Digitalology: June 2008

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

In-Flight High Speed Wi-Fi/ Gogo On Go

The flight tomorrow is likely to put much more stress on the "Gogo" air-to-ground system built by Aircell, after their 2006 win in an FCC auction of a thin sliver of spectrum -- just 3 megahertz split between up and down directions, capable of carrying perhaps up to 2 or 3 Mbps. Doug Backelin, American's inflight communications and technology manager, said in an interview today with Xeni and me that, "We're going to do a dress rehearsal."

Gogo will be available at no costs to Wednesday's passengers, and that lets American and Aircell "see how the service performs on a full planeload of people, get their feedback, test our streaming video," and help "fine tune some things before our actual launch."

Lucky passengers on an American Airlines flight from JFK to Los Angeles tomorrow (Wednesday, June 25, 2008) will be the first commercial flyers to access high-speed, in-flight Internet service since the shutdown of Boeing's Connexion service in 2006. Tomorrow's flight is a round-trip test before a full-blown pilot program starts up and runs 3 to 6 months on all of American's 767-200 equipment -- 15 aircraft in total -- wending their way from JFK to SFO, LAX, and Miami.

The full-on launch, slated for "the next couple of weeks," Backelin said, will involve charging for service: $12.95 for flights over 3 hours, Aircell's airline solutions director Dave Bijur said. "Eventually, when we have flights that operate shorter segments, as we will later this year when we launch with Virgin America," they'll also have a $9.95 plan for 3 hour or shorter segments.

To use the service, passengers will fire up a browser on a mobile device with Wi-Fi or a laptop, connect to a portal, and pay a fee after tomorrow's test. Some walled-garden content is available through the portal at no cost: all of American's AA.com site, as well as Wall Street Journal headlines and Frommers' travel information about the flight's destination. There are separate tailored portals for laptops and mobile devices.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Mino

Mino is a camcorder that goes anywhere. Simply put it in your pocket! Then easily share your video on the web on MySpace, YouTube, and AOL. Weighing in at just over three ounces, the remarkably slim yet powerful Flip Video Mino raises the bar for high-quality, portable, and easy-to-use video. Smaller than most cell phones, Mino fits neatly into a jeans pocket to capture life's stories whenever and wherever they happen ? at a party, a concert, the beach, even on a bike ride. The Mino also features Flip Video's built-in software that lets you simply plug the camcorder's signature flip-out USB arm into any computer for immediate editing and sharing. For the first time, the Flip Video software lets you easily upload video directly to MySpace as well as to YouTube and AOL Video.