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Tags: Travel Technology / Smartphones / Guides / iPhones / Technology / → All Tags
Amsterdam Gets First Look at Augmented Reality Guides
If you’re the kind of tech-minded traveler who rushed to replace your guidebooks with podcast tours, and erased your podcasts to make room for iPhone travel apps, then it’s time to start getting excited about the newest in travel technology: augmented reality.
Start-up company Layar is preparing to introduce the world’s first augmented reality browser—a sort of virtual guidebook that projects data onto the world in front of you. The technology is currently getting a test run in Amsterdam, where people can download a free Layar application to their smartphones. Then, holding the phone up in front of you, you’re shown information about restaurants and ATMs in your sightline, projected right onto the screen.
Tags: Travel Technology / Luggage Flair / Luggage / → All Tags
New Line Of Biometric Luggage For The Very, Very Paranoid
On the spectrum of luggage-related paranoia, on one side you have those little plastic locks that people who vacation in Atlantic City put on their suitcases. A fascinating case study in human gullibility but not exactly secure.
On the other side you've got the new BioCase from Heys USA:
The BioCase features exclusive biometric (fingerprint) technology that unlocks when memorized fingerprints access the case. The cases are nearly indestructible with their hard side design, adding even more security and protection during your travels... Each case will “memorize” up to eight fingerprints with a memory that remains charged for 90 days. Each case can be fully charged using a power adapter or USB plug.
Tags: Flying Cars / Travel Technology / Terrafugia / → All Tags
Forget Planes, Fly Your Car Instead!
Could Terrafugia's Flying Car be the ultimate way to avoid those silly airline fees, nasty seatmates and the overall frustrations of flying commercial? Possibly. Officially called the Transistion, the plane-car hybrid made its first flight out of the Plattsburgh Airport in upstate New York on March 5 and you can watch the video here. So how does it work and when we can we get one? According to CNET:
As a car, the two-seat Transition is designed to be easy on garages and oncoming traffic--its wings fold up quite snugly. In folded mode, the approximately 19-foot-long vehicle is 80 inches wide, and 6 feet, 9 inches high. As an airplane, it stands a few inches shorter and has a wingspan of 27 feet, 6 inches.
The vehicle runs off unleaded fuel from your run-of-the-mill gas station for both terrestrial and aerial travel, cruising at highway speeds on land and better than 115 miles per hour in the air.
The vehicle is not quite ready to be sold to the public but the first delivery is expected in 2011. And you have to be Richard Branson-rich to afford one. The car reportedly will cost $200,000. Hopefully in 2011 we still won't be in a recession.
[Photo: Terrafugia]
Tags: Airline Customer Service / Airlines / American Airlines / Technology / Travel Technology / → All Tags
Expect Smarter Robots, Fewer Human Operators as American Unveils New Phone Technology
Frequent fliers on American Airlines will soon enjoy streamlined automated customer service by phone, thanks to a fancy new customer-recognition program.
As the AP points out, the Remember Me system recognizes the phone numbers of AAdvantage members, greeting them by name and automatically providing same-day gate and flight information with nary a keystroke. A spokesman said that the move is aimed at improving the customer-service experience, though it will also save the company money by reducing the need for actual human beings in the call center.
Like most people, we've been frustrated by the frequent ineptitude of computerized phone systems, but since that's the direction the industry is inevitably headed, we applaud improvements such as these. The more that customer recognition programs can truly anticipate why we're calling and deliver the information we need quickly, the more we'll accept them. Now, if the airlines could program computers to make flights depart on time, we'd be getting somewhere.
[Photo: grumpyoldgits.org]
Related Stories:
· American Adds Customer-Recognition Technology [AP via Yahoo! News]
· Airline Customer Service Coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Travel Gear / Travel Accessories / CES / Travel Technology / → All Tags
Some New Travel Gadgets Await At CES
If you're in Las Vegas this week and are wondering why there are so many pocket protectors around, it's because the annual Computer Electronics Show (CES) is taking place.
On Wednesday, geeks will descend on Las Vegas--some by car, most by plane and almost all of them filling up the city's lonely hotel rooms--for the world's largest consumer technology trade show. Here, companies will unveil their latest products, inventions and toys which will eventually be sold to the masses in 2009.
On the travel gear side, iGo--you know the company that sells like, a million different adapters and chargers for your laptops, cellphones and iPods--will show off their newest products for use on-the-go. The coolest one seems to be the iGo Laptop Charger which uses iGo Green Technology that reduces energy by thwarting "vampire power." (Yes, mention the word vampire and we're interested.)
Vampire power is the energy suckage that reduces your battery life even when a device is turned off or in stand-by mode. As anyone who travels frequently with a laptop knows, conserving battery power is all too important. Oh, the things we will do for an outlet. It's embarrassing actually.
