Tech

The 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:

• The iPhone 4S: Faster, More Capable And You Can Talk To It – MG Siegler / TechCrunch
• The iPhone 4S Review – Joshua Topolsky / This Is My Next
• The iPhone Finds Its Voice – Walt Mossberg / Wall Street Journal
• It’s the iPhone 4, Only More So – Harry McCracken / Time Magazine
• The iPhone 4S – John Gruber / Daring Fireball
• more reviews here

People are having a lot of fun with Siri.

• S**t That Siri Says – a Tubmlr blog highlighting funny responses from Siri
• Siri says some weird things - Joshua Topolsky / This Is My Next
• Why So Siri-ous? – MG Siegler / TechCrunch

Siri Demo from SlashGear:

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

• iOS 5 Review: Ambitious update rings in the changes – MacWorld
• There were some upgrade issues when iOS 5 was released but those issues appear to be calming down
• iOS 5 discussion on GDGT
• There are some issues with apps that store content for offline viewing. This post by the creator of Instapaper goes into details.
• iOS 5 video – official Apple video

Other tech news this week:

• A memorial service was held for Steve Jobs on Sunday (MercuryNews.com)
• Google reported a blowout quarter
• Facebook launched their long awaited iPad app
• Netflix abandoned their plan to rent DVD’s on Qwikster
• Is Yahoo going private?
• The TiVo Premier Elite – a 4-tuner DVR that can store up to 300 hours of programming – is now available
• Google announces a new programming language called Dart
• Web 2.0 Expo was held in New York. View videos & slides here

Apps

• FourSquare introduces Radar – a location-based alert system (iTunes)
• The new Facebook iPad app (iTunes)
• Pearltree for iPad (iTunes, RWW review, Robert Scoble video)
• Hipstamatic will release an app that simulates the disposable camera experience. You can’t view the photos until you finish the roll.

Music

• Ryan Adams / Ashes & Fire (Spotify, Stereogum review)
• An album of cover-songs of U2’s Achtung Baby will be released in November. You can listen to Jack White’s cover of Love Is Blindness here
• Tycho – Dive is a great album for chilling out
• The Treasure Island music festival was held over the weekend near San Francisco

Sports

• The 49ers’ impressive 25-19 victory over the previously undefeated Lions is almost overshadowed by Jim Harbaugh’s overly aggressive post-game handshake
• Good news for Giants fans: Buster Posey catches bullpen sessions in Arizona
• Inside the Collapse – more details about the Boston Red Sox 2011 Implosion

Television

• The Breaking Bad season 4 final was last Sunday. Here are the reviews:
  • Tim Goodman / Hollywood Reporter
  • Dave Itzkoff / NY Times Arts Beat
  • Chris Simmons / WSJ Speakeasy
  • Slate
• Listen to the Breaking Bad Insider podcast where producer Vince Gilligan, editor Kelly Dixon, and others discuss the finale

San Francisco Restaurants

• Paxti’s (Chicago-style pizza) new location on Irving Street is opening soon
• Umami Burger on Union Street opened earlier this week
• You wouldn’t know if from their Twitter or Facebook accounts, but Suppenkuche Biergarten in Hayes Valley is open for business. In This City SF has details.

The Week Ahead

• Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Oct. 17-19
• The World Series starts on Wednesday – Rangers vs Cardinals
• Product Camp San Francisco on Oct 22nd (sold out)
• The annual Bridge School Benefit Concert (Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, Eddie Vedder, Mumford & Sons, Beck, and others) Oct. 22-23 at Shoreline Ampitheater in Mountain View
  Update – video highlights from this concert…