#inflightentertainment — Public Fediverse posts

Air India previews the Vista Digital Platform to revolutionize inflight entertainment. https://english.mathrubhumi.com/features/specials/air-india-vista-digital-platform-ife-2026-izdenxpq?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #AirIndia #Aviation #InflightEntertainment #TravelTech

Weekly output: Consumer Cellular + Airalo, SpaceX Starship recovery, American Airlines to restore seatback screens, Google AI for college students, Chinese robots, data centers disliked

After two weeks at home, I have about the shortest possible trip to the West Coast coming up: Qualcomm is hosting a “6G Leadership Day” event in La Jolla, Calif., on Wednesday and covering travel costs for invited journalists. I will, of course, include a disclosure of that in everything I file for PCMag from there.

Patreon readers got an extra post from me this week: a recap of what I learned at (and after) the Black Hat information-security conference.

8/18/2026: Consumer Cellular Taps Airalo for eSIM International Connectivity for Subscribers, PCMag

The fact that Consumer Cellular subscribers can’t take advantage of this eSIM promotion if they bought a phone from that service on an installment-payment plan made this a little more interesting to me.

8/18/2026: For Once, Elon Musk Underestimates SpaceX: A Recovery Team Has Saved Starship’s Upper Stage From Sinking, PCMag

When I wrote this, it wasn’t clear how SpaceX would get Starship’s second stage from Christmas Island to Texas. Now it looks like they’ve outsourced that work to the semi-submersible heavy-lift carrier Forte, operated by the Dutch maritime-services firm Boskalis.

8/19/2026: American Airlines Will Add Seatback Screens to Narrowbody Jets, PCMag

When I sent a question in to AA’s PR department requesting clarification on details like the sizes of the screens and whether the touted personalization features would include targeted advertising or the ability to set favorite movie and TV shows for future flights, I did not expect to get a reply less than two hours later saying the airline couldn’t provide those details because it needed to pick a technology vendor first. I also didn’t expect to scoop travel writers much more versed in AA like Ben Schlappig or Gary Leff, but that’s what happened.

8/19/2026: Google Is Now Offering 1 Free Year of Its AI Pro Plan to US College Students. Here’s How to Get It, PCMag

I was amused to see videos in Google’s press kit show Gemini Live’s Deep Research feature generate a report with a typo-struck title: “Classical Music in Vienna and it’s Historical Influence.”

8/20/2026: China’s robotics ambitions, Al Jazeera

The Arabic-language news channel had me on via Zoom, overdubbed as usual, to comment about a robotics conference going on in China (for a peek at that, see this brief report from Al Jazeera English). My main point: While the Trump administration can make it difficult for Chinese manufacturers of robots to sell into the U.S., there’s almost nothing it can do to stop the rest of the world from doing business with China.

8/21/2026: Americans Hate AI Data Centers Even More Fiercely Than They Did Just a Few Months Ago, New Poll Shows, PCMag

I missed this poll published by Heatmap News the day it came out, but after seeing enough AI boosters on X still angsting out over it, I decided the story had some legs. The attention that this climate-news site’s survey has kept getting leads me to think that I made the right call.

Thales pousse l’écran avion en mode OLED 4K + Wi-Fi : cabine ultra connectée, expérience passager qui flirte avec Netflix dans les airs. www.telesatellite.com/actu/68822-t... #Space #Science #AerospaceEngineering #Thales #InFlightEntertainment #OLED4K #ConnectedCabin #AvGeek #DigitalAviation

Thales réinvente l'écran d'avi...

https://www.europesays.com/nl/179387/ Zo maakt KLM inflight entertainment #Airlines #Airports #Business #Commercial #Dutch #HarmKreulen #InflightEntertainment #KLM #luchthaven #Luchtvaart #Luchtvaartnieuws #Nederland #Nederlanden #Nederlands #Netherlands #Nieuws #NL #Tickets #Trip #Tripnieuws #VincentKnoops #Vliegen #Vliegtuigen #vliegveld #Zakelijk #Zakenreis #Zakenreisnieuws

News Summary: OpenAI Shuts Down Sora Video Platform; Audible Partners with British Airways

I think I reported on the Sora app when it launched back in October. The app, which enables users to access OpenAI's Sora generative AI platform on their phones to create short video clips, hit the headlines back then for two reasons. In one of the starkest "there's good news and bad news" stories yet to come out of AI, the good news (for OpenAI anyway) was that the launch broke all kinds of records, reaching one million downloads in just five days. That's faster than ChatGPT. In "on the other hand" news, it kind of sucked that people started swamping social media with fake video clips of dead people, like the beloved Robin Williams. And of course, even at the launch the copyright radar was working overtime.
https://selfpublishingadvice.org/openai-shuts-down-sora/

#airlinepartnerships #Audible #BritishAirways #inflightentertainment #Openai

Oh wow, a 9-minute epic on how a tech genius outsmarted Air Canada's Wi-Fi 🤓✈️. Because, clearly, hacking in-flight restrictions is a vital life skill for anyone with 12 hours to kill and no Netflix 🎬📵. Who needs in-flight movies when you can be a Wi-Fi rogue hero? 🙄🎉
https://ramsayleung.github.io/en/post/2025/a_story_about_bypassing_air_canadas_in-flight_network_restrictions/ #techgenius #WiFihack #AirCanada #inflightentertainment #lifehacks #digitalnomad #HackerNews #ngated

Delta Hopes New YouTube Partnership Helps Airlines Raise the Bar for In-Flight Entertainment Offerings
#Variety #News #DeltaAirLines #Inflightentertainment #NOADS #Travel

https://variety.com/2025/shopping/news/delta-air-lines-in-flight-entertainment-review-offerings-1236422442/

Delta Hopes New YouTube Partnership Helps Airlines Raise the Bar for In-Flight Entertainment Offerings

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://variety.com/2025/shopping/news/delta-air-lines-in-flight-entertainment-review-offerings-1236422442/

Delta Hopes New YouTube Partnership Helps Airlines Raise the Bar for In-Flight Entertainment Offerings

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://variety.com/2025/shopping/news/delta-air-lines-in-flight-entertainment-review-offerings-1236422442/

Spotify launches United Airlines partnership for seatback entertainment: Spotify partners with United Airlines offering 450+ hours of content across 130,000+ seatback screens with 4K quality starting June 2025. https://ppc.land/spotify-launches-united-airlines-partnership-for-seatback-entertainment/ #Spotify #UnitedAirlines #AirlineEntertainment #InFlightEntertainment #Streaming

Qatar Airways Hosts First In-Flight Esports Tournament at 35,000 Feet with Starlink Connectivity

#aviationinnovation #esports #GamingintheSky #inflightentertainment #QatarAirways
https://blazetrends.com/qatar-airways-hosts-first-in-flight-esports-tournament-at-35000-feet-with-starlink-connectivity/?fsp_sid=32033

I’ve obtained an ✈️-shaped water pipe. It was a holy steal.

-Allēna

#420flyhigh #polypufferous #inflightentertainment #stoner

#420flyhigh #inflightentertainment #polypufferous #stoner

Air Canada issues apology for replacing Israel with the name ‘Palestinian territories’ on some in-flight maps https://www.byteseu.com/835706/ #AirCanada #AirlineApology #Boeing737MAX #Canada #InFlightEntertainment #Israel #IsraelPalestineConflict #PalestinianTerritories #ThalesAerospace

I was both amused and alarmed on my United flight today as the in-flight information system kept updating our arrival time as we approached our destination. In a one-minute period, it displayed our time-to-arrival successively as:

44min (correct), 5h32m, 17h8m, 21h44m, 19h36m, 1h5m, 14h20m, 9h56m, 19h33m, and 36m.

I spent about ten minutes trying to figure out a pattern but couldn’t find one, but it did show the correct time at irregular intervals, more likely than randomness would dictate.

Anyone with knowledge of these systems care to hazard a guess what was going on?

#UA #united #inFlightEntertainment

Emirates and Spotify launch global partnership for inflight entertainment: Emirates integrates Spotify's podcasts and playlists into ice entertainment system, offering 140+ episodes to global passengers. https://ppc.land/emirates-and-spotify-launch-global-partnership-for-inflight-entertainment/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #Emirates #Spotify #InflightEntertainment #Travel #Podcasts

Wow! I'm on a time travel w/ Turkish Airlines.

#aviation #inflightentertainment #retro #oldschool #travel #airplane #technology #vintage #memories #throwback #turkishairlines #a321

An unfortunate-sounding (to me) name given to this "latest" phenomenon. Apparently, no one recalls that episode of #Seinfeld when Puddy is flying back from Europe w/ Elaine...!!? #IFE #inflightentertainment

https://bbc.com/news/articles/c5y83kj3wg2o

#LastFourWatched
VCE 🛫 CDG 🛬 LAX
#InFlightEntertainment

Next time I have a long haul flight, I want to listen to a downloaded offline version of ReesaTeesa's 52 tiktok long story of "Who TF did I marry". I read a detailed play-by-play synopsis but everyone who's watched or listened to the full 8+ hrs says it's captivating.
#travel #tiktok #inflightentertainment

#Boston #harborIslands and the #provincetown fast #ferry (I think) #inflightentertainment

(And as usual I'm about the only person with my windowshade open) #LookAround

Ran into “The Duke”, a charming British #movie that I hadn’t heard of before, during a recent flight on #BritishAirways. 👌🏽

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duke_(2020_film)

The selection of #films in the #InFlightEntertainment in #BA seemed much better than #Emirates #ICE (which seems to favor hits).

#Japan #Airlines’ seat in #FirstClass isn’t a full doored suite, but it’s one of my favourites — calm, understated #LuxuryTravel is the name of the game here, with soft leather and the real luxury of space.

The only #PaxEx #avgeek thing I miss compared with some of the newer seats is the big, bright #InflightEntertainment screen. #thatjohnOnJL