Travel - SlashGear

‘Travel’ Stories

Laser liquid scanner could rescue water bottles from pre-flight trash

Chris Davies, Feb 14th 2012 Discuss [0]

Having to dump your bottled liquids as you go through airport security has become a frustrating addition to flying headaches in recent years, but the awesome power of lasers could soon ensure your flask contains Evian not napalm. Cobalt Light Systems has cooked up the INSIGHT100, a laser scanning system that can differentiate dangerous substances from safe ones while they're still in their container, opening the aircraft doors to water bottles, perfume and toothpaste. Read The Full Story

Columns

Stop Whining and Turn Off Your Phone

Philip Berne, Jan 3rd 2012 Discuss [52]

I learned when I was a camp counselor that you should always support the person up front. When they say something wrong, let it slide and fix it later. When they suggest something unpopular, go with it, and if it proves unsuccessful, it’s no big deal. I never had a camp director suggest we run naked through a poison ivy patch, or show up to Hershey Park at 4AM so we can get a good parking spot. Usually, things worked out in the end.

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American Airlines files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Chris Davies, Nov 29th 2011 Discuss [0]

American Airlines has filed for voluntary bankruptcy, promising to maintain current services while it attempts to restructure its "cost and debt structure" into a manageable form. The airline's parent company, AMR Corporation, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the US today, a process that can take anything from months through to years: in the meantime, it will operate normal flight schedules, make refunds and exchanges as usual, and honor all existing tickets and reservations. Read The Full Story

iPad flies high with Gameloft Jetstar gaming deal

Chris Davies, Nov 27th 2011 Discuss [8]

Tablets are seeing sky-high demand, with news that social game developer Gameloft has inked a deal with Australian airline Jetstar to offer iPads preloaded with games for in-flight use. Twelve titles are expected to be offered to Jetstar passengers eventually, with Real Football, Shrek Kart, Avatar, UNO and N.O.V.A.: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance first to appear on the rented Apple slates. Read The Full Story

Google Travel launches with flight search service

Rue Liu, Sep 13th 2011 Discuss [3]

Google has quietly launched a new flight search service called Google Travel. The service can be found in a separate portal here and is powered by the recently acquired travel software company ITA. The $700 million acquisition of ITA was scrutinized for several months before being approved with various conditions due to antitrust concerns that may affect the online travel search industry. Read The Full Story

Virgin America announces in-flight entertainment revamp for 2012

Rue Liu, Sep 13th 2011 Discuss [1]

Virgin America has announced a new partnership with Lufthansa today to bring a major upgrade to their already tech-forward in-flight entertainment system called RED. The revamp to the in-flight entertainment system will include larger touchscreen HD monitors that are internet-capable and also allow passengers to connect their own devices via WiFi. Read The Full Story

Travelocity Exec scooped up by HotelTonight

Rue Liu, Sep 8th 2011 Discuss [0]

A fledgling travel app called HotelTonight has managed to land a new Chief Marketing Officer that is none other than Travelocity exec Beth Murphy. This is a huge win for the startup as Murphy brings a whole lot of experience from her leadership roles at Yahoo, Digg, Visa, Intuit, and of course Travelocity, which is right up the same alley. Read The Full Story

Google Maps Updated to Include Weather Conditions

Chris Burns, Aug 18th 2011 Discuss [1]

Hear that? That's the sound of Google making another type of online service obsolete. Google today announced an update to Google maps that, working with Weather.com, will show you what kind of conditions you'll be looking at for your weekend trip to the mountains. All you've got to do is open up Google Maps, type in your address, and select the Weather layer from the list of options in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. Current temperatures and conditions are shown all around the world and Google hopes this will make travel easier (or at least a bit better planned out) than ever before. Read The Full Story

Google’s New Travel Search Products Powered By ITA Coming Soon

Rue Liu, Jul 5th 2011 Discuss [2]

Besides all the awesome Google+ features, the search giant may be serving up some nifty travel search features very soon. Google's $700 million acquisition of travel software company ITA was approved back in April and we are now finally hearing about some of the first travel search features that may come of that purchase. Read The Full Story

American Airlines replaces in-flight screens with Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1

Chris Davies, Jun 13th 2011 Discuss [1]

Up in the air, Junior Android! Samsung is taking to the skies with its Galaxy Tab 10.1, inking a deal with American Airlines to put 6,000 of the Honeycomb slates into the premium cabins of select transcontinental and international flights. Rather than the existing in-flight entertainment system, AA will use specially customized Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets bearing extra memory. Read The Full Story

Magellan Reveals WiFi enabled RoadMate 5175T-LM GPS

Ammon Carpenter, Jun 10th 2011 Discuss [1]

With the adoption of smartphones, many consumers are relying on their phone to direct them to their destination rather than a GPS. Why clutter your life with two devices when you can easily make do with one? This is no doubt one of the reasons Magellan is rolling out the RoadMate 5175T-LM; it has built in WiFi, a web browser, and a new more robust trip planner called TourDirector. A portable web browser with no data plan does sound appealing, but can these new features keep the GPS competitive in the evolving smartphone world? Read The Full Story

Google ITA Travel Search Acquisition Approved But Conditions Apply

Rue Liu, Apr 8th 2011 Discuss [0]

Google's acquisition of travel software company ITA for $700 million has just been approved today by the U.S. Justice Department after 8 months of deliberation. It was a difficult decision because the acquisition could obliterate competition in the travel search industry. Travel websites such as Kayak and TripAdvisor depend on the ITA software and fear they would lose access to it once Google acquires the company. Luckily for them, the Justice Department has set some conditions in their approval. Read The Full Story