901am

New Media News Every Morning

Virgin America and AirCell to take broadband Internet to the skies

By

virgin.jpgVirgin America today announced that it is partnering with AirCell in an effort aimed at offering air-to-ground broadband internet service on Virgin America flights sometime in 2008. Guests onboard America’s newest airline will be able to access the internet either through their wifi-enabled personal devices or through the Red Inflight Entertainment system at every seat.

Customized for Virgin America, the system is anticipated to allow guests to connect to the internet with the AirCell Broadband Service, using either their Red seatback video screens or their own wifi enabled portable gaming devices, laptops, PDAs or Smartphones. As such, in addition to the many entertainment choices currently offered by Red guests will be able to check and send web-email from their seatbacks through Red’s TALK – the airline’s onboard chat.

Once operational, the Virgin America-AirCell system will allow Virgin America’s guests to receive this airborne functionality on every flight. Virgin America is the first airline to announce and commit to a planned full-fleet deployment of broadband connectivity. It is anticipated that the AirCell on Red capability will be made available on Virgin America aircraft sometime in 2008.

Originally posted on September 13, 2007 @ 3:40 pm

The Weather Channel Interactive acquires Weather Bonk

By

weather.jpgThe Weather Channel Interactive today announced the acquisition through an affiliate of the assets of Weather Bonk, a web 2.0 property that incorporates user generated and partner content, links to other sites, and current weather conditions and forecasts. The site features mashups, with the different information overlaid on Google maps. The purchase also includes Golf Bonk and Ski Bonk, outdoor sports sites each featuring innovative mashups similar to weatherbonk.com. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Weather Bonk acquisition is the first by TWCi and is a part of its efforts to seek opportunities for expansion through the acquisition of
companies that complement the core assets of TWCi, ideally any natural extensions of weather.com’s Web and mobile sites. Future targets may include travel, vacations, health, recreation, playing and watching sports, traffic and other local content and green living. “I am looking forward to continuing to develop the Weather Bonk properties aided by the resources of The Weather Channel Interactive,” said David Schorr, founder of Weather Bonk.

Originally posted on September 11, 2007 @ 11:54 am

Filed Under: Web

Idearc Media acquires LocalSearch.com URL; Invests in AmericanTowns.com

By

idearc2.jpgIdearc Media Corp., home to Superpages.com and publisher of the Verizon Yellow Pages, has acquired the LocalSearch.com URL and made a strategic investment in AmericanTowns.com, a national network of community-based websites where residents can find and share local content.

Under the terms of the URL acquisition, Idearc will receive ownership and all rights to the LocalSearch.com URL and domain name. Under the terms of the strategic investment, Idearc will receive an equity interest in AmericanTowns.com, including a seat on the AmericanTowns.com Board of Directors, and the companies will seek to share content, traffic and expertise. Chandler will represent Idearc on the AmericanTowns.com Board of Directors. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2007 for cash of $3.3 million plus deferred purchase consideration.

AmericanTowns.com will use proceeds from this transaction to continue growing its database, which is projected to feature over 10 million local events this year, to develop new tools for community groups, and to further open each “community web space” to local contributions of relevant links, blogs and other resources.

Originally posted on September 12, 2007 @ 11:08 am

Lemonade stand hits Facebook

By

lemonade.jpgAs part of its official launch today, Lemonade Inc. announced that it has been approved as the first Facebook application to enable users to make money by setting up a Lemonade Stand on their personal profile pages. The Lemonade Stand application is free. It lets users design a digital Lemonade Stand that recommends products for sale and offers brand promotions. Whenever visitors respond to a promotion or buy a product, the Lemonade Stand owner makes money. Lemonade Stand owners can select from among 2 million products carried by more than 200 top-tier retailers.

In addition to Facebook, Lemonade Stand owners can add their stand as a “widget” to their social networking page, blog, or personal website. Users currently have set up Lemonade Stands on MySpace, AOL People Connect, Yahoo! 360, Blogger, and SixApart.

Originally posted on September 10, 2007 @ 12:38 pm

As expected, Apple sells one millionth iPhone

By

iphone.jpgApple today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone yesterday, just 74 days after its introduction on June 29. iPhone combines three devices into one-a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod(R), and the best mobile Internet device ever-all based on Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface and pioneering software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers.

“One million iPhones in 74 days-it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”

Originally posted on September 10, 2007 @ 12:12 pm