Maps, the Most Popular Elements of In-flight Entertainment Systems, Are About To Get a Big Upgrade -- and Some Ads (wsj.com) 182
The in-flight moving map, object of fascination for travel geeks and impatient fliers, is going in a new direction. But have your credit card ready: The beloved map will become one more revenue-generator for airlines [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled.], reports the Wall Street Journal. From the story: Maps are the most popular elements of in-flight entertainment systems, capturing passenger attention by posting live updates about a trip, most importantly when you'll arrive. Airlines offer movies, TV shows, podcasts and games on entertainment systems, but the boring map, which made its debut over 30 years ago, turns out to be the most useful, maybe even anxiety-reducing, focus of bored passengers. The map gives you a sense of control, showing not only exactly where you are, but altitude, airspeed, time zone, temperature, distance traveled and miles left to go. For some, there's a sense of adventure built in: You may never visit the Faeroe Islands, but you feel like you've been there when your flight draws a line over them.
Now manufacturers are giving maps a makeover. You'll be able to get encyclopedic details on Mount Fuji as you fly past, track your spouse's flight from your seat and zoom in for details on points of interest like the top 10 rides at Disneyland compiled from social media. The map will be loaded with data about your flight, down to which languages flight attendants onboard speak, when dinner will be served and how long you'll be in Brazilian airspace. And guess what? Airlines will be using the maps to sell you things like tickets to those popular amusement park rides. Hotels, theme parks, restaurants or other attractions may be throwing advertising onto your route. Shopping malls and stores, too. After all, they know where you're going.
Now manufacturers are giving maps a makeover. You'll be able to get encyclopedic details on Mount Fuji as you fly past, track your spouse's flight from your seat and zoom in for details on points of interest like the top 10 rides at Disneyland compiled from social media. The map will be loaded with data about your flight, down to which languages flight attendants onboard speak, when dinner will be served and how long you'll be in Brazilian airspace. And guess what? Airlines will be using the maps to sell you things like tickets to those popular amusement park rides. Hotels, theme parks, restaurants or other attractions may be throwing advertising onto your route. Shopping malls and stores, too. After all, they know where you're going.
So they put some cheap tablet in your backseat (Score:2)
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You don't fly much, do you? ;-)
Forget Maps (Score:5, Funny)
I've always wanted my infotainment centre to play snake... so I can play "Snakes on a Plane".
Re:You can bring your own snake! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You can bring your own snake! (Score:5, Funny)
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Have you ever been in a Turkish prison?
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Do you like it when Scraps grabs hold of your leg and starts rubbing up and down?
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Surely you can't be serious.
Marketing is getting silly (Score:3, Interesting)
As someone who flies a lot, it's annoying enough with the ads you can't skip before movies. Putting ads on the map is taking it a step too far. That kind of solidified my use of a tablet stocked with games I'll actually play, movies I want to watch etc.
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Download Avare to that tablet, along with the maps. It's open source. No ads. You can also download weather.
No I won't (Score:4, Insightful)
You'll be able to get encyclopedic details on Mount Fuji as you fly past, track your spouse's flight from your seat and zoom in for details on points of interest like the top 10 rides at Disneyland compiled from social media.
No I won't, because I won't use the map if it ceases to do the one thing I care about it doing well. Quit trying to make everything "better" with stupid shit no one asked for and ruining the experience with the added cruft and bullshit.
For some, there's a sense of adventure built in: You may never visit the Faeroe Islands, but you feel like you've been there when your flight draws a line over them.
Who the hell writes something like that with a straight face? Are we still doing sacrifices to the volcano gods?
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Are we still doing sacrifices to the volcano gods?
And if not, this would be a good reason to restart this ancient tradition.
Re:No I won't (Score:5, Insightful)
Who the hell writes something like that with a straight face?
I see you're a person who fundamentally doesn't understand people. Who writes or thinks like that? About half of the population. In terms of personality Slashdot is an echo chamber of the technical stereotype, and as such it often boggles the minds of people here that words and thoughts trigger their creative side rather than their logical one.
Here's a trick you can play at your next company meeting when you're bored and out of ideas. Get people to write words about snowman. Don't tell them to describe them, or define them, just to "Write about snowman". Engineers and the like will start throwing adjectives out "cold, wet, white, sticks for arms", but people with other personality types come up with all sorts of stuff. Last time this exercise was done at a shitty team building event I was forced to go to, one person wrote a poem about children building a snowman, the other only described what he felt "joy, happiness, Christmas, etc"
So next time you start a sentence with "who the hell..." remember *you* are unique and the quite likely answer is "any number of the 7.529 billion people on this planet that aren't you".
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True enough. When I was younger I was sure that so many people are nuts. Today I know that I am the crazy one. It is still difficult to accept, though.
the technical mind (Score:3)
Engineers and the like will start throwing adjectives out "cold, wet, white, sticks for arms", but people with other personality types come up with all sorts of stuff. Last time this exercise was done at a shitty team building event I was forced to go to, one person wrote a poem about children building a snowman, the other only described what he felt "joy, happiness, Christmas, etc"
Heh. Funny you should say that. After I read that bit the GP was complaining about, I immediately thought "The Faroe Islands? Well, that's not exactly the sexiest... um, a commercial flightpath right over the Faroe Islands without stopping? I'm not sure if that's ever happened. If so, it would have to be something like nonstop Reykjavík to Oslo, maybe. In which case, I really doubt you're missing out on very much you couldn't get at either your origin or your destination, except for perhaps.... [check
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Who writes or thinks like that? About half of the population.
And assuming a normal distribution of intelligence in the population then half the population is dumber than the other half.
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Oh sweetheart. High functioning autists are more evolved than the emotion laden fools we have to suffer.
Like you.
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"Who the hell writes something like that with a straight face? "
Marketing departments. Most have a two drink minimum...
Re: No I won't (Score:2)
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Chill don't worry, I am sure they won't make it the default screen that is permanently on and you can not turn it off, well, for economy class anyhow. So you either pay for content or you get the default advertising screen for twelve hours straight, it's FREE. You know, you just know it is coming, I can tell, oh yeah ;).
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Buy an encyclopedia on Mount Fuji.
I doubt that Mt. Fuji has many encyclopedia stores.
Maybe Boeing can add in-flight purchases (Score:5, Funny)
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For example letting passengers unlock the "optional" safety features of their 737 Max the airline was too stingy to purchase
The sad part is people who haven't been following the 737 Max debacle closely (I hadn't until just last week) will assume this is just humorous hyperbole.
Between this "optional safety" thing and the fact that 737's AoA correction system relied on only two phyical AoA sensors--but then goes on to only use data from one sensor at a time, effectively making it single point of failure--and all of this comes 10 years after AoA issues lead to Air France flight 447 falling from the sky like a stone (despite the
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As a side note, not to exonerate the pi
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Yes, they were very different in many ways but Air France 447 drew attention to the lack of AoA feedback in the cockpit. And then 10 years later Boeing goes and makes AoA warnings OPTIONAL in their new plane (this on top of the other fundamental flaws in their AoA correction system.) 447 was a sign that designers needed to think more carefully about AoA safety and ergonomics, that's my point, but instead Boeing managed to commit several huge bone-headed oversights.
I took a different lesson away from the compare/contrast.
The problem with Airbus was that they allowed a single sensor to command major control inputs. It was a stupid engineering decision that the subsequently fixed by having the computer cross check multiple sensors.
The problem with the Boeing was that they allowed a single sensor to command major control inputs. It was stupid beyond belief. So stupid, I'm reticent to even call it an engineering decision, because that would imply that it was being made
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But I also think the fact that an effective a cockpit angle of attack warning / malfunction detection could've potentially prevented both cases (w
Here's an idea ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Maps, the Most Popular Elements of In-flight Entertainment Systems, Are About To Get a Big Upgrade -- and Some Ads
Here's an idea, just shut down the damn entertainment system and read a book (I know, radical thought).
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This is an excellent idea. More revenue streams for airlines mean cheaper bare bones tickets for those of us who can plan ahead well enough to bring a book or load a movie onto our own tablet.
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That is how capitalism works. If there's one thing it's good at, capitalism is good at optimizing production. At all costs.
Lots of things have gotten cheaper. Air transport in particular is much cheaper than it used to be. That's one of the reasons airlines are doing their best to nickel and dime their passengers to death: they used to make lots of money of highly regulated international flights. International deregulation allowed much more competition.
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Air transport in particular is much cheaper than it used to be.
And the quality of service is much worse than it used to be in the 60's and 70's. Now your knees are against the seat in front, you're jammed into your seat with barely any wriggle room, the staff always look pissed off and you're lucky if you get a packet of peanuts.
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Wouldn't you be pissed off if you had to babysit 130 people jammed into seats with barely any wiggle room?
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No, I haven't noticed that.
Many things get cheaper as technology advances, manufacturing costs drop, competition enters the market.
Have you not noticed that?
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More revenue streams for airlines mean cheaper bare bones tickets
Found the clueless capitalist
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Cute. You really think just 'cause they find a new way to milk you that you could get something else cheaper.
Did the tickets get cheaper when they stopped serving drinks for free? Or when the seats got stacked so tightly that the average midget can no longer sit without getting thrombosis?
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Yes. They did. You can look up the numbers. Here's a good place to start, for the US market: http://darinlee.net/pdfs/airli... [darinlee.net]
International flights used to be heavily regulated because they involved travelling through other countries' airspace. Those flights subsidized domestic flights to some extent. Deregulation of international flights, development of high efficiency engines and certification of twin engine planes to fly overseas has made air transport a lot cheaper.
The reason we're getting nickel and
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Fuck yes. Ryanair are shitty in uncountable ways but they'll get you to Malta and back for less than the cost of a train to London.
Flight prices are ludicrously low.
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And people like you who are sensitive only to price and always pick rock bottom pricing end up destroying any attempt at quality or customer service. You complain that you get treated like cattle, but weren't willing to pay that extra $50 to a competitor who treats you better. Therefore you cause an entire industry to race to the bottom providing the cheapest possible transport with the bare minimum of service. Well done.
Some people who care more about quality choose to pay business class. There you don't
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What's with the personal attacks? You don't know anything about how I make choices.
I absolutely do choose airlines that offer a more leg room, comfortable seats, and pleasant customer service, because those things matter to me. I don't choose them for whether or not they show ads on their entertainment systems, because I can easily skip that.
I also support the people paying $10,000+ to shuffle onto the plane first and sit in a slightly bigger seat, because it subsidizes my $500 ticket. I'm quite happy to sk
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for those of us
Usually when you use the word "us", you are including yourself in a group. I was also identifying the group when I said "people like you". Notice I didn't say YOU, I said LIKE you. So no personal attack. I was merely referring to the same hypothetical group you created. A personal attack is saying ceoyoyo you are a dumb @#$@ and I hate your guts, for example.
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Here's an idea, just shut down the damn entertainment system and read a book (I know, radical thought).
The last time I flew on TAP the back of the seats had tablet holders in them. So there are alternatives to infotainment systems, but as far as alternatives go your "book" whatever the hell those are sounds like the worst of them all.
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It is a good idea, but I prefer watching air crash investigation on my tablet. Usually scares the shit out if the neighbours.
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"Here's an idea, just shut down the damn entertainment system and read a book (I know, radical thought)."
Or just imagine having hot sex with one of the flight attendants. Just be sure to keep a hat in your lap...
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Haven't flown a domestic flight lately have you? Hint: They don't hire stewardesses on looks anymore.
Re: Here's an idea ... (Score:2)
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Maps, the Most Popular Elements of In-flight Entertainment Systems, Are About To Get a Big Upgrade -- and Some Ads
Here's an idea, just shut down the damn entertainment system and read a book (I know, radical thought).
The early entertainment systems did not have an OFF button or feature. I had to vandalize them in order to get them to turn off and quit flickering in my field-of-view while trying to read a book.
Prior to this, I had simply been putting the barf bag over the screen to hide it, but was directed by flight staff that such is not allowed, and that I must remove the barf bag cover. I shit you not. So, nowhere to rest my eyes, hence the vandalism. I don't live in a Clockwork Orange.
PS—Statute of limitations
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Swissair Flight 111 had the entertainment systems burn the plane down.
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Maps, the Most Popular Elements of In-flight Entertainment Systems, Are About To Get a Big Upgrade -- and Some Ads
Here's an idea, just shut down the damn entertainment system and read a book (I know, radical thought).
That's when they reset the screen every 15 mins so that even if you turn down the brightness and contrasts (no way for the user to shut down the screen) it resets back to normal.
Budget airlines that used to run ads through their screens used to do this before they realised they'd save more money by not having seat back screens.
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And why a book?.
No reason really, I'm no enemy of alternative data storage methods. Feel free to bring a papyrus scroll or a set of clay tablets if they let you.
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If you can't sleep because someone else has a light on the issue isn't them.
Anyway, I don't turn on a light to read books on aircraft any more. Yet another advantage to Amazon Kindle devices.
Get ready for more brawls (Score:2)
Just what I need. Additional reasons for the person behind me who does not understand that only a gentle press is needed for a touch screen to be tap-tap-tapping the back of my seat.
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Just what I need. Additional reasons for the person behind me who does not understand that only a gentle press is needed for a touch screen to be tap-tap-tapping the back of my seat.
No, sorry, that is always a kid. For some inexplicable reason, once you strap the little one into that seat they have some sort of primal urge to start kicking the seat in front for the next couple hours.
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On my last flight that was me. The cunt in front demanded to recline his seat, leaving me with a screen a hand span from my face.
The 'How to sit comfortably' guide wasn't responding to the touch screen so I couldn't access its advice on how to sit comfortably with a screen in my face, so instead spent the time prodding the screen to make it work.
The cunt in front got upset about this and called the flight attendant. She called her supervisor. Her supervisor told me that "he has a right to recline his seat"
Stuttgart or Edinburgh? (Score:3)
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Now the passengers will know they are flying to the wrong city earlier in the flight.
But it won't stop passengers booking flights to Sydney, Nova Scotia instead of Sydney, Australia
https://www.thestar.com/news/g... [thestar.com]
Stil, it wasn't the pilots who made the Stuttgart/Edinburgh error, unlike this pilot who accidentally keyed in Melbourne instead of Kuala Lumpur and turned a 9 hour flight into a 1 hour flight
https://www.theguardian.com/au... [theguardian.com]
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I once had to fly to Toledo, Ohio. I called up the local travel agent here in Europe and said to book me a business class flight to Toledo. She said she can't find any business class flights but she can find plenty of economy flights for about $150. It took us a bit of a back and forth about price before I realised she was trying to send me to Spain.
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"I once had to fly to Toledo, Ohio."
I'm sorry.
Cattle class (Score:5, Insightful)
When ticket price is the only metric and all feasible optimizations already achieved, airlines will turn into abuse and heinous behavior to further drive costs down.
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Not much later, any kind of personal entertainment system gets banned (for security reasons of course) so you can't escape it.
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I'd prefer 5th Element flight seating.
Re:Cattle class (Score:5, Interesting)
"without ability to turn off, mute, or skip on infotainment"
And next someone will figure out how to cram a paperclip into the speaker and "disable" it. Bonus points if they then complain its not working and ask for a refund.
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"without ability to turn off, mute, or skip on infotainment"
And next someone will figure out how to cram a paperclip into the speaker and "disable" it. Bonus points if they then complain its not working and ask for a refund.
And someone will make a killing selling black clingy plastic screen covers for $10 at the airport.
Unfortunately, you can still see everyone else's screen (which was hilarious the last flight I was on - someone on the aisle was watching a movie with nudity, with kids on the other side of the aisle a few rows back watching intently...)
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It is only a matter of time until economy class gets always-on advertisements without ability to turn off, mute, or skip on infotainment.
The flight attendant is now demonstrating how to buckle your seatbelt, and attach your mandatory head restraint and eyelid clips.
Thank you for flying Clockwork Air!
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When ticket price is the only metric and all feasible optimizations already achieved, airlines will turn into abuse and heinous behavior to further drive costs down.
Good. The world has only gotten better now that the ability to fly is no longer reserved for the rich.
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That's got to square with another optimization taking place - the removal of infotainment equipment in cattle class. After all, each one of those things costs a lot of money and is pretty crappy, so what airlines have done is... replace it with an app.
At which point you have to use your phone or tablet (or rent one!) to do anything the infotainment system used to do.
Makes
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It is only a matter of time until economy class gets always-on advertisements without ability to turn off, mute, or skip on infotainment.
When ticket price is the only metric and all feasible optimizations already achieved, airlines will turn into abuse and heinous behavior to further drive costs down.
. . . driving passengers mad, and resulting in vandalism. The video components are cheap to make, but a repair service call on a commercial airliner costs a little bit more. The airlines can then spend their ad money on repairs, and on refunds to angry passengers who actually (mysteriously) wanted the ads splashed in their face for hour, but got a broken system instead.
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You can tilt the bill of your baseball cap down and shut out the infotainment from the screen. Put in the earpods of your mobile and mute the infotainment. There, that wasn't hard.
I hate air travel for many reasons. As if the security screening, horrible food, and uncomfortable seating wasn't bad enough now they shove ads on the screens directly in front of us.
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Have you flown economy recently? I just flew across the United States on Southwest, and there wasn't _any_ in-flight entertainment. Experienced passengers made sure that their phones were fully charged and they had downloaded a few movies. I read a book.
Monetisation (Score:2)
Yeah
People seem to actually quite like it.
CHARGE FOR IT AND COVER IT IN ADS!
Time to get hacking? (Score:2)
There are only a few times in my life that I've considered illegally constructing a military-grade GPS receiver, and this is one of those times.
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Don't bother. Download Avare. You'll have to hold it close to a window to get GPS reception inside the metal tube. But it gives you all the relevant information for free.
I like to predict at what speed the plane will leave the ground.
Maps are a default, not most popular (Score:2)
Receive only (Score:2)
So far as I know (aside from local oscillator leakage which must hardly be a problem if the rest of the phone/tablet has clocks running) it is perfectly fine to receive GPS signals on a phone while it is in airplane mode.
If an app can store a reasonable map of the world on the phone so that it does not need an internet connection, then I see no reason why it could not display where you are, your speed and, given a destination, its estimate of when you will arrive.
What with that and the movies I have on my
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Put "Avare" on you phone. It is open source. GPS receiver is on in airplane mode. You'll need to hold the phone near a window in most planes to get a satellite lock, but I got a lock in a center seat on a recent flight. Put "GPS Status" on your phone. It seems to be able to get a satellite lock faster than other apps. Getting a GPS lock before you get on the plane also seems to help. Download the airport plates along with the maps, and you can track your plane as you taxi out to the runway.
Really? (Score:2)
Might be a touch of hyperbole there.
I'm not sure it's an "object of fascination" so much as "something slightly distracting to while away the mind-numbing boredom of a long distance flight"? I see it as a digital equivalent to a cat-toy or one of those baby-mobiles, except for adult humans.
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My personal favourite is the nose wheel cam that comes on during landing... though there seem to be only a few airlines that actually have this. I’ve personally only seen it on JAL and Thai flights.
Umm... (Score:2)
Not sure what they are talking about... (Score:2)
30 years ago? I've yet to see a live map of any sort on a commercial flight. That would be all the things they've just described but where exactly does this supposed map live? You've got a seat back, potentially a window, and a screen up front that shows airline commercials and lame movies. Oh and a headphones jack. Once upon a time you also had an ash tray but I only got to use it once as a kid and pesky adults all ready to jump in and parent ruined it.
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30 years ago? I've yet to see a live map of any sort on a commercial flight. That would be all the things they've just described but where exactly does this supposed map live? You've got a seat back, potentially a window, and a screen up front that shows airline commercials and lame movies. Oh and a headphones jack. Once upon a time you also had an ash tray but I only got to use it once as a kid and pesky adults all ready to jump in and parent ruined it.
Many larger/legacy airlines are putting seatback IFE in most of their aircraft, even ones designated for shorter hauls(2-3 hours). Even older aircraft are getting them as airlines go through and update their interiors. Your LCCs/ULCCs might not if you fly those. Adding amenities and services like seatback IFE helps legacy airlines justify the price premium over LCCs without significantly impacting operational costs.
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My wife tells me she has seen the map but only on long international flights. So not really something most of us see regularly.
Just a matter of time... (Score:2)
...before breathable air will become a fee based "value add" on commercial airlines.
There is a feature that I would like to have back (Score:2)
In the past, it was possible to listen to the air traffic chatter (channel 4 in the seat audio, as I recall). I actually enjoyed that. It was just the cockpit comms on whatever frequency they were on, but it allowed me to know what was happening along the flight.
As I said, it is a feature that was removed to protect us from the terrorists (who didn't use it) and I would like it back.
Sometimes I really hate capitalism... (Score:2)
They forget to mention that maps was like the only option that didn't include some form of video ads, so if it were on there was no chance of distraction.
But now we have to wring every last penny out of every aspect of life. Get bombarded with ads or pay to be ad-free.
That's probably the next step in the maps evolution; people will turn the crap off if it becomes too ad-laden. Then they'll offer an ad-free version for a small price...
We don't have to turn everything into a revenue source...
Makin' money? (Score:2)
The beloved map will become one more revenue-generator for airlines
Are they kidding? Who is going to pay money to see a plane icon on a map? I occasionally will see where we are at via the maps, but only because it doesn't cost anything. I wouldn't pay ten cents to look at that.
Pathetic (Score:2)
You may never visit the Faeroe Islands, but you feel like you've been there when your flight draws a line over them.
Really?
What next? "You may never be get surgery to remove that cancerous lump from your lung, but you'll feel like you have when we draw a red x through it on the CT scan!"
What about the rest of us? (Score:2)
Will these upgrades trickle down or will we be
Work around (Score:2)
If you have an Android device, download the Avare app. It provides you with the same sectional map that pilots use. And it is much better than the map that the airlines show you. You have to download the correct maps for the section of the country you'll be flying over.
You'll need to hold it near the window on many airplanes for it to get a GPS signal. But, once it locks, you'll get all the airspeed and ETA data that the airlines have. You'll have more fun tracking which of the airways the airplane use
Just use your iPhone (Score:2)
People don't realize the new cell services will still work while you're on a plane.
Just remove the IFE entirely. (Score:2)
If they want to make the screen actually useful, maybe put Android Auto and Apple CarPlay into it, and let it be a second screen for my phone while it charges.
LOL SUCKERS! (Score:2)
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That depends on whether people who are heavily in debt are more or less likely to have children.
If more likely, evolution will select for those who are susceptible to psychological attacks... sorry, targeted advertising. If less likely, it will select those who are resistant, and such things will stop being economically viable.
Of course, runaway consumption will probably kill us all first.
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You're not enslaved. Nobody is forcing you to use social media, or to give anybody any private data. You ARE the target of a variety of very carefully researched and optimized psychological techniques designed to make you desire things. That predates any social media, big data, etc., but those developments have made it much more effective.
A little of bit of research into advertising psychology is... chilling.