Virgin America to launch in-flight Wi-Fi

Continuing with an ongoing trend, Virgin America is finally making its long announced entry into the world of in-flight broadband. The carrier, like American and Delta, will use the Gogo service from Aircell to provide its passenger with broadband connectivity and has teamed with YouTube to provide an air-to-ground video stream, from a plane flying over the San Francisco Bay Area, as part of the launch event tomorrow.

Virgin America’s in-flight Wi-Fi service will then remain in beta tests for one week before a planned commercial launch on December 1, with plans to have the system from Aircell deployed on all its planes by the middle of next year. Internet access won't be filtered for content or applications, except for VoIP, and the company will charge $9.95 for a flight of three hours or less and $12.95 for longer flights.
[Via: Jose Vilches ] [Tag: ]

Google bringing voice search to the iPhone

Given the option, would you like to search the web using your voice? Google may be prepping just such an endeavor, with an application for the iPhone that'll let people surf, or at least search, by using voice commands. The application would put them on more equal terms with Microsoft and Yahoo who already have similar tools.

No matter when it appears, it'll probably be only a short time before it makes the migration over to Android-based phones as well. With video email chat already in the works it could be that Google has hopes to change smartphones into much different tools that what they are now in a relatively short time. Then again, there are a lot of search terms that we'd want people to just continue to type in – not all search terms are G-rated, after all.
[Via: Justin Mann ] [Tag: ]

Mobile web users expected to reach 530 million by 2013

The percentage of people with mobiles browsing the web is going up sharply, due largely to the rise of feature-rich smartphones. According to ABI Research, around 130 million people now carry phones that have what we'd call “modern” browsing, and within the next 4-5 years that's expected to quadruple.

The research primarily points to phones from the likes of Apple and RIM, along with the expansion of 3G networks that offer speeds worthy of web browsing. Many sites tailoring to mobile users have helped as well, with Google definitely leading the pack for making a vast array of services functional and even easy to use on a mobile.

There are a lot of hurdles to get over. Even the fastest of 3G networks on fast phones pale in comparison when pitted up against the speed advantages of an actual broadband Internet connection, and viewing all your content on a three inch screen can get tiresome after a while. Cellular speeds haven't improved anywhere near as fast as Internet speeds either, which compound some of the issues – but people are still open to it, and manufacturers are still trying.

From my own experience, even a single generation of smartphones can make a night-and-day difference. I wouldn't be surprised to see Netbooks all but supplanted by sufficiently powerful smartphones, with people relying on them for hosts of applications, all types of communication and of course web browsing.
[Via: Justin Mann ] [Tag: ]