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Corkboard: our weekly travel news round-up - The Guardian
Escapism
Not only has London's cable car across the Thames just launched, but those for whom vertigo isn't a problem can get another fantastic view of the capital at Up At The O2. Wearing safety harnesses, groups of 15 cross the roof via a 190m walkway suspended between masts, to an observation platform.
• £22pp, must be aged over 10, theo2.co.uk/upattheo2
Travel trash
The ultimate festival accessory for a group of mates, the Stack-Cups lets you safely stack them, so you can carry six pints at once – or even 12 if you go for one in each hand.
• £12.99 from firebox.com
Weird world
Claiming to be the "world's deepest hotel suite", the Cavern Suite at the Grand Canyon Caverns is 60m below ground in a cave accessed by a lift that drops 22 storeys. There are two double bedrooms, living room, library and bathroom. The caverns were declared a bomb shelter in 1961, and stocked by the military in the Cuban missile crisis.
• +1 928 422 3223, gccaverns.com, $700 a night for two
Where's hot now?
Budapest (36C)
Hungary gets hot in summer, and it's currently pushing the upper 30s. Probably less the time for visiting the thermal baths, and more for taking a pleasure boat ride along the Danube, eating out on the Dunakorzó strip by the river and partying at the late-night bars in the city's gardens.
• lonelyplanet.com/hungary/budapest
Summer holidays and last-minute escapes
Gozo, Malta. Photograph: Alamy The island of Gozo, near Malta, has converted farmhouses available through Gozo Farmhouses (0845 604 0035, maltadirect.com/gozo). Try the Heritage Farmhouses, for £599pp including flights from Newcastle on 31 July.
Crystal (0871 230 8180, crystalsummer.co.uk) has discounts on lakeside breaks such as a week half-board in a three-star hotel on Lake Garda for £470pp including flights from Manchester, departing 18 July.
Trailfinders (020-7368 1200, trailfinders.com) has a three-night break (bookable by phone only) in Marrakech for £339pp, including BA flights from Gatwick, breakfast and transfers, departing up to 15 July. Or book a family adventure in the High Atlas, Marrakech and Essouira with Families Worldwide (0845 051 4567, familiesworldwide.co.uk) which has availability on its group trip departing 22 July, for £339 per child or £359 per adult, including transport, meals, tour guide and accommodation, but not flights.
Departing on 12 July, Hayes and Jarvis (0844 415 1918, hayesandjarvis.com) has a seven-night trip to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt at the Grand Rotana, for £549pp B&B including flights from Gatwick.
World Expeditions (0800 074 4135, worldexpeditions.co.uk) has two-for-one deals on some trips to Vietnam, or Cambodia and Laos. The Vietnam offer is 12 days departing 8 or 22 July or 12 August, including a hill tribe homestay, beach at Nha Trang, Hanoi and Hoh Chi Minh City, at £1,390 for two. Cambodia and Laos is an 11-day trip to Phnom Penh, Luang Prabang, and the golden Buddhas at Pak Ou, departing 20 July, or 3 or 24 August – £1,740 for two. Flights not included.
Virgin Holidays (0844 557 4321, virginholidays.co.uk) has lots of last-minute long-haul deals. On 4 July, you can get a week in Mauritius, for £950pp, including flights from Gatwick and half-board.
The Tour de France is under way, but fans still have chance to see the world's best road cyclists cross the finishing line in Paris at the end of July, with Travelsphere (0800 112 3312, travelsphere.co.uk). Its four-day Paris and Tour de France package, including coach travel from the UK, three nights' B&B, tour guide, and trip to watch the finale, costs £279pp.
What's new?
Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Photograph: Getty Images Exotic getaway
Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean has long been popular with the French as an alternative to Mauritius. It offers volcanoes, "aqua-hiking" down natural waterslides, coral reefs and sandy beaches, and now Black Tomato (020-7426 9888, blacktomato.com) is pushing it to the British market in the form of a 10-day luxury holiday, for £3,299pp.
Air travel
Cambridge Airport has introduced a special "wine allowance" for passengers flying back from France's Franche-Comte region with Danube Wings (danubewings.eu, from £85 one-way), which will fly to Dole-Jura on Mondays and Fridays from 27 July. Travellers will be allowed to carry on four bottles each in addition to their hand-luggage allowance and free checked baggage allowance.
Comedy
A canal boat called the Pleasance Ahoy has just set off from London to travel to the Edinburgh Festival for Tall Tales from the Riverbanks, a series of pop-up comedy gigs and digital events broadcast along the way, featuring comedians including Reginald D. Hunter and Jarred Christmas. Details of the gigs – to be held in Henley, Oxford, Stone (Staffordshire), Manchester and Glasgow – will only be revealed shortly before they happen so check at pleasanceahoy.com.
Vodafone to win EU approval for CWW buy - source - Reuters UK
BRUSSELS |
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU regulators are set to approve British mobile provider Vodafone's (VOD.L) 1 billion pound bid for fixed-line network operator Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWP.L) without conditions, a source familiar with the matter said on Monday.
World No. 1 mobile phone operator Vodafone unveiled the deal in April, to boost its capacity to offer fast-growing smartphone data services.
The acquisition will make Vodafone the leading player in fixed-line and mobile telecom services to British businesses.
"The deal is expected to be cleared without any conditions," said the source, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The European Commission has set a July 3 deadline for its decision.
Last week, the EU competition watchdog stepped up its investigation into a bid by Hong Kong's Hutchison 3G to buy France Telecom's (FTE.PA) Orange Austria, worried that the 1.3 billion euro deal would reduce the number of players in Austria to three.
In contrast, EU telecoms chief Neelie Kroes has voiced support for consolidation in the sector. She told Reuters in an interview last month that mergers would create strong cross-border leaders able to invest in mobile and broadband networks to close the gap with the United States and Asia.
There are four mobile telecoms providers in Britain including Vodafone, and more than 40 virtual network operators that operate through the telecom networks.
CWW, which split from Caribbean-focused Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC.L) two years ago, provides voice, data and hosting services to British government departments and companies while its cables span the globe.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Rex Merrifield and Hans-Juergen Peters)
O2 study: smartphones are the 21st century's Swiss army knife - Itproportal
A recent report by O2 dubbed 'All About You' has found that browsing the Internet is the most popular user activity on smartphones.
With the average owner of an intelligent mobile device spending roughly two hours a day interacting with their phone, surfing the web consumes nearly 25 minutes of that time while social networking – another Internet-based, connectivity-powered activity – takes up around 17 minutes.
Traditional functions like making calls and sending texts lag well behind with figures of 12 and 10 minutes respectively, while photography takes up only 3 minutes of a typical smartphone owner's daily hands-on time, likely due to the inherently quick nature of snapping a picture.
David Johnson, General Manager for Devices for O2 in the UK, likened smartphones and their use to all-in-one survival tools.
"Smartphones are now being used like a digital 'Swiss Army Knife,' replacing possessions like watches, cameras, books, and even laptops. While we're seeing no let-up in the number of calls customers make or the amount of time they spend speaking on their phones, their phone now plays a far greater role in all aspects of their lives," he said.
Using an alternative method of data correlation, the survey also reveals that over half of smartphone users (54 per cent of participants) use their phones as an alarm clock, while 46 per cent have done away with their watch in favour of a padded pocket.
Findings for the future include a growing number of people using their mobile device in place of a TV, with six per cent reporting to have made the entertainment swap – the same amount who have dispensed with physical books in favour of reading exclusively on their smartphone.
O2 did not offer up the total number of survey participants in its press release.
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