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Cameron and Branson race to bring urgent attention to oceans

Did famed filmmaker James Cameron just do for the oceans what scientific experts have struggled to do for decades?

When "Avatar" and "Titanic" director Cameron piloted his custom submersible, the Deepsea Challenger, to the bottom of the Mariana Trench yesterday and became the first person ever to make a solo dive to the world's deepest spot, he shined a crucial spotlight on the field of ocean exploration.

In recent years, scientists have been shouting from rooftops around the world that unless humanity puts more energy into studying our oceans, we are at real risk of … Read more

Virgin Mobile experiencing text, data outage

A nationwide outage has left Virgin Mobile customers in the U.S. without text or data services.

The company confirmed the disruption in a tweet this afternoon and said that engineers were working on the issue but did not give any indication what caused the outage or when it is expected to be resolved.

We're currently experiencing a national data & text messaging outage. Our engineers are working to resolve it. Thank you for your patience.

— Virgin Mobile USA (@virginmobileus) March 20, 2012

Virgin Mobile is an MVNO, or mobile virtual network operator that leases network capacity from parent … Read more

Ashton Kutcher to be launched into space

When you are a man who has everything--and has had everything for some time--how many pleasures are left upon this planet?

It is, therefore, with a vast thrust of uplift that I report that Ashton Kutcher, he of CBS' "Two And A Half Men," a huge but fragile Twitter account, and a smile that floats many a romcom, is being taken into space.

Time magazine reports that Kutcher has become the 500th human being to sign up for a suborbital Virgin Galactic flight.

Virgin's Sir Richard Branson was so heartily chuffed by this increase in his revenue … Read more

Virgin Mobile taking preorders for $99 Venture

Virgin Mobile has begun taking preorders for its next smartphone, the Gingerbread-powered PCD Venture.

The Venture is an affordable option for customers looking to scoop up their first Android device; it features a 2.8-inch display, a 600MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and microSD expansion slot (for cards up to a 2GB). Taking a peek at the user manual reveals that the internal storage is 512MB and the digital camera 2 megapixels. While seasoned users might not get excited over the hardware, I suspect that both will matter little to the target user base.

Additional details for the Venture include … Read more

Playboy's next fantasy? A men's club in space

Space is already full of heavenly bodies, but apparently not enough of the kind to satisfy those at Playboy, which is taking matters into its own hands.

The adult magazine company has come up with a concept for a Playboy Club in space that includes a zero-gravity dance club and Playboy bunnies with jet packs. The "intergalactic entertainment destination" is featured in the March issue of Playboy, which is out on newsstands now, and is described as a cruise ship in space by the article's writers, A.J. Baime and Jason Harper.

Baime and Harper collaborated with various individuals on the project, including artist Thomas Tenery, Virgin Galactic head designer Adam Wells, and former NASA scientist Stan Kent, to figure out the design and features of the Playboy space club. Together, they dreamed up a wheel-shaped space station that has everything from a casino to a restaurant to "orbital pleasure domes." … Read more

How Virgin Atlantic's birthday e-mail stabbed me in the heart

Recently, I experienced a birthday. Thank you, you shouldn't have. Oh, wait, you didn't.

Birthdays mean bracing yourself for cards and e-mails from your family, ex-lovers, and people who want something from you. Companies who want you to buy things, for example.

Starbucks always anticipates my birthday early. The company sends me a postcard two weeks before, so that I can be sure to claim my exciting free birthday drink.

Virgin Atlantic, on the other hand, believes it should send me an e-mail. It is all part of Virgin's "we're nicer and cooler than the … Read more

Virgin America pays tribute to Steve Jobs with jet name

As the first airline company to offer fleet-wide Wi-Fi and the only one based in Silicon Valley, it seems natural that Virgin America would name a jet after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

The plane, which first flew late last year, is an Airbus A320 and has the popular Jobs' quote "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" stenciled on its nose. … Read more

Virgin Mobile will throttle data speeds come March

Just as disappointing it is to see that the mimosa brunch you're attending isn't really that "bottomless" if the waiter is going to frequent your table a lot less after your sixth drink, so too is the news that Virgin Mobile will start slowing down their customers' data speeds once they exceed a certain point.

Recently, Virgin Mobile released a press release announcing that they will throttle data speeds for users who exceed 2.5GB a month, starting March 23.

If this story sounds familiar, that's because back in July 2011, Virgin Mobile said it … Read more

Sprint plans to bring 4G LTE to prepaid...eventually

LAS VEGAS--Sprint Nextel could bring 4G LTE to the masses in a real way: through the hot prepaid market.

A prepaid 4G LTE strategy is just one of the ways the company plans to set itself apart from its larger competitors, according to Steve Elfman, president of network operations at Sprint. The company's continued support of unlimited plans, as well as its ongoing green initiative, are two others, he added.

Sprint, which held a long advantage with 4G WiMax, is suddenly playing catch up with a newer version of 4G called LTE. The company is trying to make up … Read more