Aluminum Foil Stops iPhone Car Tape Adapter Buzz

When I tested Monster's "iPhone compatible" tape adapter, I expected the $25 setup to have extra shielding to stop GSM buzz from the cellular radios. It didn't. As a joke, I tried some anti-alien brainwashing technology, or aluminum foil. Turns out wrapping a bit around the first few inches kills off a lot of the louder spikes in GSM buzz. Tragic it took some Reynolds Wrap to make my shiny car and my $600 iPhone work well together, but I no longer have to switch to airplane mode or risk blowing out my speakers with EMI bursts.

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Virgin America's In-Flight Ethernet, USB, 110v Power and Doom

Artur Bergman of Six Apart and O'Reilly got a tour of the new Virgin America planes and found some some amazing geek amenities. Every seat includes 110 volt AC current, ethernet, USB ports for charging iPods and phones, but will also accept a QWERTY for the linux-based, thin client, in flight entertainment system. And, it has Doom. But I'm not sure if it has Internet.

I wonder if that Ethernet is actually Internet-active. Probably not, which could be the killer, esp when American Airlines rolls their WiFi, but as a random aside, check out that purple mood lighting. More cool facts: The servers have about 3000 MP3s, and if you create a playlist, it links it to your profile, and the next time you book a flight, your playlists will reappear on your new flight, at your new seat. And, the system, called "Red", was developed in house and does the standard movies, sat TV, mp3s, and games. But it also has a plane wide chatroom, per-channel chatrooms, and private messages.

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$1150, Quad-Driver, Ultimate Ears UE-11 Pro Headphones

Ultimate Ears makes some of the best earphones I've ever heard, with the high end UE line made of custom molded pieces with multiple drivers inside. The UE-11 Pro raises the bar to having 4 in each ear, broken down into dual subs, a mid and tweeter. Audio sensitivity is 110dB at 1mW, which is very efficient. Available in a variety of colors and designs (including monograms) for $1150. I believe that's in a custom metal case.

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