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]

Huge shocker here: removing your shoes at airport security causes massive headaches and makes the wait longer for everyone. Now that we're all good with Captain Obvious' latest headline, let us point you to one prototype that's looking to solve said dilemma. SecuriScan, which has been developed by Professor Wuqiang Yang at the University of Manchester, would theoretically be able to "detect and pinpoint suspicious objects instantly," all without requiring passengers to remove their kicks. Better still, the system uses electric and magnetic sensing instead of a radiation source, which could also address safety concerns while helping you get where you're going more quickly. Moving forward, Yang hopes to develop a more advanced and realistic prototype for testing, and just in case you were doubting this guy's determination, he's also investigating a handheld version that could hastily screen abandoned luggage or packages.

[Via Physorg, image courtesy of ChangeAirportSecurity]

Hold onto your dollar bills, y'all -- the WhiteKnightTwo is set to be unveiled (and swooned over) on Monday. We knew the fabled space tourism vehicle was set to be unwrapped this month, but knowing that said event is merely hours away just gets our juices flowin'. Richard Branson and "other dignitaries" are preparing to officially launch the ship at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California (a short drive from Zzyzx, we hear), and we're still being led to believe that test flights should begin as early as this fall. Hey, at least you know what you're doing next year if your ship comes in.

[Via The Register]

Never heard of Fresno-Yosemite International? Thanks to this low-key airport now housing the largest solar installation of any airport in the entire United States, you have now. Arriving passengers will notice the panels a half-mile out, as they cover about seven football fields worth of land and will eventually result in taxpayer savings of $11 million. The 2-megawatt farm has been churning out clean energy for the past month, and electricity from the installation helps to run "everything from airport lighting to tower communications." FYI's aviation director even noted that it would "produce about 40% of its annual electrical requirement." If you're worried that other locales won't follow suit, don't be -- a similar, albeit smaller system is already in the works at DEN.

[Via Gadling, thanks Trowa]

We'll be honest -- we weren't exactly feeling blueLounge's grossly overpriced SpaceStation, but its boldly-named The Sanctuary actually strikes us as quite useful. The gadget organizer allows technophiles to stuff their handhelds into this black or white container for easy carriage / storage, and moreover, it includes a built-in panel of labeled plugs in order to connect all your gizmos to power at once. The unit comes with a dozen connectors for the most popular items around, but since it's universal, your options are bordering on limitless. Heck, there's even a USB port thrown in to charge any oddball device you may have laying around. Yeah, $129.95 is still a touch steep, but for the avid traveler who can never find room for 12 or so AC adapters in that carry-on bag, it's probably well worth the cost.

[Via iLounge]

Crazy though it may be, XCOR's looming Lynx isn't the first rocket ship built to take Earthlings to outer space, but it's definitely taking a different approach than that of the SpaceShipTwo. Unveiled as the "sports car of commercial spaceflight," the smallish craft is only designed to carry two individuals (or a driver and cargo), meaning that you and your SO will have to take turns shooting up to some 61-kilometers above the ground. Reportedly, Lynx would be fueled by a kerosene / liquid oxygen mixture and could take off and land from traditional airstrips, and while it could manage several flights per day, each one is only slated to last 25 minutes. Sadly, the $64,000 (likely more, actually) question of how much this joyride will cost has yet to be answered, but optimistic minds are hoping to see test flights commence in 2010.

[Via NewScientist]

Sure, setting out for a trek around the globe sounds like fun and games at first, but when you plop down in that Welsh hotel and realize your US power adapter is worthless, terror can quickly ensue. Fret not, fellow argonauts, as the Universal Travel Adapter with USB Port has arrived to clear your mind of worry and ensure that your wares can be juiced up from almost anywhere. For $17, you'll get plugs for the US, UK, Europe and Australia, but it seems you're on your own if heading to another galaxy.

In another mostly positive step for in-flight entertainment options, Continental Airlines will be rolling out DirecTV along with email and IM service on 225 of its planes starting next January -- the majority of its domestic fleet, according to Reuters -- although watching some tube will reportedly cost economy passengers six bucks-a-pop. Continental is teaming up with LiveTV on the venture, a subsidiary of JetBlue which also provides that airline with DirecTV, XM, and, more recently, limited Yahoo email and IM services courtesy of its 800MHz bandwidth acquisition. LiveTV will both provide and install a majority of the in-plane hardware in exchange for most of the revenue from economy section TV viewers; the 36 DirecTV channels will be free to first class passengers, and anyone with compatible devices and a Yahoo account can connect to the flying hotspots.

[Via Reuters]

Thanks to that freaky would-be shoe bomber dude, we're all now forced to endure the embarrassment of exposing foot odor and sock holes to our fellow passengers every time we take a flight -- but thanks to a company named IDO Security and its MagShoe metal detector, this long national nightmare at airport security lines may soon be at an end. The high-speed portable device allows folks to simply stand in its dual foot bays -- shoes on -- for just a few seconds before the all clear is given, and has already been tested successfully overseas. Military Tech goes on to report that a US deployment is almost a done deal, according to the company, with the TSA currently evaluating the MagShoe for domestic use. Now, will someone please come up with a way for us to bring a bottle of water on the plane?

Gizmos such as the Super Trackstick have been around for a tick, but the newest creation from Telespial Systems makes logging those late night trips to wherever a lesson in simplicity. This diminutive device touts 4MB of built-in storage for tracking "weeks or even months of travel histories," including records of the "exact routes, stop times, speed and direction, and other valuable information." Additionally, the GPS-equipped device gets powered from just two AAA cells (which last about a month), and users can expect the Google Earth integration to make for some pretty precise results. All of the data tracked can be easily uploaded to your PC via the built-in USB 2.0 connector, and while we're not exactly sure it's worth the $274.98 asking price, be sure and check out the promo video after the break.

[Via The Raw Feed]

As the flood of new gizmos continues to pour out of IFA, a new GPS handheld has emerged for the European market. Merian's Scout Navigator touts a 3.7-inch VGA touchscreen, four to eight hours of battery life, NAVTEQ maps of Europe, and traffic notification support. Most notable, however, are the built in AudioGuides, which "automatically play when you pass by any one of more than 800 places of interest in Germany, be it in a vehicle or on foot." For those intrigued, watch for it to land next month for a staggering €779 ($1,047).

[Via Messe-Berlin]

To be quite honest, there's been an awful lot of gadgetry lately tied to rings, and while it's a curious fascination, you won't find us griping over the latest ring-based device. Gail Knight's vibrating GPS hoops are nothing short of a traveler's dream come true, as these fanciful finger adornments work in conjunction with a neck-worn GPS controller to direct you to your destination via simple buzzing cues. The rings vibrate in a variety of manners to instruct the wearer which direction to go, which could certainly help an English tourist in Japan feel a lot more at home. Granted, even the inventor admits that the current design is entirely more suited for a lady, but we can envision quite a few macho gents putting their pride aside in order to refrain from being lost.

[Via NaviGadget]

For those of you enjoying the free-flowing high-occupancy vehicle lane on the Capitol Expressway (in your HOV-exempt hybrid, no less), stay sharp, as it looks like those oh-so-valuable stickers that reside on your ride appear as gold to thieves. Apparently, "two to three dozen" victims per month are surfacing in California, where the now-extinct stickers are presumably fetching a pretty penny on the underground markets. The labels -- which were handed out to some 85,000 hybrid owners in years past to give them the same speedy privileges are carpoolers -- are no longer being administered by the DMV, which means that those that were able to take advantage are now targets. Interestingly, hybrid vehicles that are up for sale in the area are fetching "nearly $4,000 more" than comparative models so long as they come with the coveted sticker pre-installed. Notably, the DMV claims that the "carpool stickers are treated chemically so they crumble apart if tampered with," but that wee tidbit isn't likely to slow down a desperate bandit.

[Via Fark]

When it comes to rethinking the cabin of your modern jumbo jet, innovations usually involve enhancing the travel experience by offering more leg room, better entertainment, tastier food, etc.; less popular, it seems, are attempts to minimize those few square feet of unprofitable breathing room by packing even more people into what already feels like a flying sardine tin. Well someone over at Acumen Design Associates and the Premium Aircraft Interior Group apparently lost the memo revealing that people prefer more personal space to less, because how else to explain the collaboration's "Freedom" seating concept, which crams in an extra column of rear-facing seats that force you to sit nearly eye-to-eye with your neighbor. This design -- to be presented at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg -- supposedly trumps current configurations by allowing travelers' shoulders to overlap, but which will probably only serve to create even more heated battles over the narrower armrests. In fact, the only advantage we see to practically sitting on top of the person next to us is that when in-flight cellphones are finally given the green light, it will be just a little easier to tell our loudmouth seat buddy to shut the h-e-double-hockey-sticks up.

[Via Core77]