British Airways to give Apple iPad 2′s to cabin crew

iPad 2

British Airways has begun field testing iPad 2′s as replacements for the old paper manifest while also offering passenger profiles, live seating layouts and special food requests.

The airline has decided to make the move from paper to ‘pad in a bid to not only provide ‘better customer service’ but also to better equip the cabin crew.

The iPad 2′s are all 3G and have specialised software onboard which shows the full passenger manifest, where each passenger is sat and any special dietary requirements they might have. Not only that but the Apple tablets are fully laden with timetables, safety manuals and live customer service updates, meaning that even when the plane is on the runway, they’ll still be getting information sent to them.

BA’s head of inflight customer experience Bill Francis believes this is just the start however pointing out that ‘the possibilities for future development are endless’. At present it’s simply a trial with 100 staff testing out the scheme however BA is planning on bringing the tablets to all 1,800 senior cabin crew members in the next few months.

The Apple iPad 2 offers unrivalled versatility

iPad 2 Home Screen

One of the key features that is most admired about the iPad is the fact that it is extremely versatile and can utilise a wide selection of applications to enhance the user experience. The tablet measures 241 mm x 185 mm whilst being 8 mm thick and weighing 607 g in weight that utilises a dual core 900 MHz A9 processor in conjunction with its own iOS 4 operating system.

The unit comes with a 9.7 inch LED backlit IPS TFT display screen which is capacitive in nature and provides outstanding touch screen functionality and capability. The screen has a resolution of 768 x 1024 pixels, within which it is able to display an impressive 16 million colours. The screen comes with a fingerprint, scratch resistant surface, whilst an accelerometer sensor and a three axis gyro sensor are also incorporated a standard.

The unit comes in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions as well as Wi Fi only or Wi Fi and 3G options. In terms of connectivity the unit comes with GPRS, EDGE, blue tooth and USB connectivity whilst also offering, dependent upon the version, Wi Fi and HSDPA connectivity.

In addition the tablet provides a 0.7 megapixel camera which operates at 960 x 720 pixels and can also record video at 720 pixels and at 30 frames per second, or those who prefer video functionality rather than still imagery. One of the enhancements of the new unit is the fact that it also offers a secondary camera which is VGA quality. The tablet also comes with satellite navigation, a variety of games including downloadable options, a digital compass, a PDF reader, Google maps as well as an MP4/MP3 multimedia player in conjunction with a useful TV-Out connection.

The Apple iPad 2 3G 32GB White is one of the more popular options, with the alternative options being differing memory sizes and black rather than white. The iPad provides style, aesthetic appeal and a versatility that is unmatched in any tablet within the increasingly popular tablet market.

iPad 2 To Fuel Apple Tablet Shipments Growth In 2012

iPad 2

Apple may sell up around 55 per cent more iPad tablets in 2012 according to market watchers cited by Taiwanese news outlet, Digitimes.

These analysts reckon that Apple will sell 36 million iPad 2 units and around 55 million next year. Interestingly, last week, Digitimes Research estimated that 40 million iPad tablet will be sold in 2011 which means that next year, that number may rise to 62 million units, just short of the 65.2 million tablets that it reckoned will be sold this year.

Shipments of non Apple tablet devices, on the other hand, is expected to far outstrip that of Apple with a triple digit, year on year growth with Android tablets being the main drivers (and winners).

The arrival of a new generation of system on chip combined with the launch of Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich will fuel the growth in shipment of Android-based tablet PCs from around 20 million units to up to 45 million units.

The Nvidia Tegra 3 is likely to be the first member of the new generation of quad core SoC that will be launched from the end of September onwards. The chip is said to provide with five times the graphics performance of the Tegra 2.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2011/08/09/ipad-2-fuel-apple-tablet-shipments-growth-2012/#ixzz1Udnkhegd