Videoconferencing at 30,000 feet

Using Apple’s iChat software and an iSight camera, Apple product manager Kurt Knight describes how leveraging the Connexion Web access service on the Lufthansa flight to San Francisco from Munich enabled the world’s (first?) videoconference.

“The video quality was great and scaled well all the way up to full screen,” says Knight. “I think we made history as the first people to have an in-air video conference, not counting Air Force One or other ultra-expensive solutions. Very, very cool.”

The article continues "Although the wireless Internet connection involved sending data from an Airbus traveling at 500 mph through a satellite receiver in a 20,000-mile earth orbit, conferencing with Zelenka was as easy as clicking his video status button."