Virgin is one of my favorite airlines to fly on — it’s kind of like the airline of the future, with interactive displays in every head rest, cool lighting, an animated safety video, and there’s almost always WiFi on board.
But Virgin is looking to be even more futuristic, promising the customer with the most miles at the end of the year a chance to upgrade to Galactic status.
That’s… → Read More
NASA may not be sending anyone to Mars anytime soon, the exploration of space and beyond – though on a much smaller scale – is being spearheaded by folks like Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. (Maybe you’ve heard of them.) Though Bezos and Blue Origin continue to work under a veil of secrecy in Texas, Virgin Galactic keeps humming along in the Mojave having recently scored a major milestone for the… → Read More
Not one to shy away from difficult problems, Virgin has just announced that their aviation arm will be partnering with carbon-handling company LanzaTech to spread a new process for cleaner creation of jet fuel. Airplanes are certainly an efficient means of transporting people (more efficient than single-person vehicles, at any rate), but the sheer volume of fuel burned means that any slight… → Read More
Perhaps after Nasa well and truly runs out of money our astronauts should ring up Richard Branson? The British professional rich person says that he plans to launch commercial space travel—space tourism, in other words—within the next 18 months. What do I have to do to be on that first flight? → Read More
Virgin is looking to expand into the publishing market with a new magazine called “Maverick” that targets the upscale international audience with content on entrepreneurism, technology and travel. The kicker is that Maverick will be an electronic magazine only, first available on iPads and later available on iPhones and Android devices. Unlike other magazine ventures — like WIRED’s dead tree… → Read More
The world’s first manned commercial spacecraft flight took place just a few hours ago, and it was a smashing success. Within a few years, we’ll all fly to Jupiter on our lunch breaks, drink a café com leite while doodling away on our iPad 5GXs, then come back to the office to pretend to do work for the remaining 2.5 hours of the day. → Read More
In what looks to be shaping up to be another healthy week for M&A activity, Sprint Nextel is putting more of its focus on the prepaid cell phone service market with a $483 million deal to buy out Virgin Mobile USA.
The acquisition, which was announced earlier this morning, calls for Sprint to pay $5.50 in stock for each Virgin Mobile share, a 31 percent premium to the MVNO’s closing share… → Read More
In what looks to be shaping up to be another healthy week for M&A activity, Sprint Nextel is putting more of its focus on the prepaid cell phone service market with a $483 million deal to buy out Virgin Mobile USA.
The acquisition, which was announced earlier this morning, calls for Sprint to pay $5.50 in stock for each Virgin Mobile share, a 31 percent premium to the MVNO’s closing share… → Read More
Hey, you could use fast Internet, right? Like 200 Mbps speeds, right? Like fast fast fast. Like so fast you could cough between saying “lightning” and “fast” and during that cough you could download like all kinds of porn. Well, Virgin Media is offering 200 Mbps service in Ashford in Kent, a tiny town in Southeast England. → Read More
After testing delays last year, Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites successfully took to the skies with the Mothership Eve at the SC testing site in the Mojave. Wired.com has the exclusive video, which isn’t anything special, but it’s nice to see Virgin is puttering right along. Hit the jump to check out the video. → Read More
It’s not every day we get a chance to sit down with one of the world’s richest and most industrious men. Actually, Sir Richard is only the 236th richest person in the world according to Forbes. I thought he’d be higher. *shrug* Anyway, we had the esteemed pleasure of taking Sir Richard’s IM interview virginity last week as he was jetting back to his private island, Necker.
CBS’ The… → Read More
Yama hama, look what Virgin Mobile just did. Starting July 1st you can get on the company’s new “Totally Unlimited” plan for $79.99 per month (no contract required), which includes unlimited voice minutes. For $10 more per month, you can get “Unlimited Text & Messaging, with texting, IM, email and picture messages.” If you’re a big talker and you don’t require a… → Read More
Being conscientious of financial hardship for many Americans, Virgin Mobile USA unveiled new rate plans today that are highly aggressive and easy on the wallet. One such plan is Unlimited 7p.m. Nights and Weekends for $49.99 or 7 p.m. Nights and Weekend Minutes for $24.99. You can also get unlimited text and messaging for $10. Prepaid customers also get deals with a $34.99 plan gives you 300… → Read More
American and Virgin airlines will roll out an inflight WiFi product called GoGo in about six months, ensuring that every douche with a MacBook — all of CG included — will now be able to Twitter from 30,000 feet. Gogo uses a ground-to-air system that allows small antennas on the planes to pick up signals being pumped out terrestrially. Aircell has 92 giant antennas spread across the… → Read More
I actually am pretty sure that the people who can spend $2,000,000 on space tourism are a different demographic from the people who scrounge miles to get free tickets. And yet, Virgin Galactic is going to let you redeem 200,000 miles for a big 10% off that trip to space. Somehow I doubt they’re going to get a lot of takers on that offer, but it is a nice little taste of the future. Use your… → Read More
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic airline will conduct a test flight at the end of the month wherein a Boeing 747 will fly from London to Amsterdam using an 80/20 blend of conventional fuel and biofuel, respectively. The plane will carry no passengers but will be “the first time a commercial aircraft has flown on biofuel,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. → Read More
Burt Rutan and Richard Branson are doing their “deep pocketed space explorer” thing again. They’ve revealed the second version of their suborbital spacecraft, aptly called “SpaceShipTwo” and pictured above, presumably via a cell phone camera at the event. They also announced that the launch vehicle, “WhiteKnightTwo,” will be on an open architecture… → Read More
Real Madrid, the nine-time European champions, penned a deal with Virgin, which will lead to three new “properties.” Madridistas can look forward to console (PS2, PS3, PSP, DS, Wii and 360), online and cellphone games, to be released sometime this year. I will buy at least one, that much is true. I have a few ideas of my own for Real Madrid games. There’s Raúl and the Amazing… → Read More
Peer-to-peer lending service CircleLending has been taken under the wings of Richard Branson’s Virgin empire and rebranded as Virgin Money USA. Virgin’s US investment firm recently bought a majority stake in the Waltham, Massachusetts company, which acts as an online middleman for friends and family who want to loan each other money. The exact amount of money invested by Virgin has not… → Read More
Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin flew on Virgin’s inaugural flight and has posted a great writeup. Oh please, please, please let this be the final blow to Northwest Airlines. I’ve been waiting for those backwards, greedy bastards to go under for years now. Virgin America has low prices (SF to NY for $278), WiFi access, super comfortable seats, touchscreen infotainment systems built into… → Read More
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