Virgin America and Stand Up to Cancer kick off new Dallas service

by Melanie Nayer on

Richard Branson is widely known for many things, among them his endless charitable contributions. So, it’s no surprise that when Branson’s Virgin America wants to make a statement, they enlist the help of one of the top charity groups in the nation.

In an effort to generate awareness for its new Dallas-Fort Worth flights, Virgin America is teaming up with Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) to encourage “do-gooders” in the Dallas market to stand up for a good cause. The “Stand Up Dallas-Fort Worth” digital campaign urges flyers to tap their network of friends and family to raise awareness and funds for collaborative cancer research.

With every unique donation of at least $5, entrants will score a 20 percent flight discount with Virgin America. In addition, the top do-gooders – those who tap the largest network of donors – will score an invitation to the airline’s Lone Star Launch Party. The party, hosted by Branson, will feature some “smoking” secret musical performances at The Winspear Opera House on December 1, 2010.The airline launches daily nonstop flights between Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) starting December 1, 2010, and between DFW and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) starting December 6, 2010. DFW-LAX and DFW-SFO fares start from $119, restrictions, taxes and fees applying.***

Remember: In this case, size doesn’t matter — through the Stand Up Dallas-Fort Worth campaign, the larger the network of donors tapped (not necessarily the size of the donations) – the bigger the rewards.

The campaign runs through November 26, 2010. For more information or to donate, click here.

Review: Wilson Electronics MobilePro cellphone signal booster

by Scott Carmichael on

Earlier this year, we reviewed the Wilson Electronics Sleek portable signal booster – in this review, we’ll look at its “big brother” – the MobilePro signal booster.

Signal boosters are what you use when you find yourself stuck somewhere with little to no cellular signal. Even though mobile operators claim to cover 98% of all Americans, it is that 2% of the nation that suffers from pretty nasty holes in the coverage.

The MobilePro booster is not like those cheap stickers you used to attach to the back of your phone – this is an actual signal boosting device that picks up your signal, and retransmits it at a higher power, using an external antenna.

When I reviewed the Sleek, I was able to make calls in a notorious blind spot, so the technology used by Wilson most certainly works. The MobilePro is based on the same principle, but it is a more flexible solution. The heart of the system is its tranceiver/amplifier unit. This box is powered off a miniUSB plug, and the box includes an AC and car charger.

To use the MobilePro, you attach the included antenna, plug in the power, and watch the bars increase on your phone. To get an even better signal, you can expand the kit with a larger desktop antenna, which will pick up the signal from your phone from within several feet.

The distance between the amplifier unit and the antenna must be at least 20 feet for the system to work.

So – does the MobilePro work? You bet – I took the setup out in my car to my usual signal deadzone (which by the way, still has not been covered by my operators, so thanks for that) and checked my signal before and after plugging the MobilePro in.

Without the MobilePro, I was stuck on just one bar, with no data. A call to voicemail failed to complete. After plugging the Mobile Pro in, I went up to full bars. I made a few test calls, and did a mobile data speed test. All of these were perfect – something I’d never be able to do without the booster.

The Wilson Electronics MobilePro retails for $269.95 – which is a lot to ask for a decent signal. Thankfully, Wilson Electronics dealers have it for substantially less – you’ll find it at Amazon.com for $184.99 and at Best Buy for $199.99.

If you regularly travel, being able to pick up a signal, call home and get some work done is quite important, which makes the price easy to justify. The kit includes a carrying case, and the entire setup weighs under nine ounces. The included antenna is magnetic, so you can use the MobilePro on a road trip, in a hotel room or even on a cruise ship to pick up a signal from the shore.

To order your own MobilePro, or to learn more about the accessories and features, head on over to Wilson Electronics.

“I Don’t Like the TSA” song – music video going viral

by Annie Scott on

Jonathan Mann doesn’t like the TSA, and he’s written a song to prove it. And it rhymes. Furthermore, the music video for the “I Don’t Like the TSA” song has totally made our morning.

The glory of Mann’s delightful rant is that it’s actually clever, and while it expresses a certain angst I think a lot of us have come to feel, it’s upbeat and fun. Bonus: it’s one of those songs that’s easy to dance to sitting down.

In recent weeks, perhaps in response to a mass sense of dread as holiday travel time approaches, there have been a number of attacks on the futility and invasiveness of the TSA. Our editor Grant Martin posted an article just yesterday suggesting that maybe, just maybe, the TSA isn’t that bad (Why you shouldn’t be concerned about airport x-rays and patdowns). Still, whether you want to freak out over x-rays or not is your own business.

Jonathan Mann wants you to. The video is somewhat hyperbolic (“if I refuse them groping me then they’ll treat me like a detainee”) and morphs into what seems like a serious PSA-style plea for consumer action, directing people to www.wewontfly.com. Is making a music video about hating the TSA an outlandish overreaction? Probably. But the call to action seems to be “an attempt to stop the ever increasing ridiculousness that is TSA regulation.” For frequent fliers, it’s hard to argue with that notion. There’s this ever-present worry about “what’s the TSA going to make us do next?”

So, have a watch. The lyrics are included after the jump for your singalong pleasure — and, you know, in case you want to print them out and start singing this in line at the airport over the holiday travel season. Good luck with that.

I Don’t Like the TSA – lyrics
by Jonathan Mann

I don’t like the TSA
I don’t see how they keep me safe
they scan me with their x-ray
then laugh at me when I’m at my gate

And if I refuse to show them my penis
then they insist on groping me
g-g-g-groping me
and if I refuse them groping me
then they’ll treat me like a detainee
d-d-detainee

I don’t like the TSA
taking off my shoes don’t keep me safe
they scan me with their x-ray
or they grope me which is not okay

Don’t get me wrong
this isn’t about the agents
’cause they’re just doing their jobs
this is about the policies
and companies that are profiting
and i question the safety
of bombardment with x-ray
maybe the government’s tests
we’re quite so accurate
they say the dose is .02
microseiverts but how much
is deposited in the skin?

And that’s why
I don’t like the TSA
I don’t see how they keep me safe
they can scan me with their x-ray
and then they’re laughing at me when I’m at my gate

Oh-oh-oh

I don’t like the TSA
I don’t see how taking my shoes off is keeping me safe
I don’t know why they gotta use that great big x-ray
and then they’re laughin’
they’re like “ha ha ha ha ha ha ha”
all the way down
the corridor … and stuff

[via @jetsetfarryn]

Breaking news: Suspected bomb found on German airline

by Sean McLachlan on

A flight from Namibia to Germany was delayed earlier today after a suspected bomb was found in a suitcase. The package included a detonator, batteries, and a clock, the BBC reports. Details are unclear at this moment and it is not known if the device was an actual bomb or simply meant to intimidate.

The suspected bomb was found before it was loaded onto an Air Berlin flight from Windhoek to Munich. The flight was delayed for several hours as all passengers and luggage were checked. It has now safely completed its journey.

Germany has recently upped its security because of intelligence that an attack was imminent.

An interesting detail in this case was that the suitcase had no destination sticker, suggesting that it did not go through normal check-in procedures.

[Photo courtesy user Arcturus via Wikimedia Commons]

DealBase shows real honesty: displays worst hotel deals

by Scott Carmichael on

In many ways, travel deal site DealBase does what lots of other sites do – they collect the best deals, create a comprehensive listing for them, and publish these deals in an easy to navigate way. But that is where the comparison ends. In searching for the best deals, DealBase also publishes what they consider to be the worst deals.

Becase the site knows the average prices for these rooms, they also know perfectly well when a hotel has raised its prices beyond what is considered “normal”.

Hotel package deals are one kind of “bargain” where customers are regularly taken for a ride, and when DealBase passes these deals through their Deal Analyzer, they break down the actual savings.

So, instead of blindly publishing a deal and hoping you’ll fall for it, the site shows what the package value is, and how much you are not going to save if you purchase it.

Their “worst hotel deals” are all listed here, but if you don’t like being ripped off, you can also navigate their best deals.