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Facebook's Libra loses one more member as its council becomes official
Facebook couldn't avoid losing another Libra Association member before it formalized the cryptocurrency's council. Booking Holding, the company behind Booking.com, Kayak and Priceline, has withdrawn from the Libra Association just before the organization's members signed the council charter, elected its Board of Directors and appointed executive team members. The move leaves 21 initial members, including Facebook's own Calibra wallet as well as Lyft, Uber, Spotify and telecoms like Iliad and Vodafone.
Google is changing how other sites use its flight data
Google is getting serious about its role as a travel service. Come April 10, 2018 the search giant will shut down access to its QPX Express API that's used by the likes of Kayak and Orbitz for airfare data, as spotted by Hacker News. This could seriously affect those sites' customers. Travel listings are one thing, but if you've stored a ton of reward points with one and it isn't able to fetch flight times and prices for your a trip next summer, that could cause some headaches.
Amazon's Alexa can book hotels through Kayak with your voice
Kayak introduced an Alexa skill a year ago, which lets you search for flights, hotels and rental cars with your voice. Useful, but not that useful -- you still need to hop on your computer or fire up a phone to book them. Might as well do either from the start and use emoji to search for travel deals. Now, Kayak has upgraded its skill, so that you can book a hotel with just your voice. Simple say, "Alexa, book a hotel room in [the location you're going to]," and it will give you a list of available rooms that you can reserve right then and there. The service will make your reservation through its partners Booking and Priceline, but you only need a Kayak account to take advantage of the feature.
Use emoji to search Kayak for travel deals
The inevitable march to replace words with emoji continues apace, with the world granting more legitimacy to the cartoony mini-images. Last month, an Israeli court ruled that they counted as enough "intent" in a civil case to turn the tide in one side's favor. But today is for you, travel fiends: Kayak now lets you search for destinations by emoji.
Drones and RC kayaks offer fresh views of the ocean
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography has gotten a few more tech upgrades. Scientists aboard research vessel Sally Ride recently tested a pair of drones and a remote control kayak in an effort to get different views and readings of their subjects.
Hit the rapids with Google's latest Olympic doodle
It's time to pound the arrow keys again for Mountain View's latest Olympic doodle game, a whitewater slalom canoe challenge. The idea is to speed through the course with the left/right keys in the best time while using up/down to avoid rocks and the riverbank. Our intrepid web paddlers managed a time of 18 seconds so far, and you can post your own time in the comments below -- if you dare.
Kayak iOS apps get unified, see redesigned user interface and autofill assistant
What better time for the folks at Kayak to update its iOS app than during one of the busiest traveling seasons of the year? (Perhaps before this time of year, but maybe we're just bitter about the "deals" we got back in July.) All that aside, the new version not only unifies the various applications on the platform, but it also includes a major UI overhaul, plus some new features such as car rental search and an autofill option. Some of the older, but useful, elements -- like hotel and flight search -- also saw some design changes, accompanied by slight overall improvements. Notably, the universal app keeps its freebie status, so if you've yet to try it for yourself, you can do so by hitting the source link below.
Ten things I want Siri to be able to do for me
Now that I've had my iPhone 4S for a couple of days, I'm amazed with what Siri can do. I've asked a number of questions -- real ones, not questions like "What is the meaning of life?" -- and have been totally impressed with how my interaction with the iPhone has changed. But there are more things I'd love to be able to do with Siri, which is the reason for this post. Everyone should understand that Siri is currently a beta product from Apple. A lot of the things I'm talking about here should happen once the product is out of beta and developers are given access to a Siri API. This is my way of letting some iOS developers know that I'd love to see Siri integration in their apps. Here we go: I'd love to be able to check into FourSquare using Siri: "Check me in here" I want to be able to send tweets through Siri without having to use text messaging as an intermediary: "Tweet @NikFinn that I'm sorry to hear that you dislocated your finger" I want to be able to have Siri check for reservation availability at OpenTable restaurants (I understand that the "original" Siri app did have OpenTable integration): "Make a reservation for two at Tamayo for 5:30 Friday evening" Likewise, for a fun evening you might want to buy tickets at a local movie theater. Adding the ability to pick a movie time by asking "What time is 'Moneyball' playing near here?" and getting a choice of times, then saying "7:30 at the AMC 24 would be fine, and I need two tickets" to have Siri purchase those tickets would be a time saver. How about being able to shop with Siri? Integration with Amazon.com would be wonderful: "Find the lowest price for a 3 TB FireWire 800 disk drive." Once you see the specs, Siri asks "Would you like to buy this item?" Answer yes, and you've purchased it, answer no and Siri asks if you'd like to look at other similar items. Healthcare could benefit from this. Imagine having Siri integration with apps such as WebMD, and being able to hold a conversation about symptoms before getting a list of possible conditions. Or asking what the side effects of a certain drug are, and having Siri read back a list of those effects. Cool. Healthcare providers could also make life easier for their patients. My provider, Kaiser Permanente, has a wonderful online system for making appointments, contacting my doctor, and getting refills on prescriptions. Doing that by just saying "Order a 90-day refill of my Zantac" or "See if Dr. Healey has an appointment time available tomorrow," and then being able to pick from a couple of open appointment slots would be a time saver. My wife uses an app called Grocery iQ to create a grocery shopping list each week. I'd love to be able to have Siri read me the list one or two items at a time without having to stop, look at the screen, and physically scroll the list. How about being able to say "Read me the first two items on my grocery list" and have Siri respond with those? Follow that up as you walk around the store with "OK, what are the next two items?" and so on. For business travelers, the ability to make reservations on the run would be priceless. How about adding Siri integration to apps like TripAssist by Expedia or Kayak? While you're running through an airport trying to catch a flight, being able to say "Get me a hotel room near the airport in Frankfurt, Germany" and have it respond with "Would you like me to book a room at the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport at €163 per night?" could make the difference between having a room when you arrive or not. Finally, what about being able to do something like ask Siri to get a bunch of articles about a particular subject and put them into your Instapaper account? You say "Get me ten articles about terraforming Mars" and Siri grabs ten of the most popular web pages about the subject for you. I think that Siri has the ability to become the intelligent agent that the mid-90s MagicCap mobile operating system always wanted to be. While MagicCap's TeleScript agents suffered from the lack of cheap and ubiquitous Internet service as well as public acceptance of electronic commerce, those barriers are no longer a problem. Add Siri as a super-friendly interface, and the future is going to be very nice indeed. What are some of your ideas for "serious" integration of Siri into your daily life? Leave your comments below.
Google launches Flight Search service, Kayak shrugs it off (video)
Google's DOJ-approved acquisition of ITA has finally borne fruit, in the form of Flight Search -- a new tool that aims to streamline the chaos that is online travel booking. The Mountain View contingent unveiled the interface yesterday, with an "early look" at what appears to be a fairly straightforward service. Once you enter your starting point, destination, price range and duration, a list of results will appear in ascending order of fare and duration, below a map displaying each flight's trajectory. From there, you can filter your results by airline, number of layovers or specific departure times, before booking your itinerary on the carrier's site (Google was careful to point out that flight selection and results will not be "influenced by any paid relationships"). At the moment, the service is restricted to a select group of US cities and only features round-trip economy class flights, but Google says future updates and expansions are on the way. We're eager to see how the company dresses up this relatively bare bones platform and, perhaps more importantly, how competing travel sites react to it. Kayak, for one, responded with confident nonchalance to Flight Search, explicitly describing it as an inferior product. "We're confident in our ability to compete, and we believe our flight search technology is superior," the company said, in a statement. "We recognize Google is a formidable competitor but they haven't been successful in every vertical they've entered." Let the games begin. Demo video after the break.
Browse vacation spots with Kayak Explore for Mac
Travel site Kayak.com has released its first OS X app, Kayak Explore. The app works as a sort of travel guidebook that helps users make up their minds about what destinations they should explore on their next trip. When you launch the app, you're presented with a map and five photos, each of which represents a different vacation destination. Beneath the photo, you'll find a price for the trip, including flights and hotel. At the bottom of the screen is a slider with back and next arrows, which cycles through the list of destinations. Adjusting the slider to the left or right allows you to select a price range. The filter bar allows you to customize the auto-generated vacation destinations. You can select from categories such as romantic, shopping, urban, historic, and more; change your departure airport; adjust the number of travelers and narrow your trip to a specific month. Clicking on any of the destinations brings up a details windows that shows flight prices from different airlines and details about the hotel, such as maps, photos, reviews and rates. If you want to book any of the flights or destinations, click the Book Now button, and it will take you to the provider's website where you can complete your purchase. I'm a fan of Kayak.com, and I think their Kayak HD app is one of the best travel apps for the iPad. However, the Kayak Explore Mac app seems almost pointless. It's more of a kiosk you'd expect to see at an airport or Kayak's website. While the effort is appreciated, I hope this isn't a sign of things to come in the Mac App Store: apps that are little more than branding materials for companies, serve little purpose or provide little more than shallow benefits for users. Kayak Explore is a free download from the Mac App Store.
Media Molecule designer kayaking around the UK for charity
The folks at LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule have proven time and time again that their brains don't work in quite the same way as everyone else's. Take, for example, John Beech: Though most normies would elect to bring their kayaking trip to a close after an hour or two, John has decided to row his plastic vessel around the entire circumference of the United Kingdom. It's a mind-searing 2,450-mile trip that will take him two months to complete; and he's doing it all for a good cause. (Naturally!) You can check Beech's progress on Media Molecule's site, and sponsor his attempt by donating money to GamesAid, a UK-based organization which distributes funds to other, smaller charities. We'd also suggest that you wish him luck on his sojourn, but we're not sure about the quality of the Wi-Fi on his tiny boat.
US DoJ approves Google's acquisition of ITA, but not without stipulations
The United States government may be dissolved tomorrow, but it's certainly taking care of one final piece of business before going into shutdown: this. If you'll recall, Google announced its intentions to acquire ITA for $700 million in July of last year, and as we cruise into the start of America's summer travel season, all signals are go. Today, the US Department of Justice approved Google's request to move forward with the buy, but rather than having the entire travel search market under its wing, El Goog's going to have to make a smattering of concessions in order to get the right signatures. For starters, the search monolith will allow ITA's existing client contracts to extend into 2016, and it'll let both current and new customers license ITA's QPX software on "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms." No one's saying when the integration will be complete (or start, for that matter), but we're desperately anxious to see just how Kayak and Bing Travel react after this launches in earnest. Power to the searchers, as it were.
Kayak to provide travel and flight search results within Microsoft's Bing
Bing Travel just so happened to be the one major aspect of Bing that kept us coming back, and now it's about to get even more irresistible. The famed Kayak flight search engine will soon be powering Microsoft's Bing Travel, with the two locking down a partnership that'll bring better results to consumers while enabling Bing admins to focus their attention on more pressing matters. According to Kayak, Bing will have access to "all" of Kayak's travel search services globally, and it looks as if the integration will be complete "in the coming weeks." Call it a hunch, but something tells us the folks are Redmond are just stacking up ammunition to face a new wave of inevitable competition -- if that Google / ITA deal ever clears regulatory hurdles, it'll be On Like Donkey Kong.
A Delta Airlines app is on the way
Rather recently, American Airlines released an iPhone app that offers quite a few nice features for the AA traveler, including flight status, boarding pass access and ... Soduku. With the exception of that last feature, travel app Kayak offers many of these features already, though it's not stopping other airlines from following suit. Just the other day, a Delta executive mentioned in a short interview that a Delta iPhone app is on the horizon. It's not clear yet what kinds of services and features the app will provide, though it's a safe bet the American Airlines app will give you a decent guess. What kinds of services and features would you want to see in an airline-dedicated iPhone app that's not already present in current offerings?
Google acquires ITA for $700m, dives headfirst into airline ticket search
Look out, Kayak / Bing Travel -- you both are about to have your respective worlds rocked. While Google has managed to stay on top (or close to the top) when it comes to almost everything search related, the company has curiously allowed smaller niche brands to handle the travel side. Even amongst the hardcore Googlers, avid flyers typically head to a place like Kayak to weigh their options, while vacation planners either do likewise or turn to Bing Travel. In a few months time, we suspect some of that traffic will be diverted back to El Goog. The company has just announced plans to acquire Cambridge-based ITA Software for a cool $700 million, which will put one of the world's most sophisticated QPX software tools for organizing flight information into the hands of the planet's most dangerous search ally. According to Google, the pickup will allow consumers to search and buy airline tickets with less hassle and frustration, though it's quick to point out that it has "no plans to sell airline tickets [directly] to consumers." For the travel junkies in attendance, there's a high probability that you won't find any better news coming your way today than this. [Thanks, Matthew]
Kayak's business model upended by iPhone
Developers are learning that iPhone users want sophistication and features in their apps, not watered-down functionality. A report in GigaOM shows that not only are companies finding that slimmer isn't better when it comes to apps, but that one company is actually changing their business model based on what they found out about how iPhone users were using their app. Travel search service Kayak based its first iPhone offering on the assumption that a mobile user would most likely use the app if her flight had been canceled and she needed a replacement reservation. As a result, the initial app didn't have features like flexible date search. While the Kayak app [free, iTunes link] was very successful for the company, with over 600,000 downloads since February now accounting for 5% of Kayak's search volume, users demanded the full functionality that they found on the company's website. Kayak went back to the drawing board and recently released version 2.0 of the app, with some major improvements. However, since Kayak is a search engine, iPhone users still end up being pushed to other travel websites, which means that they have to put up with tiny renditions of full pages and non-loading Flash sites. This "concierge" model obviously needed some work for the iPhone client. The growing movement towards iPhones and other handheld devices becoming laptop replacements has forced a change in Kayak's business model. In 2010, Kayak will introduce an iPhone-friendly wallet system that will give users the chance to book travel from their devices. That wallet will save credit card, frequent flier, and flight preference information. Kayak will use the wallet to enter data into travel provider sites, and then send the users an alert when the booking has been completed. This change, forced by the growing use of iPhones, will most likely be reflected on the main Kayak website as well. Do you know of any other companies that have had to change their business model because of the success of the iPhone? We'd like to know -- please leave a comment below.
Solar-powered kayak attachment nixes need for paddling
Although this isn't the first time we've heard "solar-powered" and "kayak" used in the same sentence, the SPK-1 does its darnedest to make us shake our heads in disbelief. This "outrigger attachment" essentially hooks onto any medium / large-sized kayak and relies on the sun to charge up the 12V deep cycle marine battery. From there, a Minkota trolling motor provides the power your kayak needs to move about in the water, leaving you with nothing better to do than kick back, enjoy a book and keep an eye on any incoming yachts. Sure, you could consider the $1,100 adornment an exemplification of indolence, but we think it's more like training wheels... only, for your kayak.[Thanks, Rich H.]
