back to article iPad to become inflight fatcat fun-slab

The iPad is bound for ever greater heights (etc) as BlueBox Avionics, suppliers of in-flight entertainment kit to the airline industry, has launched an iPad-based system. "BlueBox Ai" is the name of the system which apparently brings the utility of an iPad together with the company's own security system to manage the devices …

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  1. Jimmy Floyd
    Alert

    The Special People

    "But up in First things are much calmer..."

    They wish! I don't tend to fly that far forward, but do grace a number of the frequent flyer forums. There you will find regular postings of disbelief from those who have paid top dollar for the quality of First or Club class, only to find that some thoughtful chap has brought along little Horatio as well, and that the blighter is running amok throughout the cabin.

    You think it's bad in economy; it's got to be worse when your seat costs £3,000...

  2. Michael Parker
    Joke

    naaah....

    ...it'll never take off.

  3. Annihilator
    Unhappy

    Call me pompous

    "But up in First things are much calmer, and it's easy to imagine an iPad tucked in the seat pocket - even if imagining is all we'll ever manage"

    But I've been lucky enough to travel at the front of the plane a couple of times on business to Asia, and there was a bloody 2 year old child there, having a tantrum about once an hour. Don't for a second think that you're safe there, rich parents know how to ignore their child with the best of them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Grenade

      The solution:

      Take them outside for a few minutes. That'll quieten them down.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Fanboi logic

    Nothing wrong with the ipad...just ban the kids from the airplanes, full stop!

    Actually - that idea is quite appealing.

    And while we're at it, ban them from all parks, cafes, swimming pools, libraries, cinema's etc etc. Anywhere I can see or hear them, basically. I mean, aren't they supposed to holed up in some sweatshop making me a new set of trainers anyway???

    </rant>

  5. Nev
    Thumb Down

    Too heavy

    Who wants to hold that up a heavy version iPod Touch for a couple of hours when you can have an entertainment screen that is it built into a seatback or onto armrest pull-out arm?

    1. Charles 9

      Perhaps the idea is to...

      ...replace the screens with these iPads--standard designs to help cut costs. The capacitance touch screens might provide better interfaces, but they might want bigger screens, though.

    2. Player_16
      Paris Hilton

      Too heavy? Wuss!

      That's why airlines have seat-back trays.

  6. Dr. Mouse
    Coffee/keyboard

    The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

    You guys owe me a new keyboard!!

    "showering the little blighter in glass might sound like a good idea, but the airlines will feel differently"

    1. DPWDC
      Coffee/keyboard

      "showering the little blighter in glass"

      I too am in need of a new keyboard.

  7. McDave
    Alert

    Missing a trick...

    Though I can see the iPad as a fold-out/telescopic replacement to the screens in business class (shows how long it's been since I was last upgraded). Apple would be missing a trick here if they didn't lose the aluminium shell and drop one into the back of every Boeing/Airbus head-rest that comes off the production line.

    Now that would be marketing!

    McD

  8. Sean Timarco Baggaley
    WTF?

    Er...

    "Showering the little blighter in glass might sound like a good idea, but the airlines will feel differently."

    Why? Wouldn't the airline simply charge the idiot parent for the costs of repairing the damage?

    If parents can't be bothered to look after their brats, it's fair to assume they're willing to suffer the consequences.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Big Brother

      Ah...

      ...the dear, sweet naivety...

      I like the theory, though I fear it'll never catch on.

  9. Mark 65
    Flame

    So

    a suitable use has finally been found for it.

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      *sigh*

      Just because you lack the imagination to own one.

      There are some very useful apps. It's a great device for reviewing photos after a photo shoot, it's also a great device for music composition on the move.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    3,000 Meters Limit?

    Has anyone checked the maximum operating altitude of an iPad before investing in this?

    Apple have it as part of the spec. details on their site:

    "Maximum operating altitude: 3000 m (10,000 feet)" (let's not quibble about accurate conversion rates).

    http://www.apple.com/uk/ipad/specs/

    G.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Headmaster

      Your point?

      The pressure inside the cabin is equivalent to about 6,000ft above sea level, isn't it?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Headmaster

        I measured it once

        ...on a Garmin 705. Levelled out at 2000m (equivalent) on my Euro flight in a small Sleazyjet Airbus thingy-wotsit, so well within tolerances of ipad.

        Interesting side-thought - would tracking flightpaths, speeds, rate of climb etc constitute a security threat these days?

        1. DaveMorris

          Security threat?

          You would think so, but the new ADS-B, upon which all the air traffic control of the future (2018 and beyond) is going to be based, broadcasts not only your exact position, but also your actual true identity, not just an anonymous identifier. This will make it very easy for a terrorist to shoot down anybody they want to, with a simple ADS-B tracking device onboard their weapon of choice. So simple, even a caveman could do it.

      2. idasben

        True, but think health and safety

        Whilst in normal flight the cabin is pressurised, in a rapid decompression at 30,000ft I would imagine no airline wants an exploding ipad as the air inside it shatters the screen into the face of everyone in first class whilst repressurising itself.

        Definately problem with installing such things on a plane, remember seeing a programme about private jets, and although you only get a couple of leather chairs and tables in them the interior costs a fortune as it all has to be fire tested to ridiculous levels, pressure tested etc just to prevent this kind of thing happening.

        Although I guess if you were a true fanboy, you would be happy to get just that little bit more of apple inside you (even if it's in about 2000 small shattered pieces of ipad)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Stop

          Explosive decompression

          Surely the least of your worries would be an exploding iPad. Not to mention enough people up in first will have one anyway.

  11. soup
    Linux

    iPad closed for a reason?

    Well, since you can't watch Pr0N on "your" iPad (as if it "belongs to you" since it doesn't trust you) I wondered whether the REAL reason for banning Flash from the iPad was actually to make sure you can't look at "pirated" content hosted on sites like youtube.

    Apple has been working hard, lately, to protect IP rights for the studios and the RIAA so, perhaps, this isn't much of a stretch.

    1. Charles 9

      If that were true...

      ...then Apple wouldn't be encouraging H.264 (popular web video codec) over HTML5 (and it's VIDEO tag). Please note the absence of DRM specs in the VIDEO tag.

    2. Martin Edmondson
      FAIL

      um..

      why have a youtube app for it then ?

    3. Pete 48
      FAIL

      Um...

      you do realise there is a YouTube app included OOTB right?

  12. David Barr

    Along with Bose I guess

    I'll happily sit in economy, not because I can't afford to go first class (although to be fair it'd be a stretch) but because no matter how much money I had I wouldn't like to crap out a fiver a minute to be falsely pandered to by an over made up tanorexic waitress, and get my drink in a glass rather than a beaker. I do smirk when I see people with Bose headphones, sitting in first clas... emperors clothes etc. And even if it is the company paying for it, it's still pissing money up the wall. I was raised not to waste!

    As for kids on a plane, at least in economy when I ask kids politely if they could be quiet, more often than not they are quiet. I don't imagine those pretentious little rich shits in first class would be.

    £2,000 extra to sit for 7 hours in a bigger seat? No thanks :)

    1. Scott Mckenzie

      Step In..

      World Traveller Plus - not that much more than standard World Traveller but you do get an acceptable increase in leg room for the extra cost.

      As for the Bose headphones... i'm no fan of Bose, but their active noise cancelling headphones are absolutely stunning, they're not actually that pricey either. I'll still stick with Etymotic for better sound, but for clearing out the noise on a plane, bus etc the Bose are hard to beat.

  13. DaveMorris

    And then there is WAY UP FRONT

    And then of course, there is WAYYYYY UP FRONT:

    http://tinyurl.com/2dolf5o

  14. YumDogfood

    £2,000 extra NOT to sit.

    ...and the blankets don't shed blue fluff everywhere either.

  15. Jean-Paul

    it makes me laugh

    when I see the faces on some people when my two angels fly with me in business class....At least when they want to walk around they don't have to wake me up and can just walk around me :-) Airhostesses make great babysitters two....Nope no problem at all...And it is even better to see some eat humble pie when they realise that not all children are noise trantrum ridden stinky objects....So are like their parents, intelligent and well behaved...

    Economy, no thank you...Shared iPad no thank you either, I'll have my own thank you very much...

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