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Video: Mossberg reviews, likes Aircell's Gogo in-flight WiFi
His preeminence, oh lordship, oh liege, (uh hem) Walt Mossberg, just returned from a US test flight on a small business jet equipped with Aircell's new Gogo WiFi service. He tested multiple devices including Dell and Apple laptops, a Blackberry, iPhone, and WinMo-based cell and found them to all perform flawlessly, albeit, at speeds ranging from 266Kbps to about 1.4Mbps. Typical speeds clocked in at 500Kbps to 600Kbps -- upload speeds were a more modest 250Kbps to 300Kbps. Aircell promises a similar experience on large commercial planes with multiple connected devices. These speeds were good enough for Walt to surf the Web and check email (both prioritized on Gogo's network) as he would in the office but not quite fast enough to deliver smooth video streaming. Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending upon your opinion) the service blocks all VoIP services like Skype. Gogo WiFi will cost $12.95 for flights of three hours or longer, and $9.95 for shorter trips -- free for limited access to AA's website, Frommer's online travel guides, and select articles from The Wall Street Journal. It's scheduled to launch next month on American Airline flights between New York and LA, San Francisco, and Miami -- it will then head to Virgin America and other airlines if things go well. See Walt's head talk from the bowels of embedded video after the break.
iPhone on the Road: a substitute for paper boarding passes
Some things sound really cool -- until you actually have to step up and do them in real time. TUAW reader Gerald Buckley's story about traveling with his iPhone strikes me as belonging to this class. When he approached the American Airlines counter to use his iPhone as a boarding pass, the coolness quotient for his entire trip got bumped up several notches. It seems that he navigated over to AA.com using Mobile Safari, signed in and displayed a PDF of his boarding pass on-screen. The American Airlines counter agent in San Antonio "humored" him and scanned the barcode as displayed on his iPhone. The scan worked, and Buckley proceeded with his travels (much to the envy and amazement of his fellow passengers, no doubt). Here's the thing though. If it were me, this would have totally gone another way. First, while waiting on line, I would have had bad WiFi. It would have taken me about 20 minutes to type in my information and the people behind me on line would have been coughing *significantly* to get me to keep moving along with the line as I tried to type, move all my luggage and possibly keep three extremely rambunctious children in order. Finally, I would get to the gate agent and I would have gotten the snarky impatient version -- somehow I always do. Assuming that I could even get all the typing and navigation done, I know in my heart that the response would have been "you need a printed boarding pass, ma'am." Of course, this is entirely academic because I have not been granted a boarding pass for the last 5 or 6 years due entirely, I'm sure, to my last name. It's always "You must check in at the counter" -- which is way easier than even a boarding pass because I just swipe my credit card. All that having been said, TUAW congratulates Mr. Buckley's ingenuity and offers the example of his experience to speed you your travels in a uniquely geek fashion. If you've got the travel bug (with or without your iPhone), be sure to visit our sister site Gadling for all things flight-related.
Aircell gets FAA approval for in-flight internet
So Aircell just nabbed itself the first and only approval from the FAA for air-to-ground mobile broadband for US domestic flights, meaning we're that much closer to in-flight internet. So far the approval just covers the Boeing 767-200, which means Aircell can start prepping equipment to cover the 767-200 fleet of American Airlines this year, but they're also prepping to cover the Airbus A320 fleet of Virgin America. Routes between LA, SF, NY and Miami are going to get priority treatment. Aircell's Joe Cruz was also quick to point out that this approval paves the way for future aircraft approvals, which certainly can't come soon enough. [Via Phone Scoop]
American Airline's WiFi will cost $10-$13, anti-missile system still free
As you know, American Airlines is prepping in-flight WiFi in addition to, uh, anti-missile systems. Good news on the former, pricing is set. Good if $10 WiFi for flights less than three-hours or $12.95 for longer flights excites your fiscal sweet-spot like it does American's. Rollout will begin this summer on AA's 767-200 jets before rolling out across its entire fleet.[Via WNN]
Passenger planes at JFK to be outfitted with anti-missile systems
Hey, we try our best to be as paranoid as the next guy, but we confess we were caught a little off guard by this one. US Department of Homeland Security folks announced yesterday that three American Airline passenger planes that frequent JFK airport are going to be set up with anti-missile systems in a test run to see if they'd be effective in helping to prevent a terrorist shooting down a jet with a shoulder-fired missile. It's step three in a government-mandated program to determine the suitability of such systems, which involve radar jammers to throw ground-fired missiles off course. The tests are to determine if the jamming system works in real-time conditions, and what sort of sustained costs of maintenance will be required, but all actual tests of the technology have already been performed on non-passenger jets, so it appears no actual missile-firing will be required. Oh come on, you know you were thinking it.[Thanks, Brett]
American Airlines chooses AirCell for in-flight WiFi
It seems like everyone is hopping on the in-flight WiFi bandwagon these days, with American Airlines only the latest to offer the desirable service, joining the likes of Lufthansa, Qantas, and others. For its system, American Airlines is relying on the expertise of AirCell, which is promising to get things up and running on at least some flights sometime next year. Initially, the in-flight WiFi will only be offered on American Airlines' fleet of Boeing 767-200 aircraft, which primarily fly transcontinental routes. From the looks of it, however, the service won't be a freebie, with American Airlines saying it'll announce the cost of the service at the time it's rolled out.
American Airlines offering PMPs to upper class fliers
Bored and lonely first class and business class transcontinental fliers on American Airlines will now be treated to branded Archos players to while the time away with pre-loaded video and audio programming. Such premium fliers will be able to opt for an Archos 704, while all passengers on MD-80 flights between LA and Chi-town can get an Archos 605 to play with -- though the economy peeps have to pay. AA is packing the 704 with Bose Noise Canceling headphones, and the 604 with "high-end" earbuds, and has feature films, TV, news, music videos, AA radio and music CDs pre-loaded. Right now American Airlines is running a four month test of the service, which is sure to incur a few more thefts then those headrest-mounted displays cropping up on certain airlines, but a nice bit of good will from discerning portable media consumers.[Via PocketSynch]
