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In-Air Entertainment Keeps Evolving


In 1911, just eight years after the Wright Brothers flew the first aircraft at Kitty Hawk, the pop song inviting Josephine on the newfangled flying machine was already on the market.

A decade later, an in-flight silent movie,”Howdy Chicago”, was projected to passengers on a flight over the Chicago World's Fair. Regular in-flight movies didn’t start for another 40 years, when the now-gone TWA showed them in their first-class areas in 1961.

Since then, the advances have been rapid. Video games and small bulkhead TV sets emerged in 1975. Individual seat-back video started on some airlines in 1991, followed a decade later with live in-flight TV.

Many airlines now have seat-back multi-channel screens that beam out movies, games, live TV and advertising. Along with those airline-provided items, many passengers now carry their own private all-inclusive entertainment, with laptops, SmartPhones, E-readers and dozens of newfangled electronic miracles.

With airlines continuously seeking new ways to make extra bucks, passengers can expect more innovations in pay-per-view in-air entertainment in the near future.

Share A Hotel Room For Half The Price? PDF Print E-mail


With hotel room prices steep and getting higher, especially in the big tourist-trap cities, would you opt to share a room with another traveler?  The drastic idea wasn’t so unusual until just over a century or so ago, before hotels or motels existed. Then roadside inns didn’t rent rooms, just beds. The more fortunate guests got a bed with only two or three other snoozers in it.

A start-up online hotel room-sharing program called Easynest is now booking people willing to share at many hotels and resorts. Potential clients are required to fill out personal data, choices, schedules and other information. Then, matches are offered. So far, the service is totally free, but if the program evolves successfully, a fee is a certainty.

Cruise lines have offered share-your-cabin service for a long time, but this may be the first it's available for hotel rooms. For more information about the new website that identifies itself as "Airbnb for hotels and resorts”, go to www.easynest.com

 
 
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