July 2005

In a recent survey by Skytrax Research, Cathay Pacific ranked number 1 for best Business class and First class airport lounge (both in Hong Kong)……..check out the other rankings here. Sadly, no U.S. domestic carrier finished in the top 10 for Business or First class lounges.

While planning for an upcoming trip to Europe, I found this link on Skytrax to be of great help for specific seat selection for my 5 flight itinerary……….check out the ‘Best Seat Tips’ link under Seats. The info is provided from passenger reviews and offer some great advice that even the reservation agent was surprised I knew about.

From the Forbes magazine ‘Executive Toy Box’ series, I enjoyed reading about the choice David M Ewalt (Ball CIO) made for his favorite Executive Toy………the Sony PlayStation 2. He offers an insightful view of how this ‘toy’ has created an ‘educational opportunity’ for his kids while giving him a chance to experience the virtual racing environment that some of the auto racing games provide. A fun read…….

If you are one of the 5 million new owners of Sony’s Playstation Portable that wish you could surf the web on this versatile device…….without a cumbersome software hack–Sony is apparently listening to you.  Ken Kutaragi, chief executive of Sony Corp.’s game unit, announced today that the patch will be available as soon as next week. No hardware conversion will be necessary, as the PSP comes with a built-in antenna specifically for wireless internet access.

Singapore Airlines recently announced the onboard availability of live international TV beamed through it’s broadband internet provider Connexion by Boeing. This service will be available directly to any Connexion subscriber with a laptop–in addition to internet and email content beamed from its satellites.

From mid March 2005 onwards: available on selected Singapore-London (SQ320 and SQ321) flights, subject to operational availability of aircraft installed with Connexion By Boeing. The service will be progressively available on all flights between Singapore and London, and on selected long-haul routes in the near future.

Check out this link for pricing and further program info.

Tired of trying to be productive while waiting for your plane in the gate area or other public places–only to be affronted by a TV playing nearby—out of your control? There was nothing you could do short of wishing for a power outage–until now. The TV-B-Gone™ is essentially a one-trick remote control that turns off virtually any TV–clearing the air, protecting your rights……some might even say provide a public service as well.

If you believe that having a TV on or off should be a a choice, this silence creating TV-Zapper is for you. As the product packaging says: ‘Side effects may include decreased anxiety, increased social skills, increased cognitive ability (and an) increased sense of well-being……

We posted a while back about seat pitch and how the major airlines fared. I decided to add a new component to the mix and cross reference those numbers to how full the majors’ planes are. It seems to me that the most comfortable flights are those with the most linear space (longest seat pitch) and lateral space (empty space beside). Checking the April flight load data (the most recent available) from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics led me to some interesting conclusions:

Airlines above average in both areas (more legroom, less crowded flights):
Midwest Airlines Inc.
Southwest Airlines Co.

Airlines below average in both areas (less legroom, more crowded flights)
America West Airlines Inc.
American Airlines Inc.
Continental Air Lines Inc.
Delta Air Lines Inc.
United Air Lines Inc.

See the excel screen shot below for the specific numbers:

From Magellan’s travel supply catalog…..some unique and unproven, and others are must-have’s for any veteran traveller……

Earplugs (go for the Hearos Extreme that offer 33 DB of noise reduction)

‘No Jet-Lag’ pills (seems harmless, but check out the active ingredients: Bellis Perennis, Chamomilla, Ipecacuanha and Lycopodium)

‘Komfort Kollar‘ (next time you try sleeping in the perpendicular position, you’ll wish you had one)

‘Lights Out Sleep Mask‘ (comfortable, well designed, and a necessity)

‘Bose QuietComfort 2 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones‘ (some nice improvements on this latest version, but pricey at $299–consider the Shure E2c earbuds for 1/3 the cost)

‘Knee Defender‘ (limits the recline of the seat in front of you–great idea, just hope that the person who paid for a reclining seat doesn’t figure it out)

The Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro recently reviewed Sony’s new ultra-lightweight laptop–and had some surprising comments in regards to the highly anticipated integrated WAN network available on the T350P/S and points out some real limitations to the usefulness of this feature……there are some good reasons not to build in a cellular data receiver just yet, as the T350 winds up demonstrating……the T350’s receiver can talk to only one type of wireless network, GSM…….and is set up to work with only one wireless carrier, Cingular…..when the wireless signal dropped to three or fewer bars of coverage…..Downloads slowed down precipitously, and sites loaded haltingly or not at all……. Browsing the Web under these conditions was a relentlessly miserable experience…..Check out the article here (free registration required).

One from Lexar: the Jumpdrive™ Lightning™–now offered with a very cool stainless steel key-chain case, it includes fast read (24 MB per second) and write (18 MB per second) capabilities, encryption and synchronization software, no drivers required, and free engraving when purchased directly from Lexar. $280 MSRP

And another from Memorex: the M-Flyer USB 2.0 TravelDrive. This flashdrive is unique because of it’s push-button, spring-loaded retractable USB connector. Includes encryption and compression software, carrying case, extension cable and lanyard carrying strap. No specific transfer speed data was available from the website. $220 MSRP

Unless transfer speeds are a primary criteria, the Memorex drive seems to be the better value of the two.

If you are contemplating one of the so-called ’smartphones’ to replace the cellphone and PDA you currently lug around……check out this Buyers Guide from Popular Science magazine. It will guide you through the capabilities and trade-off’s of these devices–and help you decide which phone is best for you, depending on the carrier, operating system and messaging capabilities that fit your needs.