Anyone used their iPad on a flight ?

Santa Claus

Reason I ask is that I fly a lot so was thinking of investing in an iPad, but I noticed in the specs on the website that it has the following:
"Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)"

Now I know that aircrafts are pressurised so the relative altitude is more like 8000ft but just wondering do the altitude dramatically affect battery life etc?

barryd09

Interesting question!

Unfortunatley I dont know,hardly would affect it majorily though,would it?

seamus

Afaik, altitude is more to do with temps than anything else. Lower air pressure means that the ambient cooling used by the likes of iPads is less effective (less air) and so the heat of the components rises.

Since a constant pressure is maintained in the aircraft, you shouldn't notice any major problems.

Warmer electronics means that the resisivity of the components increases, and my hazy electronics knowledge says that means that more power is drawn (and lost) from the battery in order to maintain performance.

So it's likely you won't get the maximum rated battery life out of the iPad on a flight.

I would also imagine that maximum altitude is somewhat understated, so the degradation wouldn't be that bad.

In any case, you could always get a backup battery which should cover you for pretty much any flight you'd be on.

Tazzle

I travelled to Vancouver via Chicago from Dublin. I watched about 10 hours of divx on cinexplayer and browsed the web a fair bit in the terminals. It still had about 30% battery left when I touched down in Canada. So no need to worry bro! Great long haul gadget.

Victor_M

^ What he said, works great, stick it into airplane mode to save battery and turn brightness down a bit.

I went from Dublin - London, London - San Fran, used it almost solidly for 20 hours between movies, games, music and Ebook reader still had 16% left when I arrived to my hotel in San Fran.

I would guess the max altitude would be based on it being exposed to the atmosphere at that altitude as someone already mentioned the cabin if fully pressurised, maybe the gyroscope or compass gets messed up at those heights.

molliesassy

Tazzle,
May I ask how do you convert your dvd's to divx? Or can anyone elso please tell me how I can copy dvd's to my ipad?

OREGATO

Haven't flown with mine yet, but was on a flight from the states where the person beside me was using theirs. Should be a problem

Lordhumphreys

Have used mine on short flights, no problems at all, except Ryanair will make you switch it off pre take off and landing!

Paddy@CIRL

Haved used mine to and from Dubai, Milan and London in the last couple of weeks with no problems at all. I noticed if you're reading an ebook they don't ask you to turn it off but for anything on screen you get the dreaded tap on the shoulder !

Blazer

It only applies to an actual altitude where the ipad itself is subjected to...
Cabin pressure on planes etc doesn't count as it's isolated both from the air pressure and the cold