Newest version of Slacker (finally) brings cached music to the iPhone

by Scott Carmichael on

This afternoon, Apple gave approval to the newest version of the Slacker personal radio app for the iPhone. We’ve been following Slacker for some time now, and (personally) I find them to offer one of the best streaming music services on the market. Their stations offer a fantastic lineup of tunes, and their mobile applications are available for most platforms.

As an Android user, I’ve had the luxury of cached stations for some time now, but iPhone users can finally join the fun, and download cached stations to their device. With this new feature, the app can store a decent amount of music directly to your phone, without the need for connectivity.

This is of course perfect if you are traveling, and don’t want to pay through the nose for international data. The new version is also perfectly timed for the upcoming changes to AT&T data plans.

You’ll find the newest version of Slacker in the App Store. To enjoy the cached stations feature, you’ll need to upgrade to Slacker Plus, which starts at just $3.99/month.

US Airways inflight Wi-Fi service available on all A321 aircraft – with a freebie

by Scott Carmichael on

After a brief introduction period, US Airways has become the next big airline to bring the Gogo Inflight Internet service to most of its planes. Starting this week, the service will be available on all US Airways Airbus A321 planes, and for the next seven days, access will be free of charge (June 1st – June 8 11:59pm)

When you board a Gogo enabled plane, you’ll see a Wi-Fi symbol next to the boarding door, as well as an instruction card in the seat pocket. Once the plane passes 10,000 feet (and the captain permits it), you can turn on your laptop, PDA, iPad or smartphone, and access the network.

After this week, access will cost $4.95 on flights up to 1 1/2 hours, $9.95 ($7.95 for small mobile devices) on flights up to 3 hours, and $12.95 ($7.95 for small mobile devices) on flights over 3 hours. On select flights, you’ll even be able to access the service up to 100 miles beyond the U.S. border.

To learn more about the service, how to connect, and where it’ll be available – check out the US Airways Gogo Inflight Internet page.

Tripbase Travel Horoscope lets the stars pick your next vacation destination

by Scott Carmichael on

Picking a vacation destination can be a major hassle – but the folks behind Tripbase just launched a tool that could help make your decision much easier.

The Tripbase Travel Horoscope “harnesses the ancient discipline of astrology to help you through the overwhelming options for vacations and winnow the choices down from perfectly endless to merely perfect“.

Even if you don’t believe in the power of astrology, the tool is fun to use, and comes up with some fun tips. In my case, I’m being told that I should stay close to home, and that I’m allowed to splurge once.

Once you’ve been given some advice, you can use the Tripbase tools to find your perfect trip, based on recommendations from over 22 million travelers.

The Travel Horoscope tool can be found at Tripbase.com, and soon on mobile devices.

Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Experiences for the iPad – free for three days only!

by Scott Carmichael on

Lonely Planet has been in a really generous mood this year – back in April, they gave away all their European iPhone city guides to help stranded volcanic ash passengers, and now they are giving away their most popular iPad app.

1000 Ultimate Experiences is exactly what the name describes – a guide with 1000 of the best experiences in the world, in an app that takes full advantage of the iPad. With 100’s of photos, full screen video clips and more, there is no better way to sit back and find your next ultimate vacation destination.

Everything is neatly split into sections like strangest museums, ultimate sailing trips or classic campervan routes. You’ll find the app in the app store and the folks at Lonely Planet do ask that you leave a review of the app to help spread the word.

Solmar Resorts: Tweet to win free travel

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Ready to try your luck with a little Twitter trivia? Solmar Hotels & Resorts is going to give you a shot at free travel starting on June 7, 2010. Follow Solmar (@SolmarResorts) to see the questions as they pop up in the Twitter stream – two will be tweeted every day. One will go up in the morning, and the other will be posted in the afternoon. The first three followers to answer each question correctly will be entered into a drawing for the grand prize.

Is it worth playing? Well, the winner will pick up three nights in a Junior Suite at Playa Grande Resort & Grand Spa in Cabo San Lucas, with breakfast for two every day, roundtrip airport transportation and 25 percent off on additional nights – not a bad deal for answering a few questions correctly and having your name picked.

You’ll need to get to know the ins and outs of the Solmar properties, of course, as that’s what the questions will cover. To be entered to win, you’ll need to follow @SolmarResorts and use the “@ reply” feature with the right answer. The contest will run for a month, with the winners announced on July 6, 2010.

While you’re on Twitter, why not follow @Gadling?

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