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airport posts

Google gifting free airport WiFi for the holidays

by Thomas Ricker posted Nov 10th 2009 at 4:12AM

We really want to dislike Google. Such a massive company with unbelievable wealth and control over so much of our data must be evil, right? But man, free airport WiFi for the holidays? Come give us a hug Goog. The gift extends the Virgin America deal already announced to 47 airports across the US until January 15th -- an arrangement expected to cover about 35% of all US travelers. Oh, and it starts now. Hey, at least we can still hate those money grubbing airport WiFi service providers. Hit the read link to find out if the airports in your holiday plans are covered.

Read -- Participating airports
Read -- Press release

Wii balance board could be used in fruitless airport security effort

by Darren Murph posted Oct 10th 2009 at 10:02AM

You know that sweeping feeling of guilt that comes over you every time you're pulled over as part of a "standard traffic stop?" Yeah, those natural emotions are about to make you look incredibly suspicious on the way to your next flight -- or it will if the FAST project is ever turned into reality. The Homeland Security-funded Future Attribute Screening Technology effort, which has already ate away at $20 million in taxpayer dollars, essentially hopes to let flyers keep all of their clothes on while forcing them to stand on a Wii balance board (or similar) and have an array of sensors watch their every reaction to a battery of questions. The problem? Every innocent person on the planet's going to start sweating and shaking just being in that kind of scenario, and only the trained terrorists of the world are apt to be able to put truth aside and fake the machine into thinking everything is cool. Oh sure, we're being a little dramatic here, but seriously -- maybe the TSA should just require a complete life history as a prerequisite to boarding.

[Via Popular Science]

iTunes 9 breaking AirTunes connections?

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 14th 2009 at 1:59PM

Apple breaking support for third-party devices in iTunes may not have been all that unexpected, but you'd think it'd have support for its own products lined up before pushing a major update out the door -- especially something that it had already broken with the last major iTunes update. AirTunes users apparently aren't that lucky, however, as reports are now cropping up that iTunes 9 is breaking connections with the home audio streaming service left and right -- although at least a few people seem to be reporting only intermittent problems. No word from Apple itself just yet but, if the last go 'round is any indication, it should have a fix for the problem sooner or later. In the meantime, feel free to relay your tales of AirTunes woe in the comments.

[Thanks, Sami K]

Heathrow taxi pods become a glorious, driverless reality

by Vladislav Savov posted Aug 18th 2009 at 4:19AM

Finally, we are in the future -- Heathrow Airport is rolling out those driverless pod taxis it announced two years ago, and they look just as adorable as ever. The ULTra Personal Pod cars are fully automated battery-powered pods that zoom around at up to 25mph on a special road network, and can transport four passengers and their luggage between Heathrow's Terminal 5 and its business car parks. If, like us, you have a thing for retro-futuristic design, you'll do well to check out the gallery below, complete with interior shots, and there's also a video after the break. Enjoy!

[Via BoingBoing Gadgets]

Gallery: Heathrow taxi pods become a glorious, driverless reality

Continue reading Heathrow taxi pods become a glorious, driverless reality

iPhone 3GS prototype scooped up at airport, now on eBay

by Darren Murph posted Jul 3rd 2009 at 2:03PM

Seriously folks, what's up with these prototype iPhones falling out of nondescript white vans and ending up on eBay in the shadiest of manners? Just months after we saw an original iPhone prototype (ancient OS included) pop up on The 'Bay, now we've got one of the world's first iPhone 3GSs on there as well. According to the highly ranked eBay seller, the "guy" he "got it from" actually stumbled upon it at an airport, and rather than doing the nonsensical thing of hitting up lost and found, he decided to make the most of the sudden opportunity. According to the new owner, an Apple Genius has confirmed that it is an iPhone 3GS, but due to its prototype nature, they can't help him get past the "Connect to iTunes" screen. In other words, it's an incredibly rare brick. If that sounds like just the thing to complete your collection, you can visit the road to overpaying through the read link below.

[Via ElectricPig]

Clear shuffles through its last upstanding citizen, tells the rest to fall in line

by Darren Murph posted Jun 23rd 2009 at 9:53AM

Let's face it: no one digs long security lines at airports. But if you reckoned a healthy amount of folks would be willing to pay $128 per year in order to bypass said lines at only a few airports in the world, you'd be wrong. After launching with high hopes back in 2005, Clear has quietly folded after failing to "negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations." There's no word on what'll happen to existing paying customers, but we get the feeling they'll be directed towards a somewhat unpleasant creek sans a paddle. Or, you know, that poorly staffed lane to the left with 384 (give or take) cantankerous, shoeless travelers.

[Image courtesy of Airliners]

Space Observer to innocently watch you at San Jose's airport

by Darren Murph posted Apr 20th 2009 at 7:08AM

It's every child's dream to one day walk through a trio of space robot legs as entering Silicon Valley, and if a proposed art project goes through, said dream will become a reality for budding tech superstars who land in Mineta San Jose International Airport. The $300,000 initiative would see a so-called Space Observer built and showcased prominently in the venue, allowing patrons to walk underneath its two-story-tall body and emit all sorts of "oohs" and "ahhs." The monolithic space robot would sport three legs and propeller-tipped kinetic camera arms, the latter of which would collect live video to be displayed on embedded monitors within its body. San Jose Public Art Director Barbara Goldstein has already stated that "it won't follow you anywhere," but it's not like she really has the power to control what this obviously sentient creature does / doesn't do.

HP TouchSmart airport kiosk hands-on

by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 1st 2009 at 7:51AM

HP has hooked up with the City of Chicago to install a whole bunch of TouchSmart 2-powered kiosks for a period of six months, offering weary travelers an all-too-brief respite from their normal routine as they wander through O'Hare International Airport's many nooks and crannies. In terms of functionality, we're not talking about much action here -- don't expect to plop down and catch up on email or video call the fam on Skype -- but users can head over to the city's tourism website, watch a video about the TouchSmart's capabilities, and browse a whole bunch of sweet (and huge) images of the city courtesy of GigaPan. The high-megapixel imagery suits the system's multitouch capabilities to a T, but needless to say, the high-gloss display doesn't get along too well with Terminal 1's harsh lighting; check out the video after the break to see what we mean.

Gallery: HP TouchSmart airport kiosk hands-on

Continue reading HP TouchSmart airport kiosk hands-on

New Airport Extreme and Time Capsule juggle two networks simultaneously

by Paul Miller posted Mar 3rd 2009 at 9:05AM

Apple's new Airport Extreme actually brings some fun stuff to the staid wireless router market, while a similarly refreshed Time Capsule does the same for NAS land. The power comes from its new dual-band WiFi radios, allowing them to work in 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands simultaneously, support up to 50 users simultaneously and even set up separate limited-access networks for guests. That $179 pricetag on the Airport Extreme doesn't get any easier to swallow, and neither do the $299 or $499 tags on the Time Capsule (500GB or 1TB, respectively) but at least you'll have the hippest and whitest 802.11n access point in your dorm.

Apple rumor Monday: Nehalem Mac Pro, new Airport Extreme and Time Capsule in FCC, Mac mini box

by Nilay Patel posted Mar 2nd 2009 at 2:17PM

Lots of Apple rumors today following the weekend whispers of a March 24 desktop hardware event, and they fall neatly along the plausibility spectrum:

First up, we'd say a bump of the Mac Pro to Intel's upcoming Nehalem-EP Xeon processors is looking quite likely -- famed OS X hacker netkas was poking around in a test build of OS X 10.5.7 and found support files for i7 chips lurking about, as well as drivers for ATI's Radeon 4000-series GPUs. If you're making a chart, this one's right up there with an NVIDIA-powered iMac refresh -- it's a pretty obvious move.
Second, new entries for the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule have popped up in the FCC, and while the listed dimensions are exactly the same as the current editions, there are no model numbers and something internal has to have changed enough to raise ol' Sammy's brows. That could be as simple as a new radio hardware supplier or bigger drives, but if we were placing bets, we'd say both units are getting updated for simultaneous 5GHz and 2.4GHz operation -- Apple's really high on 5GHz for laptops and Apple TV, but the iPhone and iPod touch are 2.4GHz-only. Let's call this one even odds, shall we?
Lastly, a new picture of that improbable five USB port Mac mini has surfaced, this time purporting to show the outside of the box. Considering the Photoshop wars the last image of this thing set off, we'd say this is the least likely candidate for a Philly Schills reveal, but then again, Apple's been pretty leaky lately.

That's everything we know -- anyone else have something to share with the group?

Read - Ars Technica on the Mac Pro
Read - New Airport Extreme FCC listing
Read - New Time Capsule FCC listing
Read - One More Thing Mac mini image [Via TUAW]

Cellphone boarding pass gets tested, experience gets journaled

by Darren Murph posted Nov 27th 2008 at 7:04PM

The biggest problem with a new scheme -- particularly one involving you, technology and the TSA -- is the very real fear that introducing something fresh into a traditional system will create more havoc than good. As Grant Martin of sister blog Gadling discovered, there's a reason that belief exists. Upon realizing that he could utilize a mobile boarding pass on his flight from Detroit to New York, he excitedly pulled up a one-time use QR code on his iPhone and shuffled through to security. Upon reaching the checkpoint, he was greeted by a less-than-enthusiastic boarding pass checker who seemed to take entirely too long to send him onward; at the next step, the agent seemed miffed and discomposed by the fact that the passenger couldn't simultaneously rid himself of all electronics and keep his boarding pass on his person while passing through the metal detector. In the end, Mr. Martin concluded that the system holds a lot of promise, but it's still going to take some time before everyone else working at the airport adjusts to the year 2008.

American Airlines getting in on that cellphone boarding pass fad

by Samuel Axon posted Nov 14th 2008 at 7:59AM

American Airlines has joined its peers at Continental in offering boarding pass barcodes that you can download to and display on your BlackBerry, iPhone, G1, or whatever have you. Presently the airline is only offering the option on domestic, non-stop flights departing from O'Hare -- LAX and Orange County will start on the 17th. Some eastern yanks might be asking, "What, no JFK or Logan? Where's the east coast love, AA?" Don't get too bent out of shape, boys and girls -- tech-savvy business travelers love their BlackBerries, so we could see this pop up just about everywhere before long.

[Via Mobilitysite]

Foreign Object Debris detection and removal systems bring safety bots to the airports

by Joshua Fruhlinger posted Aug 9th 2008 at 3:11AM

When landing or taking off in a plane, the only things you want to see on the runway are lights and stripes. Foreign Object Debris (FOD), the stuff that can get sucked into engines or even flatten a plane's tires, has become the focus of several new technologies that are setting out to remove the bad stuff. Why do we care? Because some of these technologies call not only for little sensors mounted on runway lights, but also for robots that will cruise out, pick up the debris, and dispose of it as found in the Xsight system from Trex Enterprises. Others, like QinetiQ Airport Technologies' debris system, displays debris on screen at the airport's tower. Whatever the solution, we say: bring on the runway bots and safety.

AV8OR Multi-Function Display works well on highways, friendly skies

by Darren Murph posted Aug 4th 2008 at 6:48PM

Okay, so the vast majority of you won't be needing a navigation unit that also provides pertinent information while cruising several thousand feet above your nearest freeway, but for the amateur pilots out there looking for the best of both worlds, take notice. Bendix/King's AV8OR is a self-proclaimed handheld Multi-Function Display, which gives pilots "enhanced situational awareness" by providing "real-time satellite weather information, topographic terrain and aeronautical navigation information." You'll also find more traditional GPS capabilities suitable for ground transportation routes, and the 4.3-inch display ought to be large enough for most. 'Course, the $749 price tag will likely keep most non-pilots at bay, but those thinking of picking up an ultralight aircraft probably won't flinch at such a comparatively minute figure.

Targus introduces checkpoint-friendly Zip-Thru laptop case

by Darren Murph posted Jul 30th 2008 at 8:53AM

As we surmised earlier this month with the formal introduction of Mobile Edge's trio of TSA-approved laptop bags, the flood of competitors are now rushing out. One of the first out of the gate is Targus, delivering its Zip-Thru 15.4-inch Corporate Traveler Laptop Case. Just the first in the outfit's sure-to-be-long line of checkpoint-friendly bags, this one measures in at 16.93- x 6.5- x 13.98-inches, weighs 3.74-pounds, is constructed from durable black ballistic 1680 denier nylon and can -- of course -- slip under those airport scanning machines with your precious machine still tucked inside. Unfortunately, it won't be available for summertime travel (look for it to land in October), but you can go ahead and budget in $99.99 well before Q3 gets sticky.

[Via CrunchGear]