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Entries from October 2011

Week of 10/24/11 – Roundup

October 31st, 2011 · No Comments

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

Television / Movies
Sports
David Freese’s Game 6 walk-off home run:
The Week Ahead

 

Tags: Weekly Roundup

Favorite Food Trucks: Ebbett’s Good To Go

October 27th, 2011 · No Comments

Every week or two, I’m featuring a Bay Area food truck on this blog. This week, I picked one of my favorites: Ebbett’s Good To Go. Ebbett’s specializes in sandwiches. Great sandwiches. They’re best known for their Cuban Sandwich (my favorite), but they always have two or three other sandwiches on the menu: Asian Tofu, Short  Rib, Grilled Cheese. Lately, they’ve been hitting these locations: Emeryville (64th & Hollis or 2100 Powell), 21st & Webster in Oakland, and various locations in San Francisco: Truck Stop SF (Mission St. between 1st & Fremont), Hawthorne Plaza, and Civic Center. You can find their schedule on their Twitter page, Facebook page, or head over to their web site.

Tags: Food Trucks

Week of 10/17/11 – Roundup

October 24th, 2011 · No Comments

Steve Jobs

A couple of weeks after his death, Steve Jobs continues to be a huge topic. On Wednesday, Apple celebrated the life of Steve Jobs at the Apple campus in Cupertino. Apple has posted a video recording of the celebration on the Apple.com web site.

The biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson was released on October 24th.

 

More 60 Minutes videos: Part 2, The Steve Jobs Family Photo Album, What Did Steve Jobs Say About His Rivals?

 

Lots of speculation out there about the final project(s) that Steve Jobs was working on.

Tech News

Other tech news this week:

Sergey Brin at Web 2.0 Summit

Apps

 

Music

Radical Face – Mountains (video by YouTube user celmannn)
Sports

Tags: Apple · Google · Weekly Roundup

Week of 10/10/11 – Roundup

October 16th, 2011 · No Comments

Tech

Vor dem Münchner Apple Store hat sich eine Schlange gebildet.... on TwitpicThe iPhone 4S went on sale on October 14th. Despite lukewarm reaction to the announcement of the 4S, initial sales number appear to be very healthy. As usual, people were lined up at Apple Stores. Pre-order sales were very strong – over one million pre-order units in the first 24 hours – and AT&T’s activation servers were overloaded when everyone tried to activate their phones at the same time. Some analysts predict that Apple will sell 4 million phones over the weekend and another analyst estimates that Apple will sell 24 million iPhones in Q4 2011. Apple stock closed at an all-time high ($422 a share) on Friday.

iPhone 4S launch at Apple’s 5th Avenue Store:

Reviews of the iPhone 4S were very positive, especially for the new Siri personal assistant.

Speech recognition. Crazy good, transformative, category-redefining speech recognition.

David Pogue, New York Times – New iPhone Conceals Pure Magic

Here’s a roundup of other iPhone 4S reviews:

People are having a lot of fun with Siri.
Siri Demo from SlashGear:

A few days before the iPhone 4S went on sale, iOS 5 was released.

Other tech news this week:

Apps
Music
Sports

Television

San Francisco Restaurants
Suppenkuche Biergarten in Hayes Valley (photo by terrapin_sf on Instagram)

Suppenkuche Biergarten in Hayes Valley

The Week Ahead

Tags: Apple · iPhone · Weekly Roundup

Nom Nom Truck SF

October 11th, 2011 · No Comments

I’ve become a big fan of the Bay Area food truck scene over the past couple of years. Earlier today, I had a chance to try the Nom Nom Truck when they made a stop near where I work in Emeryville. Nom Nom Truck got a lot of attention when their original, Los Angeles based truck was a finalist on the first season of Bravo’s Great Food Truck Race. They sepcialize in Banh mi sandwiches. Today, they were serving four versions: grilled pork, lemongrass chicken, vegetarian tofu, and one they call the Deli Special. I had the grilled pork and it was outstanding. You can check Nom Nom’s schedule on their Twitter or Facebook pages or head over to their web site. For a complete review of this food truck, check out the this post from the excellent I Left My Cart in San Francisco blog.
Nom Nom Truck SF visits Emeryville

Tags: Bay Area · Food Trucks

Week of 10/3/11 – Roundup

October 9th, 2011 · No Comments

It’s almost pointless to do a roundup for this week because there really was just one story – the death of Steve Jobs. There have been hundreds of pieces written in the past few days reflecting on the life of Steve Jobs and the impact that he had on so many of us. Here’s a small fraction of the remembrances & reactions to the passing of a great man whose impact will be felt for many, many years.

It feels like a month ago, but it was just earlier this week that Apple announced the iPhone 4S earlier this week. I posted a roundup of links from that event. The 4S will be on sale in stores at 8 am on October 14th and you can pre-order it now.
Other Tech News
Apps
New Music
Television
San Francisco Restaurants
Sports
  • Raiders owner and NFL icon Al Davis passes away at age 82
  • The Yankees and Phillies are eliminated from the MLB playoffs. Remaining teams: Rangers, Tigers, Cardinals, Brewers. Incredibly, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard tears his achilles tendon when he makes the last out of the game.
  • The Raiders get an emotional win over the Houston Texans.
  • The 49ers are for real. They destroy Tampa Bay 48-3. Three TD passes for Alex Smith. The Niners haven’t scored this many points in a game since December, 2003.

Tags: Apple · Tech News · Weekly Roundup

How I Use Twitter Lists

October 8th, 2011 · No Comments

I’m a pretty heavy user of Twitter Lists. Twitter Lists are a great way to filter your Twitter stream, especially when you’re following a large number of accounts. And you don’t need to follow the accounts that are in the list, so this is a good way to get past the 2,000 following limit if you’re up against that. You can create your own lists or follow lists that were created by other people. Here are some examples of Twitter lists that I’ve created.

Lists can be public (shared) or you can create private lists that only you can see. I’ve created private lists for close friends & family and a “My Favorites” list containing the twenty or so accounts that I don’t want to miss.

 

Twitter lists look good on Twitter.com but I usually read them on my iPhone using Tweetbot or on my iPad using Tweetdeck or the fantastic Flipboard app.

This is how Twitter lists look on Tweetdeck. It’s really easy to see several lists at the same time.

This is how a Twitter list looks on Flipboard. To add a Twitter List to Flipboard, tap More… on the upper right, then go to Social > Twitter > Your Lists.

I like using Tweetbot on my iPhone to view Twitter lists because you can quickly switch between lists by tapping in the title bar area. That brings up a list of all of your Twitter lists.

You can see all of my Twitter lists here or go to this page to see some of my favorite lists displayed on one page using the Twitter List Widget.

Do you have a favorite Twitter list? Leave a link in the comments.

Tags: Twitter

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

October 5th, 2011 · No Comments

Such a sad day and what an outpouring of emotion from around the web.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

-Steve Jobs

More Steve Jobs quotes here.

Tags: Apple

iPhone 4S Announcement – Roundup

October 4th, 2011 · No Comments

Today, Apple announced the iPhone 4S, a launch date for iOS 5 (Oct 12), the new Find My Friends app, the Siri personal assistant, and updates to the iPad Nano and iPod Touch. Here’s a roundup of links from today’s announcements and reactions from around the web. I won’t be buying the new iPhone 4S (I just upgraded to an iPhone 4 earlier this year) but I’m looking forward to the iOS 5 update.

More coverage on TechMeme.

Tags: Apple · iPhone · Tech News

Bon Iver at the Greek Theater, Berkeley CA, 9/22/11

October 1st, 2011 · No Comments

I saw Bon Iver at the Greek Theater in Berkeley last week and really enjoyed the show. I pulled together a Youtube playlist with the entire setlist. Most of the videos were from YouTube user SonicAmbulanceTV.

Here’s the set list:
Perth
Minnesota, WI
Calgary
Michicant
Flume
Hinnom, TX / Wash.
Blood Bank
Beach Baby
Towers
Creature Fear
Re: Stacks (Justin Vernon electric solo)
Holocene
Beth/Rest
The Wolves (Act I and II)

Encore:
Skinny Love
For Emma

Tags: Live Music · Music