While I love the concept of Aircell’s gogo in-flight internet service, I never really felt that the pricing made much sense.  It is too expensive on the shorter flights and since the vast majority of passengers are connecting the costs could really get out of hand in a hurry.  Aircell appears to have seen the light a bit and has announced a couple different alternate pricing options since the initial $13/$10 launch point.

The latest pricing option seems to be a change for the $13 version.  Previously it was offered for flights greater than three hours in duration.  It is now being reported that as of July 15th the $13 option will be a 24-hour day pass.  That is great for folks with connections, day-trips or other similar schedules who will have multiple flights in a single day.  There is also the $50 monthly option that is available on either Delta or Virgin America.  Not sure why they can’t make the monthly good on all their systems regardless of the carrier but I’m willing to bet it has something to do with who gets paid how much for the subscription.

Both of these options, along with the $8 mobile device option are moving very much in the right direction of reasonable pricing for the service.  Hopefully the downward pressure on the pricing will continue and it will become a more reasonable opportunity.  Or I’ll just continue to read books on my Kindle (which I love) while listening to music that I bring on-board.  I do like the down time quite a bit.

Also interesting is the report over at Runway Girl about usage rates of the gogo service.  There are some who don’t see the long-term viability of the service.  And then there are carriers like Continental who are simply waiting to see some other carrier report profits from it before pursuing the technology.  In the mean time, Virgin America is reporting ~10-15% utilization of the service on average for its passengers.  That means somewhere between 15-20 users per flight, depending on the load factors they are seeing.  I find it hard to believe that they can be profitable at $300/flight in revenue.

As part of a promo with Delta Gogo has introduced a promo code good for the next three weeks to provide a single half-price session on their in-flight internet service.

Save 50% on a single Gogo session (except segment pass and 24hr pass) until 7/19/2009. Use code 156FLYDA.
To Use your discount on a wi-fi session:
1) Select ‘gogoinflight’ as the wireless network and launch you browser
2) Sign in or click ‘Buy’ to create a new account
3) On ‘Payment Info’ page, enter promo code in space provide (code is case sensitive)
4) Click ‘Update Total’
Thank you! And Happy Travels,
Gogo Inflight Internet

This almost makes the cost of the service reasonable.

Following on the news a couple weeks back that Sprint wasn’t too keen on the Android platform, it seems like Nokia is joining the fracas.  They are very happy to use Linux, which is the base of the Android platform, but aren’t particularly keen on Android itself.

“In the longer perspective, Linux will become a serious alternative for our high-end phones,” Ukko Lappalainen, vice president at Nokia’s markets unit, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the “Nokia World” industry conference….

“I don’t see anything in Android which would make it better than Linux maemo,” Lappalainen said.

Yeah…Google probably isn’t going to be too happy about this hit on their platform.

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.
Read More…

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!

Both Alaska and Southwest have previously announced plans to operate in-flight internet using a satellite-based solution from Row 44.  Now another player has finally launched service in the same space.  ViaSat will also be offering Ku-band satellite connectivity using pretty much the same technology as Row 44, including the same antenna provider.  And ViaSat doesn’t seem to have any commercial carriers signed up to partner with.  But they also don’t really seem to care about that.

They’ve inked a deal with Lufthansa’s Technik group to provide connectivity to private planes, including arriving as standard equipment on some models.  What does this mean to you?  Probably very little unless you’re in the market for a Bombardier Challenger 300.  But seeing another player in the in-flight broadband space is always a nice thing, as it means more opportunities for carriers to implement solutions and keep us connected on the go.

If you believe a recent study claiming we lose 12,000 laptops every week (PDF) at US airports (I don’t), then you might want to learn a few ways you can get your laptop returned to you.

Here are 5 of my tips that will help prevent losing your machine, or that can help your laptop find its way back to you in the event it is lost, forgotten or worse…

Mark it

Back in the days when I was stupid enough to actually check bags, I always made my bags stand out from others. That way, when they finally came down the baggage carousel, I’d be able to spot them from a distance. That naturally also works for a laptop. Make it look different. On any given hour of the day, your Dell or Thinkpad will be one of 10 or 20 moving down the x-ray conveyor at the same time.

A piece of duct tape or a large fluorescent sticker will do wonders. Steal some stickers from your kids and add flowers and stars to it.

Make it yours

In this day and age many companies do not allow you to affix your business card to your laptop. Especially publicly listed companies will advise you to remove any traces of the company name from your machine. That doesn’t stop you from putting your name and phone number on the machine. Once again, make it nice and clear, put it on the top and bottom. And be sure to add your mobile number in case someone at the TSA is kind enough to actually call you and track you down at the airport.

Make a mental checklist

Flying sucks. We all know that, and we all know the stress involved with getting from the parking lot to your gate. Add some structure to what you do by making a mental checklist. Once you get past security, go over a few simple things; do I still have my wallet, my jewelry, my mobile phone, my laptop. Do the same thing when you leave the plane. I’m one of those people who is standing up as soon as the plan reaches the gate, but I always take 20 seconds to feel all my pockets and double check the seat back.

Get a checkpoint safe laptop bag

The easiest way to prevent losing track of your laptop, is to never take it ouf of the bag. There are several manufacturers that have started to ship TSA approved laptop bags, including Tom Bihn, Travelon and Mobile Edge.

Use technology

Add some technology to your laptop to help retrieve it. For starters, consider a software package like LoJack or Undercover (for the Mac). IF your machine does go missing (and it isn’t on the lost and found shelf), these packages will help track down where it is. Other products to consider are this Belkin laptop alarm or this Kensington lock.

If you own a Blackberry, then you’ll probably be used to keeping the device strictly for business. You can however brighten things up a little by adding some games. TO get you started, Bplay is giving away its popular Pro Golf Paradise game for free!

The download can be found on the Bplay website, and even though you do need to provide a valid credit card number, you will not be charged.

Bplay : Pro Golf Paradise

Gizmodo has a juicy update on the Blackberry Bold; the device should/might/will launch on AT&T in a little over 2 weeks (September 12th). The US will be the fourth country to get the Bold, after Chile, the UK and Canada.

The best part? It’ll sell for just $299 (with the usual 2 year contract), making it $100 cheaper than our poor neighbors in the north had to pay (in addition to a three year contract!)

Source: Gizmodo.com

With the announcement a couple weeks ago that Southwest has finally set a date for the testing of their in-flight Internet connectivity it seems that the majority of the US-based carriers have something in the works.  Runway Girl has a couple good posts (Post 1; Post 2) about the various options, but I haven’t been able to find an exhaustive list of all the offerings from all the carriers.  So I decided to put one together.  Here are the airlines, the service and the status of the deployment efforts:

• American Airlines – Aircell’s gogo service currently operational on 767s for NYC-LAX/SFO/MIA routes.
• Alaska Air – Row 44, currently planned for testing on a single plane.
• Jet Blue – LiveTV, but only on one plane and no word on when additional rollout will happen.
• Continental – LiveTV on the entire domestic-focused fleet, starting in January ’09
• Delta – Aircell’s gogo service, expected on the MD8x planes first and on the entire fleet by mid-2009
• Frontier – Likely LiveTV since they already use the service for television on the planes, but I haven’t seen an official release.
• United – Nothing planned/announced
• US Airways – Nothing planned/announced, though back in February they said they were looking at it.  The fact that they are pulling the entertainment systems to save weight makes me suspect of their ability to actually get it into their planes soon, particularly since they have nothing specific announced, but they supposedly are looking at it.
• Southwest – Row 44, currently planned for testing in Q4 ’08
• Virgin America – Aircell’s gogo service coming soon and will be fleet-wide.

The Aircell and LiveTV services are both terrestrial, which Row 44 is a satellite-based solution.  Row 44 and Aircell’s gogo are both supposed to be “full” Internet service while LiveTV is very up front about the fact that they are providing access to a very limited subset of the internet, and they’ve increased the content available recently.

Hopefully this helps (and I didn’t mess up the details too much).  If I did, I’m sure you’ll let me know.