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Tired of turning off all your gadgets while waiting for airplanes to takeoff — even gadgets that have virtually no wireless connectivity? It looks like you might be able to keep your using your Kindle or NOOK during takeoff and landing soon.
This cannot be good news for SkyMall.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.
- You might eventually be able to use your Kindles, tablets, etc on planes while taking off and landing
An advisory panel thinks you should probably refrain from making calls or using wireless data during takeoff and landing, but there’s no reason to shut off all electronics. The full FAA will now consider the recommendation. [AP] - Install Windows 8.1 apps on up to 81 PCs
Up until now if you bought an app from the Windows Store, you’d be able to install it on up to 5 computers connected to your Windows account. Now that number goes up to 81. Basically buy once, use anywhere. The only people likely to hit the limit anytime soon are poor tech bloggers who review an awful lot of computers…[Microsoft] - HP Slate 8 Pro hits the FCC
The HP Slate 8 Pro is an 8 inch Android tablet with a 1600 x 1200 pixel display. It’s due out in November, and it showed up at the FCC website this week. [FCC] - Voltaic releases Switch, a lighter solar-powered backpack for charging tablets, phones
Voltaic has been making solar backpacks for years. The company’s new model has a solar panel which can charge you gadgets and a battery which you can use at night or on cloudy days. But it’s smaller, lighter (and packs less juice) than earlier models. [Engadget] - Ubuntu 13.10 Final Beta released
The next major build of the popular GNU/Linux operating system is due out in October. This is the first and last beta if you want to kick the tires a bit early or check out the latest builds of the new Ubuntu Touch software for phones and tablets. [Ubuntu] - Ubuntu Touch running on the PengPod1040 tablet (which is seeking funds on Indiegogo)
Speaking of Ubuntu, the folks hoping to bring a dual-boot, Android and Ubuntu tablet to market are showing Ubuntu Touch running on the PengPod1040 (which is still far short of hitting its $349,000 crowdfunding goal). [YouTube]
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81 computers… Like, for instance, the entire office. Good news for any company with a rinky-dink workgroup of Windows machines all on the same MS account–not so good for anyone developing business apps