London Heathrow Airport - 9to5Google

Google Glass trialled in Scottish airport after earlier Virgin Atlantic tests

Ben Lovejoy Sep 30 2014 - 5:00 am PT

When you’re trying to assist large numbers of people, all of them in a hurry, having instant access to the information required seems like a good idea – hence the interest in Google Glass being shown by the aviation industry.

Following an earlier trial by Virgin Atlantic at London’s Heathrow airport, customer service staff at Scotland’s Edinburgh airport are now testing the headset, reports Engadget.

Staff will be fed real-time flight information, language translations and information about the local area, allowing them to provide assistance to travellers throughout the airport and not from behind a check-in desk. The airport says it will test Glass until December

While anyone in the US and UK can now buy Glass, the product still has no official launch date. There was, however, a recent clue in revised terms & conditions for Glass suggesting that the headset may be close to launch – and at a lower price than the current $1500.

Image credit: JetBlue

Google X old hat, thinks Larry Page – proposes Google Y for even bigger challenges

Ben Lovejoy Sep 18 2014 - 6:23 am PT

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airport

You might think Google’s ‘moonshot’ lab, Google X, is pretty out there, with autonomous cars, smart contact lenses and balloon-served Internet. But co-founder Larry Page seemingly thinks the company needs to look even further ahead: The Information (paywall) reports that he has proposed a second lab, Google Y, to look at even bigger issues.

The idea came out out of an initiative Page created called Google 2.0, designed to create a new set of goals for the company, an approach similar to that taken by the late Steve Jobs at Apple in 2010, where he created an off-site strategy-planning meeting for the top 100 people in the company.

A little over a year ago, Google CEO Larry Page convened his direct reports, the company’s dozen or so senior vice presidents, for a project that would take up two days a week for a couple of months. About 100 other employees below the SVP rank also participated in the effort, dubbed Google 2.0 …

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Flying BA from London’s Heathrow? Your flight now departs from Terminal Samsung Galaxy S5

Ben Lovejoy May 16 2014 - 4:04 am PT

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Heathrow Terminal Five - Official Opening

Update: It turns out Samsung isn’t exactly rebranding the terminal. iMore received clarification from Heathrow that Samsung is actually just renting regular advertising space available to anyone and using the slogan”Terminal Samsung Galaxy S5″ in its ad:

“Heathrow Terminal 5’s signage and passenger wayfinding has not changed,” a Heathrow spokesperson told iMore. “Samsung have rented advertising space in Terminal 5 with a tongue-in-cheek campaign using the line: ‘Terminal Samsung Galaxy S5’.”

But only for the next two weeks. The Verge reports that Samsung has bought saturation advertising for the Galaxy S5 in Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow airport for a fortnight, and is even referring to the terminal as Terminal Samsung Galaxy S5. While the airport says the terminal hasn’t officially been renamed, a Heathrow spokesman said that they are “relaxed” about Samsung pretending it has.

From Samsung’s description of the campaign, it will certainly be impossible to miss:
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