As noted in my previous post, I had the privilege to be one of the first people to test out Virgin America‘s new inflight Wifi last weekend on a special test flight over San Francisco.
I got a chance to put the service through its paces – trying things like VoIP, email, chat, video, etc. Read on for my full review and some more pictures.
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Virgin America is premiering their in-flight broadband internet access, which is powered by Gogo, this weekend. 
The service, which utilizes the Aircell network, will deliver broadband speeds at 35,000 feet, while in US airspace, allowing you to access the Internet using your Wifi-enabled laptop, PDA, or Smartphone, or through the inflight entertainment system. They plan to have the service available on all flights by the Spring of 2009, making them the first US carrier to have Wifi across their entire fleet. Preliminary pricing is set at $12.95 per flight, but this is subject to change.
Virgin plans to introduce the service during a special test flight this weekend, where they will be hosting what they claim is the “first-ever live air-to-ground video stream,” as a part of the YouTube Live streaming event. TravelTechTalk has been invited along to test out the service on the flight, and we’ll have a full rundown of the service, including speed and latency, coverage, and usability of various applications like IM and video chat, email, VoIP, VPN, and many more. We hope to be able to post preliminary reviews and photos live from the plane!
A recent discussion I read has prompted me to remind you (again) about the danger of international data roaming. Remember folks, at $19 per Megabyte of data, you too could end up with a $2000 bill before you know it!
Thankfully AT&T appear to be taking a friendlier approach to data charges, and are retroactively moving people onto their data bundles once they get back home.
Initially AT&T told people to pound sand, and had no problems getting UPS involved to send their 5 box data bills, thankfully that seems to have changed.
This week, Belkin announced their newest laptop bag. The Flythru bag features a clear window and a zipper that unfolds the bag in the middle, allowing it to pass through the checkpoint without removing your laptop.
At $42.80 it is currently the cheapest checkpoint friendly bag on the market.
iPhone owner with some gripes about the lack of common features? Join the fun at “Please fix the iPhone”.
The current nr.1 “please fix” item is of course the lack of MMS support, followed by wireless syncing, then the ability to use cut and paste.
At the end of the day it will be real iPhone users that convince Apple to add these things; it’s been a long time since the first iPhone appeared, and these basic features are still missing. Perhaps Apple will listen?
Source: Please fix the iPhone (via Downloadsquad)
Several sites are reporting on a new JD Powers report claiming the iPhone is the best business smartphone choice.
My initial reaction was of course “huh?”.
Then when I read the actual report, I noticed the articles played a little fast and loose with the results. The iPhone has been rated the highest in customer satisfaction.
Well of course it is the highest rated in that segment. I mean, it’s an iPod. The iPhone does games and multimedia better than any other smartphone, so if your boss is nice enough to invest in the iPhone, it only makes sense that you’ll be satisfied with it. To me, that does not make it the BEST business smartphone, as that honor still belongs to the Blackberry (in my opinion).
It’s like saying the Sony PSP is the highest rated Skype phone.
