BillDay.com

• Maybe this should be the year I finally go to Yellowstone in winter? http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/getaways/01/29/yellowstone/ #

Google’s My Location service explained with a cute little cartoon:

Now you know how GOOG locates you on your iPhone or other mobile.

• reCAPTCHA now has a WordPress plugin http://recaptcha.net/plugins/wordpress/ #
• More about reCAPTCHA http://recaptcha.net/learnmore.html #
• Neil Gafter’s blog post on "Is the Java language dying?" http://tinyurl.com/ysrg4n #
• China has 547 million mobile users who sent 592 billion text messages last year http://tinyurl.com/2xp897 #
• Facebook as app host via a new JavaScript library that allows Facebook apps to be displayed on any site http://tinyurl.com/ys8uvh #

Update: We’ve come a long way since 2004!

• Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShip2 (SS2) and White Knight Two (WK2) designs: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7205445.stm #

Ouch, not how you want to launch your beta:

Read more about NotchUp from TechCrunch.

The Java.net Mobile & Embedded Community has organized a two day developer event starting tomorrow in Santa Clara, California.

The event will also be viewable online for free. See the event wiki (click here) for more information on viewing the event on Sun’s Ustream.TV page.

This looks to be a useful event with interesting sessions. Click here for the agenda or here to learn more about the planned speakers. As James Gosling notes:

The agenda is intensely technical. The conference is devoted solely to the technologies of mobile and embedded Java platforms and is targeted for application developers of intermediate and advanced skill levels, platform developers and technical personnel at tool vendors, OEM’s and carriers.

Definitely worth checking out either in person or online.

• Twittering comes of age for political reporting http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/technology/21link.html #
• First time I’ve read the term "Hardware as a Service"…HaaS, anyone? http://tinyurl.com/yul32q #
• DreamHost billing issues have been a headache; hopefully they really are resolved http://tinyurl.com/yo2zpd #
• Facebook taps users to translate site http://tinyurl.com/2×83t9 (tip o’ the hat to Michael @ TechCrunch) #
• My friend Jason Hunter’s doing some very cool things at MarkLogic http://tinyurl.com/2ba2dd #
• Jonathan Schwartz’s blog post on how the Sun-MySQL purchase came together http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/in_a_vortex #

• Dale Dougherty’s "The Rest of the Rest of Us" is a must-read http://tinyurl.com/2xglby #

Sascha Segan makes a very interesting point in his take on Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote:

Did anyone else notice how radically green Apple’s Macworld announcements were? Steve Jobs didn’t play up the environmental angle of his iPhone, Apple TV, and iPod Touch upgrades, but the vision he presented is far more radical than just a super-skinny, brominated-flame-retardant-free notebook.

With “Apple TV 2,” Jobs is turning the CE world on its head by releasing a major new product—without any hardware. Not only does it hasten the digital delivery of movies and TV shows (bye-bye plastic disks and cardboard boxes) but it makes Jobs’ major CE product announcements software, not steel.

Nobody needs to buy a new iPod touch to get e-mail. No Apple TVs will be thrown away by people who want movie rentals. And Jobs is fulfilling his promise to iPhone owners to keep their devices exciting and fresh; first, by trickling out new features, and soon by opening up the floodgates to third-party applications.

Al Gore is smiling from his Apple board seat somewhere. Sascha goes on to note that:

The best kind of electronics to buy are products that are going to last you a long time, that you don’t have to worry about recycling or throwing away. Raising the length of time between new hardware purchases is one of the greenest things the electronics industry can do.

Watch for more green-with-a-capital-’P’ news here in the not too distant future…

Steve Jobs on speed, courtesy of Mahalo Daily.

Two more interesting iPhone stats from the Jobsnote:

Four million iPhones sold and nearly 20% US smartphone marketshare…how the iPhone blew up the wireless industry, indeed!

• Macworld and ArsMacworld Twitter feeds of the Jobsnote are lame #
• Engadget notes their Jobsnote liveblog is at 10x the traffic of last years’ #
• New iPhone 1.1.3 firmware details http://tinyurl.com/2dt7hv plus 4 million sold since launch http://tinyurl.com/yuvyoc #
• @scobleizer, I agree with timbray, could you please include a short description of your Qik video contents with each post? #

Steve Jobs announced the 1.1.3 iPhone software update today at Macworld, available now for download and installation via iTunes.

For more coverage of the Jobsnote, iPhone, and the 1.1.3 softup, see:

• Engadget iPhone and iPod Touch skinny
• Macworld.com keynote liveblog
• ars technica keynote announcements article

After reading about 1.1.3, it’s time to install it. During the firmware installation, you’re presented with the following “Important Information” detailing Apple’s take on the new capabilities:

iPhone Software
Version 1.1.3

This version of the software includes additional new features, bug fixes and supersedes all previous versions.

New features include:

• New Maps application
- Find location
- Improved UI
• Send SMS text messages to multiple recipients
• Customize Home Screen
- Rearrange icons
- Add Safari bookmarks to the Home Screen
- Create up to 9 Home Screen pages
• IMAP support for Gmail
• Support for iTunes Store movie rentals
• Enhanced Video Player
- Chapters
- Subtitles
- Alternate language tracks
• Lyrics support in iPod

For feature descriptions and complete instructions, see the users guide for your iPhone at:
http ://www.apple.com/support/manuals/iphone/

For more information about iPhone, go to:
http ://www.apple.com/iphone/

To troubleshoot your iPhone, or to view additional support information go to:
http ://www.apple.com/support/iphone

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website:
http ://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798

After you download the 160MB+ update and install it, you’ll be ready to try out the new location, home screen, and other features. Be sure to check out the updated Guided Tour from the iPhone site for a walkthrough of the new features, and/or the Engadget overview video below. Enjoy!

• Google hits from iPhone exceed Symbian browser hits for first time http://tinyurl.com/2tp2re #

• Will the 2008 airwave auction dash steep cellular data cost increases? http://tinyurl.com/ytqvqz #

• How iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry http://tinyurl.com/2cz7ee #

I’ve been reading gapingvoid of late and find the ideas around “social objects” particularly interesting.

If our platform and products are to succeed, they need to inform others’ notions and conversations. GV’s writing on social objects provides a framework for discussions on how to best reach customers, get written up by influencers, and get attention in general. Worth some cogitation, IMO.

• ETech 2008 tag cloud http://tinyurl.com/27gb3s #
• My latest Wired mag Geekdad.com post (x-post of head tracking using Wiimote) http://tinyurl.com/2f938u #

Johnny Lee has hacked the Wiimote to perform head tracking.

Why should you care? Easy, amazing three-dimensionality with regular old displays:

Imagine combining 3D head tracking with Jeff Han’s multitouch…hoosgot, to the rescue! That would definitely qualify as my favorite Wiimote hack to date.

Note: This is cool enough and geek-daddy enough that I blogged about it on Geekdad, too.

• Big Data, Google-style, as in 20,000TB per day and growing http://tinyurl.com/32ymep #