Travel Technology - An alternative to cellphones in the sky

I see the debate with using Cellphones in the sky and I'm against airlines allowing the use of cellphones first for the safety aspects and also for the noise from the loud yakkers.

What I do when I fly is use the WiFi and my Instant Messaging service. I use ICQ, Facebook and AIM. If I need to send an update of the flight status to the people picking me up I will send it as an IM which forwards to their mobile if they are not at the computer or they will get the message when they log on.

I use IM to talk with friends and family no matter where I am. IM is the best tool since you can disable the IM sounds and still hold a conversation.

I have used Doc Sharing via Google Docs and collaborated on documents in the air.

I find it quite annoying when people don't switch their phones off after the announcement has been made to turn them off. Geeze Louise people they act like there is something so important.

Its worth every cent to pay the WiFi fee to access the airlines internet. Its cheaper than what some hotels and restaurants charge. I have been at a restaurant where you had to make a minimum purchase to use their WiFi.

I love listening to online radio while flying across the USA.

I see the debate with using Cellphones in the sky and I'm against airlines allowing the use of cellphones first for the safety aspects and also for the noise from the loud yakkers.

What I do when I fly is use the WiFi and my Instant Messaging service. I use ICQ, Facebook and AIM. If I need to send an update of the flight status to the people picking me up I will send it as an IM which forwards to their mobile if they are not at the computer or they will get the message when they log on.

I use IM to talk with friends and family no matter where I am. IM is the best tool since you can disable the IM sounds and still hold a conversation.

I have used Doc Sharing via Google Docs and collaborated on documents in the air.

I find it quite annoying when people don't switch their phones off after the announcement has been made to turn them off. Geeze Louise people they act like there is something so important.

Its worth every cent to pay the WiFi fee to access the airlines internet. Its cheaper than what some hotels and restaurants charge. I have been at a restaurant where you had to make a minimum purchase to use their WiFi.

I love listening to online radio while flying across the USA.

I love people who use streaming video and to a lesser extent audio services on flights thus bogging down the internet for people who want to do other things like send email or go to websites.

I have a VOIP account from Line2 which I give out as my cell to everyone. I can text message from it, I get visual voicemail from it, and it works on my iPad as well as my phone. My office voicemail shows up as WAV files on my iPad as well. I have a Logitech ultrathin keyboard on my iPad and it is the perfect in the air machine.

Sometimes my solution is lower tech. I'll simply send an email to a friend my shared secretary and simply say "call Joe at 212-248-2025" and tell him that I am in the sky and point 1, point 2, and point 3."

I love people who use streaming video and to a lesser extent audio services on flights thus bogging down the internet for people who want to do other things like send email or go to websites.

Aye. But their needs are more important than yours so it's OK.

My experience with inflight wifi is that I doubt I could get through a YouTube video without a hiccup, let alone a movie. People who are buying the internet on their own dime probably figure that if they are pay $12 for 3 hours of video that not paying for a video ontop of it (e.g. playing it from Netflix) is part of the bargain. I'm glad that it looks (on my casual glance) that I can download Amazon Prime videos to my iPad is part of the deal.

I further suspect that most flyers aren't aware how anemic this internet is. Perhaps the solution is to charge a premium rate for high speed network. 128/64k is $5; 7m/256k is $10.

I have the Heywire app on both by phone and tablet. It gives me a local number and I can send text messages via gogojust like on the ground.