Austin, Texas, is one of the most civilized cities in America. Except, I am told, when the South by Southwest Interactive Festival comes around. Then, youthful hubris mixed with inebriation can cause the odd ego-laden fracas.

Perhaps mindful of the need to maintain peace and harmony, Apple has, according to the Austin American-Statesman, decided to open a temporary pop-up store in downtown Austin.

SXSW Interactive, you see, part of the broader SXSW music and film event, starts tomorrow. That's precisely the day that the iPad 2 shows off its diminished weight and post-dietary sleekness.

So you can imagine what difficulties might have ensued had so many gadgetarians had to slope off to, say, the Barton Creek Shopping Mall, in order to place their newly-washed hands on Apple's latest creation.

Will the Austin pop-store be as pretty as this Apple store in Osaka

Instead, Apple's pop-up shop will reportedly be at West 6th Street and Congress Avenue. This will allow news crews and photographers a much easier journey in order to record the hordes of fans lining up to soothe their desires.

Apple hasn't actually confirmed the existence of the store. (We'll update this post if it responds to our request for confirmation.) One can imagine, though, that the company might enjoy the element of surprise it will surely deliver in this particular location.

Apple will not be the only company popping up at SXSW to deliver something spontaneously entertaining. Hewlett-Packard, for example, today opened the HP Mobile Park, which it describes as "a temporary live-in community for artists, bloggers, and trendsetters from the fields of technology, music, film, and pop culture."

The 1960s aren't dead, it seems. Indeed, attendees will be able to commune with fine trendsetters and even use the HP ePrint app to print anything they need from their cell phones on the fly.

This will surely offer an excellent compliment for those who are so desperate not only to get hold of an iPad 2, but to print as many pictures of it as possible--so that they can hand them out to those who are still at the back of the line at the pop-up store.