Hasta La Gadget!

For millions of vacationers every year, there remains only one form of travel where you can truly leave all the digital disruptions of your life at home – on a cruise ship. That’s mainly because all those distractions simply don’t work. Mobile phone service is unavailable and even if you’re willing to pay the outrageous Internet fees, you can only browse at speeds that remind you of the days of dial-up.

But we all know it’s only a matter of time before that changes. It didn’t take long for the airline industry. Once one carrier started offering in-flight WiFi, pretty much everyone jumped on board. Now, for example, every single one of Delta’s aircraft has Internet access. So the cruise industry looks like it’s next, as Royal Caribbean announced a new partnership with a company called O3b Networks.

That company has the technology to provide high-speed Internet at sea, offering an experience “as if connected to fiber at home or in the office,” Royal Caribbean said. in a statement, it noted, Royal Caribbean is committed to delivering the most contemporary vacation to our guests. And that includes pushing ahead for onboard technological advances that offer the modern conveniences that guests enjoy on land.” The first ship to get the connection will be the Oasis of the Seas, a 5,400-passenger vessel.

[via USA Today]

Royal Caribbean to offer faster on-board Internet is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ready to waste the morning away? Google has partnered with Lego Australia to allow users to build objects using the popular plastic blocks right from within their browser. You can choose from a multitude of different building blocks, and build anything that you can think up. Not only that, but your creation isn’t randomly floating around the internet, instead assigned a virtual plot of land in Australia using Google Maps.

Once you fire up Build you’ll be able to see a zoomed out map of Australia. As you search the continent and zoom in to different spots, you’ll see different creations from netizens that you can interact with or simply observe. If you want to go about building your own creation, you can choose your own plot of land or have the map randomly select somewhere in Australia.

After you’re finished, your final build is submitted to Google for approval, just to make sure anything naughty doesn’t slip through. Build has launched in Australia first, with New Zealand next on the list. After that, Google will open it up to even more countries so that you can build on more familiar territories.

[via The Next Web]

Google Build lets you play with Lego in Chrome is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You’ve probably seen it before: a new video from a popular producer of content gets uploaded. The viewcount shoots toward the skies, then, suddenly, it stops, usually right at 301. The “Likes” are still steadily climbing. What the hell is going on? More »