Portable media player maker digEcor announced that long time customer Pacific Blue has placed an order to upgrade to the company’s digEplayer XT. The digEplayer XT features an 8-inch TFT screen, integrated credit card reader, 60 gigabyte or larger hard drive, USB 2.0 port, and two independently controlled headphone jacks. The content provided by digEcor which will include: movies, TV, music, music videos, and video games. Pacific Blue will be renting the digEplayer XT’s to passengers exclusively on international flights from Christchurch and Auckland to Australia as well as on all flights to the Pacific Islands.
Archive for the 'Games' Category
From Wired Magazine’s playlist from issue 16.06…
Imagine: An airline you look forward to flying. Flights on VA are inexpensive (first class is almost affordable), and in our experience, lines are comparatively short. Hungry? Press a button on your seat-back console and a sandwich arrives. Bored? Play Doom. Think the guy in 18B is cute? Text him. Here’s to a company whose services feel like they were designed by actual humans for actual humans.
For those who have flown Virgin America, would you agree?
A USA Today article speaks to a move by US airlines to give economy passengers greater control and selection of movies, audio, and games.
Airlines worldwide spent $1.4 billion on in-flight entertainment hardware last year, research firm IMDC says. It’s projected to increase to more than $2 billion by 2012. The result: monitors in individual seatbacks, digital transmission for clearer picture, on-demand delivery that lets passengers pause and rewind, hundreds of movie and song titles, games beyond Hangman and Sudoku, seat-to-seat texting and even e-mail.
Most travelers and analysts agree that foreign airlines have been more aggressive about adopting the latest and fanciest features.
via USA Today
PopCap Games, the leading multi-platform provider of “casual games” (fun, easy-to-learn, captivating computer games that appeal to all ages) has announced the results of a study they commissioned that examined the effects of casual gaming on reducing a player’s levels of stress, anger, depression, fatigue and confusion. The study used three PopCap Games titles, Bejeweled® 2, Peggle, and Bookworm Adventures, games that are all or in part available on selected IFE systems. The six month long study was administered by East Carolina University’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies and directed by Dr. Carmen Russoniello, associate professor of recreational therapy and director of the Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic at ECU’s College of Health and Human Performance.
So, the next time you find yourself on a flight and want to reduce your levels of stress, anger, depression, fatigue or confusion perhaps looking at what casual games might be available on the IFE system is in order so you’ll arrive at your destination is a better mood.
via PopCap PR
Flickr user Crashworks has some excellent pics of Virgin America’s RED IFE system in action. Below are some samples.
in-seat chat
games
television
maps
power
Artur Bergman of O’Reilly shares his experience on one of Virgin America’s inaugural flights:
Doom
In-Seat Chat
The in-flight entertainment system (IFE) is really cool. I ended up chatting with Xeni, listening to music and playing Doom (on a plane!). For the journeymap, they use Google Maps.
via O’Reilly
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Annual survey conducted by Skytrax Research crowns Emirates as the airline with the best in-flight entertainment. Survey respondents nominated airlines in the 2007 Best IFE Awards, based upon the quality attributes for the different factors listed below:
- Best Total quality of IFE
- Best selection of movies - (including language choices)
- Best selection of “short / magazine” video programs
- Best selection of Audio programming
- Best selection of Games and other interactive options
- Reliability of AVOD programming
- Ease of usage for AVOD program systems
- Quality of headset / sound quality
2007 Top 5
- Emirates
- Singapore Airlines
- Cathay Pacific
- Korean Air
- Virgin Atlantic
via Skytrax
