American Airlines has started to give frontline employees new iPhone 12 devices and seventh-generation iPads, according to a memo shared by CIO Maya Leibman.
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Apple and American Airlines have partnered to offer customers access to Apple Music in the sky, with no added fees. As long as you are subscribed to Apple’s $9.99/month subscription service, you will be able to stream your music on American Airlines flights without having to pay for WiFi access.
The deal means Apple Music subscribers can access their library, discover new music and listen to Beats Music in the air without paying more on any American Airline domestic flight that features Viasat satellite WiFi.
As someone who still mostly views my Apple Watch as a gimmick, I have to admit that airline apps do make a good case for the device, making viewing alerts and directions as easy as glancing at the time. American Airlines, BA and EasyJet were among the front-runners in offering Apple Watch apps, and now Lufthansa has joined the party too, reports Forbes.
Use your watch as a boarding pass and have your essential flight information displayed on your wrist. It reminds passengers of their flight the day prior to their departure, provides continuous updates about the status of the flight and displays the boarding time, terminal, gate and seat number. Just like a timer, it enables passengers to see – down to the very minute – how long is left until their scheduled boarding time
The app is currently available only to members of Lufthansa’s frequent flyer program, Miles & More, with a general rollout expected later in the year.
Update: American Airlines has confirmed that the problem was with a bad update to the Jepson app that added Ronald Reagan Airport map. The app provides maps of runways and more information to pilots. Until the app can be fixed, the airline has informed pilots of a workaround to prevent future delays.
Two years ago, American Airlines replaced the paper versions of its cockpit documents with iPad flight bags on all planes. At the time, the airline touted that the switch would both save money for the company and make the lives of pilots easier. This evening, however, more than several dozen American Airlines flights have been affected by an outage related to the app used by American Airlines pilots. Many flights have been delayed and passengers forced to exit the planes.
Apple was clear with developers from the start that the Apple Watch is all about “quick, easy looks” rather than lengthy interactions, and it seems the message has been taken on board by major brands, reports the WSJ.
“If people use their desktop computers for hours at a time and their phones for minutes at a time, we think people will use the Watch for seconds at a time,” said Shayne Sweeney, an engineering manager at Facebook’s photo-sharing site Instagram, which created a Watch app.
Adam Grossman, founder of the Dark Sky weather app, echoed the comment.
Who wants to keep their wrists up to their face for many minutes?
Expedia’s chief product officer John Kim said the company was focusing mostly on itinerary-focused push notifications.
Instead of “pulling” information from websites or apps, users will want relevant information “pushed” to them at the most useful moments.
With American Airlines’ Kevin MacFarland agreeing.
The goal is the right information at the right time.
Apple revealed last year that the watch offers both “short and long looks,” with not even a touch needed to switch between the two.
Delta Air Lines has updated its Fly Delta iPad app to allow passengers to stream movies and TV shows from the onboard wifi network. Using wifi to stream movies to iPads was first trialled back in 2011 by Qantas, followed by Hawaiian Airlines almost a year ago and introduced as a standard service by United back in May.
The Delta Studio service provides all streaming content free of charge to international, First Class and Economy Comfort passengers, while domestic Economy customers get some content free with ‘premium content’ being chargeable …
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Gov. Jan Brewer (photo: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Update: Following Apple’s expression of opposition and much national attention, Governor Brewer has vetoed the bill.
[tweet https://twitter.com/GovBrewer/status/438838664928325633]
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Apple has confirmed an NBC report that the company has urged Arizona State Governer Jan Brewer to veto a highly controversial (to put it mildly) bill that would allow businesses to deny service to gay and lesbian customers.
Apple spokeswoman Kristin Hueget confirmed Monday that the company had reached out to Brewer and urged a veto.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, Sen. John McCain and three State Senators who originally voted for the bill are also among those who have joined calls for the veto.
Apple’s sapphire plant, believed to be making screens for the iPhone 6, is located in Mesa, Arizona. The company last year applauded the Supreme Court ruling that banning same-sex marriage in California was unconstitutional.
Can’t really improve on George Takei’s commentary …
Click for a larger view.
Apple announced on Tuesday that iOS 7 will be publicly available on September 18th. The revamped OS moves completely away from the realistic designs of the past six generations, dropping almost all “artificial shadows” (as Apple SVP Craig Federighi called them), gloss, and even button borders. Instead, the Jony Ive-inspired interface features an entirely rethought design language that focuses heavily on large icons, lightweight fonts, whitespace, transparency, and conservative use of color.
We previously took a look at what some of Apple’s own in-house apps could look like when redesigned for iOS 7. During Apple’s September 10th event, Federighi flashed up a slide displaying the upcoming iOS 7 updates for many third-party applications. None of the apps were labeled, but we’ve tracked down names for most of them.
The apps featured are:
After completing testing and replacing traditional flight bags with iPads for some of its fleet, American Airlines today becomes the first commercial airline to transition to paperless cockpits in all of its aircrafts:
American Airlines has completed the successful rollout of its industry-leading Electronic Flight Bag program with the discontinuation of paper revisions to terminal charts, making it the first major commercial airline to fully utilize tablets in all cockpits during all phases of flight. In April, American completed testing on its Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft and has secured FAA approval to use the Apple iPad on all of its current fleet types – Boeing 777, 767, 757, 737 and MD-80.
Some of the benefits according to American Airlines: minimum savings of 400,000 gallons and $1.2 million of fuel annually in addition to the removal of 3,000 pages of paper carried by pilots. That’s around 24 million pages of paper replaced total with the over 8,000 iPads the airline has deployed.
The press release also notes that American Eagle will become the first regional airline to adopt the iPad flight bags starting July 10.
American Airlines updated its app for iPhone and iPad today bringing an enhanced Passbook experience for digital boarding passes, improvements for AAdvantage account holders, and the ability to chat with the airline’s Twitter team.
Perhaps the most notable update, and something British Airways announced it will be adding soon to its recently announced Passbook support, is the ability to view updates about departure times, gate and seat changes directly from your iOS device’s lock screen. The updates will appear after you’ve added your boarding pass to Passbook.
Also included in today’s update is the ability to “Send a direct message to the AA Twitter Team for assistance with flights, highlight exceptional service or general inquiries.”
More enhancements in version 2.4.0 of the American Airlines app below:
• You can now login with the e-mail address associated with your AAdvantage account.
• The TSA precheck logo will now appear on your boarding pass in passbook, if applicable
• Now Executive Platinum AAdvantage members can Give Feedback via Twitter
• Send a direct message to the AA Twitter Team for assistance with flights, highlight exceptional service or general inquiries
• You will now receive updates about departure times, gate and seat changes on your lock screen after you’ve added your mobile boarding pass to passbook
Government-owned railroad service Amtrak is set to use Apple’s iPhone and a new app as an electronic ticket scanner.
The New York Times reported that train conductors have been training to use the tech during select routes since November. The addition allows passengers to load a specific bar code on their smartphone screens that the conductor can scan for tracking purposes. Of course, passengers can still print their tickets per usual for Amtrak’s iPhones to scan.
Amtrak said 1,700 conductors would use the iPhone on routes across the country by late summer. The iOS device will come with a case containing an extra battery and a bar-code scanner. It will also come equipped with an app for scanning and indicating special conditions, such as whether passengers are disabled— and when and where they are departing— for coordinating a wheelchair lift. The app will even enable conductors to report the train’s mechanical failures.
The NYT article does not mention it, but 9to5Mac discovered mobile and emerging technologies developer Übermind claims to be the brain child behind the app’s shiny, new features. It’s website provided a few images (below) that depict what Amtrak described when detailing the iPhone’s case, battery, and app:
“Paper tickets are so 19th century. We ushered Amtrak’s conductors into the 21st century with our workforce automation solution. The bottom line for Amtrak: better customer service, better labor relations, and real-time business intelligence. Riders, taking the train just got fun again. [..] We worked with Amtrak to design and implement the engaging Digital Passport feature within Amtrak’s passenger iPhone app. With the personalized passport, riders can earn stamps for travel, share achievements to social networks, and view a map overlay of personal ridership stats. Train Masters, wanted.”
