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Home Airlines Airports Destinations Fidelity Programs Travel Health Travel Tech Travel Tips Aircraft Air Safety Air Security NEWS News Center Events FLIGHTS Flight Status Flight Schedules Airport Status Airport Guides City Guides AIRGUIDE Subscribe Advertising Marketing Content Info Services About Us Contact Us Site Map	TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY Search for a WiFi Zone Amtrak A new website is now available for Virginia's rail travelers, www.AmtrakVirginia.com, with information on all Amtrak service in Virginia including the new Northeast Regional service that provides expanded transportation choices for travelers. Beginning this fall, new roundtrip Northeast Regional service will be offered from Lynchburg and Richmond to major destinations in the Northeast Corridor, including Philadelphia, New York, Boston and more. The Lynchburg service starts on Oct. 1 and the Richmond service begins in December. Tickets are now available for the Lynchburg service and may be booked at www.Amtrak.com. Passengers who book now through Dec. 16 may take advantage of a fare promotion which offers up to 25 percent off the lowest published coach fare on Northeast Regional service between Lynchburg, Washington, D.C., New York and Boston. Sample one-way fares include USD 66 between Lynchburg and New York and USD 71 between Lynchburg and Boston. In celebration of the new Lynchburg service, a whistle stop tour is scheduled for Sept. 30. For more information, visit www.amtrakvirginia.com/hotdeals.aspx. Reservations are required for travel and must be made at least 14 days in advance of travel. Some restrictions apply. For more information, call 800-USA-RAIL or visit www.amtrak.com. The Move Toward Self-Service. Travelers remain die-hard users of their cell phones for another important airport ritual venting frustrations. But the airport experience could become even more aggravating as the airlines outsource more work to the traveler. "In each case airlines are essentially expecting customers to bring their own technology to the process, whether it be a PC, a PDA or a mobile phone," says airline consultant Robert Mann Jr., president of R.W. Mann & Co. Analysts and road warriors see mobile phones as a complement to ‚Äî not a replacement for ‚Äî Web sites and kiosks that facilitate self-service. "It will become almost like a pocket travel agent or a pocket travel assistant," says NCR's Borucki. But regardless of how fast or how smart your phone is, there's still no guarantee that you'll whisk through security reported NPR.. Travel Tech, A New Frontier For Travel. Cell phones and smart phones are fast becoming the new frontier for everything from booking air travel to checking in. Airlines including American, Delta and Continental are testing mobile and smart phone check-in technology at more than a dozen U.S. airports. And a number of foreign carriers have already implemented it. The final result for travelers is the appearance of a boarding pass with a square bar code on their mobile browser. The bar code can be read by a scanner at security and at the gate when a passenger boards, Borucki says. Greg Brockway, CEO of Tripit.com, a company that gives people mobile access to their itineraries ‚Äî has been trying out this technology on his iPhone. In a Twitter post last month, Brockway described how the bar code he displayed on his phone "stumped 3 agents." Still, he is enthusiastic about the concept of being able to check in by just punching a few buttons on his phone while he's in a cab or in a meeting and then make a beeline for security and the gate. The five most pointless Sony products ever. If you thought the hayfever hat--a hat with a built-in toilet roll dispenser--was the definitive example of humanity's passion for the pointless, a glance in the direction of Sony's decades-old portfolio of products may interest you. Now, we're huge fans of much of Sony's work. MiniDisc? Marvelous. PlayStation? Paradigm-shifting. Bravia? Boodiful. But the company's made more than its fair share of absolute stinkers, so gather round. We've gone all 19th century on Sony, defying the ethics that no longer allow us to create freak shows, and caged five mutated, repulsive curiosities for you to point and laugh at. More importantly, they're backed up by solid, not-even-slightly-obtuse arguments. Mobile phone maker Nokia claimed it has changed the prospects for Near Field Communications (NFC) in the mobile sector with the surprise announcement that it will start shipping in the third quarter, in selected markets, its first SIM-based handset the 6216 Classic. In his keynote at the 3rd annual Global NFC Developers Summit, organized by WIMA, being held here, Jeremy Belostock, head of near field communications at Nokia, announced to a cheering audience that "this will be the last NFC device to be made by Nokia." After the talk, he told EE Times Europe it is now "up to the SIM community and operators to push the technology even faster and further." The fully integrated 6216 Classic will allow operators to build NFC services on to the SIM card. "Green" mobile phones and smartphones from Nokia, Samsung and Motorola were one part of a new survey conducted by research firm Strategy Analytics, which found that eco-conscious consumers are willing to pay more for green mobile phones — as long as they’re well-designed, feature-rich and truly Earth friendly. A new green mobile phone study from Strategy Analytics has good news for manufacturers: Eco-minded consumers are willing to pay a premium for Earth-friendly mobile phones, as long as the devices are feature-rich and the intentions behind them are sincere. Strategy Analytics surveyed 2,818 wireless device owners in the United States and Western Europe about their interest in purchasing a phone that has been manufactured in a sustainable, ethical and eco-friendly manner, and that has a low impact on the environment during use—or, for the purposes of this article, is “green”—as well as how much they would consider paying for such a phone and which companies they believe put a focus on the environment reported eWeek. AeroMobile is to revolutionise credit card payments for airlines and passengers by bringing "chip-and-pin" to the sky. Airlines are currently restricted to using old-fashioned swipe machines to process credit card payments for duty-free goods bought in-flight. With existing systems it is not possible to access the ground-based retailers to verify payments. But now the AeroMobile system can be used to securely conduct credit checks in-flight, transforming in-flight transactions for both retailers and customers. AeroMobile is currently best known for leading the way with in-flight passenger communications, the world's first to provide technology and services that allow mobile phone use onboard. The UK-based company is rolling out a new suite of value added services to both airlines and passengers. Mar 31, 2009 Air New Zealand The free 'Boarding Buddy' SMS service launched in early March will send Air New Zealand customers the latest flight information for their specific flights straight to their mobile phone. The service, by Mantic Point mobile travel service provider, is only available for flights departing from London Heathrow and for customers who sign-up through Air New Zealand's website. In the future they plan to offer the service to all flights, whether booked through the website or not. Information provided includes flight information, opening check-in times and location, delay notifications and a gate call, as well as two retail discount vouchers for London Heathrow Terminal 1. www.airnewzealand.com Mar 30, 2009 Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines will sponsor free Wi-Fi at the Oakland airport: The service will be free from 13 April to 5 July, and seems intended to raise the awareness of Alaska's Wi-Fi trial with Row 44, currently underway. Alaska seems likely to put Wi-Fi on its planes if it gets a good response from passengers to the in-flight Internet service. Many of Alaska's routes pass over water, and a satellite-backed service is a good fit if passengers are willing to pay for the privilege. It's also a way for the no-extras airline to bring entertainment onboard without installing seatback systems. Apr 4, 2009 more travel tech news... Movies Browse by Location and Get Showtimes and Tickets	Subscribe
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