Gadling

Last week, I wrote about the soon-to-be world's tallest skyscraper, being built in the heart of Dubai. Here's another outrageous sight. This used to be the helipad at the luxury Burj Al Arab hotel, temporarily converted into a tennis court for an exhibition match between Agassi and Federer.

"I have been in Dubai many times and have stayed at Burj Al Arab before, but this was an absolute treat," said Roger Federer of Switzerland. "To play tennis with Andre on top of such an amazing hotel and overlooking the whole of Dubai was absolutely spectacular."

The court is some 200 meters off the ground and covers 400 square meters, or about 8 times the size of my apartment in New York.

So I'm some two years behind the curve when it comes to buying Beijing Olympic tickets. There's been several phases of ticket sales, and suffice to say, finding one now is about as easy as finding a good surf spot in the Sahara.

I've already come across eBay auctions of closing ceremony tickets for $20,000, granted the poster was nice enough to offer a "buy one get one free" sale.

If you're still keen on catching an event or two before the end of the Games this Sunday, here's a cheat sheet on, well, not getting cheated.

Though it has been officially part of China for 11 years now, Hong Kong's athletes marched into the Games under their own flag. Beijing's goodwill gesture of holding the equestrian events in Hong Kong was welcomed, but Olympic fever has seemed slightly muted in the former British colony.

Yes, Hong Kongers aren't as excited about the Olympics and the success of team China as mainlanders are, but that doesn't mean they are not following the Games closely. And, with no athletes expected to earn worldwide attention, Hong Kong has adopted some PRC stars as their own. Billboards featuring (now injured) Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang and hoops star Yao Ming are quite visible. Large screen TVs are broadcasting events in public spaces and crowds are stopping to watch.

But what does Hong Kong really think of Beijing's coming out party? The mainland is already swallowing up Hong Kong's once great film industry, and Mandarin is being heard in Kowloon and Central more and more every day. And now Beijing has grabbed the spotlight and captured the imagination of the world.

But Hong Kong has seemed to embrace the Games nonetheless.

They can start thinking about their future with Beijing after the Olympics have closed.

Our buddies over at Engadget are reporting on the availability of a portable fuel cell designed to recharge your gadgets. The Medis 24-7 Power Pack was first announced back in 2005, but it has taken them some time to get the technology to a stage where it is reliable enough to sell commercially.

The 24-7 power pack contains a fuel cell using "a direct liquid borohydride technology". I have no idea what that means, but it delivers enough power to keep your iPod playing for up to three and a half days, and that is really all I need to know.

The 24-7 Power Pack is currently available online for $39.95 which includes the Power Pack itself, a variety of charger cords and a user manual. The Power Pack is not rechargeable (or reusable), so once it is empty, you'll need to spend $22.95 for the replacement pack. The Power Pack is scheduled to appear in Best Buy stores soon.

The manufacturer does not mention whether the fuel cell is approved for taking on a commercial flight, and knowing the TSA, I'm not sure they know either. I asked Medis about taking their Power Pack on a commerical flight, and they got back to me right away letting me know that it is fully approved by the DOT, each package even contains the DOT permit number and is clearly marked "approved for carriage in aircraft"

I have to say I'm quite happy to see this technology finally appear in a commercial product, companies have been showing off their fuel cell products for years, but until now, none of them were actually made available for us mere consumers. I'm sure that the price will scare some people away, but being able to carry a 6.5 ounce backup power pack with the capacity to keep my iPod playing for 3 days is worth $23 to me. As the technology matures, I'm convinced that prices will drop.

The good folks at Grist put together their own list of 15 green cities. Although their thought was probably to showcase the green efforts made by local governments and locals to make the cities more environmentally friendly, in reading it I realized it was a great list of places to chose your next eco-vacation.

If you're looking to take public transportation, play in parks and learn more about sustainability as part of your next vacation, here are the 15 cities that made the list:

1. Reykjavik, Iceland
2. Portland, OR, U.S.
3. Curitiba, Brazil
4. Malmö, Sweden
5. Vancouver, Canada
6. Copenhagen, Denmark
7. London, England
8. San Francisco, CA, USA
9. Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador
10. Sydney, Australia
11. Barcelona, Spain
12. Bogotá, Colombia
13. Bangkok, Thailand
14. Kampala, Uganda
15. Austin, TX, USA

Some of the selections surprised me; Bangkok for example, but apparently it's all about the city's strategy to make things greener. Check out the full list with accompanying explanations here.

What green cities have you visited?

For some time now, Gadling has been following Transportation Security Administration plans to begin allowing laptops to be screened while remaining in special so-called "checkpoint-friendly" laptop bags.

This past Saturday, TSA began allowing certain bags to go through screenings with laptops still in them. The TSA has a helpful information manual up on its Web site right now, cautioning that this apparent relaxation in security procedures does not cover every laptop bag on the market.

In other words, not all laptop bags are checkpoint-friendly.

Only "butterfly-," "trifold-" and "sleeve-style" laptop carriers are acceptable.

What the TSA is after is a clear view of your laptop. Since security officers are looking for evidence that electronics have been tampered with, they need a clear line of sight to note any irregularities in your laptop.

The TSA is quick to emphasize that just because you have an ostensibly checkpoint-friendly laptop bag, TSOs may still ask you to remove your computer if they cannot see it clear enough through the bag.

The TSA also has these useful tips:

• Your laptop bag has a designated laptop-only section that you can lay flat on the X-ray belt. There are no metal snaps, zippers or buckles inside, underneath or on-top of the laptop-only section
• There are no pockets on the inside or outside of the laptop-only section
• There is nothing in the laptop compartment other than the laptop
• You have completely unfolded your bag so that there is nothing above or below the laptop-only section, allowing the bag to lie flat on the X-ray belt
  

Check out Scott's post of one TSA-endorsed line of laptop bags currently on the market.

The way Qantas is going, the airline is better off shutting down: Hole in the aircraft, tires blowing up, fluid leaks, doors not closing, hydraulic failures, rudder problems, and now dysfunctional toilets.

A Qantas 737 from Sydney to Perth was forced to land because the toilets wouldn't flush; they'd forgotten to empty the them after the last flight. The plane was diverted to Adelaide to sort out the toilet situation.

This isn't the first toilet issue for the airline. Not long ago passengers were doing their business in the airline's sick-bags as they were not allowed to move from their seats for an hour as the plane tried to land.

This is the 5th or 6th flight issue with Qantas since July 25 when "explosive decompression" caused a four meter hole to rip across the plane when it was at a height of 29,000 meters.

Qantas oh Qantas. Sort your sh*t out!

In another example of the kind of incident becoming all too common these days, a brawl broke out on board an Irish charter flight to Greece recently, which resulted in the plane having to make an emergency landing in Italy.

This one involved five drunk Irish men (read: stag party).

Witnesses say the fracas broke out first between two of them, though over what has not been made public. One started going through the cabin smashing overhead compartments. More joined the melee.

"They had a couple of drinks on them, they were extremely aggressive," one witness tells Britain's Daily Mail newspaper. "There were loads of girls and a couple of children and I think some people felt a bit threatened."

Obviously the captain did too. He diverted the flight to Venice, where a gaggle of Italian cops were waiting to haul off the men.

The flight, operated by Irish charter company Futura Gael, left two hours later and arrived in Heraklion, on the Greek island of Crete, without further incident.

It's unclear just how out of hand things became on board, or whether any of the 162 other passengers on board were injured. Futura Gael has issued apologies to the passengers for the incident and delay, and says it is conducting its own internal investigation.

There seems to be a lot more of these incidents happening lately.

Nokia has teamed up with Lonely Planet to bring their travel guides to select Nokia Mobile Phones.

Nokia phones with support for the free "Maps 2.0" application can purchase and download Lonely Planet guides directly to their phone. Each guide costs $13.99 which is slightly cheaper than their paper versions, which normally sell for around $18 each.

Lonely Planet currently has 100 different guides available for mobile use, with more on the way. By combining the GPS receiver built into many current Nokia phones, you can make the move from paper guides, to an advanced guide with turn by turn directions. Of course, for some people there is no replacement for a good old paper guide full of scribbled notes and bookmarks.

This is the second phone Lonely Planet has added mobile support for. Previously, they introduced a lineup of spoken phrase guides for the iPhone, it is however the first time they have made their popular guides available for a smartphone.

With more and more phones adding GPS receivers, it is probably only a matter of time until other phones get access to the guides, location based services are taking off in a huge way, and within the next few years it is expected that 50% of all new phones will have GPS built in.

To get Lonely Planet guides on your Nokia phone, you will have to install Maps 2.0, you can check whether your phone supports this here. To download a guide, simply open your maps application, click "extras", then "guides". Alternatively, you can download the Nokia maps loader program to your PC and install the guides locally. If you are traveling abroad, I highly recommend purchasing the guides you need on your PC, to save the insanely high data charges when you roam on an international network.

Source: Nokia press release

The all-business-class model for airline carriers has been a touchy subject over the last few months. With all but two of the airlines now out of business (OpenSkies and Singapore Airlines' select flights), many wonder if the original approach was a good idea.

Yet OpenSkies (EC, owned by British Airways) and Singapore Airlines (SQ) continue to press on -- and even expand. Earlier this month, OpenSkies announced that they would be adding service further into the European Union, while SQ just expanded their A340 service from Los Angeles into Singapore.

How can these carriers thrive in such tight times? How can they survive where so many others failed? Well, there's no doubt that the deep pockets of each carrier are helping ride out the storm of high oil prices. While Americans sort out their financial woes, each airline plans to build a product and loyal customer base, get the word out on their product as much as possible and fight for a place in the future market.

Things could be a little rough for OpenSkies. With the American economy suffering and the EU economy headed in the same direction, demand for business class seats is going to be dropping off pretty quick. Unfortunately, the worst may yet be to come.

According to Singapore Airlines, their business-class-only service has conversely enjoyed packed flights and thriving business.

The true gauge for each airline, regardless of their current situation, is long term sustainability independent of their parent airline or routes. If the routes fail to generate profit after a few years they will surely disappear, but perhaps if we're all lucky and the trend picks up, OpenSkies' and SQ's business-class-only flights will be here to stay.