Entertainment

Oblivion is such an attractive idea when you’re flying. Especially now that it looks like some airlines will start letting passengers use their cell phones on the plane.

Which is one of the reasons I was so sad when I broke my huge, ear-covering, audio-canceling Bose headphones last year. So far, I haven’t ponied up to replace them, but if I do, I might give this option a shot, spotted by Outside Online:

Here’s the deal: After a quick visit to an audiologist (included in the price), silicone casts of your inner ears will be on their way to becoming a new pair of nonpareil earphones that fit you and you alone. Turnaround time is about a week, and when you screw these rugged yet comfortable little numbers into your head, you’ll finally hear your tunes as the musicians and sound engineers intended.

Custom fitted headphones? Yes please. I can’t wear standard earbuds.

Seriously, check out the picture to the right, snagged from one of DealMaker’s Road Warrior segments.

This is not from your favorite 1960’s Kubrick Classic. This is an actual first-class airport lounge in Sydney, Australia. And you want to talk about luxury? Listen to the description:

The lounge boasts entertainment areas with plasma TVs and a leather-floored library stocked with newspapers and magazines. A captive could play dominoes with those just passing through, or fire up a PlayStation. Wherever you are, the staff will fetch your drinks (gratis, naturally) from two fully stocked bars.

It features a restaurant with a celebrity chef (Neil Perry), leather chairs, floor to ceiling windows, options for massages, etc, etc, and so on.

The next time I fly First Class, I’m totally making a stopover in Australia.

MSNBC yesterday wrote about a nudist holiday flight scheduled for July 5th:

German nudists will be able to start their holidays early by stripping off on the plane if they take up a new offer from an eastern German travel firm.

Travel agency OssiUrlaub.de said it would start taking bookings from Friday for a trial nudist day trip from the eastern German town of Erfurt to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom, planned for July 5 and costing 499 euros ($735).

If you’re tired of being productive at 30,000 feet and thinking about being reproductive (oh, and you’re flying the right route), you might think about signing up for this flight.

Sure it’s a bit expensive, and you’re only allowed to be nude on the plane (not at the airports on either end of the trip), but how often do you get to fly in comfort like this?

American Airlines has announced it will be offering Personal Media Players on transcontinental flights and some domestic flights. The PMP’s will be free for first and business class, and available at a fee for coach passengers. The PMP’s come with fifteen full-length feature films, twelve hours of television shows, fourteen music channels, and mp3’s from over fifty artists.

The current program is a test to see if theft will be an issue. If it is not, AA plans on launching the program on all of its flights.

This is a new one. On Friday, the Captain of Northwest Flight 1190 from Las Vegas to Detroit stepped onto the plane talking into his cellphone and cursing loudly. Some passengers complained to him and asked him to stop. His response was to curse at them.

Police and the FAA were notified, and the pilot was removed from the flight. Northwest Airlines canceled the flight and apologized to its customers. It is unclear at this point if he was intoxicated, or if charges will be pressed.

Air Canada launched its new in-flight entertainment program today, XM enRoute, which offers 10 music channels to fliers on the airline.

This follows a multi-year agreement signed by XM Canada and Air Canada. XM enRoute will works as part of the touch-screen, seat-back entertainment available on Air Canada’s flights.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that for the 787 program, Boeing has “decided to move away from wireless in-flight entertainment, or IFE, after determining the technology wasn’t going to work as well as initially believed.”

The weight of the system, along with wiring challenges were cited as the main reasons. I say hooey to all that. The main reason to scrap the system can be defined in one word: iPod.

In the next few years, every passenger will be carrying their own in-flight entertainment system, whether it’s an iPod or a laptop/player with a DVD drive.

Dear Boeing and Airbus: Forget all these centralized command and control entertainment systems that seemed futuristic during the Clinton administration. Just give us power outlets.

I’d like to draw your attention to a new service that I just learned about - but haven’t used yet. The first I’d heard of them was when they agree to sponsor our blogger reception in Las Vegas at CES.

That said, Broadclip looks pretty cool. Basically, the service allows you to record live television directly onto your iPod without the need for a TiVo or downloading from iTunes. This has its own potential drawbacks, of course. I really love storing my television shows and music on my computer as well as on my iPod. But I’m intrigued to try out the ins and outs of the service and see how well it works.

I hope I’ll get the chance to play with it when I meet them at CES. Maybe they’ll even let me record the season premiere of The L Word for my flight home.

The holiday season is upon us, and that means buying a bunch of cool stuff. For those of you who have a heavy traveler in your life, or feel like getting yourself some cool Christmas presents, here is a list of the Top Ten Gifts for travelers.

Apple announced today that it has closed deals with six airlines, including Continental, Delta and United to integrate iPods into their in-flight entertainment systems.

Under the new deal, users will be able to charge their iPods while listening and to view video stored on their devices on the airliner’s built in video screens.

Also making waves today is Microsoft’s new Zune video/music player. The blogosphere is all aquiver over it, but the world at large seems unimpressed thus far. There were two cute girls behind me in line at the coffee shop today reading the front page of the business section and going, “Zune? What the heck is a Zune?” When I turned around and told them, they both swore loyalty to their iPods.

That will probably serve them well if they’re traveling on business (or for pleasure) early next year.

With airlines so overcrowded that our sardine index has become irrelevant, it’s no wonder that travelers care more about packing light than ever before. After all, who wants to get stuck with an overstuffed bag at her feet because her fellow travelers have already used up all the overhead bin space?

According to this size comparison by Gizmodo, the new Microsoft Zune is 6.12 cubic inches to the 30 gig iPod’s 4.23 cubic inches. But does a difference that small make any difference at all? Would you care?

Apparently, the new anti-gambling laws don’t bother Ryanair. Now that you can drink, watch shows, and play poker inflight, the only difference between Ryanair and Las Vegas are the lapdances.

The low-budget airline plans to boost profits by joining up with a leading Internet gaming company, Jackpotjoy.com, in order to allow fliers to gamble in-flight. Ryanair’s Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary said he hoped the move could boost non-ticket profits by five percent.

Personally, as someone who spends flights either bored out of his mind or heavily intoxicated, I would prefer an addictive activity to pass the time that doesn’t hurt my liver quite so much. Inflight gambling on poker and blackjack will not be allowed on US flights however, because it is illegal.

I know it was yesterday, but if you are like Teresa, you can’t get enough of it. Here’s 13 freaky flight tales for those of you who can’t get enough of fright fix.

Okay, so maybe this doesn’t have quite as much to do with flying as usual. But considering I spent last night drinking Plymouth Gin for free at Maggiono’s, courtesy of Randall PR, and considering that it was amazing, I thought it deserved mention.

While I’m not normally a fan of gin (more of MillerTime guy), after about four Rasperry cocktails with Plymouth Gin, I have to say that I wish I had gotten a few free bottles. Plus, I’m not even hungover, which is rare for me. Mix-master Simon Ford explained to me at some point in the night why Plymouth Gin is less likely to cause a hangover than most hard alcohol, but apparently I had too much gin to remember what he said.

MTV Vet recently launched a new site, Travelistic, to provide a forum for travelers to post vacation pictures, movies, stories, tips, and reviews to the whole world.

Travelistic aims to be the YouTube of the travel industry, and has regularly appearing shows professionally produced by MTV, such as “The Thirsty Traveler,” for wine connoisseurs such as Steve and Teresa, and “Focus On,” which explores lesser-known destinations.

The site’s CEO, Nicholas Butterworth, says the site is not designed to compete with existing travel sites such as Expedia and Travelocity, and hopes to syndicate content to major travel sites in order to compliment each other, rather than compete.

Singapore Airlines recently unveiled its new and improved First Class, Business Class, and Economy Class Cabins. The airline poured $360 million dollars into improving comfort, style, and entertainment.

The overhaul has set a new standard that is expected to spur improvements among other regional carriers. Given the duration of flights from the US to Asia, it is not surprising to see the importance of in-flight luxury and entertainment becoming a top priority.

Tired of not having anyplace exciting to go with all those extra miles you’ve earned? Virgin Atlantic recently offered Alan Watts, who had stored up over 2 million frequent flier miles, an interesting option in cashing in his points: go to outer space.

Mr. Watts will receive a three-day training session in 2009, and be among the first 1,000 people to float in zero gravity above the earth as space tourists. Not a bad reward for all those hours slogged in the air. Its enough to make me want to start saving up my skymiles.

That’s right, the awards you’ve been awaiting all year are back; the 17th Annual Avion Award Winners have been announced. Among the leaders was American Airlines, which won best Best Single Inflight Audio Program and Best Inflight Video Programming – Short Haul.

Since it’s Friday, here’s a lighthearted air travel story from Freakonomics author Steven D. Levitt.

Apparently, the flight attendant came on the loudspeaker just before takeoff and said, “According to the reading on my equipment up front, there is still one cell phone turned on, so please check that you have turned yours off.”

According to Levitt, half the plane started rummaging through their carry on.

Microsoft unveiled its new Zune player today to much fanfare. The player has all the features of Apple’s video iPod, plus an AM/FM tuner and wireless networking capabilities. Users can even use the device to send one another songs wirelessly.

Whether the Zune will rival iPod sales this holiday season remains to be seen, but you can bet that a few of these devices will pop up in lieu of iPods on your upcoming flights.

What I want to know is, does the device have an “airplane safe” mode for its AM/FM tuner?