Photo from BoingBoing
Virgin America's Red entertainment system wowed me when I flew on the airline recently. What amazed me was that Charles Ogilvie (formerly Director of Inflight Entertainment at Virgin America) and his team seem to have thought through the needs of the airline passenger from a holistic point-of-view and put together a very compelling offering covering almost every need (and more!). Now, if only car companies could take such a holistic view and rethink the car user interface in holistic way (not just for drivers, but also for passengers).
Charles explains Virgin America's system on this video:
With a system like Red, I now know why Charles has his own fan following (see Jaunted).
Some of the elements of the Red system:
- Google Maps integration for flight tracking
- DISH Network-based satellite TV
- Custom Mp3 picklist & playback, with ability to email the picklist to yourself. 3000+ songs.
- Custom movie & TV show picklist & playback
- Games
- In-cabin person-to-person chat
- Food selection and ordering
- Payment integration (through credit card swiping)
- Red Hat Linux
- 9-inch display screen
- Coming soon: Internet connectivity through Aircell
For a more in-depth review, checked out Wired's review.
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