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While the SXSW Interactive Festival isn't until March, the process of picking panels and speakers has already begun! SXSW relies on attendees and others to help determine the content they feature, and WIP and several of its pals have submitted panel ideas and need your help! It's simple -- all you have to do is follow the links below and give a thumbs up to the panel ideas you like, and add a comment in support if you're so inclined.

First up is a panel I (Carlo) submitted, titled User Experience and Cross-Platform App Development. It's going to take a look at developing for different device types and form factors, such as phones, tablets, netbooks, TVs and other connected devices. I've got several great panelists lined up to cover this important and interesting topic.

Ben Jacobsen from Mobspot submitted Driving App Discovery In An Overcrowded Marketplace, which will delve into the pressing developer issue of making sure people can find your app. As an added bonus, he asked me...

A few months ago, I went on an app store placement spree in preparation for the Android App Store Competition in Berlin (promise I won't mention it anymore!). The results were telling, in terms of the variance of the usability between stores, and some of the rather uninspired error messages they returned:

• "Please provide an interesting and accurate description" -- Isn't it my right to putt something dull if I do not want people to spend time reading the description and download the app instead?
• "Illegal characters in description! Use English and numbers only" -- Something any person with a sense of logic and group theory awareness will object to.
• "Upload a jpg legend..." -- Which is a nice error when, in reality, the site only accepts PNGs.

I'm just finishing a new placement spree today, and when I started, I was full of hopes that things had changed. Judge for yourself by these messages I got:

• "Password Must contain both letters and numerals" -- What if I want...

Caroline was interviewed this week by Fiercewireless Editor in Chief Sue Marek.

The interview covers a lot of points around the activites of operators in the mobile development space. From network API project such as OneAPI, to the raison d'etre of mobile operator developer program and the viablity of WAC as an initiative (a few days after they announced their new CEO and their merging with JIL).

For the complete interview, visit Fiercewireless.

The latest edition of the WIP App Store Report is now available for download. It's a PDF version of our App Store Wiki, the most comprehensive listing of mobile app stores available. This month, the report takes a look at the various end-user payment methods supported by stores in the wiki, and some of the issues they present to mobile developers. While there is a lot of buzz surrounding operator billing and BOBO, credit cards still lead the way, despite the shortcomings in user experience they can create.

Be sure to download the August report for more info, and to check out the details of the 6 new stores that were added over the past month, bringing the total number to 85.