Giants Parade (SF Chronicle)

San Francisco Giants World Series Parade from San Francisco Chronicle on Vimeo.

The 2012 #SFGiants took a pic on stage with the 2012 #SFGChamps Trophy twitter.com/SFGiants/statu…

— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) November 1, 2012

My view of Hunter Pence getting the crowd going with the “slow clap”

Giants take victory ride (MLB)

#BossBochy and the #SFGChamps Trophy #SFGParade twitter.com/SFGiants/statu…

— San Francisco Giants (@SFGiants) October 31, 2012

We Are Giants (SF Chronicle)

We Are Giants from San Francisco Chronicle on Vimeo.

Giants Fans Celebrate on Chestnut Street

Crowd reaction to the final out at Civic Center

Giants Win 2012 World Series (MLB)

Giants NLCS Game 7 Win set to the music of Explosions In The Sky

NLCS Game 7 from Sara on Vimeo.

• 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:

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

• 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)

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

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.

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:
Spot 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)