Have Laptop Will Travel

Southwest Airlines to test onboard internet

Southwest Airlines recently introduced the beta version of its onboard internet connection on four of its 737s.

Southwest Airlines said that internet access during the duration of the evaluation period will be free of charge. Passengers who avail of the service will be asked to fill out a survey to get further inputs on many aspects of the service and also help the airline in deciding on whether to equip all of its fleet with the internet service.

Lag and subpar VOIP services should be expected in the said service because the internet connection will be through satellite.
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Google wants “fast lane” to the internet

Google is really making its presence felt in the world of the internet. It’s not content not just being the top search engine in the world and having some of the most talked about services (Google Docs, Chrome, among others), it now wants to make its presence felt in terms of actual bandwidth.

The company has been talking with internet carriers regarding its proposal to develop a so-called fast lane for its own content. The proposal, called OpenEdge, will locate Google servers directly within the network of the service providers. Implementing this will make accessibility to Google’s services markedly faster. A number of providers are admittedly reluctant to follow Google’s proposal though as because the practice could run counter to network neutrality guidelines as given by the FCC.

Google opens voice, video chat for Gmail

Good news for laptop warriors who need a more immersive communication experience. Google has integrated voice and video for Gmail Chat that will allow you to see or hear a friend when you chat.

All users need to do is to download and install a plug-in in order to have access to webcam for video chatting. The good thing here is that users can now seamlessly switch from email to chat whenever they need to. This will be a great boost in productivity.

Accessing the video or voice chat is simple. All one has to do is to click on the “video & more” link in the chat window, click “start video chat” or “start voice chat.”

This feature is availablce on Windows XP or higher as well as on Mac OS X v10.4.

Google Chrome releases

Endless months of speculation has finally become official.

Google is entering the browser market with a free web browser.

Google Chrome, a seven megabyte application is now available for download in over 122 countries and is available in 43 languages. The browser has version a for Windows, but the Mac and Linux versions are still in development.

According to Google engineers, what they wanted to build was not a content viewer but a window manager for web pages and apps.

One cool thing about Google Chrome is that it is going to be an open source application, so expect tweaks and improvements to come out very soon.

I’ve tried Chrome today and I have to say I am impressed with its speed. If the development towards the first official release continues, Chrome could become a strong contender in the browser market.

Expedia.com.au Review

I was recently sponsored to write this review.

In the global travel industry what you need is great service and great fares to capture the attention of travelers anywhere. It’s a good thing that expedia.com.au realizes this and has come up with a great product and service that really benefits travelers.

Anyone who has traveled before and who has more than a baby’s knowledge of the internet knows that online travel booking is the wave of the future and Expedia is a brand that is quite well known in the industry. Expedia.com.au basically offers the same great service that its American counterpart has been known to give. And when I say great service I mean great flights—cheap flights, that is. Expedia always manages to give the best rates to almost any destination, and all of this happens while relaxing at the comfort of your own home. I think e-commerce is really best suited for the travel industry because you get a good complement of information tools in the form of the internet and the data provided by the online travel service. Expedia gives travelers a good deal of information that is quite useful. I particularly love the easy access to car hire information, probably one of the most confusing and frustrating arrangements you can make when travelling.

Speaking of information, the website is well thought out. It’s easy to get the information you need. I also love the Holiday Packages tab, which gives visitors a quick glance at the cheap rates being offered for these travel packages.

Travelers should really consider using Expedia’s services if you want hassle-free bookings at the best rates possible.