RideOn Introduces Augmented Reality Ski Goggles, Like Google-Glass for the Slopes

Ski Heavenly, Lake Tahoe: RideOn Ski Goggles let you communicate hands-free using audio and video, post videos and stats online for your friends back home © 2015 Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Imagine skiing or riding down a mountain and knowing exactly where you are on the mountain, or contacting your companions, hands free, through your ski goggles. RideOn, a startup based in Tel Aviv, recently unveiled their prototype of ski goggles that incorporate augmented reality (AR) features for the first time ever. RideOn’s see-through display (think Google Glass) projects AR layers and features as if they’re floating in the distance in front of you.

“We wanted to find our locations on a ski resort map instantly, or to quickly contact each other when we’d get separated. We wanted to do these things without having to take our gloves off, or use our phones,” said Alon Getz, CEO and co-founder, on why they created the goggles.

Software engineer and co-founder Ori Kotek noted that heads-up display goggles like Oakley Airwave and Recon’s Snow2 sort of achieved this, but with bulky external devices like wrist-pieces, and a display located in the user’s peripheral vision. “What distinguishes RideOn is our delivery of a true AR experience, derived from a see-through display that projects data onto the center of your field of view, not on the side,” he explained.

Furthermore, users interact with these data and features hands-free just by staring at friends, ski lodges, and ski lifts in the distance, or by looking up at floating buttons fixed to the sky. Getz and Kotek invented this style of UI to keep riders’ hands warm in their gloves. RideOn’s features let you:

Interact

• See your friends’ locations around you
• Communicate using audio and video
• Post videos and stats online for your friends back home
• Annoy your friends: Throw a virtual snowball

Navigate

• See your location on a map
• Find ski lodges, restaurants, and bars highlighted seamlessly in your field of vision
• Find ski lift locations & check queue wait times, and whether lifts are open

Play

• Compete against yourself and your friends in various games and improve your time and accuracy

The goggles also feature an HD camera for capturing video and for video-chatting with friends back home. RideOn uses this camera in combination with inertial sensors and GPS to measure user location and head orientation.

RideOn are the world’s first true AR goggles for skiers and snowboarders who want an enhanced, visually interactive experience on the mountain. Conceived in 2012, founders Ori Kotek and Alon Getz — each with 13 years’ experience in jet-pilot visual technology and inertial systems — created RideOn to let skiers communicate with friends, navigate the mountain’s runs and lodges, and play games, all overlaid seamlessly in the center of their vision.

RideOn is being launched as an Indiegogo crowdsourcing campaign and is be offered for $500.

For information, http://www.rideonvision.com; info@rideonvision.com for inquiries and support; sales@rideonvision.com for sales and marketing, or contact the IndieGoGo page at Igg.me@rideon.

 

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New Smartphone App Provides Audio Guides to America’s National Parks

A new GPS-powered mobile app from Just Ahead turns smartphones into hands-free audio tour guides of America’s national parks.

A new GPS-powered mobile app from Just Ahead turns smartphones into hands-free audio tour guides of America’s national parks.

Just Ahead’s app and audio guides work even where cell phones, Internet, and Wi-Fi won’t, to stream interesting stories spliced with geography, history, and even driving directions while cruising through a national park.

One example is Just Ahead’s Death Valley National Park audio guide, which recently garnered the Best Travel App award from the North American Travel Journalists Association. This award is due, in part, to the levels of professional travel writing and narration that present the myriad stories of each national park. Content writer and editor Bob Howells has twice won the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) Lowell Thomas Gold Award for adventure travel writing.

“Our aim is to give travelers and their families an entertaining and educational travel experience,” underscored Just Ahead founder Gregory Morse. “We think the Just Ahead app and audio guides encourage exploring and getting off the beaten track. You’re engaged at the same time you’re learning.”

Just Ahead utilizes GPS technology to know exactly where drivers are on the road, and delivers stories and maps relevant to their location. Just Ahead also helps drivers avoid getting lost by providing helpful suggested directions. Just Ahead tells drivers why they should turn or not, what they should do after a turn, and recommends the best direction to take if there are multiple route options.

As of mid-winter 2015, Just Ahead apps are available for the following parks: Yosemite, Zion and Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, Joshua Tree, and Death Valley. An additional 12 national park guides are in production, including Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Petrified Forrest, Canyon De Chelly, Monument Valley, and Mesa Verde – with many more to come.

Just Ahead started with US national parks because they are treasured natural assets that are visited each year by 292 million people from around the world (2014 set a record for national park visitation). But the company intends to go beyond the parks. In the future, Just Ahead will offer guides for other major road trip destinations, including California Highway 1, Route 66, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Hawaiian Islands, and many others.

The Just Ahead app is a free download, and each destination guide is available as an in-app purchase. Guides range from $7.99 – $9.99 and include a free trial and free guide updates.

For more information, visit: http://www.justahead.com.

 

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CellarPass Offers New Online Search for Tasting Room, Food and Wine Events, Reservation and Ticketing Service

You know “you have arrived” when you show up at a trendy winery or artisanal distillery tasting room and your name is listed on the plaque out front.

That’s the “cherry on top” of a great vacation, and it’s one of the fringe benefits of an innovative web-and app-based service called CellarPass, the first online tasting room and food and wine events search, reservation and ticketing service.

Visitors need never again be turned away or forced to wait to taste at the most in-demand wineries, breweries and distilleries. The CellarPass service allows users to book their own experiences when it suits them, right from a computer, tablet or Smartphone in advance or even on-the-go. CellarPass member destinations greet their reservation guests in their own special way, too: some offer a special bottling with a tasting flight, add chocolates to a tasting, or announce their visit on a plaque out front. CellarPass gives visitors an instant “in,” and they love it.

The best part – the service is free to travelers.

How CellarPass works: With just a few simple clicks or swipes of a finger, wine, beer and spirits lovers can search the venues they want to visit, consult actual visitor reviews, reserve tasting and tour times, map locations, and even navigate directly to the destination with turn-by-turn directions delivered right to their devices. More of a last minute planner? With CellarPass’ “Nearby” function, iPhone and iPad users can view offerings within a specified distance from their exact location and book on the go.

With the recent launch of CellarPass’ ticket service, users also have access to a menu of special tastings, pairing dinners and other exclusive wine country events – all in one place.

CellarPass helps make a dream food and wine vacation hassle-free. Check it out at www.cellarpass.com.

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Just in Time for Family Summer Vacation Travel, Disney Records Brings Magic of ‘Frozen’ to Innovative Karaoke App for iPad

The “Disney Karaoke: Frozen” app, available on iPad, enables kids (of all ages) to listen, sing along, and record their own voice through an assortment of nine songs from the film (photo courtesy of Disney Publishing Worldwide).

Just in time for the summer family vacation travel season, Disney Publishing Worldwide (DPW) and Walt Disney Records announced today the launch of “ Disney Karaoke: Frozen ,” an app based on the highest grossing animated film of all time, Frozen. “ Disney Karaoke: Frozen ” will be available in the Music and Entertainment categories of the App Store℠ with movie clips and nine original songs from the film that are featured in the triple Platinum-selling soundtrack from Walt Disney Records.

The “Disney Karaoke: Frozen” app enables kids (of all ages) to listen, sing along, and record their own voice through an assortment of nine songs from the film, including “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?,” “For the First Time in Forever,” “Love is An Open Door,” the Academy Award-winning hit, “Let It Go,” and more. To further enrich the consumer experience, the app allows fans to follow the lyrics with a snowflake and save recordings to a gallery. It can also be used with AirPlay®, offering singers the opportunity to play the music on television screens in their living room or hotel room, as it may be.

What a better way to keep kids entertained on car trips or at the airport or on the airplane or settling into a new hotel?

“ Disney Karaoke: Frozen ” is the next installment in a growing collection of digital apps by DPW that invites fans of all ages to re-live the stunning big-screen comedy adventure featuring fearless optimist, Anna, and her sister, Elsa. “ Frozen Storybook Deluxe ” was the first to launch in the collection and has since hit the Top 10 iPad Kids Category for downloads in 114 different countries and a Top 10 iPad Entertainment Category for downloads in 118 different countries. Later this year, additional Frozen apps will be unveiled to extend engagement of the franchise through unique and immersive digital storytelling.

“As we continue to extend Disney franchises across digital platforms, there is nothing more exciting than exploring the ways in which we can reach today’s consumers in deeper, more engaging ways with our incredible stories and characters,” said Lyle Underkoffler, vice president, Digital Media. “The ‘Disney Karaoke: Frozen’ app celebrates the beautiful music that everyone knows and loves, but it also allows fans to experience the movie anytime and anywhere in a highly active and uniquely Disney way.”

“Disney Music Group has had a long history of success with karaoke products, and it’s incredibly exciting to see this part of our business continue to innovate and grow,” added Trevor Kelley, vice president, Global Digital Marketing. “Frozen really is the perfect title to launch this product with given the strong personal connection that fans have had with the music from the film. It’s been incredible to get it into consumers’ hands.”

A leader in the karaoke audio category, Walt Disney Records also has 30+ titles in the Disney Karaoke Series with over 1.5mm in sales since the line’s inception in 2005. Frozen is the only Disney Karaoke title to debut in the Top 20 on the Billboard Top 200 chart at #17.

The Frozen original motion picture soundtrack spent thirteen non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 album chart and remains the top-selling album of 2014. The Frozen soundtrack surpassed The Lion King’s 10-week reign at No. 1 in 1994 and has spent the most weeks at No. 1 for an animated film soundtrack in the 58-year history of the chart.

Disney Consumer Products is also celebrating the music from Frozen with new products that will be available at mass retailers and Disney Store this fall featuring the beloved songs from the film. From dolls, to role-play dresses, to jewelry sets and more, Frozen fans will be able to recreate the musical moments of their favorite characters.

For additional “ Disney Karaoke: Frozen ” mobile app updates and information, visit www.DisneyStories.com , Facebook at Facebook.com/disneyreads and Twitter at @DisneyReads.

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Mibblio Comes Out with New Interactive Musical Storybook ‘Miss Elephant’s Gerald’ in Time for Halloween

Those clever guys at Mibblio have come out with another interactive musical storybook app to entertain kids at home and when traveling. The “Miss Elephant’s Gerald” stand-alone app featuring The Pop Ups with illustrations by Liz Starin is now live in the App Store, just in time for Halloween! Everything about it is awesome.

Here’s the link:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/miss-elephants-gerald/id731127605?mt=8

Targeted to children ages 3-8, each beautifully designed mibblet is a lively, interactive experience that allows kids to read a charmingly illustrated story, listen to a catchy song, and jam along on a variety of instruments.

It’s like a “Child’s Introduction to the Orchestra” or “Peter & the Wolf” and introduces and engages children in music at a time when their musical aptitude is emerging.

Besides occupying the child in a car or airplane or on a ship, Mibblio is a great way to settle a child into a hotel bed for the night with something that is comforting and fun.

With an intuitive design that is built for kids but enjoyed by all, the imaginative app is the first interactive musical-storybook of its kind and endlessly entertaining.

Mibblio offers a mix of classic songs such as “On Top of Spaghetti” and “The Wheels on the Bus” alongside new, instant classics like “Monkey Jamboree!” Mibblio also offers more narrative stories like The Mashed Potato Monster Gang that appeal to slightly older kids. By showing children the components of each song, instrument by instrument, Mibblio helps children understand the layers of developing music. Parents can watch and listen as children discover new instrument combinations and learn the basics of creating a song, while simultaneously improving reading skills.

“Mibblio is a fun and engaging way for children to explore music in a personalized and meaningful way,” said Sammy Rubin, Co-Founder & Creative Director of Mibblio. “Mibblets frame the musical elements and give what might ordinarily be abstract concepts a fun and familiar context. It’s exactly what I would have wanted when I was young.”

For more information visit www.mibblio.com.

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MyCityWay, New Mobile App, Helps Visitors Navigate 100 Cities Worldwide

MyCityWay is a situationally-aware smart app available for use in over 100 cities worldwide including 40 U.S. cities.

Visitors have a new mobile app to help them navigate a city. MyCityWay is a situationally-aware smart app available for use in over 100 cities worldwide including 40 U.S. cities.

Bringing in the utility of more than 30 different Apps, MyCityWay applies artificial intelligence technologies once reserved for high-powered algorithmic trading to making navigating a city easy, fun and personalized.

Funded by the City of New York and BMWi Ventures (the venture capital company founded by BMW Group), the MyCityWay app harnesses information from hundreds of content partners, cross-references it to ensure validity and instantaneously prioritizes information according to the users’ needs and preferences by uniquely marrying location, intent, timing and information from their social graph.

MyCityWay helps travelers quickly and easily…

· Move: Find local transportation options, schedules and routes

· Shop: Discover the best boutiques by category, neighborhood and location and find sales and deals close by

· Play: Purchase tickets to tours and attractions across the city and identify free activities, including cultural centers, landmarks, museums, art galleries and parks.

· Eat: Choose the best restaurants by neighborhood or cuisine, read reviews, make reservations and get directions

· Party: Learn about the best a city offers after-hours – nightclubs, lounges, sports bars or comedy clubs

· Take care of business: Pinpoint nearby bathrooms and WiFi hotspots

To download the app, visit iPhone/iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia or MyCityWay Download Page.

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JustBook Mobile App for Last-Minute, Discounted Hotel Bookings in Europe Links with Miles & More Frequent Flyer Program

A year after launching its free app, JustBook maintains a leading position in Europe for mobile hotel bookings at the last minute, recording 400,000 downloads of the app.

JustBook is now seeing record bookings as a result of a new collaboration with Miles & More frequent flyer program. Effective as of January 10, 2013, JustBook users collect award miles with Miles & More, the prestigious frequent miles program of Lufthansa and associated airlines. This offer is available for all hotel bookings with JustBook at over 1,000 hotels in 46 cities across Europe, independent of specific hotel chain brands.

This latest initiative makes JustBook the first hotel network enabling its members to earn miles “while they sleep”.

The offer adds to existing collaborations, including the latest strategic media partnership with the Swiss Federal Railway (SBB).

JustBook (www.justbook.com/en) is a leading app for spontaneous hotel bookings in Europe. Every day, three to five selected hotels per destination can be booked from 10 am until 2 am the next day, for the same night.

Since are last minute bookings, users typically enjoy savings of up to 50 percent over prices available online. Currently, JustBook is available in 46 European cities including London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid and Zurich. The JustBook app is available for free on iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

 

“Even in the best European hotels, some rooms are often still available at the last minute,” JustBook CEO Stefan Menden said. “Hotel guests can save money with spontaneous bookings. In the short term, hoteliers can gain new customers while optimizing their occupancy. 95% of our users are new customers for the hoteliers. If you book with the app you discover new and interesting hotels. We are also continuously adding useful benefits to JustBook such as now with the award miles from Miles & More.”

JustBook offers hotel customers low rates for same day bookings. The company claims that its prices for last minute mobile bookings are between 20 and 50 percent lower when measured against the prices available on the internet.

The company also points to its customer service. In emergency situations, the customer service team is available on the phone until 2.30 am to assure a good night’s rest for all bookings. Especially during this snowy season that causes chaos at airports, JustBook provides reliable help.

Two-thirds of JustBook customers are business travelers who use the app to travel to meetings at short notice. Also, users turn to JustBook when a meeting runs over its allotted time. However Justbook is also useful for spontaneous weekend trips and getaways.

“Thanks to smartphones, leisure activities are just one touch away,” said Menden. “Whether you’re looking for tickets, a table in a restaurant, or a night at a hotel in order to surprise your partner, this was never as easy and as fast as it is today with your phone. The consumer survey regarding spontaneity is just one example of our analysis. We know the European consumer extremely well after one successful year of expansion across the continent’s four corners. We know hotel guests are considerably more demanding than in the United States for example. Our team in Berlin, Barcelona and London can therefore understand and react very specifically and promptly to all customer requests. ”

For information, visit www.justbook.com/en

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