Alaska Air is going to start giving its first class passengers (and renting to coach passengers) a portable handheld video and audio player to keep them entertained in-flight. Called the digEplayer, it will have nine movies (it can store up to thirty), three TV shows, and ten hours of music stored on its hard drive when it becomes available later this year. The big incentive for people not to steal the players is that it uses a proprietary battery that can’t be easily recharged, and to prevent bootlegging, once the battery dies all of the music or movies or TV shows on it are encrypted so there’s no way to replay any of it. We’re also assuming that they’re going to make the proles in coach class put down a credit card number.
