Consumer Confidential: Flying iPads, Nintendo hacked, Batman begins again
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Here’s your more-more-more Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:
-- Fly the friendly iPad? British Airways is experimenting with handing out iPads for in-flight entertainment. The carrier has already begun trials of the iPad on selected Boeing 777 services as an alternative to the portable DVD players currently issued to first-class passengers. Late last year, Finnair began offering its premium passengers the use of an iPad on flights between Helsinki and Hong Kong. The tablets were preloaded with content including newspapers, magazines, movies and TV shows, music and games. Apple’s touchscreen tablet is even finding its way into the cockpit, with Qantas investigating the use of the iPad as a replacement for bulky flight manuals.
-- First Sony, now Nintendo. The Wii maker said it was targeted in a recent online data attack but that no personal or company information was lost. The server of an affiliate of Nintendo’s U.S. unit was accessed unlawfully a few weeks ago, but a spokesman said there was no damage. The damage was more serious at Sony. It says a huge amount of confidential info, including email addresses, names and birth dates, and involving more than 100 million users, is suspected of having been stolen after security was compromised in April for its network service for the PlayStation 3 game machine. It is still unclear who is behind the attacks at Sony and Nintendo.
-- If you’re a comics collector (like I was and my son is now), some potentially big news: DC Comics is taking its flagship ‘Detective Comics’ back to No. 1 at the end of the summer, part of its push to renumber all of its superhero titles and give the characters new looks, new attitudes and a contemporary feel. This is kind of a big deal because No. 1 issues have more cachet as collectibles (even thought it was ‘Detective’ No. 27, in which Batman made his debut in 1939, that sold last year for more than $1 million). DC says it also will renumber its ongoing monthly ‘Batman’ comic at No. 1. The company is launching 52 titles at No. 1 in September. DC has published ‘Detective Comics’ every month since 1937 and is up to issue 877.
-- David Lazarus
