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Virgin Galactic is looking for 1,000 people to buy its $450,000 spaceflight tickets
Now that Virgin Galactic has a working spaceflight system, it needs to sell rides.
Google Flights will refund the difference if prices drop unexpectedly
Just after shutting down its Trips travel-planning app, Google has announced a raft of travel-related features for other products, including a flight price guarantee. For a limited time, when it tells you prices won't drop on a trip you book through Google Flights, it'll refund the difference if it's wrong and the cost does get lower before you take off.
Google Maps' AR walking directions comes to many more phones
One of Google's coolest apps, by far, has yet to see the light of day for most users. I'm talking about Maps' live AR walking directions -- now known as Live View -- that shows you via a Pokémon-like visual overlay how to get to your destination. Now, Google has announced that it's rolling Live View out in much wider beta to modern Android and iOS phones equipped with ARCore or ARKit.
OpenTable now offers delivery with help from Uber Eats and Grubhub
As of today, you can use OpenTable's updated iOS app to book dinner reservations or have your food delivered. OpenTable announced that it's partnering with Uber Eats, Caviar and Grubhub to offer meal delivery from over 8,000 restaurants in 90 cities across the US.
Lime expands scooter reservations to the US
Scooter services have their share of issues, but Lime will at least make sure there's a scooter to use in the first place. In the wake of a limited release in three countries, Lime has made scooter reservations available in the US ahead of an international rollout later in the week. If you know you'll need a two-wheeler in the next 15 minutes, you can book one through the app instead of hoping that it'll still be around when you're ready to ride. You can still grab another scooter if it's more convenient, of course -- it'll just release the scooter you'd reserved.
Many Google Duplex calls are from real people instead of AI
Google's Duplex reservations might be more widely available, but that doesn't mean the AI is ready to handle every call. The company has confirmed to the New York Times that about 25 percent of the Assistant-based calls start with a human in a call center, while 15 percent require human intervention. In the newspaper's tests, the ratio was higher -- real people completed three out of four of their successful bookings.
Recommended Reading: Google Duplex still confuses restaurants
One year later, restaurants are still confused by Google Duplex Natt Garun, The Verge Google had us in awe when it debuted the AI-powered Duplex tech at I/O 2018. The system can be used to make reservations on your behalf, and it can even make a call if one is required. A year later though, it seems restaurants are still confused by the technology. From calls that look like spam to using different voices and accents in immediate follow-ups to confirm reservations, Duplex still has its quirks. But there's also an interesting wrinkle: it can be more polite than a human.
Google's CallJoy is an AI phone operator for small businesses
Around a year ago, Google unveiled Duplex, an AI-powered feature that can call businesses and book appointments for you. Ahead of this year's I/O, Google revealed the other half of the equation, a virtual customer service agent that can automatically handle inbound calls for small businesses.
Google's Duplex AI can make reservations on non-Pixel devices
You no longer need to carry a Pixel phone to have Google's Duplex book reservations on your behalf. Google has quietly expanded support for Duplex to other Android devices (5.0 Lollipop and newer) and iPhones using Assistant. While it's not certain just which hardware will work at this stage, there are reports at XDA and 9to5Google that Duplex is working on the Galaxy S10 and iPhone.
Samsung is already offering Galaxy S10 reservations
The Galaxy S10 has leaked to the Moon and back ahead of its February 20th reveal (see the Evan Blass leak above as proof), and even Samsung isn't pretending there are many secrets left. The tech giant has started taking S10 reservations in the US, giving sign-ups a guaranteed opportuntity to order the next-gen phone between February 21st and March 7th -- in other words, the S10 should arrive on March 8th. People upgrading from older phones can also get up to $550 back if they trade in their outgoing handsets.
Google's conversational Duplex AI rolls out to some Pixel owners
After months of hype, Google's reservation-placing Duplex AI is available to the general public -- if only just. The company has confirmed to VentureBeat that Duplex is rolling out to a "small group" of Pixel phone users in "select cities." It wasn't specific about those cities, but it likely includes the previously announced cities of Atlanta, New York City, Phoenix and San Francisco. Google is starting with a "slow rollout" to ensure a "good experience" for both Pixel owners and businesses,
Google's reservation-making AI will be making calls soon
Google talked about a lot at this year's I/O developer conference, but one demo quickly stole the show: a male voice on a phone, making a restaurant reservation. The restaurant was real, but the person making the call wasn't — it was Google Assistant, powered by an AI system called Duplex that's meant to complete tasks by interacting with humans on the phone. It was, uh, pretty eerie, and it won't be long before Google Assistant is calling a business near you. The company confirmed that today that it will start testing its Duplex-powered calls with "trusted testers and select businesses" in New York and San Francisco within weeks.
Google Assistant will soon be able to make calls to book your appointment
During Google I/O today, the company announced that Assistant will soon be able to make appointments and reservations for you even when they can't be booked online. It's powered by a new technology called Google Duplex and it will be rolling out as an experiment soon.
Airbnb makes it easier to list bed and breakfast rooms
Airbnb was inspired by actual bed and breakfast spots around the globe; it's right there in the company's name. It makes sense, then, that the room-sharing company would finally partner up with the Association of Independent Hospitality Professionals (AIHP) and a leading B&B reservation management system, ThinkReservations, to make it easier for B&B owners to offer their spaces up on Airbnb itself.
Airbnb wants to help you book a restaurant reservation, too
Airbnb just added a new feature that allows users to book restaurant reservations directly through its app and website. It's powered by Resy and is currently available in 16 US cities. Airbnb now has a dedicated restaurants tab that lets you search by cuisine, whether you want breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner as well as other options like prix fixe meals and prime seating. The latter lets you pay a little extra to snag a seat at a fully booked spot. You can also search for a place to eat using a map view in order to find a place in a particular location.
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]
HotelTonight app now lets you preview room availability seven days ahead
HotelTonight's namesake feature is also holding it back: You can only book a room beginning at 9AM on the day of check-in. If you're planning to arrive during a major event, say, in Los Angeles during E3 or Rio during Carnival, landing without a confirmed room can add to the already stressful travel process. But the folks at HotelTonight have a good idea of whether or not you'll be able to find a room, and the team's now ready to share that info with you. Now, when you open up the iOS app, Look Ahead will let you preview room pricing and availability for the next seven days. The app will even give you a heads up if there's an event in town, so you can be aware of higher than normal rates, or opt to change your plans to avoid the crowds. Look Ahead is available today in Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, DC. You'll need to have an iPhone to take advantage, but expect the feature to hit Android soon.
New Apple patent hints the company may be entering the restaurant-reservation market
Thanks to Siri, Apple can quickly help you find movie times and buy tickets, make an appointment on your calendar and sometimes rickroll you. At this point, Siri can even help you make a reservation at a restaurant, although that's through integration with OpenTable. (Try asking Siri "Make reservations for two at an Italian restaurant at 7 PM" for an example.) According to Patently Apple, the company has just filed a patent for an even more powerful dining-management system that combines making reservations, managing wait lists and even ordering items, all from the comfort of customers' phones. Apple's patent idea builds on Siri's existing capabilities, adding the ability to find restaurants that currently have a short wait time for a table. As time goes on, the system becomes more powerful, learning from how long users actually have to wait for their table to produce a more accurate wait time. The patent even goes so far as to allow users to pre-enter information about things like their food allergies or preferences in order to have menu items recommended that match their taste or survival needs. It presents some fascinating possibilities about the future of mobile reservations. We're curious to see how OpenTable and other reservation services will compete if Apple enters this particular market. Of course, not all Apple patents ever make it to actual working products, but it's interesting to see how the company is looking at making it easier for us to spend our money eating out all the time. You can read the whole patent application below. Apple Reservation & Ordering System Patent Application
Google Now's voice query support gets ported to Google Search: ask, and you shall receive
Google Now's a solid product, but it's reach is also fairly limited... compared to Google Search, anyway. Now, the company's voice element in Search -- which was updated in a major way back at I/O in May -- is gaining some of that Now flair. In the coming days, Google will be rolling out a smarter Search to all US, English-speaking users on desktop, tablet and smartphone, regardless of platform. You'll need only to tap the microphone icon instead of typing in a search query, and then ask humanistic questions about your upcoming flight(s), reservations, purchases, plans and photos. Naturally, you'll need your flight confirmations sent to Gmail and your photos stored in Google+, but if you're already neck-deep in Google's ecosystem, the newfangled functionality ought to serve you well. For a few suggestions on questions to try, check out the company's official blog post. (Hint: don't ask what your Facebook friends are doing tomorrow.)
OpenTable sees mobile payments on the horizon, first in San Francisco
Adventurous foodies are likely familiar with the concept of snout to tail dining, which incorporates the entire animal -- even the exotic bits -- into recipes that stray from the norm. Soon enough, OpenTable may offer a different take on start-to-finish dining by incorporating payments into its restaurant reservation platform. The system is said to still be in testing, which would require that diners merely open the OpenTable app, select a tip amount and hit the payment button. As a boon to restaurant owners, OpenTable isn't planning on taking a cut from the transaction; instead, it's looking to attract and retain users, and perhaps stay ahead of emerging competitors such as Groupon and Yelp. According to The New York Times, OpenTable will use an in-house payment system that it acquired this year from JustChalo. If all goes well, the new feature will be introduced to San Francisco by year's end, with other markets to follow. Apparently, OpenTable is still hammering out its notification system, so as to avoid unpleasant scenarios such as accusing paying customers of skipping out on the bill.
