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JetBlue's Fly-Fi broadband is now free on all flights
JetBlue has finally made good on that promise to provide free WiFi on every flight. The airline announced today that every jet in its fleet is now equipped with JetBlue's Fly-Fi broadband, offering "gate-to-gate" high speed internet you can use even before the flight reaches cruising altitude.
Amazon starts streaming Prime music and videos on JetBlue
Back in May, Amazon said it would bring Prime Music and Instant Video to select JetBlue flights. Fast forward to today, over six months since the original announcement, and the retailer is finally turning this feature on for Amazon Prime customers. If you're a subscriber who's flying in one of JetBlue's Fly-Fi-ready planes, you can stream tunes, movies and TV shows at no extra cost thanks to the airline's newly developed internet service. The experience itself is built into the Fly-Fi hub, letting you easily access your Prime media library on laptops, iOS and Android smartphones or tablets and, naturally, Amazon's Fire devices. Amazon says this is already working on most of JetBlue's Fly-Fi fleet, with the full rollout expected to be completed by November 26th.
JetBlue will have free satellite WiFi on every flight by fall 2016
JetBlue's plans to outfit its aircraft with fast satellite WiFi are most definitely on track. The airline has announced that it not only has Fly-Fi on all of its Airbus aircraft, but that it expects to have the free internet access aboard all its remaining flights by fall 2016. That's a big deal, particularly if you're a frequent flier -- it guarantees at least one carrier that will have relatively brisk (20Mbps per device) connections on every trip, whether it's a short hop or cross-country. JetBlue no doubt hopes that you'll use its expanding service to buy a few things, but it's hard to be too cynical about the company's motives when some other airlines charge you for WiFi that's virtually unusable.
Amazon is bringing Prime videos and music to JetBlue's fleet
Amazon has spent an exorbitant amount of cash to grow its Prime Instant Video service. Still, the company knows there's more it can do to make the offering better for subscribers. As such, Amazon is teaming up with JetBlue to bring Prime's on-demand video and music content to the skies, though only in the US. The new feature, which will be powered by JetBlue's super-speedy Fly-Fi internet, will be included as part of any existing Prime membership -- it's free in-flight entertainment, and that's a gesture people are likely to appreciate. Unfortunately, it won't be available until later this year, but at least that gives you some time to start building out your Watchlist.
JetBlue fills a plane with reporters for the ultimate Fly-Fi satellite internet test
JetBlue's been quoting some pretty ambitious figures for its new ViaSat-powered in-flight WiFi, and during our test flight last month, the Ka-band satellite service seemed to be up to the task. The promise? A claimed 12 Mbps internet at every seat on the plane; enough to stream HD video, download new apps and conduct your online business just as quickly as you would on the ground. That performance pledge generally assumes that only a handful of passengers will be watching Netflix films and YouTube clips -- however, that condition went right out the boarding door when the airline filled a few dozen A320 seats with journalists eager to push the service to its limits on today's official launch flight. It was a charter plane to nowhere -- a 90-minute journey from New York's JFK airport to New York's JFK airport -- but for this group of passengers, it was the ultimate adventure.
Onboard JetBlue's first Fly-Fi flight, with the fastest internet in the air
On a flight yesterday from JFK to Austin, JetBlue finally decided to flip the switch on Fly-Fi, giving lucky passengers an early look at the airline's next-generation in-flight WiFi for the very first time. A flight attendant announced the service -- which is free until 30 planes are retrofitted -- and passengers seated around me pulled out their laptops, tablets and smartphones and tried to hop online. Unfortunately, a recent update caused unexpected performance issues, and Fly-Fi's speed and consistency fell far short. When a flight attendant asked the woman seated in front if me if she had enjoyed her experience at the end of the flight, she responded with "not so much." It wasn't looking good for JetBlue. I had booked my return to New York on the same aircraft, and following a 20-minute BBQ pitstop at AUS, I got back on board. The issues we experienced on the first flight -- allegedly caused by an incorrect DNS-server listing on the network side -- were completely resolved, making our three-hour hop back to Kennedy Airport much more pleasant. The experience was completely different, though we were offline for 30 minutes or so as we passed over Louisiana and Mississippi. Ultimately, Fly-Fi, which utilizes the ViaSat-1 satellite positioned over North America, was in line with the ViaSat service I've tried on the ground -- when it works, it blows the competition out of the water. It's as close as you'll get to the internet you're used to at home, and it certainly outshines connectivity in pretty much any airline terminal.
Daily Roundup: Xperia Z1 review, JetBlue's 12Mbps Fly-Fi, iMessage briefly appears on Android, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
JetBlue and ViaSat prepare to launch 12 Mbps WiFi at 36,000 feet, a LiveTV tour
It's a small miracle that you can open up your laptop and surf the web while soaring through the air in a metal tube some seven miles above the ground, but the experience is inconsistent, and when it works, the connection is often frustratingly sluggish. That's about to change. Once focused on undercutting the competition, JetBlue is now best known for its in-flight product: complimentary snacks, 36 channels of free DirecTV and friendly flight attendants. This year, the airline is undergoing a service alteration of sorts. The traditionally all-coach carrier will soon cater to business travelers with a bed-equipped premium cabin, and by the end of next year, all customers will be able to surf the web from 36,000 feet with speeds that rival (or often exceed) what we're used to on the ground. That new service, powered by ViaSat, is called Fly-Fi, and it's hitting the skies this November. We spent a day with JetBlue's subsidiary, LiveTV, the company responsible for providing in-flight entertainment (IFE) on more than 600 aircraft, including 188 JetBlue planes and some 200 United 737s. If you've watched DirecTV while flying either of those airlines, it's LiveTV that put it there, and soon, the Florida-based firm will be responsible for getting you online, too. Fly-Fi, and its to-be-named United equivalent, will deliver up to 12 Mbps of data -- not to the aircraft, but to each and every passenger on board. Join us aboard JetBlue's first Fly-Fi-equipped Airbus A320 after the break.
JetBlue scores FAA approval for Fly-Fi, may launch satellite WiFi next month
JetBlue's next-generation WiFi service, powered by ViaSat's super-speedy Ka-band satellite, is officially on track to launch this October. The FAA just issued a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the airline's Airbus A320, enabling a fleet-wide installation that's set to begin immediately. In a statement, Chief Commercial Officer Robin Hayes said that several aircraft will be wired by the end of this year, with many A320s scheduled to come online throughout 2014. The rollout will then continue with JetBlue's smaller Embraer 190, currently used on select regional routes. (Photo credit: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
JetBlue begins Fly-Fi flight testing, on track for Q3 launch
Adding satellite WiFi to an airplane isn't as simple as mounting an antenna up top and flipping the switch on a router -- even installing a cockpit printer requires FAA approval, so as you can expect, the Federal Aviation Administration won't check off on major modifications without some thorough testing. JetBlue's new Fly-Fi service is well on its way to getting a formal green light, though, and is expected to launch before Q3 is through. This week, the carrier is running through a variety of flight tests with one of its Airbus A320s, including maneuvering the plane with some pretty unusual weight loads, such as the rear center of gravity positioning you can see demonstrated above. After that's complete, it's time to wait for FAA certification before moving onto performance testing, and if all goes well, passengers should expect to hook up to ViaSat-1 from 30,000 feet in mere months. Once Fly-Fi goes online, it'll be by far the fastest commercial in-flight WiFi option -- we really can't wait!
Visualized: JetBlue and ViaSat test Fly-Fi in-flight WiFi... from the ground
Gogo's ground-to-air transmitters typically mandate evaluating service while jetting around the country above 10,000 feet. Sure, you don't need to waste fuel flying around an empty airliner, but even the company's small jet can burn through quite a bit of cash. ViaSat, on the other hand, can do much of its service testing on the ground, using that fairly ordinary Ford van pictured just above. The reason, of course, relates to the location of the company's transmitter -- namely, the ViaSat-1 satellite, positioned some 22,000 miles above the ground. In the air, planes will actually be nearer to the orbiting device, rather than farther away, and assuming a line-of-sight link from the road, the truck can work out kinks at a fraction of the cost. That white dome atop the van, which is similar to the device that'll soon be mounted on JetBlue's fleet, maintains a constant connection by rotating instantly as the van moves -- if the vehicle's heading changes, the antenna array will turn, too, so it's always pointed directly at the sat in the sky. You may have seen ViaSat's van driving down Southern California's freeways, but the rig has just arrived in Orlando, for some additional testing a few degrees away from the company's Carlsbad home. Assuming all goes well here, you'll be shooting around the web courtesy of Fly-Fi in no time at all.
