flights

Microsoft makes a return to Flight

One of the casualties of last year's layoffs at Microsoft was the Aces game studio responsible for the company's long-running Flight Simulator game.

At the time, Microsoft promised that the flight simulation franchise would continue in one form or another. This week, Redmond confirmed that it is indeed following through with a new title: Microsoft Flight.

The game is in its early development stages, with an alpha version nearly ready for internal testing, according to Kevin Unangst, a senior director in Microsoft's game unit.

The company is offering few details on Flight, but Unangst said that it … Read more

Samsung unveils Flight, Eternity sequels

Summer isn't just for movie sequels anymore, it could also be known as the season of cell phone sequels. On Monday, less than two weeks after it announced the Intensity II, Samsung stepped up and unveiled the Eternity II and Flight II for AT&T. As with most sequels, the new handsets attempt to expand on the story of the original installment, but whether they will succeed remains to be seen.

The Eternity II follows the release of the original Eternity by almost two years. Like its predecessor, the Eternity II has a touch screen and doesn't have a physical keyboard. The blue color scheme is unique, but it largely resembles its parent in other respects.

The Eternity II's midrange feature set doesn't break much new ground, though it makes a strong case for multimedia. On the upside, you'll find the usual messaging and AT&T Mobile Music, a digital music player, a full HTML Web browser, Bluetooth 2.1, AT&T Mobile TV, a personal organizer, and GPS with support for AT&T Navigator. Also, as a 3G quad-band world phone, the Eternity II supports the carrier's music download and streaming video services. However, we're disappointed that Samsung lowered the Eternity II's camera resolution from 3 megapixels to 2 megapixels. That's not what you want from a sequel. … Read more

Making the switch to Apple? Get the perfect setup

With the undeniable popularity and success of the iPhone 4 (despite the antenna debacle), iPad, and ever-increasing Mac sales, Apple is gaining customers faster than ever. If you're thinking about making the switch, this could be your perfect setup.

Component one: iPhone 4 Now in its fourth iteration, Apple's iPhone has forever changed the mobile phone landscape by thrusting touch-screen technology to the tips of every tech geek's tongue and every consumer's wish list. Despite its early and somewhat overblown issues, iPhone 4 has had record-setting sales. With the exception of the complaints from a vocal minority regarding its antenna, … Read more

Landing the best iPhone flight tracker apps

Whether you're leaving on a jet plane or picking up Mom at the airport, a flight tracker app is an essential tool for your iPhone. You can use it to keep tabs on your departure time, confirm when Mom is arriving, and even check her plane's position in the air. And if you're an airline geek right like me, you might even check it just for fun.

There are a handful of flight tracker apps available in the iTunes App Store, but up until now I wasn't sure which offered the best experience. So to find out, I downloaded six titles and tracked a sample flight on each one. Below you'll find what I consider to be the upsides and downsides of each app, plus my overall assessments and a screenshot. For a further peek at the maps for each title, check out this related slideshow.

Note: For this roundup, I chose only standalone Flight Tracker apps. I did not include more comprehensive trip planning titles that happen to include flight tracker functionality.

FlightTrack Developer: Mobiata Price: $4.99 Can it track international flights? Yes, even when outside the United States.

What's good: FlightTrack offers a lot of information without saddling you with an overwhelming interface. For each flight, it not only lists the scheduled departure and arrival times (when the plane leaves from and arrives at the gate), but also when it will take off and land. Delay information is clearly marked, as well, and you view the aircraft type, departure gate, and scheduled flight time.

Once a flight is in the air, FlightTrack shows the airspeed, arrival gate, baggage claim number, and present altitude. And if that isn't enough, you can jot notes on a separate page, access a shortcut to the airline's phone number, and look up the local time and temperature of the departure and arrival cities.

The maps are gorgeous, and that's not an overstatement. You get a full satellite view with weather radar data and I really like that you can zoom way in and scroll around the map using your finger.

What's not: The satellite maps can take a long time to load depending on your connection, and you can't switch to a simpler format.

The final word: FlightTrack offers a clean, data-rich interface with the best maps of the bunch. Don't let the $4.99 price tag scare you off; FlightTrack is my top choice and well worth the money.

Neat bonus: You also can shake your iPhone to see a random flight.

Other versions available? A Pro version ($9.99) adds push notifications, weather, and TripIt integration. You'll need a subscription, though. … Read more

RIP Sidekick

Thanks for watching Loaded today. We will be off Monday for the long Fourth of July weekend. Why we get off July 5 when the holiday is a day earlier, I am not quite sure. But I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth! Have a happy and safe Independence Day!

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

The U.S. government releases four new smartphone apps Disney purchases Tapulous Google acquires travel software company ITA Microsoft is licensing technology that allows batteries to work no matter how you put them in your gadgets Sex.com … Read more

The future of in-flight entertainment in an iPad age

During the past decade, airlines have been keeping passengers' eyes focused on the seat backs in front of them, filling in-flight entertainment systems up with satellite TV, real-time maps, and movies on demand. But does the proliferation of devices like the iPad mean people will stop paying attention?

It's a particularly compelling question for Virgin America, which runs an in-flight entertainment system called Red that's inarguably the fanciest out of any U.S. airline. Virgin is still on its way to profitability--it recently posted a first-quarter loss of $35.5 million, narrower than last year's--and while trying … Read more

Wallops Flight Facility, NASA's hidden launch shop

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va.--Imagine a football stadium floating high in the sky, enclosed in material not much thicker than a sandwich bag.

Take away the physical part of the football field, but leave the volume, and you get a sense of the size of the high-altitude balloons that NASA uses to conduct scientific experiments.

Those balloons, as well as the design and manufacture of sub-orbital rockets and the launching into space of government satellites, are among the mandates of the Wallops Flight Facility, a NASA center based here on the Atlantic coast about 160 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. … Read more

iPad to fly Australian budget airline

Australian budget airline Jetstar Airways has announced plans to pilot the use of Apple's iPad tablet as an in-flight entertainment device.

In a statement Tuesday, the Qantas subsidiary said passengers will be able to rent the device for $10 Australian (US$8.50) to access content including movies, e-books, TV programs, games, and music.

Noting the high market demand for iPads, Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan said the carrier is anticipating "strong appeal amongst our passengers" for the tablet.

Read more of "iPad to fly by budget airline" at ZDNet Asia.

X-51A races to hypersonic record

The X-51A Waverider flew today, and it flew fast.

The scramjet engine in the experimental aircraft burned for a little over three minutes at around 10 a.m. PDT Wednesday in a test range over the Pacific Ocean, pushing the X-51A to the hypersonic speed of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. That was the top speed reached by the aircraft in its brief flight, according to Boeing and press reports citing U.S. Air Force officials. (Editors' note: A separate Air Force News Service report had initially cited a higher speed, but was amended to give … Read more