‘Fasten your seat belts, raise your tray table, and disconnect your Bluetooth headsets from the entertainment unit’ US-based mega-airline United Airlines has announced it will purchase 200 new planes — a mixture of Boeing 737 Max and Airbus A320 Neos — and equip the lot with in-seat Bluetooth. United has promised its new fleet will boast “the industry’s fastest available in-flight WiFi that lets customers stream video from online services …
Qantas gave up on in seat entertainment
they simply equip users who want a screen with a managed iPad and wired headphones
people who already have an iPad/android/windows simply can connect to the Wifi and download the entertainment app
everything is an app...
the App simply is a HTML interface to the onboard server which can stream movies or audio (podcasts)
basically like a netflix in the sky
WTF are United Airlines thinking ?
I hope the seat in front at least has something the iPad can slot into. On the one hand having it loose gives more options to avoid glare from the neighbour's window, but on the other hand I wouldn't want to have to hold it up for three hours straight given the cramped space available. And where to put it when the "food" comes?
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and popcorn, gimme popcorn, price equivalent of gold popcorn.
...
soon, to fly undisturbed, you'll have to wear an all-embracing helmet to muffle the outside world and supply your own, popcorn-free oxygene. Or rather: forced to rent it from the airline. But hey, need to pay to save this planet, you know!
IIRC United were one of the last hold outs of central aisle-mounted TV screens and those horrible rubber-tube pneumatic headsets. They were also one of the first to charge for any alcohol, even the plastic mini wine bottles, on transatlantic flights. I stopped flying with them years ago, and won't be back.
Good to see a major airline being bullish on the prospects of renewed travels. I am especially looking forward to enhanced in-flight entertainment, what with every Tom, Dick, and Karen pairing their personal smartphones to the screens and/or to the entertainment system at large, quite possibly to the screens / earbuds of other seats on the plane, and then disembarking without wiping all the synched contacts, intimate WhatsApp chats, nude photos...
Hilarity will ensue...
Why would it have to sync anything with a person's smartphone? It is just acting like an internet router and at most a place to share your screen. You don't need to sync photos for that, you don't need to sync contacts for that, so why would it support doing so?
You'd probably need to plug in and treat the display as HDMI, there's no way you could have a planeload of people trying to wirelessly share their display and expect it to work at all.
Seems more likely we'd see United make a deal with someone like Disney or Paramount to have them as the exclusive streaming option on their in flight system for "free", with ads. Then people wouldn't even use their phone at all, just their bluetooth headset / earphones. Might not even really be streaming, you could cram a lot of Disney's streaming catalog onto a single hard drive.
>You don't need to sync photos for that...
Yeah, that's why the photo gallery app that I can't uninstall from my phone won't work unless I allow it access to my Contacts, Calendar and network status. Needless to say, I don't use that one. Just to display an image file stored locally?
I agree with the comment that this is almost entirely in service of advertising. And I'm certain they are going to do far more probing of your connected device than any of us would be comfortable with.
And I'm certain they are going to do far more probing of your connected device than any of us would be comfortable with.
In that case I see a multimillion dollar fine looming up (GDPR). It takes only one EU-citizen or EU-resident passenger complaining for a serious investigation.
@DS999: "... why would it support doing so?"
Oh, no good reason at all. You are describing a very reasonable proposition. But no one has promised you that reality will remain reasonable.
I suspect people will find a way, and even if not then some competitive airline will offer passengers to view and listen to whatever content they have on their phones through the entertainment system, play their favourite games, etc., etc.
And it will all go down the slippery hill from that moment on.
Same, thats why our family trip to LA next year is being done a) via Calgary and b) at increased cost just to avoid flying United.
As a bonus going the way we are we also get Premium Economy rather then bog standard... so better legroom and extra baggage allowance for all the tat my offspring will want to bring home
Long story short, I'll stick with my wired headphones thankyouverymuch. I travel with both the "good" ones for music (better passive isolation and sound reproduction) and the smaller "dry" ones for actual phone calls (better noise isolation on the mic even though the "good" ones have a mic also).
Now, offer me a seat with a built-in charging cable, with a guarantee it's power only and won't harvest my data, and I'll be willing to buy a splitter again to use that.
How are wired headphones superior in this situation? They're just devices that pair over bluetooth and exchange an ID, right? It's not like my personal data is involved.
Totally agree about that power-only USB cable, btw. You should pack one for travel. Don't plug an untrusted device into your phone or tablet.
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