Wi-fi on planes is what we all want in the future, more so than jet packs. Probably. Browsing the internet during flights would certainly help pass the time on those airlines with mediocre entertainment systems – the one-film-or-nothing operators – and mean business suits could continue to act like cockends at 36,000 ft. There’s only one problem threatening this halcyon view of the future; nobody wants to pay for it.

The Internet has conditioned us to expect services for free and let the providers worry about how they generate the revenue to pay for it. So while more than 500 airliners in the US now offer onboard wi-fi, passengers are far less likely to bother if it costs anything. It all sounds like common sense – people won’t pay for something if they don’t have to – but in this instance there’s no free option; it’s not like you can steal wi-fi for free from another source when you’re six miles up. If people won’t pay even a minimal amount, it threatens the viability of providing internet access as a whole.

Many US airlines are using the likes of Gogo to provide the service, which charges up to $13 (£8) on a longhaul flight. Although that sounds high, even when Alaska Airlines offered web access for $1 (62 pence), people still turned their nose up at it and usage dropped massively. Some airlines in US have decided to ignore in-flight wi-fi altogether; Continental Airlines are installing satellite television rather than bothering with wi-fi, because they believe their passengers would prefer live television to internet access. There’s also the problem of power – most laptops won’t last the duration of a longhaul flight and many airlines don’t provide power sockets in individual seats, so many passengers won’t pay a premium for only three or four hours of use.

Like trains, cafes and coaches, wi-fi can potentially be a deal-breaker for some consumers when choosing where they go and who they spend their money with. Free wi-fi could become a service that improves passenger loyalty and repeat business, if airlines don’t insist it becomes a paid service that turns customers off. Whether or not you’ve enough legroom to open your laptop is a different matter altogether.

[Wall Street Journal]

… we just don’t know where to begin.

[via Reddit]

A couple of months ago we ran a story about an online retailer called GC’s PCs, and their spectacularly-young head honcho, the spectacularly-named 16-year old Gary Cooper.

With links to forums where the shady activities of GC’s PCs had been discussed at length, including allegations of unauthorised payments taken from credit cards, non-delivery of goods or the wrong goods being delivered, it was clear that this was a company that wouldn’t be in it for the long haul.

At the time, the GC’s PCs website itself had disappeared from the world wide web – to this day it hasn’t returned. It looks like it never will – yesterday, this statement was made by Essex Police.

“Police arrested three people after attending two addresses in Canvey and Benfleet at on Monday morning, May 11, 2009, as part of a joint investigation with Trading Standards into the online company GC’s PCs.”

“A former director, a man aged 52 from Benfleet, the current managing director, a 16-year-old boy from Benfleet, as well as a 49-year-old woman who is a former director of the company were arrested and released on police bail pending further enquiries to 11 August”.

Watch this space. In the meantime the GC’s PCs thread on Digital Spy is a eye-opening place to spend half an hour or so – if you’re into retail horror stories.

If you thought that Hollywood came up with all the best movie ideas, you’d be wrong. Most of the time they nick them from the thriving cinematic cultures of smaller countries – the ones that have to put subtitles on their films, thereby ensuring that 97% of the mouth-breathing masses won’t give a hooting toss about their celluloidular efforts. Enter Hollywood to bang out a quick, unsatisfying remake.

Now it seems that even TV is in on the thievery game. Did you know that ’24’ was originally a French film from the mid 1960s? It’s true, although the main man, Jacques Bauder, was a tad more laid back than Kiefer Sutherland’s high-octane Jack Bauer that we know and all want to be.

Hang on – here’s another one. Did Eminem really purloin the plot for ‘8 Mile’ from a 60s French movie about poets? Certainly looks that way…

Ladies and gentlemen, your correspondent is at death’s door. Not in a sort of a Jade Goody way, more the kind of way that men are whenever they’ve got the sniffles and a sore throat. Yes, it’s that bad. For crying out loud, a man just walked past the window wearing a REALLY obvious wig. Was he real or just hallucination? I don’t know anymore.

Worse still, I fell asleep on my arm earlier and now that knacks as well. Try to spare your sympathies though as it’s Comic Relief day tomorrow – I’m sure they’ll be sending me a cheque by Monday. Today, I’ve scoured HotUKDeals for bargains that will make me feel better. Hopefully they’ll help you too…

First up is a box of 8 Nestle Fab ice lollies for just a pound. These would be good. Eating them would make me feel as though I’m six years old again and they’ll make my sandpaper throat feel better.

So who’s going to nip out and get them for me? You’d have to drop them off at an undetermined location that may or may not be close to Bitterwallet’s secret HQ but you can do that can’t you?

Next is a massage chair, with a third off the RRP. It’s yours for just £97.86 – you can find out where here. It massages at 8 separate points, has a warming function at the back position and a manual reclining function.

Lovely – I could live in it for a few days until this flu nightmare is over, catching up on the 30 or so DVD box sets that I’ve never got round to watching yet. Massage chair, Fab lollies and DVDs – that would definitely make me better.

Lastly, there’s nothing better for brightening up the soul of someone who is addled by flu than the music of Joy Division. The gloomy Mancunians certainly knew how to cheer up the charts back in the late 1970s.

That’s not quite right, but this documentary is very right indeed if you’ve got more than a passing interest in the group who went on to become New Order. Far, far superior to Control, the recent movie about the band’s singer Ian Curtis. Only £3.94 including delivery here. No need for anyone to bring it to me, I’ve already got one. Right, time for another coughing fit…

(deals found by ppoze, jj584143 and andywedge)

As the nightmarish reality of the stuff of things hits us hard, and we wake up to the fact that (a) Christmas is over (b) we’ve scoffed all the sweets, and (c) it’s frigging freezing, it’s time to turn our thoughts towards fresh escapism. Getting away from it all.

Together with the bargain junkies at HotUKDeals, here’s a few tips that will help you leave behind your day-to-day drudgery and take a well-earned break – while keeping back enough dosh to use as spending money.

How do you feel about a holiday costing from as little as £9.50? You’d probably imagine that it involves sleeping in a ditch in the Shetland Islands and surviving on potato peelings that have been dumped round the back of a nearby chippy.

You’d be bloody wrong. In fact it involves cutting out tokens from a national newspaper and taking your pick from a wide and wonderful range of destinations. If you want to survive on potato peelings that have been dumped round the back of a nearby chippy, that’s entirely your choice.
(deal found by weesiecodal)
(more…)

We’ve all been impressed by that ad where the bloke leaves his office and heads down a waterslide on an unending journey of fun – it’s for Barclaycard, although I had to look that up (the power of advertising there for you.)

Anyways, the crazy ‘creatives’ at Specsavers have knocked up a remix of the ad. And it’s better.

If you don’t receive the kind of service you expected, you should never think twice about complaining. A cold meal in a restaurant, a jacket that splits the first time you wear it, a pint of beer with more head than fizz, empty tills when you rob a bank…

Eh? Complaining about empty tills when you’ve just robbed a bank? Well why not? That’s what Philadelphia criminal Jospeh Goetz did when he held up a bank as soon as it opened and before the tellers had had the chance to fill up their tills.

After realising he’d be leaving empty-handed, Goetz scarpered, but not before angrily informing staff that he’d be making a complaint. We’re not holding out much hope for a positive outcome – they’ll probably fob him off with a complimentary bag of dog biscuits.