travel

Remember the Memorex iFlip from a couple months ago? It's an iPod dock that plays videos on its 7-inch widescreen LCD. It was $59.99 then, but OnSale.com has the iFlip on sale for $49.99. Plus, you can get back the cost of shipping (around $15) via a mail-in rebate.

The iFlip can dock, charge, and play most iPod models, though the 3G nano isn't listed among those that are compatible. You can watch videos and photos on the big screen or just listen to music through the built-in stereo speakers. The iFlip has dual headphone … Read more

TripIt, which organizes personal travel information, expects to announce Thursday that it has raised $5.1 million in a series B round of financing from travel behemoth Sabre Holdings and German investment group European Founders Fund.

Seed investor O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, which had previously put $1 million into the company, also participated in the round.

San Francisco-based TripIt, which was founded in October 2006, helps people plan trips, including flights and restaurant reservations, and then share their travel itineraries with friends and family. That the company raised millions from an old-school travel company like Sabre proves there's still … Read more

Despite trends toward extreme customization (think HP's Artist Edition Pavilion and Sony's Graphic Splash Edition FE series), most people aren't interested in making a fashion statement with their $2,000 laptops. A less-expensive accessory, however, is a different matter. Thus the only surprise about the new "special edition" version of Microsoft's Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000 is that it didn't come sooner.

The mouse itself has changed little since we reviewed it in 2006; it's still a basic, ambidextrous travel mouse with a receiver that snaps onto the bottom when not in … Read more

Updated 1:55 p.m. PDT with no comment from Expedia.

Correction 12:45 p.m. PDT: This blog initially misstated the day the price of Expedia shares rose on rumors of a possible bid by Google. It was Tuesday.

Does Google want to buy travel site Expedia? A Wall Street analyst referred to rumors Tuesday morning that Google could make a bid and that drove up the stock of Expedia about 9 percent at one point, according to Reuters.

The rumors are just that though, at this point.

The move doesn't exactly make sense given that Google has … Read more

Last November, MobiMate revealed WorldMate Live for BlackBerry. A large stride ahead of its traditional business-class travel software, WorldMate Live got some souped-up features, including online management tools and functionality to push flight status alerts and scheduling reminders to the phone.

In a few more weeks, WorldMate Live will come to Windows Mobile phones, the number two platform pick for businesses, and therefore frequent corporate jetsetters. I got a preview today at the CTIA Wireless conference, and it looks good. By "good" I mean nearly identical to the BlackBerry version of WorldMate Live, with perhaps one or two … Read more

This post was updated at 11:51 AM PT in order to correct a misstatement that was made in the announcement. The winning artwork from the Etsy-NASA contest, not the artists, will make a trip into space. Read the correction post here.

NEW YORK--What does a marketplace for handmade crafts have to do with a NASA project in virtual world Second Life?

A lot, apparently, according to a panel at Thursday's PSFK Conference that paired Robert Kalin, founder of the Brooklyn-based handmade goods site Etsy, and Andrew Hoppin, co-founder of NASA Co-Labs at the NASA Ames Research Center. The … Read more

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Good advice if you're Creative and Goliath is a fruit-branded company from Cupertino. So adding more sauce to the Apple pie is yet another third-party accessory, albeit a decent-looking effort, hot out of Sim Wong Hoo's wonder emporium. First glimpsed at CES 2008 back in January, Creative's TravelSound i80 speaker for the iPod nano (3rd Generation) is an extension of the i50 for the shuffle (2nd Generation). If you liked the latter, you'll probably like the former since Creative's roots are after all rooted in audio. Think … Read more

So much for taking the bus in the People's Republic.

In its latest airport development plan, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) says the country will erect 97 new airports before 2020, according to the People's Daily, a prominent, unbiased, and properly licensed source of news in China.

The number of airports will increase to 192 by 2010 and rise to 244 by 2020, it said. Right now, there are 147 airports in China, with 45 of those serving civilian and military purposes. Building these airports will cost $64 billion, but once complete, 81 percent … Read more

Although we saw the Lincoln MKS at its debut at the 2007 Los Angeles auto show, and again at the 2008 Detroit show, we got our first chance to get up close and personal with the navigation system during the 2008 New York auto show. Lincoln's new, big luxury cruiser not only includes Ford Sync, the system that lets you voice command your phone and MP3 player, it also has Sirius Travel Link, which gives useful information such as traffic, gas prices, weather, and movie listings.

Click here for photos of the Lincoln MKS.

Click here for more 2008 New York auto show coverage. … Read more