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Tycho performs Coastal Break at The Independent in San Francisco, Dec. 10, 2011. Listen to Tycho’s last album Dive on Spotify.

Flipboard for iPhone was released.

• The Power of Flipboard In Your Pocket (Official Flipboard blog)
• Inside Flipboard’s Project to Rethink Its iPad App for the iPhone (Xconomy)

Some people are losing patience with Siri.

• Siri is Apple’s Broken Promise (Mat Honan / Gizmodo)
• The Siri backlash threaten’s Apple’s future magic (Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle)
• “… the whole thing still isn’t up to Apple’s usual level of fit and finish, not by a long shot” (John Gruber / Daring Fireball)

The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook is targeting an IPO between April – June 2012 (VentureBeat)

Spotify launches a music platform (Evolver.fm)

Complaints pop up for Jawbone’s UP wearable health/fitness device (All Things D)

RIP Napster. Napster officially merged with Rhapsody. (Mashable)

It was a bad week for Mozilla. Chrome overtakes Firefox (ZDNet) and their deal with Google is ending (ZDNet)

Acquisitions:

• SAP acquires SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion (NY Times DealBook)
• Facebook acquires the Gowalla team but not the app (Gowalla blog)

Path launches the 2.0 version of their app and got mostly positive reviews. Some concerns were raised about the feature that automatically tracks your location.

• One Year Later, Path ‘Personal Network’ App Still Brings the Love (Wired Gadget Lab)
• New Path 2.0 automatically chronicles, shares your life (Rafe Needleman, CNET)
• New Path kicks ass… (Robert Scoble)

Robert Scoble interviews Path founders Dave Morin and Dustin Mierau:

I saw this on Twitter earlier today. Very inspiring.

When you grow up you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

- Steve Jobs

It was a light news week because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

• Google releases the Google Search app for the iPad. Reviews were positive:
• Why Google’s Search App Is Its Best iOS App By Far (ReadWriteWeb)
• Google’s iPad App: Almost Chrome and Trouble for Apple (TIME TechLand)
• Google just used it’s Search app to sneak most of Chrome OS on to the iPad (The Next Web)
• The Facebook Phone: It’s finally real and it’s name is Buffy (All Things D)
• Ex-Googlers launch recommendation engine Stamped, with help from Google Ventures (VentureBeat)
• In some virtual worlds, the thrill is gone (BusinessWeek)
• Black Friday E-Commerce Spending Up 26 Percent To A Record $816M; Amazon Most Visited Retailer (TechCrunch)
• eBay buys Hunch (All Things D)
• Steve Jobs and NeXT: Rare PBS Documentary circa 1986 (brain pickings)
• Groupon Shares Plunge Below IPO Price 3 Weeks After Offering (BusinessWeek)

Apple and Google made major music announcements this week. Apple finally rolled out iTunes Match and Google made Google Music available to everyone and opened up a Music Store. Amazon started shipping the Kindle Fire.

Google Music

• Google Music is open for business (The Official Google Blog)
• How To Properly Set Up Google Music (Lifehacker)
• Don’t be too disappointed by Google Music’s lackluster debut (TechCrunch)
• Google Music Q&A on Quora

 iTunes Match

• iTunes Match: Thousands of songs with a couple of hitches (NPR – All Songs Considered Blog)
• iTunes Match: What you need to know (Macworld)
• Secrets & Features of iTunes Match (iLounge)
• Check your music’s iCloud status (Macworld)
• How to use iTunes Match with very large libraries (> 25,000 songs) (MacRumors)
• iTunes Match Q&A on Quora

Kindle Fire

Amazon shipped the Kindle Fire earlier this week. Kevin Tofel from GigaOm has a good write-up on the mixed reviews for this product.

Positive reviews:

• Kindle Fire review: Yes, it’s that good (MSNBC)
• Kindle Fire is no iPad killer but it’s a killer device (Any Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times)
• Amazon Kindle Fire Review (Engadget)

• Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams (a.k.a. Google X) (New York Times)
• Google+ Pages can now be managed with 3rd party apps (Mashable)
• Netflix to resurrect Arrested Development in 2013 (The Next Web)
• Skype desktop app now makes Facebook video calls (CNET)
• Facebook employees go nuts as Zuckerberg tells them the IPO is coming (Business Insider)
• No one’s noticing Twitter’s ad experiment, which is a good thing (Atlantic Wire)
• Amazon KindlePhone for 2012? (All Things D)
• How Facebook is ruining sharing (Molly Wood/CNET) and Robert Scoble’s rebuttal: The Facebook Freaky Line

Google launched Google+ Pages to allow companies and brands to connect with their customers. Danny Sullivan (SearchEngineLand) wrote a thorough overview. You can create a new Google+ page here.

This is the introductory video from Google:

Many people were excited about this announcement, but there were some critics. Some common complaints were:

• It’s too easy to claim a brand that isn’t yours (ITWorld)
• It’s not designed for large companies who have multiple people managing the account (Robert Scoble)
• No vanity URL’s

If you’re looking for companies & brands to circle on Google+, just type in “+” followed by the brand name in the Google+ search box. Here are some brands that I’ve circled:
Google+, This Week In Tech (TWiT), TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, NPR, NPR Fresh Air, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, WIRED, San Francisco Giants. If you’re a business looking to get started with Google Pages, Google has set up a page called Google+ Your Business with tips for setting up a Google+ Page.

Rock Health is a new seed accelerator for health startups. It’s like a Y Combinator for healthcare.

This is how they describe their program on their About page:

Do you have an idea or startup that’s working to solve a health-related issue? Apply to join Rock Health, a group of dedicated individuals working to catalyze innovation in the interactive health space, and gain to access our unrivaled community of experts and seed-accelerator program.
Startups partake in an intensive 5-month program, turning ideas into products and businesses.  Our next class will begin in January 2012.

A few of days ago, their class of 2011 presented at Rock Health’s first “Demo Day” in San Francisco. I didn’t attend the event but I was able to follow some of it on Twitter by searching the #rockdemo hashtag. Many of these companies are still early stage and haven’t publicly launched their products yet.

Here’s a rundown of the companies that presented.

1. Cake Heath 

http://cakehealth.com

Tagline:
The best free way to manage your healthcare expenses

Twitter: @cakehealth

 2. Omada Health

http://omadahealth.com

Tagline:
We’re revolutionizing health care through group-based programs for chronic disease prevention.

3. BigEvidence

http://bigevidence.com

Tagline:
The universe of medical evidence – at your fingertips

$50B of savings can come from Demanding Medicine be 100% Evidence Based: BigEvidence#rockdemo

November 10, 2011 3:00 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@Rock_Health

Rock Health

4. Skimble

http://skimble.com

Tagline:
Fun mobile applications that help you stay healthy & fit

Mobile App: App Store, Android Marketplace

Twitter: @skimble

5. Genomera

http://genomera.com

Tagline:
We’re crowd-sourcing health discovery by helping anyone create group health studies.

Twitter: @genomera

 6. WeSprout

http://wesprout.org

Tagline:
Parenting is tough! Whether you’re facing a fever or potty training, WeSprout helps you make great decisions. We safely monitor your child’s health records and give you access to resources, useful data, and a community of parents who’ve been there before.

Twitter: @WeSprout

.@wesprout is mint meets quora, but for health #rockdemo

November 10, 2011 3:38 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@alicetruong

Alice Truong

7.BitGym

 http://bitgym.com

Tagline:
Cardio doesn’t have to be boring

Twitter: @BitGym

8. Pipette

http://usepipette.com

Tagline:
Sport medical patterns. Reduce complications.

Twitter: @UsePipette

 9. HeartBeat

http://heartbeat.com

Tagline:
What makes your heartbeat?

Twitter: @heartbeat

9th @Rock_Health startup: Heartbeat, an enterprise-style business suite for one-person businesses. #rockdemo

November 10, 2011 4:57 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@wroush

Wade Roush

10. BrainBot

http://brainbot.me

Tagline:
Train your brain to be calm and focused

Twitter: @BrainBot

11th @Rock_Health startup: @BrainBot, smartphone app that pairs with Neurosky brain monitor; algorithms foster focus, meditation #rockdemo

November 10, 2011 5:22 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@wroush

Wade Roush

11. CellScope

http://cellscope.com

Tagline:
CellScope uses patent-pending optical attachments to turn smartphones into a diagnostic-quality imaging systems for telemedicine, skincare and education.

Twitter: @CellScope

12. Crohnology

http://crohnology

Tagline:
The Crohn’s & Colitis Patient-to-Patient Information Sharing Platform

Twitter: @Crohnology

"When I was diagnosed, I went online & found forums. 1990s-looking forums. I'm a developer, so I built @Crohnology " -@seanahrens #rockdemo

November 10, 2011 5:26 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@Rock_Health

Rock Health

12. HealthInReach

https://www.healthinreach.com

Tagline:
Pay out of pocket. Save big.

Twitter: @HealthInReach

Elsewhere:

• Nailed. It. (Rock Health Blog)
• RockHealth Demo Day shows off some cool health apps (VentureBeat)
• A Post-Demo Day Look at Three Rock Health Startups—WeSprout, Pipette, and BrainBot (Wade Roush, Xconomy)
• #RockDemo tweets (Topsy)

This was a heavy week for new product launches and major revisions of existing products.

After months of private beta, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz launched Asana, a collaboration tool.

Milk (Kevin Rose’s new company) launched their new iPhone app called OINK. This app allows you to rate anything: a hamburger in a local restaurant, a TV show, your favorite tea, a salad, etc.

Massive Health, a mobile health startup that had been in stealth mode for several months, launched an app called The Eatery. Someone on Twitter described it as “Hot or Not for your Mac ‘N Cheese“. You post photos of your food and people rate the food on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the healthiest. The Eatery keeps track of your food scores and gives you a rating of how you’ve been eating this week.

Ex-Engadet editor Joshua Topolsky launched a new gadget site from called The Verge.

Yahoo launched a couple of iPad apps: Livestand (Flipboard competitor) and IntoNow (video discovery).

Apple released GarageBand for the iPhone. ($4.99 on iTunes)

Jawbone started selling the Up  - a $99 wristband that tracks your fitness and your sleeping habits. Up includes an iPhone app that tracks your eating habits by encouraging you to take photos of your food and asking you how you felt a couple of hours after eating.

Sphero, a robotic ball that you can control using a smartphone – is available for pre-order ($129).

The Ball. Evolved. from GoSphero on Vimeo.

And finally, Google made a couple of Gmail announcements. First, they rolled out a new, cleaned up version of Gmail. Overall, the new design was pretty well received, although some people complained that the spacing of messages was too wide. If you prefer the spacing from the old design, you can change it using the Display Density setting.

The other Gmail announcement was a mess. On November 2nd, Google announced their rumored Gmail app for iPhone. Within minutes of the announcement, people were complaining about an error message that shows up when you log in. There were also complaints that the app itself was underwhelming. Google ended up pulling the app from the App Store and almost a week later, the app still isn’t available, causing some people to wonder:

How long does it take to fix a Push Notification bug? /cc @gmail

November 7, 2011 6:41 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@parislemon

MG Siegler

Other news this week:

• GroupOn IPO’d and finished their opening day up 31% 
• Internet Explorer’s market share dropped to below 50%
• Apple started rolling out iTunes Match to Apple TV owners

Tech News

It was another dismal week for Netflix. The stock dropped 35% after announcing that they lost 800,000 subscribers and projecting that fourth-quarter earnings would be below expectations. Henry Blodget (Business Insider) says: Sorry, but this Netflix collapse is overdone.

HP announced that it will keep it’s PC division but there was speculation that they would shut down the webOS division. The head of HP’s PC division this was an unfounded rumor.

Google announced an update to Google TV and there were rumors of a Siri-powered, integrated Apple TV coming in 2013.

The New York Times published a very touching eulogy of Steve Jobs written by his sister Mona Simpson. A must-read.

Death didn’t happen to Steve, he achieved it.

- Mona Simpson, A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs

People aren’t happy about Google’s plans to discontinue the social features of Google Reader.

Flipboard, the popular news/social reader application for tablets, is about to get some competition from Google (Propeller) and Yahoo (Livestand).

Benchmark-backed Nextdoor launches a private social network for neighborhoods.

Y Combinator held their Startup School. Watch videos from the event here. Highlights: Mark Zuckerberg, Paul Graham Office Hours, Marc Andreessen (part 2)

Apps

• Mint finally launches an iPad app (iTunes, Mashable post)
• Scan old photos and post them to Facebook using the Shoebox iPhone app (iTunes, TechCrunch post)
• The creators of Daily Booth launch a great new photo sharing app called Batch. The buzz about this app is off the charts.
• Mike Arrington (CrunchFund) says: Batch may be the perfect photo sharing app
• Paul Graham says he was “blown away” and “this is the app everyone’s been waiting for“
• Robert Scoble says” “I have NEVER seen an app get this widely hyped“
• Soundcloud launched a new iPad app (iTunes, All Things D post)
• You can watch live TV on DIRECTV’s new iPad app (iTunes)
• Bloomberg TV launched an iPad app (iTunes)