Virgin America & Google host scavenger hunt at 30,000 feet

by Mike Barish on

Some people are scared of flying. Others tolerate it. And people like me find it excruciatingly boring and go to sleep. But what if you could spend your time at cruising altitude competing against other travelers and people on the ground all over the United States in an online scavenger hunt? Well that’s exactly what Virgin America is doing tomorrow. In order to make flying less boring (and to highlight their fleet-wide in-flight wi-fi), Virgin America has partnered with Google to create The Day in the Cloud.

The Day in the Cloud is an online trivia challenge that will take place on Virgin America flights, but is also open to anyone not flying that day who registers for the game on the official website. Top scorers in the challenge will receive a “Year in the Cloud,” which comes with one year of free flights on Virgin America with complimentary wi-fi, a netbook and one terabyte of Google Account storage.

Two Virgin America flights have been selected to compete against each other on tomorrow, with the winning flight receiving a special prize package. Gadling will be on one of those flights competing with the other passengers, so be sure to follow us on Twitter (@Gadling), where I’ll do my best keep you posted on the action at 30,000 feet.

There are practice questions on the website, and if they’re any indication, this scavenger hunt isn’t going to be easy. It may be just the thing that keeps me awake past the drink service for once.

Virgin America and Google team up for “a day in the cloud” scavenger hunt

by Scott Carmichael on

Virgin America and Google are teaming up for another world’s first – an online puzzle challenge that can be played on the ground and in the air.

Their “day in the cloud” is scheduled for June 24th and will let players on the ground compete with people flying with Virgin America. For this event, access to the Gogo Inflight WiFi service will be free.

Prizes include free flights on Virgin America, HP Netbook computers and a 1TB of Google account storage for email and photos.

To sign up for the challenge, head on over to the contest web site and hand them your information.

Software quick look – Flightstats for Android

by Scott Carmichael on

Yesterday, the folks at Flightstats.com added the first Android compatible flight tracker to the Google Android market. For those of you not up to date on the latest and greatest in the smartphone world, Android is the operating system developed by Google that powers the T-Mobile G1 (and several other phones).

Flightstats for Android offers several convenient travel features – live flight status, flight tracking with live map updates and airport/airline information.

Searching for flights is very simple, and can be done by flight number, route or even by airport. Search results show all flight numbers as well as any codeshare flight numbers.

The results can be added to a favorites list, making it easy to keep an eye on upcoming trips.

The application can be found in the Marketplace by searching for “flightstats”, it costs $5.99 which is about the most I’d be willing to pay for such an application, especially since a lot of the information provided can also be found for free on the web. That said, the application is very clean and easy to operate, the developers clearly put a lot of effort into designing the interface.

You can learn more about the application directly from Flightstats, or feel free to check out the screenshots I made of the application on my T-Mobile G1.

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Internet search results show soldiers are thinking of home

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Life in Iraq isn’t necessarily what you think. While there are tough conditions for those outside the gates, life on the large camps that shares some startling similarities with major U.S. military installations at home. On Camp Anaconda, for example, you can visit a library, shove some fast food fare into your mouth and burn your quads at the gym. Of course, the occasional mortar does get through the defense systems … these communities do sit right in the middle of a war, after all.

Among the amenities now available at major camps in Iraq is internet access, and Google Insights shows the interesting search objectives of the 140,000 military personnel and civilian contractors serving over there.

Most searches are linked with special occasions, such as holidays and personal celebrations (e.g., birthdays and anniversaries). “Christmas gifts,” “gift shop,” and “Valentine’s gifts” are among the top search terms for Americans serving in Iraq, according to a recent study. A “regional interest” index calculated by Google Insights pegs these search terms at 100 (based on a maximum value of 100) or English speakers in Iraq, compared to 80 for the United States and 58 for Great Britain.

It’s pretty clear that the internet helps our troops act on concerns they have about what is happening at home (no surprises there). Thanks to fairly plentiful online access, they have an easier time of participating in the normal activities that we take for granted, such as buying birthday presents.

For people stationed on the larger posts (such as Camp Anaconda), it’s possible to gain satellite internet access in the barracks, though this option can be expensive. Free internet access is offered through Military Welfare and Recreation (MWR) centers on these installations.

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Angry British mob chases Google out of their town

by Scott Carmichael on

Here in the US we are used to being able to zoom in on street level images of anything in our area.

Google started mapping up and down our streets years ago, and it all happened with so little fanfare, that nobody really got the chance to complain.

Things are different in the UK, where residents are beginning to complain quite vocally about the privacy invasion caused by the ability to get up close and personal with just about anything, anywhere.

In the town of Milton Keynes, residents noticed the camera equipped Google car snapping photos of their homes, and decided it wasn’t going to happen.

The angry mob stopped just short of bringing their own pitchforks, but managed to block the driver, and then chase him away.

Of course, the whole thing could have been done to prevent anyone in the town showing up on Google doing something stupid.