Apple announces iPhone 5 event, Amazon announces the Kindle Fire, everybody freaks out about Facebook “frictionless sharing”, Google releases shared circles, Disney Appmates turns the iPad into an interactive playmate, Health 2.0 conference, and an amazing end to the 2011 MLB regular season.

Hopefully I’ll make this weekly roundup a regular thing.

TECH

• Apple confirms that the iPhone 5 event will be held on October 4th
  
• Amazon launches the Kindle Fire

Watch Jeff Bezos introduce the Kindle Fire in New York City on Sep 28th.

• Lots of concern about “frictionless sharing” on Facebook
  • Dave Winer: Facebook is scaring me
  • Nik Cubrilovic: Logging out of Facebook is not enough
  • Nik Cubrilovic: Facebook Fixes and Explains Logout Issue
    
• Google announces Shared Circles for Google+ and Google+ grows like crazy after opening to the public

• Podcasts:
  • This Week in Tech #321
  • This Week in Google #114
  • This Is My Next (10/2/11)

APPS

• Disney’s Appmates turn the iPad into an interactive playmate (TechCrunch)
  The toys will cost $20 for a set of two. The app is free and will be available Oct. 1, 2011. According to this AppAdvice post, the toys are available at Apple Store, Apple Store online, Disney Store, DisneyStore.com, and national retailers, such as Target. It looks like the app only works on iPad 2’s for now, but according to the product description on iTunes, they’ll support all iPad devices sometime in the future.
  
• CrashPlan iPhone and Android Apps Let You Browse and Download Your Backed Up Files on the Go (Lifehacker)
  CrashPlan is a really great backup service that I started using a couple of months ago. Earlier this week, they announced iPhone & Android apps that allow you to acess all of your backed up data from your mobile device.

HEALTHCARE

• The Health 2.0 Conference was held earlier this week in San Francisco. I wasn’t able to attend, but here are a few summaries that I came across:
  • Health 2.0 Fall 2011 (HealthBlawg)
  • Trickle Down Health 2.0 Impressions (Chilmark Research)
  • Mobile represents realistic side of Health 2.0 conference (MobiHealthNews)
• I wrote a blog post about the HealthCamp SFBay conference that I attended last week
• Basis reveals an awesome new affordable heart and health tracker you can wear on your wrist (TechCrunch)
  Cost will be $199 and you can reserve one on the Basis website.

SPORTS

• My Giants were eliminated from the playoffs after winning the World Series last year. Watch the Giants’ year-end video here.
  • Watch the press conference with Giants GM Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy where they talk about their plans for the offseason and preparations for 2012.
• The last day of the 2011 Major League Baseball regular season may have been the most exciting day of non-playoff baseball in history. Two teams – the Red Sox and the Braves – that had insurmountable leads for the wildcard spots in early September were eliminated in dramatic fashion. The New York Times had an interesting post about how improbable this ending was for the Red Sox.
• The 49ers scored 21 unanswered points to defeat the Eagles 24-23 in Philadelphia. This was their biggest win in years. Video Highlights