Smartphone Technology Getting Closer To What Travelers Want

by Chris Owen on

As smartphone technology continues to advance, travelers are being offered more connectivity choices. Making calls, sending text, voice or video messages and surfing the Internet is becoming commonplace almost anywhere on the planet. Now, pricing is coming in line too as service providers realize what it is we want when traveling.

“Our mission is for all travelers to have the freedom to use their mobile devices the same way as at home when traveling abroad, without having to worry about chokingly high mobile bills,” says Joacim Boivie, CEO and Founder, HolidayPhone, a leading solutions provider of roaming free mobile Internet, voice and text services for international travelers in a Breaking Travel News report.

Like Boingo, the worldwide connectivity company with over 700,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in over 100 countries, HolidayPhone also enables connection. Unlike Boingo, which automatically communicates then connects with local hot spots on your behalf, enabling connection using only an installed app, the HolidayPhone method is a twist on the SIM card pay-as-you-go trick that has travelers buying cards for each country they visit.Providing an easy, inexpensive way to call and access mobile Internet while abroad without roaming fees, HolidayPhone’s travel SIM cards are prepaid and sent in advance. Before departure, U.S. users forward calls to a provided U.S. landline number. On the plane, they insert the HolidayPhone SIM card in their smartphone. Landing at the destination, their phone is ready to use, at local rates.

Here is more on how HolidayPhone works:

Americans Trying To Bring Guns On Planes At Unprecedented Rate, Says TSA

by Adam Hodge on

More and more Americans are apparently attempting to take airline security into their own hands. In data provided by the Transport Security Administration to the AP, there is evidence of a significant increase in the number of firearms that passengers try to take through TSA screening points in airports around the country.

In only the first half of this year, the TSA seized 894 guns from passengers – 30 percent more than the year before. From 2011 to 2012, the number of firearms seized increased by 17 percent.

Many of these weapons were seized from people who claim they simply forgot they were carrying a gun onto a plane. Airports in the south and west of the United States had the largest reported number of gun seizures.
Some of the stories of the seizures in the AP report are genuine head-shakers. To wit:

Raymond Whitehead, 53, of Santa Fe, N.M., was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey in May after screeners spotted 10 hollow-point bullets in his carry-on bag. Whitehead, who is completely blind, also had a .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver in his checked bag that he had failed to declare.

The TSA found the weapons on the passengers’ person, in their carry-on luggage and even in a boot that one man was wearing on his prosthetic leg. Depending on the gun laws of the jurisdiction where the airports are located, some of the gun-toting passengers were arrested and others were not.

If you think 894 guns in six months is a lot, consider that these numbers don’t include BB guns, spear guns, flare guns, stun guns and other ballistic weapons.

Last month the TSA recently reversed their decision to allow small knives onto planes. They have not made any statements reiterating the ban on firearms.

Study Finds Slow Airport Security Has An Upside

by Reena Ganga on

Going through airport security is a lesson in patience for even the most Zen traveler, but the good news is that those frustratingly slow security screenings might actually be more effective. According to a new study, TSA screeners who take their time are more successful at identifying targets like weapons or restricted items.

The study pitted TSA agents against Ivy League college students to test how well each group conducted a visual search. The experiment was simple and tested natural search skills (searching for a particular shape on a computer screen) – so the TSA screeners had no advantage over the students. The results showed that the college students were faster at completing the tasks but the TSA agents were more accurate.Stephen Mitroff, the psychologist heading up the research, told NBC news that the TSA screeners were slower because they were more methodical, which is ultimately what led to better results. “Our interpretation is those who are most experienced have found their strategy and use it the same way over and over – whether you spiral through the bag or are zig-zagging left and right. If you’re always doing the strategy and always doing it consistently, you’re freeing up your cognitive resources – your other abilities to try to identify targets,” he said.

The research is part of a larger study being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.

TSA As Fashion Police, Agent Criticizes 15-Year-Old Girl’s Clothing Choices

by Rob Annis on

Not content to save airline passengers from bottles of hand lotion larger than an ounce and Chewbacca’s light-saber walking stick, one TSA agent reportedly took it upon himself to criticize a 15-year-old girl for an outfit he deemed too revealing.

The teen girl was traveling with a group of other high school students on a college tour when she came up to the Homeland Security agent checking IDs and boarding passes. The agent reportedly glared at the girl, telling her moments later, “You’re only 15, cover yourself!” in a “hostile tone.”

That might have been the end of the story if not for two things. First, the shaken girl immediately texted her parents about the embarrassing situation. Second, one of those parents happens to be Boing Boing founder Mark Frauenfelder.

So what was the teen girl wearing that was so scandalous? A pair of black pants topped by a camisole and a long-sleeve flannel shirt, according to a cellphone photo later tweeted by the elder Frauenfelder.

Although the girl’s outfit doesn’t appear to be revealing at all, Frauenfelder wrote in a subsequent blog post that, “it doesn’t matter what she was wearing, though, because it’s none of (the TSA agent’s) business to tell girls what they should or should not wear. His creepy thoughts are his own problem, and he shouldn’t use his position of authority as an excuse to humiliate a girl and blame her for his sick attitude.”

As the sartorial controversy began to sweep across the web – A is For’s Maureen Herman and Jezebel’s Madeleine Davies jumped on the story as well – the TSA released a statement saying it was “thoroughly reviewing the circumstances behind” the younger Frauenfelder’s “unpleasant experience.”

Man Says He Poisoned All Passengers Aboard Hong Kong To New Jersey Flight

by Reena Ganga on

A man is being questioned by authorities after he claimed to have poisoned everyone traveling on United Flight 116. The flight, which was making its way from Hong Kong to Newark’s Liberty Airport, landed at 1:34 p.m. today, several hours after a male passenger made the frightening declaration.

According to news reports, the passenger was in an emotionally disturbed state. He made the announcement about having poisoned everyone on board several hours before the flight was due to arrive in New Jersey.Despite this, the FBI said the decision was made not to divert the plane to a closer airport. Instead, flight attendants surrounded the man along with a number of other passengers who volunteered to help restrain him for the duration of the flight.

Both local police and FBI agents were notified and were ready to meet the plane as soon as it landed. According to an FBI spokesman, there is no evidence that any passengers were actually poisoned.