Unless you travel frequently enough to justify an annual policy, arranging travel insurance is just one more thing to think about when planning a trip. Financial startup Revolut now offers a solution to that: pay-per-day travel insurance that kicks in automatically, based on your phone’s GPS location …
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has advised a Senator that while it has the power to search electronic devices and examine all data stored on them, these powers do not extend to searching data stored in the cloud …
From showing flight and hotel listings above competitors in Search to releasing a trip-planning app, Google is making increasing forays into the travel industry. While Google has denied to Bloomberg that it’s becoming an online travel agent, entrenched players are expecting more direct competition.
Update: You can now grab the Google Trips APK from APKMirror.
One of Inbox’s most convenient features are Travel bundles that organize reservations and other related emails in an easy to read manner. Google is now testing (via Androidworld) a Trips app that organizes every aspect of your travels and offers useful suggestions.
Despite the futuristic nature of airplanes, most still have old, outdated in-flight entertainment systems. So it’s no wonder that most people just use their phones, tablets, and laptops, especially with the advent of on-board Wi-Fi. To appeal to its flyers, JetBlue is upgrading (via Android Police) its entertainment system to be Android-based and adding a bunch of content in the process.
Inbox, Google’s smart assistant-heavy email client, is getting updated with new features for sharing travel plans and an easier way to attach photos to emails.
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport says that anonymously tracking smartphones and tablets through airport security has enabled it to cut the average waiting time by a third.
The system, developed by Danish company Blip Systems, scans both WiFi and Bluetooth connections to look for MAC addresses of mobile devices passing through security. Counting the number of devices in each queue enables the system to estimate the length of the queue. The queue length is displayed to passengers in minutes, so they can choose which queue to join, and also used to help the airport allocate the right number of security personnel.
Blip says that it anonymizes this data, and only uses device counts. The same system is used in a number of other airports around the world, but this is the first time it’s been used in the USA.
Via The Verge
If you’re flying (back) to the U.S. from overseas, make sure that all your electronic devices have enough juice left to power-up when you reach airport security, otherwise you won’t be allowed to take them on board due to a new TSA requirement.
The Transportation Security Administration said yesterday that it was requiring certain overseas airports flying directly to U.S. airports to increase security checks on electronic items in response to concerns about new al-Qaida attempts to use them as disguise for bombs.
While the focus appears to be on smartphones, it’s also possible that passengers will be required to power-up tablets and laptops also. Devices that won’t power-up will not be allowed on board, and passengers carrying these devices may be subject to additional screening.
The TSA has not revealed which airports are subject to the new requirements, but London’s Heathrow is known to be one of them.
Back in 2012, Google launched an experimental feature called Explore Flights that was aimed at frugal travelers looking to visit different destinations within a specific region. Still up and running flying, Mountain View will be adding some of the tool’s best offerings to Flight Search, along with a few additional new features.
Yesterday Google opened the Glass beta to the general public once again, offering the chance for anyone to buy the wearable device for $1,500. Today the company has unveiled three new travel-oriented glassware apps.
The first of these apps is Foursquare, the popular check-in app that allows users to locate and review restaurants, shopping centers, or any other point of interest. Google also debuted TripIt integration, allowing users easily plan their travel itineraries through Glass. The third glassware app revealed today is OpenTable. Using this software, users can now book restaurant reservations right from Glass.
Samsung has partnered with Spanish airline, Iberia to bring boarding passes to the Gear 2. This new feature will come in the form of an update to the Iberia Android app, which will allow travelers to pair Samsung’s new smartwatch with a compatible Galaxy S handset to board their flights. While this is currently limited to only one airline, it should give hope to globetrotters who’ve invested in the Gear 2 that they may soon be able hop on a plane with the flick of their wrist.
(via Iberia)
If you ponied up $1,500 yesterday for Google Glass, you’ll probably want to start scouting apps to try out with your brand new piece of wearable tech. If we can make a suggestion, hotel mega-chain, Starwood has just released a new app for Google’s modern day monocle that lets would-be guests search its vast inventory of resorts, view photos of rooms, get directions to a location and book a stay.
Google might be preparing to release a new Gmail app for at least Android devices that will introduce a few new notable features.
Geek.com got its hands on the screenshots above that is apparently a version of Gmail for Android that Google is currently testing. It includes new Travel, Purchases, and Finance categories in addition to the Social, Promotions, Updates and Forums categories currently available. Also present is a pinning feature for making emails of your choosing remain at the top of your inbox as well as a “snoozing” feature that allows you to delay an email for a set amount of time much like hitting snooze on your alarm clock. Within a slightly tweaked UI you’ll also notice a new toggle at the top of your inbox that allows you to switch between showing pinned emails and haven them return to chronological order.
There’s always a chance the features above will never make it out of testing, but there’s also a possibility Google could be planning to roll them out to users in a future update. As always, we’ll keep you updated as we learn more.
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Google has updated its Android Translate app with a new Phrasebook feature to store some translated phrases that users want to keep quickly accessible. Phrasebook can easily sync via your Google Account’s login credentials.
When you’re traveling in another country, you want quick access to your favorite translated phrases—whether it’s “Where can I find a museum?” or “Do you know where the bathroom is?” Google Translate lets you save these translations in your Phrasebook, but you still could not easily access them on the go from your phone or tablet. Starting today, you can automatically sync the phrases in your Phrasebook to your Android device using the Google Translate mobile app, so you can carry your most useful phrases with you wherever you go.
Additionally, Google has added support for 16 new languages for camera-input translations.
Last but not least, this latest release of Google Translate for Android sees a significant improvement to the camera-input feature. You can now use camera-input to find translations in 16 additional languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Swedish.
After recently posting its I/O registration page to announce that registration for its annual I/O developers conference will open on March 13, Google today posted some more information about the upcoming event. In a blog post on the Google Developers Blog, Google noted that it has updated the I/O 2013 site with new info on registering, travel, events, and FAQs. It is has also posted information about the addition of subsidized childcare options at this year’s event.
Google’s updated I/O site includes a “Travel” section with a Google map for navigating to Moscone West in San Francisco, an “About” section with info on events such as the keynote and developer sessions, and a help page with FAQs. Something new at Google I/O this year is childcare:
We are excited to announce that this year Google I/O will offer nearby child care to conference attendees at a subsidized cost. When completing your registration form, please indicate if you are interested in child care services and, if so, tell us the number of children you want to have cared for. Once registration closes, we will contact you to gather more information and provide specific details on child care.
Google once again provided some tips for registration and outlined details specific to academic and international attendees:
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Google announced on the Official Lat Long Blog today that it is expanding the Google Maps live traffic feature first launched in 2008 to cover 130 smaller U.S. cities and the capitals of Panama, Costa Rica, and Colombia. On top of travel time estimates and real-time traffic conditions for the new cities, Google also improved its traffic coverage in a list of other locations including parts of Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. A tutorial of the feature is presented in the demo video below, and Google has a full overview of supported cities here.
Now the streets of Bogotá, San José, and Panama City and the arterial roads in Kalamazoo (Michigan), Portland (Maine), Tuscaloosa (Alabama) and many more cities will include real-time current traffic conditions as well as estimated travel times. Whether you’re online on your home computer ensuring no unexpected snarls await your drive to the airport or you’ve been stuck behind a line of cars for a few minutes and can ask your friend in the passenger seat to check whether it’ll clear up just around the bend, we hope these updates save you time and stress when getting to your destination.
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