Virgin America’s In-Flight Ethernet, USB, 110v Power and Doom

Artur Bergman of Six Apart and O’Reilly got a tour of the new Virgin America planes and found some some amazing geek amenities. Every seat includes 110 volt AC current, ethernet, USB ports for charging iPods and phones, but will also accept a QWERTY for the linux-based, thin client, in flight entertainment system. And, it has Doom. But I’m not sure if it has Internet. I wonder if that Ethernet is actually Internet-active. Probably not, which could be the killer, esp when American Airlines rolls their WiFi, but as a random aside, check out that purple mood lighting. More cool facts: The servers have about 3000 MP3s, and if you create a playlist, it links it to your profile, and the next time you book a flight, your playlists will reappear on your new flight, at your new seat. And, the system, called “Red”, was developed in house and does the standard movies, sat TV, mp3s, and games. But it also has a plane wide chatroom, per-channel chatrooms, and private messages.

[Photos and Reporting by Artur Bergman]