August 5, 2008

Travel tech: Delta's $9.95 wi-fi, new gadgets and guides

Delta Airlines will soon offer wi-fi on all its domestic flights for a flat rate of $9.95 (or $12.95 on flights more than three hours,) the company said in a news release this morning. Aircell will provide the broadband service, called Gogo, will be installed this fall on delta’s 133 MD88/90 planes, with an expansion to its 200 Boeing 737, 757 and 767-300 aircraft through the first half of 2009, Delta said.

On Friday, Schmap will roll out a public beta to enable website for the iPhone. “The solution allows a website (say for a restaurant, bar or other business) to serve a map and contact details perfectly formatted for iPhone visitors,” Natalia Palacios, the vice president of marketing for Schmap Inc., told NewYorkology via e-mail. They plan to expand to others including Nokia S60, Google Android and BlackBerry.

Google Maps Mania reports that CitySearch has already been optimized for iPhones. CitySearch is a Google Maps mash-up with embedded data for restaurants, hotels, bars, shops and other services.

Check out Flavorpill’s stripped down mobile edition of its daily listings. (Found via Kathryn Yu.)

Guidespot, in public beta, offers user-written guides to New York including how to be a groupie and the Midnight Cowboy’s guide to Manhattan.

David Sifry’s OffbeatGuides is still in private beta, but once launched, it will allow users to create their own destination guides using gobs of open-source info and pictures on the web.

Guideal is a new ite that allows travelers to find local guides at their destinations. The site currently offers a free Financial District tour.

Gridskipper also directs readers to TripWolf, a “a Myspace-meets-Lonely Planet” travel guide site.

You can already sign up for the MTA’s list of weekly planned subway service disruptions and coming in the fall, you’ll be able to sign up for the unplanned snafus, according to the Daily News.

The MTA also operates Trip Planner, which gets about 10,000 users a day, has recently added Navteq Map Data and Microsoft Virtual Earth, the MTA said.

Online ride-share facilitator GoLoco recently got a plug on the Living on Earth radio show.

ViaMichelin, the online site for the Michelin Guides, has relaunched and added theme-based maps with satellite views and weather forecasts.

New York magazine has launched a “My New York” feature that lets registered users write and sort their own reviews and comments and create fashion albums.

L Magazine recently launched Yourlocal.com, an event listings guide that customizes recommendations for you based based on your ratings.

Conde Nast Traveler calls Amazon’s e-book reader Kindle “the best travel gadget since the neck pillow.”

Conde Nast also highlighted Flylite, a company that allows frequent travelers to store parts of their wardrobe and other travel essentials with the company, which launders and ships them to your destination based on what you request online.

The New York Times points out travelers are more frequently being forced to sleep in airports as airlines pull back on hotel vouchers, and as a possible solution points to the pup-tent like Mini Motel (Found via National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel.)

See Today in the Sky for USA Today readers’ favorite travel gadgets for air travel, including mobile.flightstats.com, which tells you the next available flight (in case yours just got cancelled.)

Rule 240 chart assembled by the AirFareWatchdog. It’s basically a list of the airlines’ own policies governing flight cancellations or misconnections and what they promise passengers (and sometimes forget) in those situations. (Link found via Consumerist.)

Hotel video guide TVtrip.com allows travelers to see videos of hotels before booking, though so far they only have videos for a dozen in NYC.

Brooklyn-focused Brownstoner.com has also added mobility.

Telestial just launched Travel Journal, that automatically provides an online update of the user’s location based on nearby cell phone towers. It’s free with the purchase of all Telestial international phone packages or SIM cards.

Earlier: New tech for NYC and travelers: bus GPS, free wi-fi

August 5, 2008 6:55 AM in Arrivology, Techology, Transportology

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