Hasta La Gadget!

The Japanese are champions at making cute little things you didn’t know you had to have to complete your life. A plain travel pillow is boring when placed next to the musical Neckphone from Takara Tomy.

Your MP3 player is plugged into the Neckphone to transform the pillow into a miniature stereo on your neck. These inflatable pillows are fitted with a pair of water-resistant speakers and a waterproof pouch for the music player.

Ideal for listening to the playlist of your choice while soaking in the tub, the Neckphone can also be used at the beach or pool, or just as a travel pillow.

Available in three designs, blackdot (a ladybug pattern), stripe (zebra stripes), and drop-crush (paint splatters), Neckphones are available in Japan. For those of us not lucky enough to live in Japan, specialty shops like Geek Stuff 4 U have them in stock for 3500 yen, or about $40, (double the local price) with shipping costs running about $12 to $18.

We’ve all been there — you step into a cab in a foreign place, ask your driver to head to your destination, and then he / she asks you if you’d rather take the highway or go direct. Or, worse still, senses your innocence and proceeds to head the wrong direction for two or three miles. In an effort to give desperate travelers a better sense of how much it’ll cost to get from point A to point B D in a cab, Bing Maps’ new Taxi Fare Calculator was created. Turns out, this add-in for the mapping service was built by someone hankering to win the King of Bing Maps competition, and while it’s only capable of calculating routes around a few dozens cities right now, we get the impression that this could soon grow into a monster of its own. Hey Microsoft, when’s the (badly needed) optimized-for-mobile version coming out?

Bing Maps’ Taxi Fare Calculator keeps your lollygagging cab driver in check originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh, sure — this has certainly been tried before, but given that things like this need a critical mass of followers to be effective, we’re particularly jazzed about Google‘s own initiative. Dubbed ‘Open Spot,’ this bloody brilliant Android (2.0 and up) application enables motorists to search for unclaimed spaces that have been reported by other Open Spot users, and once they head elsewhere, it allows them to mark their spot as open and available. Once a spot is marked, the color gradually fades from red to yellow the longer it remains unclaimed. We’ve given it a quick test here on our end, and while it seems snappy enough (and yes, we definitely received a Karma Point for every space we dropped), the obvious omission is the ability to add notes to each marked place. There really should be a way to denote whether a spot is metered, covered by some wacky city permit law or submerged in a foot of water — here’s hoping the next update will enable comments. Hit that source link (or just open up the App Market) to grab it for free, and jump on past the break to see how your fellow city dwellers feel about this marvelous invention.

Continue reading Google Open Spot alerts Android users to freed parking spaces

Google Open Spot alerts Android users to freed parking spaces originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mmm… we like where this is headed. While legacy airlines in America are struggling to outfit their fleets with in-flight WiFi alone, Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways is showing ’em how it’s done. The airline has just inked a memorandum of understanding with Panasonic Avionics for the “provision of full broadband connectivity on all Cathay Pacific and Dragonair passenger aircraft.” Yeah, you read that correctly — by early 2012, Cathay will make 50Mbps internet service, in-flight GSM cellphone service (voice, SMS and data) as well as live and pay-per-view television available to every last passenger. The finer details are still being hammered out, and we aren’t told whether every single bird in its fleet will be online from Day 1, but we’re still as giddy as ever for this to become a reality. Here’s hoping this pushes those other airlines into getting with the program, and at the very least, it ought to give you plenty of reason to take that Asian vacation you’ve been putting off.

Continue reading Cathay Pacific bringing 50Mbps WiFi, live TV and in-flight calling to fleet

Cathay Pacific bringing 50Mbps WiFi, live TV and in-flight calling to fleet originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look out, Kayak / Bing Travel — you both are about to have your respective worlds rocked. While Google has managed to stay on top (or close to the top) when it comes to almost everything search related, the company has curiously allowed smaller niche brands to handle the travel side. Even amongst the hardcore Googlers, avid flyers typically head to a place like Kayak to weigh their options, while vacation planners either do likewise or turn to Bing Travel. In a few months time, we suspect some of that traffic will be diverted back to El Goog. The company has just announced plans to acquire Cambridge-based ITA Software for a cool $700 million, which will put one of the world’s most sophisticated QPX software tools for organizing flight information into the hands of the planet’s most dangerous search ally. According to Google, the pickup will allow consumers to search and buy airline tickets with less hassle and frustration, though it’s quick to point out that it has “no plans to sell airline tickets [directly] to consumers.” For the travel junkies in attendance, there’s a high probability that you won’t find any better news coming your way today than this.

[Thanks, Matthew]

Continue reading Google acquires ITA for $700m, dives headfirst into airline ticket search

Google acquires ITA for $700m, dives headfirst into airline ticket search originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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