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Airbnb reportedly working on a flight-booking feature
Bloomberg reports that short-term rental listing service, Airbnb is looking to get into airline reservation game as well. According to unnamed sources within the company, Airbnb's plans are still in the formational stages. The company could either acquire an online travel agency outright or simply license the booking data.
A new, compromise-friendly Airbnb makes nice with New Orleans
We knew Airbnb was working with more accommodating policies as it tries to improve relationships with the cities that don't love it, but it turns out the company really is willing to make some tough concessions. Case in point: New Orleans. Recently, the city and the company brokered a deal in which Airbnb would provide the municipal government with the names and addresses of hosts, as well as agreeing that hosts would have to register with the city and obtain permits.
Google Maps updates streetview for New Orleans, reminds us the jazz plays on
In many ways, Google's Streetview is a document. A snapshot in time. Usually, this amounts to pictures of a sunny clear day in downtown Localsville, but it can also be a reminder of times less bright. Since Hurricane Katrina, the city has been working hard to rebuild neighborhoods and communities, and better prepare itself for the future. Today -- via Google's Lat Long Blog -- Mayor Mitch Landrieu proudly announced that Streetview has been updated to reflect those efforts, and show New Orleans in that familiar, sunny way. Whether it's Congo Square ("the birthplace of jazz"), the city's parks, or more recent features and attractions, Landrieu proudly extends an invite to all of us to come take a look, enjoy the virtual tour, and "whet our appetite." We say put the Gumbo on.
Sprint shows you where and when it's disabling Nextel's iDEN legacy network
Clue's in the title, really. If you head on over to Sprint's website, you'll find a page explaining the forthcoming changes to the service for legacy iDEN customers. Nextel users can enter in their zip code to find out which cellphone towers will be decommissioned and the due dates for each one. The program's beginning in New Orleans this month as the towers are thinned out to a reasonable number. Whilst it isn't (yet) the death-knell for the standard, given the network's push-to-talk service now works over CDMA and, you know, LTE, we'd start looking at replacement phones pretty soon.
New Orleans' Prytania rises up to 3D
Outside of the frozen food section at the supermarket, nothing beats the summer heat quite like a cool (or downright cold) movie theater, and the recently Sony/RealD 4k-equipped Prytania theater in New Orleans just added 3D capabilities to entice viewers some more. No surprise -- Disney's summer blockbuster, Up, was the first talkie to make the leap off the silver screen at the newly outfitted venue, and we suspect that The Prytania -- the only theater in N'awlins to have Up in 3D -- raked in a healthy crowd for its investment. We love to see storied theaters keep up with the times, and this almost 95-year old movie house is no exception.[Thanks, gamedude360!]
New Orleans, Louisiana's Prytania Theatre goes 4K
Not even three full years since getting itself back in business, The Prytania Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana has apparently embraced the wonderful technology that is 4K. Still the only single screen cinema in the entire state, this landmark venue now has Sony 4K badges on its otherwise bare website, signifying that it is now ready to treat patrons to a high-resolution movie-going experience. 4K theaters are still relatively rare even in America, so we'd probably hop on down and see whatever's playing should you find yourself in N'awlins. Speaking of -- has anyone dropped in since the upgrade?[Image courtesy of DayLife, thanks gamedude360]
NBA All-Star Weekend 2008's HD by the numbers
NBA All Star Weekend 2008 is upon us, and while it might not have the 3D cachet of last year's game, there will be plenty of HD to look forward to while voting on the dunk contest. Not just a U.S. spectacle, this year's game will be broadcast in HD in Belgium, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Spain. TNT has lined up 32 HD cameras to cover ASW, and 22 HD video servers, all connected via 10 TV trucks, 122 flat screen monitors and 66 miles of fiber cables. The festivities start tonight with the rookie challenge at 9 p.m., but the number we're looking for is how high Dwight Howard jumps in the dunk competition, and if he recreates Andre Iguodala's off-the-back-of-the-backboard reverse jam.
CNN, Golf / Versus finally added to Cox's New Orleans lineup
Although Cox inked a deal to snag CNN HD (and TBS HD, mind you) some three months back, it seems as if customers in New Orleans, Louisiana are just now getting a taste. According to a tipster, Cox has just recently threw CNN and Golf / Versus into the high-definition lineup, but stations such as History Channel HD, Science HD and NHL Network HD are still sorely missing. Anyone else enjoying the (admittedly late) newcomers in the area?[Thanks, Jose R.]
EarthLink wins bid for New Orleans WiFi network
Shortly after winning approval to build a 15-square mile WIFi network in Philly, Earthlink has now gotten the go ahead to build one in New Orleans, replacing the city's free but slow city-owned network. As with the Philidelphia network, New Orleans' will extend for 15-square miles and should cost users about $20 a month for 1-megabit-per-second service, although Earthlink says a slower 300 kbs service will be available for free and without advertising while the city rebuilds. No word yet on when deployment of the mesh network will begin, but it will apparently use gear from Tropos Networks with some additional hardware from Motorola's MOTOwi4 line of products.
The Superdome will be back this fall, and with HD
After the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, it seemed doubtful that football would ever be played in the Superdome again, but the NFL announced shortly before Super Bowl XL that the Saints will be playing actual home games starting September 24th next season against the Atlanta Falcons. The league has announced they will be putting in as much as $20 million of the projected $182 million it will cost to repair and renovate the stadium with most of the rest coming from insurance and FEMA.Part of the renovation will include a huge high definition scoreboard much like the one in New Orleans Arena. They also plan to renovate the luxury boxes, hopefully they will take a look at our buying guide before they make a final decision there.
