Old & busted: cupholders. New crispy, salty and greasy hotness: the McDonald’s fries holder! Designed to fit car, truck and bike cupholders not to mention pedestrian hands, the bright red plastic “potato holder” is available for a limited time from McDonald’s Japan.
It’s been three months since the FAA grounded all Boeing 787 Dreamliners due to multiple battery failures in several of the planes. However, progress has been made as the FAA has approved the battery design changes in the new aircraft, and will lift the flight ban on the Dreamliner sometime next week.
Before the FAA will lift the ban, however, they will be publishing a set of instructions for operators to follow in order to implement the design changes in all of the 787 Dreamliners currently out there. And while the FAA will lift ban sometime next week, this doesn’t necessarily mean that airlines will start flying the planes again, as they will have their own protocol as to when they decided to get the Dreamliners back up in the air.
As for the changes that operators will need to make, the FAA says that they will need to “install containment and venting systems for the main and auxiliary system batteries, and to replace the batteries and their chargers with modified components.” Once the changes are made to the planes, they’ll be free to fly again.
Plans for a new battery design began in February, with the first test flights following the incident occurring earlier that month. It was later announced that Airbus would go back to using the traditional nickel-cadmium batteries found in most planes after the manufacturer heard about Boeing’s fiasco with the new lithuim-ion batteries.
FAA approves Boeing 787 battery design changes is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Do you choose to chew Piranha? If so, get your appetite to the Nara Kenko Land hotel in Nara, Japan. Until May 12th, the second-floor restaurant is serving a variety of Amazon fare including Deep Fried Piranha, Amazon Catfish burgers and delicious Forest Smoothies.
You know those travel money belts that look super dorky? Only people who wear socks with sandals use those and they’re not even that convenient. The sleek Bellroy Passport Sleeve is a much better option, and it has room for everything you need on your next trip. More »
Are you currently waiting at the airport ready to board your American Airlines flight? Not anymore you’re not. American Airlines has announced that they have grounded all of their flights until 4pm CT due to a massive nationwide computer system outage that affects the airline’s reservation system.
The airline announced on Twitter that they’re having issues with their computer system. Originally, the airline thought that there were issues with the Sabre booking tool, but it seems to only involve the airline’s reservation system. The latest report is that all American Airlines flights are grounded until 4pm CT.
It’s said that American Airlines runs over 3,300 flights per day, and that somewhere around 100,000 people are being affected by the ground delay. It’s also worth pointing out that American Airlines operates over 600 aircrafts that travel to around 260 countries, so based on that information, that’s certainly a lot of flights being grounded.
American Airlines stopped dispatching new flights, stopped boarding new flights, and stopped allowing people to check in starting at around 11 am CT, so the delay will last around six hours, according to when the airline first tweeted the issue. We’re not sure how they’ll manage to get everything back on track, but we’re guessing that employees will be working overtime for the next few days in order to get caught up.
UPDATE: American Airlines says that their “systems have been fully restored,” but as expected, there will be “continued flight delays and cancellations throughout the remainder of the day.”
[via CNBC]
American Airlines grounds all flights due to system outage [UPDATE] is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
If you used Foursquare today to check-in at your favorite restaurant or other establishment, then you may know that it’s 4sqDay, a day that’s celebrated each year on April 16 to celebrate social media, specifically Foursquare. The social check-in service has launched a nifty new tool that provides users with a neat personalized infographic of all your check-ins over the past year.
The infographic comes with four different view modes, with all check-ins being separated by category in different colors. The first one shows check-ins by the time of year (pictured above), the second one shows your check-ins strictly based on category, the third one is based on connections between check-ins (providing a nifty circle with a web in the middle), and the last one is a randomized view that’s merely nothing but something fun to look at.
4sqDay was actually started by an optometrist in Tampa, Florida who also happened to be a social media enthusiast. He was obsessed with numbers, including the connection with Pi Day and it’s celebratory date of March 14 (3.14 is pi, by the way). He cleverly thought that April 16 would be a good day to celebrate Foursquare, since “4 squared” equals 16.
After promoting the idea on the internet, Foursquare picked it up and eventually made it official. Of course, some people celebrate the day with parties, but if you’re not much of a party goer or can’t make it to a party of some kind, you can simply check in at an establishment to earn the 4sqDay badge.
Foursquare celebrates 4sqDay with personalized check-in infographic is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Microsoft sees Windows 8 as a prime delivery vehicle for its online services, so it’s rather important that the company polishes the Bing apps at the heart of its experience. Accordingly, each and every one of them is receiving a tune-up. We’d argue that the biggest upgrade is coming to News: the information app now supports both RSS feeds and offline reading, quite possibly to catch newshounds who need a home once Google Reader goes dark. The refresh also introduces livelier content across the board, including dynamic maps in Weather, real-time US stock updates in Finance, 29 new leagues in Sports and live traffic updates in Maps. Travel users may be equally happy to see new content from Fodor’s, Frommer’s and Lonely Planet. With the exception of the soon-to-come Weather release, all the app updates should be ready and waiting in the Windows Store — get cracking if you live in Microsoft’s online world.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft
Source: Bing Search Blog
For years, LEGOLAND has been an epic destination for kids and kids at
heart. With the opening of the LEGOLAND Hotel in Carlsbad, California,
when the sun goes down, the fun doesn’t have to stop.
When the competition goes highbrow, what’s the CEO of a competing
airline to do? Well, if you’re Richard Branson you might seek out
advertising space that goes below the belt. That’s right. . . while
politicians, the likes of U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner have lost
their jobs over public images pertaining to to their ‘junk,’ Virgin Atlantic’s
number one publicity junkie exposes himself to the world at large – and
to boot – getting off "Scot" free (literally)!
Are you a global jet-setter who still hasn’t quite adopted a smartphone as your primary timekeeper? Well if you still prefer a trusty watch, and have a knack for recognizing famous landmarks around the world, Mr. Jones’ new Time Traveler will guarantee you’re on time no matter where on Earth you’ve landed. More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
