Yes, that’s one of the differences. The other is that Mobile Passport is only available at 27 U.S. international airports, whereas Global Entry is at over 40, plus some international preclearance locations.

We have Global Entry... but we always end up using the *even faster*, simpler, and free Mobile Passport app. Seriously - my husband and I landed at JFK in New York yesterday, and in anticipation of crowds even at the GE kiosks, we snapped our pictures on the app while still taxiing to the gate, and got a Mobile…

Also, oof - we took a train from Nice to Milan last year, and that was a shitty Italian train. Seats were hard, lights stayed brightly lit like a hospital the whole time, it was dirty, and the “bar car” consisted of a surly guy serving warm canned soda, low quality plastic bottled wine, and inedible microwave meals in…

It’s a pretty hard sell for a lot of people though, because long haul trains (like from Paris to Rome ~14 hours) not only take way longer, the schedules are far less convenient and frequent than the flights these days, and they usually cost more. European trains are not really equivalent to American flights - the…

Review sites, especially for air travel which *everyone* loves to complain about, are not a very reliable way to tell whether the specific flight you’re about to take will be objectively “good” or not. Nobody goes and fills out a review for a mild, uneventful, moderately-pleasant and trouble-free flight - which is…

Bumping is a separate issue. What they are trying to say is that if you bought a ticket, you don’t have to pay to reserve a seat, as you’re guaranteed to be assigned a seat when you’re issued a boarding pass. In other words, you won’t be left behind if you didn’t purchase a seat assignment, and you aren’t bumped.

Seconding this - Southwest doesn’t have pre-assigned seats, but unlike the legacy carriers, it doesn’t actively block off all the good seats and hold them for ransom, which is the real problem here. So if there’s an exit or bulkhead available when you board on Southwest, you can grab it. And the $25 early bird…

This is always a good idea. It all depends on the airline, of course, but for example, the Air France A380 which flies from LAX has a small economy cabin upstairs with 2-3-2 seating. It is *definitely* worth paying extra for those, the window seat has a small shelf that lifts up and has extra storage.

As I remember it, there were a couple dozen movies recorded to the DVR at any one time via this method for on-demand viewing. It’s actually not a bad way to do it. There’s rarely more than a couple dozen “hit” movies out at any one time - meaning, ones you’d today pay $4.99 to rent from iTunes, Amazon, Google Play,…

Yeah, because it was a test and studios didn’t want to give up the cash cow on their blockbusters... which I don’t think they want to do now either. They still really bank on the box office numbers. Plus I’m sure lots of casting and production contracts include payment terms based on the “box office”, and not home…

On DirecTV, it didn’t really “stream”, it was broadcast through satellite to your DVR overnight, where it was recorded and saved and could only be played if you paid the rental fee. I know a lot of people who watched “on demand” movies that way, even before the still-in-theaters concept came along.

DirecTV tested “first run in theathers” movies on-demand like a decade ago, for $20+ a pop. Didn’t go anywhere, I don’t know why it would now.

get a day 1 digital and theater release.

Seconding, I’ve got the Soundcore Life Q20, and for $50 headphones, they are pretty impressive. I usually wear AirPods and only use headphones when I’m on a plane or in an especially noisy environment, and those work pretty well, without dropping $300. 

It’s not really an exemption, but at least in the US, the Supreme Court has created an “actual malice” standard when it comes to famous and public people. It’s A recognition of the importance of the First Amendment right to free expression.

Libel is really only something you can do to a private, non-famous person.

Yes, but Jobs at least had focus. He didn’t pretend to solve every problem in the world. 

get routinely tested

Unless you have any issues with the SmartTV

We have two new Samsung 4k TVs, but when I bought them I promptly turned off their networking capability (there’s no reason the TV itself needs network access) and deactivated as many “smart TV” features as I could. I plug them into Apple TV 4K boxes, and an OTA antenna, and I never see ads of any kind (except actual…