In-flight entertainment rant
I was asked to participate in a survey about designing a better economy class seat. One of the questions was if I wanted an in-flight entertainment system:
This is going to be a bit of a rant (and probably not useful for your project!) but I think this goes way beyond designing a seat. I couldn’t care less for a built-in audio or video system if airlines would stop making such a fuss about me using my iPod. I mean, sorry, if you could really bring down a plane with an iPod, they would be banned, just like, uh, toothpaste, bottled water and other such dangerous things. So let’s stop the theatre.
I wish airlines would accept that personal electronic devices (iPod, laptops with built-in DVD, etc.) are how people consume their entertainment these days when they are on the move. Some of them may indeed be shoddily designed and emit much more radio signals than they ought to — but then the solution is to have them tested and certified. I am sure Apple would happily comply with some FAA testing if they could advertise their iPods and laptops as ‘safe to be used even during takeoff and landing’.
