Items tagged with united
The so-called friendly skies are about to get a little bit friendlier for United fliers... that is, until everyone in your cramped economy row pulls out an iPad and goes arm-to-arm in a battle for space. The airline has this week announced that its app will soon see an update in order to transition in-flight entertainment from the plane to your own personal device. It's a shift that has been a long time coming, and one we're thrilled to see. Many older airplanes have yet to be updated with seat-back LCDs, and at this point, our guess is that most other airlines will follow United's lead here and place the entertainment burden on the passenger. If you want customized entertainment, BYOD. Starting...
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In-flight Wi-Fi is a nice amenity when crossing the skies of the continental United States, but it's pretty much radio silence if heading overseas. No longer. United has just become the first U.S.-based international carrier to offer customers the ability to stay connected while traveling on long-haul overseas routes. Of course, it's not a universal roll-out, and it'll take a long time before each international haul includes Wi-Fi, but a start is something that most of United's rivals don't have. The airline has enabled the first of its wide-body international aircraft with the equipment needed to provide satellite-based (not Gogo) Wi-Fi across international waters. The Wi-Fi-equipped aircraft...
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While loads of people in rural places are still fighting for legitimate broadband, high flyers will be getting broadband while 30,000 feet above those very locales. Crazy? Not quite -- it's called in-flight Internet, and it's improving at a wildly fast clip. Gogo has just announced it has extended its contract with United Airlines and will work with United Airlines to upgrade its p.s. Premium Service fleet to Gogo's new ATG-4 connectivity solution. If you aren't familiar with that service, it's a special flight from NYC to SFO/LAX that hooks patrons up with nicer seating options throughout the cabin. Naturally, these cross-country flights generally have a huge amount of people who demand in-flight...
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United Continental Holdings, Inc. is about to take on Delta, Virgin America and JetBlue in a major way. Despite being later than some to the in-flight Wi-Fi game, the merged United and Continental partnership will soon sprout internet in the skies. Panasonic Avionics Corporation has been chosen to provide Wi-Fi connectivity on more than 300 United Airlines and Continental Airlines mainline aircraft beginning in mid-2012. Panasonic's Ku-band satellite technology offers faster speed than air-to-ground technology (ATG) and will provide connectivity on flights worldwide. The system will also enable wireless streaming of video content. United Continental Holdings expects to install the Panasonic system...
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Remember the Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet? If only Facebook, digital cameras, and the Internet as we know it today had been around in the 1960s, William Shatner, who played the part of a nervous salesman on his first airplane flight since having a nervous breakdown, could have posted proof that there was a gremlin on the wing trying to tear the engine apart. We're not saying that gremlins remain a problem for domestic flights (they've all but been eradicated since the 1980s), but just in case, we're stoked to learn that Gogo Inflight Internet is running a promotion with seven major airlines to offer free access to Facebook. The social networking service is available starting...
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Microsoft's Zune HD sure has seen a difficult road. No matter how hard the company tried, they never could gain ground on Apple. The iPod has proven too strong for even Microsoft's marketing powers, and now it's rare to hear anything about the player at all. Microsoft is still making them, but they're hardly marketing it; at this point, the iPod has simply taken over, and as SanDisk's CEO pointed out a few years back, it's hard to "out iPod the iPod." But that's not to say the Zune HD is dead. United Airlines has just given the media player a new lease on life thanks to a partnership that will place Zune HDs into the hands of patrons. Reportedly, United will host around 500 Zune players on extra-long...
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Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been the subject of much debate for quite some time now and unfortunately it doesn't look like that will change any time soon. Recently, an e-petition signed by over 1,400 people to ban DRM was rejected by the United Kingdom, which plans on continuing to support DRM practices. While the government plans to continue to back DRM as a way for companies to protect their content, there is a possible plan in the works to make reporting abusive DRM technology possible. The government has rejected a call to ban the digital locks that limit what people can do with the software, music and movies they own. A...
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