Just touch with any dry, clean part of your body to activate. Any clean body part will work. That simple. Touch to activate. Touch to deactivate. That. Is. It. Off with handles. Off with indicators. Off with any superfluous elements. Just capacitive touch built in the whole body, so you don't have to mess its metallic surface with your dirty, wet hands. And you can even detach the tip.

Geeneeus functionality, and perfect, minimalist design. Jon Ive and Dieter Rams probably have theirs already. As soon as I get $547 to throw away, I'll get mine. [Delta Faucet via Core77]

DAL164: Hey, do you see something over the... looks like a guy on a paraglider.. almost over the approach, er, the threshold of two-two right?

...

Looks like he hit the ground, dropped something off.

...

Now he's airborne again. I guess is it ah, looks like some guy on a parachute.

The question is: What the hell was he or she dropping? Why nobody has found the dropped object yet—if there was actually anything? Air, land, and sea police searches didn't find any traces of this very stupid and insane person. Or whatever it was, because for now it's just "unidentified."

Thankfully, nothing happened as it climbed higher than 1,000 feet across JFK's busy air traffic. [Flightglobal]

That's right, AirTran is winning on two fronts. AirTran will be the first carrier to offer Wi-Fi on every single flight (granted, they're a smaller airline, so it's a much smaller feat than Delta is facing). And they charge a (slightly) reduced rate of $8 for using just your iPhone or BlackBerry on Wi-Fi, not the full $10 that's the going rate for flights under 3 hours.

Still, that little airlines like AirTran are ponying up is good for competition in one sense—the day before, Delta announced that half of their fleet had Wi-Fi and the rest will by September, a little ahead of schedule. And American Airlines is busy outfitting their fleet, too.

But the NYT raises a few sobering points about in-flight Wi-Fi: There's basically no evidence there's huge demand for the pricey service (nerds don't constitute huge demand and even some of them are skeptical, see point #1). Meaning the $100,000-per-plane systems could hobble the already gimply airline industry even more.

Also, many flights, unlike Virgin, don't have electrical outlets. Not to mention all the other stuff, like crappy bandwidth and the like. Still, I think the first flight I'm on with Wi-Fi, I'm going to at least try it. [NYT via ZDNet]

So when you're heading home for Christmas or the Festival of Lights, you might have the joy of checking in with your boss ever few seconds, rather than enjoy No Reservations for the upteenth time. No porn though, as Delta is one of the airlines who have vowed to block adult sites so flight attendants don't have to. [Press Release, Photo Cubbie in Vegas/Flickr]

Both Air Canada and Alaska are safe havens for unfettered access, at least for now. (VoIP is blocked though.)They're both holding off to see how things go without a content filter, and hope you read their terms of use. Virgin America is the best though, since they seem to be more philosophically opposed to a content filter than the others—their spokesperson said that they don't block content on their entertainment systems, so they plan to keep that in place for Wi-Fi.

Of course, no one can filter what you bring on the plane in your hard drive. And most airports have plenty of nudie magazines for sale all around the terminal. You know, if you're really that determined to look at boobs on a plane, but you could at least watch an arty movie with boobs to be somewhat less gauche. [MSBNC]

So unhappy that the flight attendant union began putting pressure on American to block porn content on their just-launched service (would you want to be the person to come between some crazy perv and his porn on a cross-country haul? Me neither). Delta is now planning to nip a potential flight attendant strike before things get out of hand. The filter, according to Delta, will be limited only to "sites that few, if any, would question are inappropriate to be viewed on an aircraft." [Atlanta Journal Constitution via Electronista]

The rocket in the video is a Delta II launched by the USAF in 1997 to carry a 45 million dollar GPS Block IIR satellite to orbit. For sure, this Delta II variant is a much more powerful rocket than the 53-foot ATK Launch Vehicle X-1: At 127 feet, the Delta II 7925 is a 7000-Series (7) with nine boosters (9) and three stages—the second one a restartable Aerojet AJ10 engine (2) and the third one a payload assist module (encoded as 5 in the model number).

The first stage alone holds 10,000 gallons of fuel, so the mayhem that ensues after only 13 seconds of flight looks like a Jerry Bruckheimer wet dream. One that doesn't involve Bruce Willis. [IT Wire and Dark Roasted Blend, research Wikipedia and NASA]

Delta to Become Only Major U.S. Airline to Offer Broadband Wi-Fi Access on Entire Domestic Mainline Fleet

Aircell’s Gogo inflight Internet service to be available in first and economy classes on more than 330 Delta aircraft in 2009, the most expansive inflight broadband offering of any U.S. air carrier

ATLANTA, Aug. 5, 2008 – Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) customers traveling throughout the continental United States will soon be offered the added convenience of broadband Wi-Fi access onboard the airline’s domestic fleet of more than 330 mainline aircraft.

Delta is joining with Aircell®, a 17-year leader in airborne communications for business and commercial aviation, to install the company’s Mobile Broadband Network on the carrier’s domestic fleet. The system, Gogo™, will enable Delta customers traveling with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, to access the Internet, corporate VPNs, corporate and personal e-mail accounts, as well as SMS texting and instant messaging services. Gogo will be available to customers for a flat fee of $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours.

“Delta remains committed to providing a travel experience that maximizes the time our customers spend with us onboard by offering them even more productivity options,” said Richard Anderson, Delta’s chief executive officer. ”Our customers asked for in-flight connectivity, and we’re responding by rolling out the most extensive Wi-Fi network in the sky. Beginning this fall, our passengers will have the ability to stay connected when they travel with us throughout the continental U.S.”

Gogo will be offered initially on Delta’s fleet of 133 MD88/90 aircraft and will rapidly expand to the remaining domestic fleet of more than 200 Boeing 737, 757 and 767-300 aircraft throughout the first half of 2009. The airline expects to have more than 330 aircraft complete by summer 2009. The full fleet agreement between Aircell and Delta will provide a consistent, convenient experience for customers traveling on the airline who wish to use the Gogo Internet service.

“The advent of Air-To-Ground (ATG) technology has made broadband connectivity in the cabin economically viable for the first time for commercial airlines,” said Jack Blumenstein, President and CEO, Aircell. “The game has changed and Delta will be among the first to provide an enhanced customer experience with broadband Wi-Fi access on more than 1,000 daily flights within the U.S.”

In addition to being the most cost-effective in-flight broadband technology available, the Aircell system is extremely light, requires minimal space on the aircraft and is installed overnight, making it a sound investment in a competitive, high fuel-price environment.

Aircell LLC is the world’s leading provider of airborne communications. As winner of an exclusive FCC frequency license in 2006, Aircell has built a revolutionary mobile broadband network for commercial and business aviation. In 2008, the Aircell Network and its inflight portal, known as Gogo™, will revolutionize the commercial airline passenger flight experience, delivering a robust Internet experience at 35,000 feet. In addition, the Aircell Network provides airlines with connectivity to operations and a path to enhanced cabin services such as video, audio, television and more. A similar feature set is available to Business aircraft operators. Aircell has facilities in Broomfield, Colorado, and Itasca, Illinois. Aircell’s vision is to give everyone the ability to stay in touch, in flight™. For more information about Aircell, please visit http://www.aircell.com/.

Gogo™, powered by Aircell, turns a commercial airplane into a Wi-Fi hotspot with true inflight Internet access. Passengers with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, can surf the Web, check any e-mail, Instant Message, access their corporate VPN and more. Plus, Gogo includes free access to valuable online content from The Wall Street Journal® and Frommer’s®. For more information about Gogo, please visit http://www.gogoinflight.com/.

Delta Air Lines operates service to more worldwide destinations than any airline with Delta and Delta Connection flights to 312 destinations in 61 countries. Delta has added more international capacity than any major U.S. airline during the last two years and is the leader across the Atlantic with flights to 44 trans-Atlantic markets. To Latin America and the Caribbean, Delta offers 393 weekly flights to 47 destinations. Delta's marketing alliances also allow customers to earn and redeem SkyMiles on more than 16,000 flights offered by SkyTeam and other partners. Delta is a founding member of SkyTeam, a global airline alliance that provides customers with extensive worldwide destinations, flights and services. Including its SkyTeam and worldwide codeshare partners, Delta offers flights to 500 worldwide destinations in 105 countries. Customers can check in for flights, print boarding passes, check bags and flight status at delta.com.

Delta is planning on installing the Cozy Suite in its Boeing 777 and 767 economy class aircraft by 2010. Plus, the impending merger between Delta and Northwest could mean that travelers loyal to the latter company might reap the benefits of these new seats as well. Until then, you will just have to suck it up or spring for a higher class ticket. [Thompson Solutions via DVICE via Crunchgear]

If you want a hotel room with more, um, modern accommodations, W Hotels will have flat screens and iPod docks by year's end. Marriott is making the same promise, but not until 2009. And for $20 extra a night, at a couple of locations Hilton will set you up with a "Sight and Sound" room that has a 42-inch HDTV, surround sound and on-demand.

The major airline profiled in the article, Delta, is shooting to have its Delta on Demand setup on every flight longer than four hours by next summer, which offers 24 channels of live television, up to 28 films, 12 video games, more than 1,600 songs and 45 hours of HBO programming on a touchscreen in front of you. (Its Song airline sported something similar.)

That's all fabulous, truly. But we carry all of those iPods and PCs for a reason. For one, digital accommodations have been so shitty for so long, by now people expect to BYOE. More importantly, we (usually) want to watch or listen to our own library, which we can easily carry in its entirety by now. So here's the money question: Will these new "luxuries" spur you to pick one hotel or airline over another, or does it even matter anymore? [NYT]

The first run will be found in Delta terminals within JFK, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airports. Hopefully those locations have EB Games inside them like Pittsburgh International Airport did when I lived there, otherwise transforming these demos into sales might be a little tricky.– Ben Longo

Come Fly With Me: Nintendo Aiding Weary Travelers [Kotaku]