Hasta La Gadget!

While the FAA has cleared the use of electronics on US passenger airplanes at all stages of flight, there’s still one major restriction in place: you have to shut off all cellular access. That rule may not exist for much longer if the FCC has its way, according to sources for the Wall Street Journal. The agency will reportedly use its December meeting to propose letting passengers make phone calls and use cellular data whenever they’re flying above 10,000 feet. Don’t be too eager to start chatting in mid-air, though. The FCC hasn’t publicly confirmed the proposal, and any new policy wouldn’t be mandatory — carriers could still ask for radio silence, and special equipment would need to be installed in order for each plane to communicate with towers on the ground. If implemented, though, the relaxed rules could make your phone’s airplane mode seem like more of a relic than a necessity.

Update: Chairman Tom Wheeler has issued a statement about the earlier report:

“Today, we circulated a proposal to expand consumer access and choice for in-flight mobile broadband. Modern technologies can deliver mobile services in the air safely and reliably, and the time is right to review our outdated and restrictive rules. I look forward to working closely with my colleagues, the FAA, and the airline industry on this review of new mobile opportunities for consumers.

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Wireless, Mobile

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Source: Wall Street Journal, FCC

Beginning as early as December of this year, you will soon be allowed to power-on and use approved electronic devices during all stages of the flight on most Europe-based airlines. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) this week issued a ruling to that effect, following a similar ruling by the US’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) […]

While commercial pilots might not use this kind of watch to replace the computers they work with in Jumbo Jets, frequent travelers and private pilots might enjoy the goodies features on this latest Garmin watch.

The Garmin D2 Pilot Watch has everything you’d expect from an aviator watch, with the added bonus of Garmin GPS tech. It has the ability to load a flight plan and view it in real time on the watch face. Its dedicated NRST button can also guide you to the nearest airport. There’s also a compass, horizontal situation indicator, ground speed indicator, and altimeter. The watch can also be used to set timers and vibrating alerts for in-flight tasks. It can even be used to wirelessly control Garmin’s VIRB action cameras.

All these features don’t come cheap, as the watch will cost you $449(USD), but if you’re into aviation, it’s an impressive amount of tech packed into a wrist watch.

Number two on the list of promised future technologies that have yet to be delivered, right behind the flying car, is the personal jetpack. Hollywood’s delivered them in spades thanks to special effects, but in real-life New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft is as close as we’re going to get. And now it’s even closer with the company’s latest re-design of its Jetpack—the P12.

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Teched-out vacuum cleaner salesmen Dyson have begun displaying their engineers’ willingness to take on extra-curricular engineering projects in a video entitled “Challenge Dyson 2013: Airborne.” The challenge was to “design a machine that can fly, navigate the course, and try not to burst the balloons” using nothing but spare Dyson parts. The results were varied: […]