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iPads as In-Flight Entertainment: They're Coming!

May 14, 2010 at 8:59 AM | by | Comments (0)

Whenever we've gone to the airport in the past month, we've spotted a healthy percentage of fellow travelers toting iPads, and we wondered if possibly the user-friendly technology behind an iPad could be adapted for in-flight entertainment. Well, one company—Bluebox Avionics—is way ahead of us there; they're already pitching the iPads themselves as in-flight entertainment.

According to the Runway Girl, the company has launched "Bluebox Ai," which flips the iPad into an IFE device. Already an "unidentified international carrier will start offering bluebox Ai units to passengers in July," with availability for other airlines after that. Oh boy are we excited to learn what airline will be the first with in-flight iPads for everyone! Have any guesses?

In case you're wondering if the iPad in-flight entertainment content will look and feel like your regular iPad, then the answers is yes. The IFE package will include games from the iTunes App Store, magazines for the iPad, eBooks from the App store, hundreds of thousands of your favorite third-party apps (Words With Friends, anyone?), and custom apps from the airline.

Now of course we wonder if these iPad-equipped flights will also have in-flight WiFi, so that perhaps you could play Words With Friends or other app games that require a connection. And how will flight crew make sure that passengers aren't slipping a couple iPads into their carry-ons while deplaning? And what about the poor flight crew, who'll now have to explain iPads to every tech-clueless passengers out there that wants to play with one? Despite these issues, it truly does sound like an implementable idea.

Related Stories:
· Meet the World's First iPad In-flight entertainment system [FlightGlobal/RunwayGirl]
· Bluebox Avionics [Official Site]
· iPad Travel news [Jaunted]

[Photo: Bluebox Avionics]

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