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in-flight

American Airlines and Virgin America promise in-flight broadband

Editor's note: This blog initially misidentified the provider of JetBlue's in-flight broadband service.

In-flight broadband is coming soon for travelers on some American Airlines and Virgin America flights. But will the companies hit the right price point to attract customers?

Aircell, a company that sells air-to-ground telecommunications equipment to airlines, said this week that its in-flight broadband system will be used on some Virgin America and American Airlines flights originating from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York and Miami.

American Airlines will initially enable 15 of its 767s with broadband, and eventually it will offer Internet … Read more

Air France to begin study of inflight cell phone use

Sorry I missed this one, but in the rush to close out before Christmas, I overlooked that Air France finally is ready to start its six-month study of inflight cell phone service via satellite. As I told you last April, Air France is partnering with a company called OnAir to run the trial on one of its airplanes. The trial will gauge passenger reaction to inflight use, which Air France will then use to determine if the program should be extended to more of its fleet.

The chosen aircraft, an Airbus A318, is a short-range plane used only on intra-European … Read more

iPod + free peanuts = less air rage?

Reuters says that Papa Steve Jobs has agreed to let six airlines (Air France, Continental Airlines, Delta, Emirates, KLM, and United) provide iPod hookups to their in-flight entertainment systems as of mid-2007. The hookup would let you watch iPod-stored videos on seat-back monitors, thus allowing frequent fliers to avoid watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest four times in a month.

We might find this news compelling if we weren't so disappointed that Zune release day didn't bring a rumored (but we admit, extremely unlikely) release of the "true video" touch-screen iPod.

Souped-up iPod battery pack gets you through 'Titanic'

Don't batteries suck? I mean, either they blow up in your face, or in the case of Apple's iPod, their lifespans just don't cut it--especially when you're watching video. I mean, what good is a portable video player if it can't get you through a flight from New York to L.A.?

Enter the Sonnettech Volta, a battery add-on that you strap onto your iPod like a backpack. If it works, it'll keep your iPod's video player going for 16 hours or recharge the little guy up to three times. Just think--you could … Read more