travel

SeatGuru mobile app barely gets off the ground

I can think of few Web sites that would benefit more from a good mobile app than SeatGuru, a much-loved service that tells you which seats on airplanes are good, and which are not. I never book a flight without checking it out.

The service finally has a mobile site. It's a useful app to have, but it's not a good app. It could have been so much more.

The best bit is that you can just put your airline and flight number into the app to see a map of the seats on the plane. That gives … Read more

Is FAA gadget policy about to change?

When you get on a plane, you don't merely have to suspend your sense of time and space--you also have to place your disbelief in the overhead locker.

The idea that your cell phone or your iPad can interfere with navigation systems seems a little extreme, when pilots themselves are now increasingly using iPads in their cockpits.

And will he or she who has--at one time or another--not forgotten to turn off their cell phone on a flight please stand for president of the new Self-Righteous Party.

There is a possibility, though, that the Federal Aviation Administration might be … Read more

Google's Flight Search goes international

Google Flight Search, a fare-finding utility that riled up parts of the airline industry, has broadened its reach beyond the United States.

Previously, the tool was for flights within the U.S. Now international destinations are an option, according to a blog post today from product manager Eric Zimmerman.

"At this stage we've included more than 500 airports outside the U.S.," Zimmerman said. "If your ideal destination isn't yet available, we're working hard on expanding our global coverage and adding more routes in the future. Our goal is to make booking travel as … Read more

Get a 15.6-inch HP laptop for $299.99

In the market for a starter or entry-level laptop? You know, the kind that's good for things like word processing, Web browsing, and e-mail? Good for students and grandparents and folks with simplistic needs?

Look no further: While supplies last, Best Buy has the HP 2000-416dx 15.6-inch laptop for $299.99 shipped (not including sales tax). Surprisingly, it's new, not refurbished.

Not to gush, but that is just an amazing price. Granted, the HP won't win any speed awards (or, for that matter, design awards), but it covers all the computing bases well enough.

To wit: … Read more

XCom Global Wi-Fi service: 0 to addicted in 24 hours

BARCELONA, Spain--Even with some significant engine trouble, it took me a day to go from zero to addicted to XCom Global's MiFi rental service for travelers.

TheInter Communications subsidiary offers a handy service--$14.95 a day to rent a mobile MiFi network access point with unlimited data access when you're traveling abroad.

The price looks painful until you compare it to the alternative: I just paid my French carrier, SFR, a whopping 19 euros (more than $25) for a measly 40MB of data while I'm at the Mobile World Congress show here. And carrier gouging isn'… Read more

Optimize your road trip itinerary with OnTheWay

Road trips can be a blast, but sometimes recommendations can come too late. If you don't want to get back home only to hear about the amazing Corn Museum or outsider artist you passed by en route, check out OnTheWay, which mashes up Google Maps and Foursquare data to show you the best stuff to see along the way.

Here's how to use it:

Point your browser to OnTheWay. (It has a great mobile look, but I used it on my laptop.) You may want to connect to Foursquare first; you can get better recommendations that way. Click … Read more

How to find flights with Wi-Fi and other amenities

What do you do to keep yourself occupied during a flight? Read a magazine? Listen to music? Sleep?

Onboard amenities like, Wi-Fi, movies, or live TV, can make a flight more enjoyable or productive. To help you find flights with Wi-Fi and other amenities, CheapAir.com has added a new feature letting you know which flights have those services.

When you search for a flight on CheapAir.com, the flights will come up with the usual information--departure times, arrival times, fares, etc. In the last column, however, you'll notice a set of icons. Highlighted icons indicate that those services … Read more

Watch SpaceX test-fire its new engine...on the ground in Texas

Brace yourself, pyromaniacs. Put away all the matches before you watch the below video of SpaceX's new SuperDraco engine spewing flame.

Elon Musk's space exploration company released the video of a successful test-firing of an engine from a test site in McGregor, Texas. The SuperDraco could be used to propel SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft out of Earth's gravitational pull, and Musk claims it will be the safest such system in history and also capable of more accurate landings. As if to prove the point, there are plenty of completely flammable trees in the background of the test-fire site in the video.… Read more

Get a quad-core HP laptop for $385

You know the deal with most bargain laptops: lower-end processors, weak graphics, smallish hard drives, and so on.

If you need a little more power than the average low-end lappie affords, check this out: MacMall has the refurbished HP Pavilion g6-1c58dx 15.6-inch laptop for $384.99 shipped.

That price buys you a quad-core AMD A6-3400M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and a 15.6-inch LCD. As my dad often says, that oughta keep you out of mischief.

(Interestingly, OnSale has a 17-inch model, the Pavilion g7-1237dx, for the exact same price--but it has a dual-core … Read more