CNET News reports that a number of countries are about to launch trials of passports and visas that incorporate basic biometric information about the document holder alongside the traditional photo and passport number – data such as a digital image of the citizen’s face that will be compared to a facial scan taken at the […]
Category: Travel
Photo blog to stay in touch
Nice article in PCWorld.com today on the benefits of using a photo blog when you’re on a lengthy holiday as a means of sharing your trip and staying in touch with friends and family. PCWorld.com | Blogging Across America A bit surprising, though, that in discussing blog services the article didn’t mention some of the […]
UK travel chaos looming
If you’re planning a trip to or through London during the bank holiday weekend (27-30 August), you might want to dig out Plan B in terms of how you travel. Air travel to/through Heathrow and Gatwick (and other London airports) looks like it could be a nightmare if a strike by British Airways ground staff […]
Rough Guide to internet cafes worldwide
Yahoo! Mail announced the winners of its inaugural Internet Cafe Awards. The global award categories include most stylish cafe, most remote, most unusual and best in the UK. From the website, you can download an excellent 65-page PDF e-book that contains details of Internet cafes worldwide. Published in conjunction with Rough Guides. Handy to have! […]
Hotel WiFi – and blogs
A report from Engadget on developments with wireless network access in hotels in the US: Check in. Go to your hotel room. Get online. Or, more likely, try to get online. Call the front desk. “No WiFi access, sir. We can get you a phone cable so you can plug into your data port.” Great. […]
Flight check-in with your mobile phone
Coming next year – check in for your flight, change your seat, baggage drop-off info, all via your mobile phone. Reuters reports that Siemens of Germany and Amsterdam-based SITA Inc have teamed up to develop the service, which uses GPRS for sending information to mobile phones. Reuters | Speedy Plane Check-In by Mobile Phone Set […]
British Library wifi hotspot
Visitors to the British Library in London will be able to get wireless internet access alongside the extensive information available in its famous reading rooms. Broadband wireless connectivity will be made available in the eleven reading rooms, the auditorium, café, restaurant, and outdoor piazza area. A study revealed that 86% of visitors to the Library […]
A day out in Paris
Yesterday was a wonderful day out – I took a Thalys high-speed train to Paris and had lunch with Guillaume du Gardier and Elizabeth Albrycht. Down early in the morning, back late in the evening. That’s one of the other terrific things about blogs – you get to meet the best people. Guillaume and Elizabeth […]
In-flight Wi-Fi really arrives and mobile phones look probable
InternetWeek reports that SAS Scandinavian Airlines on Tuesday introduced Boeing’s Connexion high-speed wireless access on selected flights out of Copenhagen, with plans to equip its entire long-haul fleet by February. Also on Tuesday, Deutsche Lufthansa AG – one of the most aggressive early adopters of in-flight connectivity – added Connexion to its Munich-Miami and Munich-San […]
The final frontier of cellphone-free travel
Last week’s news that in-flight wi-fi is here and plans are in hand to let you make mobile phone calls while flying seems to have displeased lots of people in the US. Engadget reports that less than a week after word surfaced that the US Federal Communications Commision is considering dropping its ban on inflight […]
A chaotic day to travel
It’s amazing what a little snow will do to mess up your best-laid plans. Today I was due to be away in the UK for a couple of days, mixed business/pleasure trip. Things didn’t quite go as planned. Because of the poor weather we’ve been having during the past few days (here are some photos […]
Broadband in the UK leads the world
Daily Telegraph: [In the UK,] Southern Railway and T-Mobile will unveil details [this] week of the world’s first train wireless broadband service. The T-Mobile HotSpot service will allow up to 8,000 daily commuters on the London to Brighton route to access the internet. It will be launched in the summer. This item in a Daily […]
Blogging and messaging at 36,000 feet
Late last evening, my Skype desktop app dinged, and there was a chat message from Loic Le Meur. Nothing unusual there – except Loic was on a Scandinavian Airlines flight to the US at the time. He’s blogged his experiences from the flight. Not only that, he moblogged a couple of photos, uploaded a little […]
High speed travel
I’m on the Thalys high-speed train back to Amsterdam following an extremely worthwhile three days in Paris. I was at Les Blogs, about which I blogged a bit yesterday and about which I’ll start writing a more complete personal view while I’m on the train which I’ll post tomorrow. No network connection on this train […]
Inflight wi-fi expands
PC World: Japan Airlines (JAL) will start offering Boeing’s in-flight Internet service on flights between Tokyo and New York this week, the first time the service will be available for transpacific travel, the airline says. […] The service supports e-mail, Web browsing, and corporate network access via a VPN (virtual private network), among other features, […]
In-flight live TV coming
First, there was the expansion of in-flight wi-fi so that you could remain connected to the net on your flight across the Atlantic or Pacific. Do your email, surf the net, write your blog. Even use Skype. Here’s what’s coming next, according to a PC World report: The Connexion by Boeing in-flight Internet service is […]
When travel isn’t pretty
Regular listeners to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report will know that my co-presenter, Shel Holtz, travels a lot. Much more than I do at the moment. In fact, during the past month, Shel’s co-presented our show from the road on six occasions. And there’s more travel for him coming up in June. […]
Podcasting is no fad
A tip from Constantin Basturea led me to the new travel podcast site from airline Virgin Atlantic, launched last week. Produced for Virgin Atlantic by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R and Manning Gottlieb OMD, and created by podcast producer Loudish, the first topics in a series of podcasts – guides to New York – is available […]
Safe and back in Amsterdam
A quick post – just arrived back in Amsterdam. I am amazed by the over 20 emails and more than a dozen voicemails I’m picking up now from family, friends and concerned readers asking if I’m ok. Thank you, everyone. Yes, I am! I’ve been in London over the past two days. Caught up in […]
The portable hot spot arrives
Last Thursday’s New York Times has a story about Junxion Box, a device that lets you set up a mobile multi-user internet connection anywhere you can receive data cellular (mobile phone) service. The NYT’s report says that the device, about the size of a shoebox cover, uses a cellular modem card from a wireless phone […]