virgin america

How Virgin America lets you text a hottie midflight

It is possible to meet the lover of your dreams on a plane.

Usually, this involves being fortunate enough to have them sit next to you. Idle chatter is exchanged and, before you know it, you're living together.

A serious amount of serendipity is needed for a happy ending in the air. So Virgin America has decided it should broaden your chances.

As ClickOrlando teases it, your in-flight entertainment system will now offer the potential of some off-flight entertainment too.

For, should you see a man, woman or stuffed toy that sparks your amorous aspirations, you will be able … Read more

Gogo quietly hikes up its in-flight Wi-Fi prices

It's kind of strange timing for Gogo to quietly raise its in-flight Internet prices -- with airplane Wi-Fi usually being frustrating rather than helpful and JetBlue just announcing it's offering it for free -- but according to PandoDaily, the wireless service has upped their costs.

In what used to be $17.95 for Wi-Fi on a long flight on Virgin America now costs at least $30. Because rather than offering a one-time flight pass, Gogo is now charging by the hour. One hour of in-flight wireless costs $10, so a cross-country flight could be about $60. That's … Read more

Join the mile-high QR code voter registration club

In an effort to sign up 1.5 million new voters, Rock the Vote has been stashing its voter registration QR codes in all sorts of strange places. Recently, it was on T-shirts. Now it's way, way up in the air.

With an assist from Virgin America, Rock the Vote has gone airborne. The voter registration drive coincides with Virgin's new nonstop route from San Francisco to Washington D.C.… 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 America in-flight Internet to go up a big notch

Virgin America and Gogo announced today that the carrier will be the first airline to offer Gogo's next-generation ATG-4 service. The two companies debuted the in-flight Internet access almost three years ago, and in May 2009, Virgin offered fleetwide Wi-Fi access via Gogo service.

According to Gogo, the new ATG-4 service will increase Wi-Fi capacity by about four times the current performance. This means you can download files faster and can even stream HD content without much latency, while flying. The companies say this improvement is achieved via the addition of directional antenna, dual-modem, and EV-DO Rev. B technology.… Read more

The 404 903: Where the good Lord continues to bless the Internet (podcast)

The Internet caught fire an hour before we recorded today, so our apologies if we're still reeling from the "news" for the first few minutes of the podcast. No clue what we're talking about? Enjoy the show.

In serious tech news, Google is putting more companies out of business with its new Flight Search service that went live yesterday. The tracker takes advantage of Google's other Web products, integrating with Google Calendar, Maps, and Mail to show you special deals and notify you about upcoming flights.

In a related story, Virgin America just partnered with Lufthansa Systems' new BoardConnect platform to roll out the next evolution of its Red in-flight entertainment. Air travel is getting even swankier thanks to Virgin America, and next year all of their planes (Virgin calls them Nerdbirds) will have HD television monitors on every seat back and faster Wi-Fi for connected devices.

Finally, we'll take you on the hunt for the rarest video game ever created: the gold Nintendo World Championships cartridge awarded to the winners of Nintendo Power Magazine's 1990 competition. Of the original 26, only 13 units have been found, and they're valued at around $20,000 by video game collectors. I think it's safe to assume that the other 13 games were sacrificed to the trash gods by the players' mothers.

We want to hear about the valuable junk from your childhood that your parents have carelessly thrown away. Give us a call at 1-866-404-CNET (2638) and tell us about it!

The 404 Digest for Episode 903

Google flight-search service takes off. Virgin America debuts Nerdbird airplane for 2012. The quest for the golden Nintendo game. Your daily 404 bathroom break: Chinese shoe trick.

Episode 903 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Google confirms Chromebooks are for the beautiful people

What do Virgin America and New York's Ace Hotel have in common? They are frequented by the digerati, the beautiful, and the in-the-know.

So it's a shrewd marketing move by Google to announce today that some Virgin America flights this summer and the Ace will be testbeds for the brand new Chromebook.

Chromebooks were a concept initially introduced two years ago, but are just now making their way to retailers.

The laptops are made by Samsung and Acer and boot directly to Google's Chrome browser, which means a Wi-Fi or 3G connection are necessary to get anything done on them. … Read more

A smart deal: Virgin America+Groupon+Chicago

This is a well-thought-out move: Low-cost air carrier Virgin America, which has attempted to court passengers with a tech-savvy offering since its 2007 launch, announced today its initial service from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. To drum up online chatter, it partnered with Chicago's company of the moment--Groupon.

Groupon users can purchase $77 worth of Virgin America credit for $7 on the massive group-buying site, with the caveat that it can only be used on the airline's new Chicago routes. Given the amount of positive buzz for a brand that can … Read more

Who can afford the carbon-friendly skies?

Directflights.com is now offering a search engine for finding the cheapest carbon-friendly flights between two destinations, the company announced today.

The tool was developed in conjunction with The Carbon Consultancy, a British company that offers reports on emissions data and offset procurement information for travel industry companies.

It offers to show international flights, as well as those contained within the U.K. and Europe, or contained within the U.S., among other places. Flights can be viewed by cheapest only, or by most carbon-friendly with a choice to see flights in different currency options.

The tool ranks flights on … Read more