With its entire fleet now kitted out to offer Gogo In-flight Internet service, Virgin America is teaming up with Google to take cloud computing to new heights with the Day in the Cloud Challenge.
On 24 June, Google Apps and Virgin America will host the first-ever online puzzle challenge that can be played in the air and on the ground. Guests flying on Virgin America flights that day will be offered complimentary WiFi to enable them to participate at 35,000 feet. An increasing number of people are using the web to share documents, email and photos with family, friends and co-workers online "in the cloud". With web-based services like Google Apps, they are now able to connect and work together, whenever and wherever they have access to the internet – even on a Virgin America flight at 35,000 feet.
"The number of travellers who want to take their technology with them when they fly is ever growing, and we've seen an overwhelming response from our guests about both our inflight WiFi and power outlets," said Porter Gale, vice-president of marketing for Virgin America. "This rapidly growing trend combined with innovative cloud-based services like Google Apps is paving the way for a whole new generation of tech-savvy road warriors. We're thrilled to team up with Google to celebrate cloud computing and the technology's growing impact on how we all travel, work and live."
On the day of the event, the challenge will also be available to anyone on the ground who wishes to compete against those on board aircraft. The top five game scorers will receive A Year in the Cloud Prize Package that includes free flights and free inflight WiFi from Virgin America, a laptop computer, and 1 terabyte of online storage from Google for email and photos. The questions for the challenge will range in level of difficulty, so everyone from the novice to the expert puzzle master can take part. Participants can register to play at: www.dayinthecloud.com.
Vigin America's A320s have power outlets at every seat and fleet-wide WiFi, so guests have the option to surf the web, check e-mail or log on to their corporate VPN – all from the comfort of their aircraft seats. The Gogo service is available for $12.95 for daytime flights of over three hours, $9.95 for daytime flights of less than three hours, $5.95 on red-eye flights and $7.95 for handheld devices.
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