In San Francisco cafes and bars, even on the street, I overhear people talking about their startup ideas, business plans, and goals. And there are tons of incubators, Angels, wannabe Angels, VC firms, making investments in startups.

I always pay attention to Aaron Wall, who runs SEOBook, because he is always on the money. He is one of the very few Google Watchers that is consistently insightful and isn't afraid of writing hard hitting articles critical of Google -- if it's called for.

Here is one of his latest infographics, and again, he is spot on about the changing trends in how Google views the web. It's shocking how much valuable advice he gives away:

Several reporters have pointed to a big risk that they discovered in Facebook's SEC filing: mobile.

Facebook's IPO documents reveals a far different culture to that of neighboring rival Google...

Mark Zuckerberg's letter to prospective shareholders was incredibly vague about his company's "social mission" and there was no announcement of a charitable foundation -- as Google had done when it filed its IPO papers eight years ago.

The same media frenzy of interest that we see today in the Facebook IPO we saw with Google in 2004...

I remember vividly the day Google filed its "red herring" with the SEC in preparation for its IPO. I was out at lunch when our bureau chief Richard Waters, called me, "They've filed."

International Financing Review, a Thomson Reuters publication, reports that its Wall Street sources point to a far smaller Facebook IPO, raising about $5 billion instead of the expected $10 billion.

(Photo:By Joi Ito.)
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz made their reputation as savvy investors by making lots of small seed investments of up to $100,000. This then helped them raise billions of dollars, $2.7 billion so far, with the latest $1.5 billion fund announced today.

San Francisco is straining to accomodate demand from large and small tech companies but not far down the road a massive new office space has just opened up.

Should Apple buy Hollywood? Should Google buy the New York Times?

Foremski's Take: People in the tech communities have long discussed the need for tech companies to buy media companies. More recently, there has been discussion about Apple using its $100 billion cash hoard to buy music and movie studios.

This won't happen, for many reasons. I discuss some of those reasons here:

I've long thought that electric and computer power will eventually be mixed. There used to be various ways of using a home's electric power lines to guide data connections to every room but wireless technologies became simpler and cheaper.

Now Apple has received a patent on a power connector that also carries a data connector. It's a step towards a merging two powers that will fuel this century and beyond.

AppleInsider has the details:

Apple exploring MagSafe data, headphone connections for iPhone, iPad

Named "Programmable Magnetic Connectors," the filing describes a series of "coded magnets" found in both a portable device and a data and power cable.

The filing includes an illustration of an iPad 2 with a forward-facing camera and associated cable that are described as having a "coded magnetic structure."

In its application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple notes that current coupler designs, like with the 30-pin dock connector or headphone jack found on existing iPhones and iPads, prevent a device from being properly sealed. This is why the connector port and headphone jack feature water sensors, to determine if water entered the device through one of these openings.

The use of MagSafe connectors not only for the data and power cable, but also headphones, could allow Apple to properly seal its devices and make it more difficult for moisture to damage the valuable electronics.