Technologizer

5Words: Free Airport Wi-Fi? Thanks, Google!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Google springs for airport Wi-Fi. Blockbuster’s memory-card movie rentals. Nvidia shows off tablet prototype. How many Droids? Maybe 100,000. LinkedIn talks to Twitter now. Nokia starts shipping N900 handset. A whole new Google coming? Blu-Ray managed copy: looks awful! A projector dock for iPhones. ________________________ Like 5Words? Subscribe via RSS.

Virgin America Wi-Fi for Free (Thanks, Google!)

Monday, October 19, 2009

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I love in-flight Wi-Fi so much that I’ve used it on every flight I’ve ever taken that offered it, and don’t object to paying for it–actually, I’d probably still go online if it cost twice as much. But I’m still tickled by today’s news that Google is sponsoring free Gogo Wi-Fi on every Virgin America [...]

Lufthansa Brings Wi-Fi Back

Monday, October 12, 2009

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The longer the airplane flight, the harder it is to go without Internet access. So as happy as I am with the ongoing adoption of Wi-Fi by U.S. carriers for their domestic flights, I’ve been glum about the fact that the widely-used Gogo service is cellular-based and doesn’t work for international service. And I’m pleased [...]

Phones on Planes? No Thank You!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

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I think of myself as not having a Luddite bone in my body. But there’s one example of American technological backwardness that I’m extremely comfortable with: the fact that we can’t use cell phones on planes. When I sit near someone–or, more typically, multiple someones–making a deeply personal and/or deeply boring call before takeoff or [...]

Goby, a Search Engine For Activities

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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Looking for something to do? Starting now, you can look to Goby, a new search engine that launched Tuesday night. Rather than trying to beat Google at its own game, Goby is trying to be really good at one thing: helping you find places to go and activities to participate in–whether they’re in your own [...]

Virgin America Aircell Gogo In-Flight WiFi

Monday, September 7, 2009

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While I’m a little late to this particular mile high club, I finally experienced the joy of in-flight WiFi last Friday. Unlike Boeing’s now defunct Connexion satellite solution, it appears that most domestic airlines are utilizing Aircell’s Gogo service – essentially 3G EVDO connectivity in the sky. On my cross country [...]

Look, Up in the Sky! It’s Wi-Fi!

Monday, June 1, 2009

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At this very moment, I”m using inflight Wi-Fi for the third time in my life–and for the first time, it’s putting me in a good mood. The first time I did so was on a demo flight for the now-defunct Boeing Connexion service, and it essentially failed to work; the second time was on one [...]

Qik Roam: Travel Internationally, Pay Reasonable Rates

Thursday, April 16, 2009

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There are plenty of benefits that come with owning an iPhone, but there are also some crosses that one must bear. One is the phone’s lack of support for video capture, which means that the nifty Qik video lifestreaming app only works if you’ve jailbroken your phone. (Or if Qik has given you access to [...]

Something Special–and Wireless–in the Air

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

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This better have nothing to do with April Fools’ Day: American Airlines has announced that it’s going to equip more than 300 planes with in-flight Wi-Fi service, bringing Internet access to most of its domestic flights. The airline will work with Gogo to implement the service. And along with recent announcements by Delta, Virgin, Southwest, [...]

Note to Self: Don’t Pack Tech When Flying

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

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One of the stories linked in today’s 5Words had me grumbling. A Yale University student is suing US Airways for losing his Xbox 360, which was packed among his checked bags. But it’s not a simple matter of lost luggage; the kid opened his suitcase after pulling it from baggage claim to find all his belongings [...]

I Gripe, Orbitz Reacts. Sort of. Well, Not Really. But at Least They Noticed.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

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A couple of days ago, I bought an airfare-and-hotel package for a business trip to Las Vegas, and was annoyed by the way the travel merchant tried to slip a $14 bus ticket and $19.50 travel insurance plan into my order even though I hadn’t asked for them. An Orbitz customer-serve representative (who asked not [...]

Orbitz Sales Tactics: “Convenient!” And Sleazy!

Monday, March 2, 2009

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I’m planning a business trip to Las Vegas for the CTIA Wireless Show at the end of this month. After starting my research at the wonderful Kayak travel search engine, I ended up at Orbitz, which offered some attractive-sounding package deals for a flight and hotel room. I started clicking my way through to buy. A [...]

It’s a Best Buy! Except at an Airport! Inside a Machine!

Monday, August 25, 2008

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A couple of weeks ago, Best Buy announced that it was working with a company called Zoom Systems to install electronics vending machines inside airports. I blog to you this afternoon from the international terminal at San Francisco’s SFO, where I’m waiting for a plane–and where I just spent some time with one of these [...]

New Airport Security Laptop Rules: Simpler? Maybe!

Friday, August 15, 2008

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“Good news from the TSA” sounds a tad oxymoronic, but I guess that’s what we have here: The organization charged with protecting the nation’s skies has announced that it’s loosening the rule that has made laptop-toting travelers remove their notebooks from their cases before putting them through the X-machines at airport security lines. If you own [...]