with the show's title emblazoned across the installation. There was also a giant TIE fighter from Star Wars near the festival's official food truck plaza.

6. Michelle Obama doesn't want to run for president

The first lady is moving out of the White House in January, and she isn't plaing on moving back in. When Queen Latifah asked Obama if she would run on Wednesday, the audience of about 2,000 people at the Austin Convention Center applauded raucously. "I will not run for president," she replied, to sighs from the crowd.

Another thing we leaed about the first lady: She likes Boyz II Men. When she was first asked about her husband's term ending, she responded with a line from the the song, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday."

7. You can't look cool while checking out VR goggles.

Have you ever seen a baby staring up at a spiing mobile? Their heads move back and forth, mouth agape, grabbing at the air with their hands. That's kind of what it's like watching someone watching 360-degree videos with VR goggles. In case you're wondering if it's possible to look cool while looking at cool stuff, the answer is no.

8. We didn't get the next Twitter or Foursquare, but people are trying

Each year, everyone tries to figure which startup "won" SXSW Interactive. In 2007, it was Twitter. Two years later it was check-in app Foursquare. Highlight and Meerkat are other social apps that flew high during the festival, only to come back to earth once the technorati left Austin. This year, there was no clear wier, but that doesn't mean people weren't trying.

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen launched his new app Nom last week. It's a live video service dedicated to food and cooking. And Andrew Jarecki, director of HBO's The Jinx, pushed a video app he launched in January called KnowMe, described as a cross between Snapchat and Instagram. He demoed the app onstage during his keynote with J.J. Abrams.

9. Filmmaking is easy, and you can too!

OK, it's not easy. But it is getting easier for people to try their hands at it. Lots of speakers here, including Jarecki, talked about how almost everyone's got a smartphone camera in their pocket, so almost anyone can be a filmmaker. Ilya Naishuller, a Russian director, even held the US premier for his film "Hardcore Henry" at the festival last weekend. The film was shot almost entirely with a GoPro action cam. After the movie, the cast and crew gave one lucky audience member a GoPro. "Go try to make some of this s*** at home," Sharlto Copley, one of the film's lead actors, said.

10. Washington <3 Austin

The president and first lady got top billing, but govement officials in general were here in full force. Sen. Mark Waer, a Democrat from Virginia, and Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, were here plugging their proposed 16-member commission to examine digital security. Rep. Katherine Clark, a Democrat from Massachusetts, unveiled a bill aimed at alleviating cyberbullying, dedicating more than $20 million to help train law enforcement deal with such crimes.

11. Online harassment won't be fixed in a day

But SXSW did dedicate a day to talk about it. In October, the festival started a firestorm after it cancelled two panels about harassment in video gaming. After receiving heavy criticism and threats from media outlets to boycott the festival, SXSW instead created an entire all-day summit devoted to discussing online harassment.