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iPod Seat-Back Video Coming To Flights
cameronk writes, "Apple announced partnership agreements with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM, and United that will let you display video from your iPod on the screen of the seat in front of you. Plus, the connectors charge iPods throughout the flight. This will be great for inter-continental flights where even my iPod Nano runs out of juice. I wonder how the airlines are going to keep inappropriate video (i.e. porn or even just movies like "Snakes on a Plane" or "Alive") from appearing on the seat-back displays."
Boeing: The world's largest iPod accessory manufacturer.
747: The world's largest iPod accessory.
Reality has a liberal bias
I wonder how the airlines are going to keep inappropriate video (i.e. porn or even just movies like "Snakes on a Plane" or "Alive") from appearing on the seat-back displays."
That's funny as I was wondering the same thing when Apple's press announcement appeared in my inbox. Of course the issue of other movies like those you mentioned should not even be an issue as it is content that the user has loaded on their own iPods (and you should not be looking at your neighbors content anyhow). As to porn and other questionable content, this really comes down to etiquette and if there are those on the flight that will display such content where others may see it (like kids), they are likely pissing people off for other reasons. All told, this is a great idea and I'd rather have to deal with other people's movies than having to listen to them talk on their cell phones (Please! FAA, Nnnoooooooo!) or worse. Flying anywhere is becoming more and more onerous these days and at the very least, having airlines support ways to charge laptops or iPods during long flights would be a huge benefit as Empower outlets are pretty hard to find on many flights in coach and sometimes even in first or business class.
I've had to deal with enough problems flying anyhow again and again and again and anything that will keep people quiet and minding their own business is a good thing.
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Just a hunch.
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You have to use a "special" FAA approved cable to connect to the video input of the screen as well as the charging unit. The airline will provide this to you for $5 which includes the rental price of the monitor.
So how long until we get ipod connectors for samsung's machine gun sentry robots? They could even use that song "let the bodies hit the floor" in the commercial.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Don't airlines already have the same issue with laptops? Those have approximately the same angle from screen to the eyes of person next to you, especially in coach. My guess is it won't be an issue. Perhaps if a polite request doesn't make you stop, they can disable your screen from the front?
Are you kidding? The last movie I saw on an airplane was the Shaggy Dog remake...
If I'm going to plunge to earth from a mile above, I want to make damn sure that I'm watching a movie I picked. Or at least, not Shaggy Dog.
"Isn't that the sweetest little well-balanced undergraduate-level philosophy of life."
Oh noes! Now we will have MPAA Air martials watching for dvd-screeners and cams.
Why would this movie, or Alive, or even United 93 or Twin Towers be inappropriate? it's not like I'm going to show it to a hysteria-prone man on the brink of snapping and hijacking the plane. If I have it on my iPod I know what it's about and I maintain full control to turn off the movie at any time.
Gee, it's not like watching it is actually going to make snakes appear in the plane. Plus, I don't think it'd be nearly as bad as depicted in the movie.
And when we crash, we'll go down grooving.
will let you display video from your iPod on the screen of the seat in front of you
That means you'll have to stand up and look over someone's shoulder if you want to see your video.
Is that supposed to be Apple's response to Zune sharing?
Why would movies like Snakes on a Plane be inappropriate for viewing on an airplane? Porn I can understand, but mass-market movies?
How are they going to? They better not, well the adult stuff I can understand because it is not private viewing, but I certainly do not see a problem with other movies.
Stop doing the thought police's work for them, we do not need protecting from ourselfs... just our government. And even then, it is more that they should feel the need to protect themselves from their citizens (if they are doing wrong).
Why would this movie, or Alive, or even United 93 or Twin Towers be inappropriate? it's not like I'm going to show it to a hysteria-prone man on the brink of snapping and hijacking the plane.
Yeah, it's no more inappropriate than watching "The Towering Inferno" in a crowded theatre.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Can you use the power to charge a laptop!
How about by /asking/ people not to? Or a little sign that says, "Please be aware of your neighbors and/or their children, and do not watch video that may disturb them." Sheesh.
Offtopic, but - who's up for a "no kids" airline? I'd definitely pay an extra $10 per flight to ensure there aren't any crying babies onboard.
"Personally, I prefer to not divert power from the plane's engines.
MY GOD, I had NO idea that iPods use enough power to tax a jetliner's engines. Do they require 3 phase power, or will they work from US standard 120/240 volt split phase power? How much do they cost to run for one month, assuming 6 hours of use a day and 10 cents per KWh?
You can get on a plane, open up your laptop and play inappropriate video right now. I don't think this has been a huge problem so far, and I don't see how ipod-seat-back-video makes this problem any worse.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
I wonder how the airlines are going to keep inappropriate video (i.e. porn or even just movies like "Snakes on a Plane" or "Alive") from appearing on the seat-back displays.
The same way they keep you from running up and down the plane mid-flight shouting "we're all gonna die!".
Besides, it's not even necessarily the passengers who rile up things. A few years ago I was on a plane waiting for take-off where the stewardess figured that the best solution to calm pre-take-off nerves would be to put on the radio through the cabin speakers. Much to her surprise, the song playing at that very moment was "killing me softly", and you can all have a guess which words came out of the speakers first...
I suspect that when the engines need the power, they'll take precedence. Sheesh, modern electronics do have a level of sophistication to them...
Care about electronic freedom? Consider donating to the EFF!
I thought iPods, cellphones, and such were banned from being part of the carryon bagage since they can produce shorts for bombs. Or did they lift the ban? I haven't traveled in a while and would like to know :(
I'll wager they'll do it just the same way that they would handle a person that is playing inappropriate video on their 15" laptop sitting on the tray table in front of them. My guess is that would be to ignore it unless a passenger complains, then politely ask the viewer to turn it off.
Personally, were I a flight attendant, I would discreetly ask those around if it offended them. If it didn't, I'd ignore it.
The engines generate electricity much like the alternator in your car does. Yes, having a bigger alternator takes away some power from the engine. But if the engine is designed to handle the load of the alternator and still have plenty of power to do it's job, then there is no problem.
Power outlets and more TVs just require more juice than what was used in the past. People are plugging their laptops in and watching DVDs for entire flights. Charging a plane full of iPods seems rather trivial in comparison.
Anyone else just plain tired of Ipod monopoly showing up everywhere? What about those of us who have Cretative Zen Visions or other Video media players? Are we just screwed?
Stop catering to just one damn format.
I would just be happy if they made the seats big enough and with enough leg room so that I wouldn't feel like I'm packed in like a sardine. Anything else is just a way to distract us from thinking about how much flying sucks.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Why would the person behind me want or even care to see videos from my iPod on their display? Wouldn't it be a better idea to display the videos on the display in front of me and not on the display on the back of my seat?
Well .10cents per kWH * .100 watts * 6 hours = 6 cents. So the answer is don't worry about it :)
laptop use is slightly different. It's usually low enough and in a position that only someone sitting directly beside you or behind you (cracks in the seat) can see the crap you're watching. The screens on the seatbacks are up higher and at greater visability. I bet there's going to be at least one 733t dork who will feel it necessary to play a 0-day movie to show off his h@xor sk1llz.
this amount of stupidity usually requires a group of people
...I mean, COME ON, what's the frigging difference between inappropriate video/images and some guy flipping through his Playboy magazine? Flying in an airplane has always been about unwritten rules of conduct, in addition to the encylopediae of written rules.
... Microsoft to buy Quantas Airlines - Quantas will be first to have z00n wireless
Yes, when you plug in your ipod, the wings will suddenly lose all their lift. As the plane enters a stall, the control surfaces will stop responding as the power drain caused by the ipod drains all the hydraulics. As the ipod drains power, it'll also drain air, causing the cabin pressure to drop. At that point, the ipod will be draining enough energy to cause a total and complete failure of internal and external lighting, avionics, and the microwave in which the stewardess was warming up a 2-day-old piece of chicken. At this point, as the aircraft is happily plunging down in the dark (did I mention it's night?) at over 1000fpm, the engines will start failing, unable to keep up with the power demand. The pilots will desperately try to start the APU in order to provide power to restart the engines. They will attempt to shut off all nonessential systems, however, at that point your ipod will become so power hungry that simply touching the switch will vaporize the pilot, the copilot, and the entire flight deck (it happens in the movies, so it can happen in reality, right?). The APU will overload in 3 seconds and explode, because of the huge power demand of the ipod. As your aircraft continues falling down, with a damaged nose and tail, the ipod will reach a critical mass of, uh, power, exploding in a bright white flash, annihilating anyone within 300 miles. It will then become somewhat of a black hole. It will begin sucking everything in through its recharge socket. Eventually, the whole universe will collapse and fold into the ipod. When ipod is the only piece of matter that remains, it will allow you to play 2 hours of video.
This is a clever way for the airlines to bypass the MPAA's atrocious licensing fees for movies stored on the aircraft's entertainment system. If the airline doesn't 'own' the copy, they aren't responsible. I predict the MPAA will soon be having shit fits over this system.
What I've always found amusing is that CNN's "Airport Network" is really just CNN edited to not show any breaking airline disaster / hijacking etc. news. The end up subbing in entertainment, sports, and weather whenever there is breaking air-related bad news on CNN.
The poster uses "ie" to list inappropriate content for airplanes, but he is mistaken: instead, he wants "eg". "Ie" introduces an exhaustive list, or restates the category completely, whereas "eg" provides examples within the category. So, he gives the category as inappropriate content, and lists three possible types of inappropriate content, so he should use "eg".
The latin phrase for "eg" is "exempli gratia", or, in English, "gratuitous example", which is to say, an example which helps explain the intent of the sentence.
The latin phrase for "ie" is "id est", or, in English, literally "that is", which means you are restating the thing to make the intent clear.
I don't really blame the poster, who might not care about this distinction, a common mistake amongst Americans, but the Slashdot editors sure as hell should care, being that they are paid to provide that service. That's an old complaint, though, and it's fairly clear the editors don't care either.
Just as long as it doesn't lead to THIS!
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
While "zoon" craters. I love it.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
It's a nice thing to have, but would be far nicer if these manufacturers played nicely with each other and came up with standard connector and protocols for audio, video, etc. All the ridiculous proprietary formats are getting us nowhere (SOny, I'm looking at you). If you make one of these products, at least donate the patent on the format to the public domain to give some semblance of a willingness to compete.
pr0n instead of Monster, Inc.
Probably, the same way they keep "inappropriate content" in other media (say, porn in dead-tree form) from "appearing" in the passenger compartment.
According to this Dutch news site Air France and KLM said they were not aware of such a deal with them.
subsequent legislation to ban the playing of any movies with Leonardo DeCaprio or Shelly Winters has simultaniously been proposed!
The iPod - and the Walkman before it - in many ways replaced the boombox. No longer would travelers or commuters force their own choice of music on others. Exit audio pollution, hello visual pollution!
It seems people are increasingly ignoring those unwritten rules, not to mention the written ones.
I have to say, I really think the lack of courteousness is directly due to being crammed into a long, uncomfortable flight. Cram people into a box like an animal, and they're going to act like animals.
During an intercontinental flight? I've got a 2nd gen nano that hardly goes out of juice after the 20+ hours. Are there flights which last longer than that?
In other news, Australian airline Qantas has today solved U-Tube's problems related to sounding like YouTube by purchasing the "U" from their name. From now on, it's Quantas and -Tube.
WANRING: This warning is misspelt.
Think about the fuel-powered-iPod owners, you insensitive clod !
at least do it right: 1. Learn Latin so you understand the grammatical structure and meaning of the expression "exempli grata". 2. Learn how to spell: "i.e.", "e.g.". Without the abbreviating periods, the sequences of letters "ie", "eg" don't mean anything in English. "Latin" should be capitalized in English.
Only 10c/kWh? I knew we've been getting ripped off in Australia, paying some 15 or 18 cents per kWh, depending on where one lives. Oh, the kilowatt-hour should be abbreviated to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwh ...
WANRING: This warning is misspelt.
I wonder how the airlines are going to keep inappropriate video (i.e. porn or even just movies like "Snakes on a Plane [CC]" or "Alive [CC]") from appearing on the seat-back displays.
Yeah, we've only had portable DVD players for about eight years, so the issue has never come up before. I assume they'll put several viewing enforcement marshalls on every flight - that's the most straightforward answer, anyway.
-- Stop the violins!
I think your analogy is flawed.. While it is true that any AC generator could be called an alternator, this term is usually reserved for devices used in the automotive industry, specifically with internal combustion engines. A turbofan engine has much more in common with a gas-turbine engine, the output shaft of which is then connected to an electrical generator. Even still, this analogy is weak, as the primary use of a gas-turbine engine is to generate rotary power at the output shaft, while in a turbofan engine this power is put directly into increasing the airflow through the intake fan.
Your point however remains: the power requirements of a jetliner a large when compared to the power required to charge the passengers' iPods, and the vast majority of this power is reserved for thrust. Conventional turbofan engines are built with quite broad safety margins. I don't have a reference handy, but I'm sure the additional power requirements of charging these iPods would be negligible in most of the requirements calculations.
Aikon-
some terrorist plot to blow up 10 airplanes mid-atlantic using consumer electronic devices is busted last-minute.
Then flying will again suck even more.
every ten minutes when they announce that the beverage cart will be starting soon? That's one reason I prefer my own entertainment device: I decide when to hit pause.
I wonder how the airlines are going to keep inappropriate video (i.e. porn or even just movies like "Snakes on a Plane" or "Alive") from appearing on the seat-back displays.
I would imagine in the same way they keep people from reading hustler magazines on the flights - social humiliation and common decency. Besides, in this post 9/11 world, you *really* don't want to mess with flight attendants.
I don't think the article mentioned Boeing in particular and on that timescale the new A380 from Airbus may be ready which is substantially larger than the 747 (not that, as a frequent traveller, I find this particularly a good thing!).
Personally I want my iPod powered by engine bleed. Integrated armrest micro-turbines.
Bring Your Own Porn
My girlfriend already saw 'Alive' on a plane as part of the usual entertainment program on board a few years ago.
Funny thing is that she actually was on a flight over the Andes, from Argentina to Chile with a local airline.
Gee, I smell lawsuit ... monopolistic tactics?
Why are they not including a generic connector/charger for all MP3 players, including iPods. What a joke.
I just got off of a flight, and before we got on, I said to my friend "They need to set it up so I can plug my ipod into the screen!"
I must be psychic.
I'm on track to fly about 100,000 miles this calendar year, maybe more. I almost never go to the movies, largely because I know I'll see them all on planes. It's gotten to the point where I'll see a movie on an intercontinental flight one week, the be disappointed by it being on other flights in subsequent weeks, since I've already seen it.
(In-flight magazines also get really old, really fast, when you're doing several flights on an airline in the space of a month.)
Being able to bring a bunch of my own video on my iPod - and charge it to boot - sounds like a great deal to me. I've been flying one of Continental/KLM/Air France's partner airlines, so I hope that one will get on board also.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
It's not the inappropriate videos we should worry about... it's the new undercover MPAA air marshals who will be watching out for anyone allowing other passengers to see any movie that they haven't paid to see. There will be a new MPAA box for you to deposit $5 into on your way off the plane if you watched the movie on the screen of the person next to you... The marshals are watching, you'd better pay up!
The News here in Holland mentions that KLM, one of the companies mentioned, knows nothing about this. They admit to having had talks about this, but state that the plans are more likely to not go through....
Apple says this will start in "mid 2007". The first A380 is scheduled for delivery in October 2007, assuming they don't have any more delays. (It has slipped several times, and for over a year; it's like Vista...)
But the first A380 will be for Signapore, which is not one of Apple's 6 launch customers. The first A380 going to an iPod-integration airline will be Emirates, which gets its first A380 in 2008, followed by Air France, in 2009. None of the other 4 Apple partners are A380 customers.
To compare, *all 6* of Apple's launch customers are 747 customers, and several of them have been for decades.
So no, he's not forgetting Airbus. This won't be on an A380 for a while.
Its called capitalism. Apple has approached them with a joint marketing deal most likely.
I was thinking about how MS might want to work a similar deal to allow people to use their Zunes on airplanes, but then I realized that the airlines might not want people running wireless devices of any kind on an airplane.
It seems like this is a huge win for Apple, as the iPod has no embedded wireless features that might screw with the plane's electronics.
Does anyone know if people will even be allowed to use Zunes on airplanes? Or is there a setting to turn off the wireless capabilities while on airplanes? And will people actually find and use that setting?
I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV...
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/rankings/stateelectric ityprice.htm
I currently pay about 10 cents per kilowatthour (it varies). US residential electricity rates averaged about 10 US cents per kilowatthour in 2004. Hawaii was the most expensive at over 18 cents per kilowatthour. In 1980 I paid just over 1 cent per kilowatthour in Sacramento, CA (SMUD).
It was a joke :).
Emirates' only 747 interest is that they are buying some 747 freighters.
That's totally what this is for. If it's a passenger 747, then you have to share it with 500 other people, and it's a total drag. It's like a schoolbus.
But imagine just two pilots in their own 747 freighter. Now they can plug in their iPod and crank it, on the internal speaker system. That's one sweet ride, man.
There is always that single straw that broke the camel's back.
There is always going to be the guy who wants his slasher picture and to hell with you.
Or the Little Blue Haired church lady or evangelical who thinks you are going to hell because it's something on Cartoon Network -- take your pick.
99% of what I watch would offend at least half of the people on any given plane.
>> I think a better option is to use technology. Flat panels have been working hard to make the grills on their screens thinner to increase the field of view on the displays. It should be easy to reverse the process, and make a thicker grill so that anything 5 degrees or more "off axis" will not be seen.
So nobody in the seat next to you can see.
What can we do for the people behind you? Or the kids who want to peak? Perhaps add a paralax, or create a focal length to the screen -- though this would be a bit trickier. Not so hard if they adopted real 3D screens that have been designed.
I suppose you can make the grills deep and thin, and angle them at a region 2" to 8" wide (range for the two eyes in a moving head) so that any view beyond or closer than the "sweet spot" will have most of the view obscured by tilted grills -- so two feet behind, someone would see only a vertical strip comprising 10% of the screen.
Either that, or bring back the liquid crystal glasses that flash in sync to the screen -- or just put a privacy screen between seats (cheapest of all).
>> Anyway, technology is going to introduce an annoying situation, so technology must be tasked with solving it. Otherwise granny is going to have an issue with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (of course, so would I).
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
If it's pr0n, they'll tell you to put it away, just like they would if you were "reading" Hustler, or something like that. Otherwise, they're most likely not going to bother. Nobody complained when I watched Airplane! on a flight back east earlier this year. :-)
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
iBlinders - similar to the kind they use to block a horse's peripheral vision.
We must realize that this will not stop at iPods. Necessary adaptors will emerge, and people will be bringing their Wiis and XBox 360s onboard Boeing craft in no time. But wait, it doesn't have to stop there. In order to impose any form of content control, the entire system of iPod-to-screens will need to be centrally wired. That means dozens of iPods, all on a central network. All you really have to do from then on is bring your laptop, an enormous external hard drive, and the right cables, and you're in business. The selection of movies and music will be nothing short of impressive. And if you get bored with that... well... who says you can't hack a 747?
I look around the Web and what you see is a massive inventory of user genertaed content and then a much smaller inventory of good, indie content. Apple needs to be an advocate of these great spots -- like "PS3 vs. Wii" or "modern man: what do you do with the load". Both are hilarious and a step above the voyueristic stuff that has long since gotten a bit old. Apple...take the lead