Sometime this year, while waiting for the next incoming flight at New York's LaGuardia, you will notice a bunch of iPads available for you to use for free.

OTG Management, well-known for managing airport restaurants, came up with this project, while providing delicious food, a pleasant and calm ambience for the weary travelers.

These iPads will be secured on tables designated on OTG's dining areas inside the airports so that passengers will be able to check their flight status, not to mention, they can also surf the net and make facebook updates to keep them from the airport hassles.



Besides LaGuardia, two other major American airports that includes St. Paul International of Minneapolis and Canada's Toronto Pearson International will also be equipped with about 2,500 iPads altogether. Rick Blatstein, OTG Management’s CEO says that they plan to purchase over a hundred more iPads as they will soon spread out to other US airports as well.

via [ techsmate.com ]

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A little honesty goes a long way. For Jessica Alba, Golden Globe-nominated actress and founder of baby products e-retailer The Honest Company, that statement rings truer than ever.

The site just secured over $27 million in funding to grow the baby products space online. And Honest.com investors have quite a portfolio, having also funded successful online retail spaces including ShoeDazzle, LivingSocial, Twitter, Zynga and Netflix.

The overwhelmingly positive response we have received since our recent launch has shown us we need to continue dedicating time and resources to further develop our Honest brand and community,” Alba said in a press release. “The new funding confirms our positioning and acknowledges the big need for a brand and service to deliver pure, healthy products that are delightful, effective and beautiful.

Alba runs Honest.com with Christopher Gavigan, the former CEO of nonprofit Healthy Child Healthy World.

Honest.com wants to steer parents away from baby products made with toxic chemicals, offering an abundance of natural soaps, diapers, household cleaners and other must-haves for new parents.

“Only a few hundred of the more than 80,000 chemicals registers for use in U.S. products have been adequately tested for safety,” the company says on its website.



The online retailer specializes in providing monthly subscriptions for diapers and other family essentials.

The funding from General Catalyst Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Institutional Venture Partners will help Honest.com develop new products and growth as an e-commerce site, according to the press release.

via [ mashable ]

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In a written memo sent to his employees, T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm breaks this unfortunate news that T-Mobile USA is closing down 7 out of their 24 call centers resulting to 1,900 of its Customer Service Representatives to lose their jobs and approximately 3,300 more to be affected.

Call Centers closing down includes the following: Allentown, Pennsylvania; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Frisco, Texas; Brownsville, Texas; Lenexa, Kansas; Thornton, Colorado; and Redmond, Oregon.



Humm also wrote that affected employees are given options to transfer to any of the 17 remaining call centers with which they will fill in at least 1,400 positions. Those who choose not to transfer will be offered transition packages with pay and outplacement support.

"Looking ahead, we will also be restructuring other parts of the company. It is important to note this will not include our customer service representatives in the remaining 17 call centers, technicians in engineering or front line employees in our T-Mobile corporate-owned stores. In other parts of the organization, the majority of changes will be announced by the end of May 2012. Senior leaders are intently focused on making the best possible choices standing on the foundation of our shared T-Mobile Values. The outcome will be an organization that is structured efficiently and closer to the customer. Leaders will share more information as plans evolve," explains Humm.

via [ techsmate.com ]

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To say it's been a rough year for Nokia would be a huge understatement. And things are only going to get worse before they get better. Case in point: the company just finalized an agreement to cut up to another 1,000 jobs (which we knew was coming), all at its plant in Salo, Finland. The cuts will not happen all at once, instead positions will be phased out over the course of the year, with most layoffs coming before the end of June. For those in Western Europe it's another batch of manufacturing jobs heading to Asia, for Nokia it's simply part of a restructuring plan designed to help it stop the bleeding. The staff that remains will focus on installing software that caters to European customers. After several quarters of bad news and then a complete shift in smartphone platforms it only makes sense that Nokia would find itself in dire straights. Still, in a country where unemployment hovers at around eight percent, we're sure no amount of national pride will make people feel better about losing more jobs.



Update: In case it wasn't clear, we just wanted to clarify that these are cuts that Nokia had already announced. The company has simply struck a deal with its employees making the move official.

via [ engadget ]

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Square may see the iPad to as an excellent retail tool, but Eventbrite thinks Apple's tablet a box office boon, which is why it created the At The Door app and card reader solution. Eventbrite's a self-service ticketing platform and its new dongle, which connects via Apple's 30-pin connector, lets indie event promoters take reader-encrypted credit card payments with any iPad. Meanwhile, the app lets you see on-site and online ticket sales, keep track of customer contact info and balance the books as well. Plus, any payments taken through the app are service fee-free, meaning users only pay for credit card processing. Not only that, you can wirelessly print tickets and receipts via a compatible printer (should you be willing to buy one), too.



Before you go planning your personal Woodstock, perhaps you'd like to know how much this ticketing bonanza costs? Well, the app's free and the reader's 10 bucks, with Eventbrite handing out 10 dollar account credits in return for those who jump on the bandwagon.

via [ engadget ]

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The FAA cleared the iPad and other devices for use in cockpits of commercial aircraft by pilots late last year. The approval was made to reduce the load on pilot by allowing them to have digital copies of charts and flight manuals rather than roughly 30 pounds of books with them every flight. While pilots were allowed to use the iPad in all aspects of flight, passengers were still denied the ability to use gadgets during taxi, takeoff, and landing.

Passengers have been allowed to use most types of gadgets when the aircraft reaches 10,000 feet for a long time – and some flights already offer Wi-Fi service too. The FAA has now promised to take a “fresh look” at allowing passengers to use some of their gadgets (such as tablets and e-Readers) during other aspects of flight. The tip comes from FAA Deputy Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs Laura J Brown. I think it’s about time the FAA allowed broader use of certain gadgets, we all know they don’t affect avionics in any meaningful way.



Apparently, the FAA is still not considering allowing the use of smartphones on flights. I don’t mind not being able to use mobile phones during flights, I can only imagine how annoying it would be to have people around you talking constantly.

via [ technabob ]

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Vietnam has had it with inaccurate subscriber counts for mobile networks. Hence, the country is set to impose a limit on how many different SIM cards each person can have.

However, in a rather funny twist, that limit will be 3 SIMs per person per network. Since there are six mobile networks over there, the theoretical total adds up to a pretty insane 18 SIM cards per person.

In most of the ‘Western’ (or ‘developed’) world, many people are used to having more than one SIM. Even in some developing countries people carry more than one SIM, because often times calls within the same network are cheaper than calls to other networks. Plus some also have mobile data plans for tablets or laptops. Yet why you’d carry 3 different SIMs on the same network is beyond me – not to mention who’d really want eighteen SIMs.



There’s also going to be a limit of 100 SIM cards for corporate users, which may have more immediate effects. Although the original report in VietNam News doesn’t say, I’m assuming that’s 100 SIMs per operator. Still, many companies in Vietnam probably have more than 100 employees, so that may turn out to be a real problem.

The limits haven’t been formally imposed yet, but the Ministry of Information and Communications seems intent on passing them into law as soon as possible.

via [ unwiredview ]

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