iChat AV at 35,000 Feet

I am sorry but this is too cool! I don't care if you're a geek or not, you gotta admit this would be a great way to pass the time on a plane!


It’s a long flight from Munich to San Francisco, even non-stop. But recently two enterprising Apple product managers cut the distance dramatically with a few at-hand tools: iChat AV, iSight, 17-inch PowerBook G4, an Airbus and an orbiting satellite.


In what might have been the first in-air commercial videoconference, Apple product manager Kurt Knight, on the ground in Cupertino, hooked up over iChat AV with product line manager Eric Zelenka, returning to San Francisco from Munich, by leveraging Lufthansa’s new wireless high-speed broadband connection service.


“Eric broadcast his availability for video chat with the custom status message ‘Wireless at 35K Feet!’” says Knight.




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.


Knight got an early report on the trip — as well as a free look out the window — and Zelenka found a productive and engaging way to pass the time on a 12-hour flight.


“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."