destinations
Latest
YouTube launches a fashion destination for style and beauty content
Today, YouTube launched a new destination dedicated to fashion. YouTube.com/Fashion, or "slash fashion," will include videos from popular creators, a "beauty today" section, collaborations with the industry's biggest names and live-streamed runway shows -- all just in time for September Fashion Month.
Roam the Valve HQ reception in VR and find the cake already
When the folks at Valve aren't fiddling with Steam, updating popular first-party franchises or working on wacky projects, they like to have a little fun. Or, at least the team working on Valve's Destinations VR title does. Destinations is a casual, multiplayer experience for exploring community-created worlds and playing simple games with friends. And now, as of the title's most recent update, anyone with a Vive or Rift can feel what it's like to venture inside the hallowed ground that is Valve HQ.
Plan your entire vacation with a single Google search
Google Search's latest feature makes it possible to arrange your entire holiday (flights, accommodation, itinerary) from a single search. It's the company's first foray into travel on mobile, mimicking the move that most of us are making with our browsing habits -- off PCs and onto our phones. You can start with a seriously broad outset (Google's video demo suggests Europe), and then you can dig down into cities and places, pricing on hotel rooms and flights are simplified for broad dates which you can specify further if needed. That name's a little familiar though...
Amazon shutters its 'Destinations' travel site after just six months
Amazon Destinations, the travel site that offered deals on hotel stays, is no more. The company shut down the site yesterday, just six months after it began offering reduced rates on one- to three-night stays within driving distance of a city. Destinations only offered lodging in areas around LA, New York and Seattle when it launched in April, but expanded in July to include Atlanta, Boston, Houston and San Francisco. The company will honor reservations that were already made through the site, but the site's help page says that Amazon is no longer selling hotel stays on the web or through its "Local" app. If you're looking to save some coin on travel, it looks like you'll have to employ the likes of Expedia and Kayak. [Image credit: dierken/Flickr]
Amazon Destinations handpicks hotels in LA, NY and Seattle
Amazon's rumored new travel site has appeared and it's well, exactly as rumored. While the company previously sold flash-sale hotel rooms as part of Amazon Local, alongside steep discounts, Destinations is more about curated hotels. The service currently focuses on areas around LA, New York and Seattle, with the aim of selling short-term getaways that are near to those aforementioned transport hubs. There's no news on whether it'd roll-out the new service to other US areas (let alone other countries), but it wouldn't be a shocker if it did. The site is already accepting user reviews, but expanding the service will likely depend on how many people are looking to pay typical list prices - if only because it's paired with the ubiquity of Amazon.
Google Street View adds 1,001 new destinations, lets you explore from afar
The folks from Mountain View are constantly adding more and more features to Street View -- and, well, today's no exception. Via its Maps blog, Google announced that it's giving Street View a hefty boost by adding over 1,000 fresh destinations to the mix, noting that the idea is to make it "more comprehensive and useful for you." There's new imagery from places in Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada and, of course, the US, allowing users to check out sites like the Seville Cathedral (Spain), Bosque de Chapultepec (Mexico), The Mark Twain House (USA) and many, many others. Google's highlighted some of these new destinations on its website, so pay the source link below a visit if you're interested in a quick, virtual tour around the world.
NAVTEQ's Destination Maps provide mobile guidance through malls, outer reaches of your mind
For anyone that's ever been hopelessly turned around within the Mall of America (or the Las Vegas Convention Center), the promise provided by NAVTEQ's newly announced Destination Maps is quite compelling. It allows for orientation, guidance and routing for indoor venues like those mentioned above, and serves up a useful map of entrances, exits, restrooms, stairwells and points of interest that would otherwise be undetectable. Neither IDG News nor NAVTEQ mentions exactly how this is accomplished, but we can only speculate that a Hybrid GPS antenna is used along side a layer of augmented reality -- but then again, these could be static routes that require no positioning whatsoever to explore. It's also uncertain which mobile platforms would support such an app (despite having been demoed on a Nokia N8 in the photo above), or if this will even make it past the beta stage. More info is expected at Where 2.0 in April, and it's a pretty safe bet that Paul Blart will be on hand for its official debut.
Ford SYNC Destinations hands-on (video)
There was a time when we studied maps to figure out where we were going. Then there was a time when we went online and printed out directions before we left. Now we pretty much just jump in our cars and put all our faith in the Lady of the Dash (clad in shimmering samite), but Ford wants to give you a little more control over her. Back when it was still 2010 (barely) the company announced SYNC Destinations, enabling you to plan your route in detail before you even get in the car. Now we got a chance to play with it and, while it's simple, it certainly does seem useful. Check out the video after the break.
