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In-flight entertainment in your hands

(CNN) — Fighting boredom in the skies is big business.

Last year airlines around the world spent about $1.4 billion on in-flight entertainment hardware and more than $400 million on content, according to research firm IMDC.

It’s ironic, then, to see their offerings often being ignored by passengers with iPods or other personal entertainment devices. Such passengers carry their own videos, music and games.

But as long as there’s a larger screen on the seat-back right in front of them, why not let them use it?

Many stiff-necked iPod users have pondered that question, especially on long flights. Prison Break episodes downloaded from iTunes would be so much more enjoyable without having to squint down at them on a tiny screen.

Increasingly, airlines are getting the picture.

Since mid-May passengers flying on Singapore Airlines between Newark and Singapore have been able to link their iPods to the in-flight entertainment systems. Other airlines around the world are lining up similar offerings.

Supporting passengers’ own devices is one way for an airline to enhance their product and gain an advantage, says Robert Smith, a senior market analyst at IMDC.

Consumers are carrying increasingly powerful devices, and some will want the option of having power, a bigger screen, and somewhere to put their iPod.

Airlines are not alone in adjusting to the new currents. Some hotels now offer special ports so guests can hook up their iPods (or other devices) to the audiovisual equipment in the room.

And some car makers are building USB ports directly into dashboards so drivers or passengers can easily access their MP3s and such while on the road.

But it’s in the skies — or more accurately in cramped metal tubes in the skies — where the battle against boredom gets particularly desperate, which is why Internet access, cell phone reception and satellite radio are also being offered to entertain passengers.

Just about every airline we speak with has asked us to demonstrate this feature, says Theresa Yeoh, a spokesperson for Panasonic Avionics.

Her company makes the eX2 in-flight entertainment system used by Singapore Airlines on its Newark-Singapore route.

It works like this: An export jack is built into the airline seat. Passengers plug their iPods or iPhones into this jack to enjoy their content — videos, music, games, photos — through the system’s seat-back screen and headphones. The eX2 also powers the iPod, so customers can leave the plane with a fully charged device.

There are downsides to such systems, though. The biggest, perhaps, is compatibility. Inevitably, the same kind of compatibility hitches that plague consumers in the tech world are now cropping up in the airline cabin.

For instance on the Singapore-Newark flight, Microsoft’s Zune player, and many other personal media devices, will not work with the eX2’s export jack.

That’s clearly a marketing advantage for Apple (with the airplane becoming a giant iPod accessory in the sky), but passengers with other devices might get annoyed.

Yeoh wouldn’t disclose details on the business arrangement with Apple but says that under Apple’s Made for iPod program, this is the first solution designed specifically for the commercial airline market.

found here.

City dwellers produce less carbon

WASHINGTON (AP) — While cities are hot spots for global warming, people living in them turn out to be greener than their country cousins.

Each resident of the largest 100 largest metropolitans areas is responsible on average for 2.47 tons of carbon dioxide in energy consumption each year, 14 percent below the 2.87 ton U.S. average, researchers at the Brookings Institution say in a report being released Thursday.

Those 100 cities still account for 56 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide pollution. But their greater use of mass transit and population density reduce the per person average. It was a surprise the extent to which emissions per capita are lower, Marilyn Brown, a professor of energy policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-author of the report, said in an interview.

Metropolitan area emissions of carbon dioxide are highest in the eastern U.S., where people rely heavily on coal for electricity, the researchers found. They are lower in the West, where weather is more favorable and where electricity and motor fuel prices have been higher.

The study examined sources and use of residential electricity, home heating and cooling, and transportation in 2005 in the largest 100 metropolitan areas where two-thirds of the people in the U.S. live. It attributed a wide disparity among the 100 cities to population density, availability of mass transit and weather.

Lexington, Kentucky, had the biggest per capita carbon footprint: Each resident on average accounted for 3.81 tons of carbon dioxide in their energy usage. At the other end of the scale was Honolulu, at 1.5 tons per person.

Carbon dioxide is released from burning fossil fuels and is the leading greenhouse gas. It drifts into the atmosphere and forms a blanket that traps the Earth’s warmth. About 6.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide are released into air annually in the United States. Watch global warming signs in the Arctic

From 2000 to 2005, carbon dioxide from transportation, electricity use and residential heating in the largest metropolitan areas increased 7.5 percent. For the entire nation, it rose 9.1 percent. The average per capita footprint in those 100 cities rose at an annual rate of 1.1 percent a year, half the average yearly increase of 2.2 percent nationwide.

In explaining differences among cities, the researchers cited weather, the type of fuel used for heating and cooling, the development of rail transportation, the amount of urban sprawl and the cost of energy.

Cities with the largest carbon footprints are mostly in the eastern half of the country from Indiana to western Pennsylvania — areas that rely heavily on coal for electricity production and natural gas for heating.

The smallest carbon footprint was in cities in the West and New England.

Half of the dozen cities with the stingiest carbon output were in California, where electricity prices and motor fuels are expensive. Also cited was the Seattle-Portland, Ore., region, which relies heavily on hydropower.

found here.