WWTD? Throw the phone out the window at 35k feet?

Today’s seemingly unrelated superfluous pop culture reference: Saw Fight Club for the first time over the weekend.

Why is this tied in, you ask?

Taking cell phone usage into the great beyond, the European Union apparently is close to allowing cell phone usage during flights, once the plane hits 10,000 feet.

There has been some noise about this in the U.S., but the Federal Aviation Adminstration and the Federal Communications Commission keep saying that there is evidence that wireless phones interfere with airliner instruments.

Is this a step toward worldwide use of such devices with your seat back in the relaxed position? Me hopes not.

First, on the technology side - given that most of Europe is on the GSM standard, this makes sense. And I have no problem if someone were to use their device (especially 3G enabled) for Web browsing, e-mail, etc. But why not do it as other airlines have been trying: create one collection point for Wi-Fi in the cabin with 3G backhaul to the ground towers?

Has anyone been on a plane with such a set-up? There have been some trials and courting between the airlines, aircraft maker Boeing and its creation Connexion, a firm trying to creat such a service. If you wanted to talk, couldn’t you just fire up your Skype or other IP phone in the process?

Why? Because it leads me to …

Second, the social ramifications of this are huge. Imagine sitting on the red-eye cross country … next to Paris Hilton and her Sidekick. Or a businessman trying to close a deal, when all you want is to close your eyes for a few.

Sure there are these objects of my device lust that block noise and increase fidelity, but you get the idea. Just had an interesting conversation with my wife about cell etiquette - and how you shouldn’t leave your cell out on the table at a restaurant: it shows you think the call is more important than you.

But once you allow someone to turn on their phone/device for data, how are you going to regulate/police them from talking on it? If I can flip open my laptop and get a Wi-Fi signal, you better believe I’m going to fire up my IP phone and talk to someone if I need to.

All I know is that I wouldn’t want to sit next to me on an airplane were cell phones allowed to be used.

Now, for the reference to “Fight Club” (based on a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk) … To a certain degree, Tyler Durden (the Brad Pitt character) was right: technology has led to a deevolution of other sorts, especially in our interactions with each other.

In his words: “Tell him the liberator who destroyed my property has realigned my perception. “

There are several scenes in airplanes, including a bit about replacing the instructions-in-case-of-an-emergency” card with something a bit more realistic, if fatalistic.

And two all-time classic quotes for those who travel:

“Now, a question of etiquette - as I pass, do I give you the ass or the crotch?”

“You wake up at Seatac, SFO, LAX. You wake up at O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, BWI. Pacific, mountain, central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time. You wake up at Air Harbor International. If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?”

My thoughts on the whole possible FAA/FCC ban isn’t that it interferes with on-board influences. It’s the same reason many devices that have no such properties are banned during takeoff - they interfere with hearing the instructions of the flight attendants. Which of course are to take the oxygen that Tyler from Fight Club says is just to make us high to accept our fate, and to put our heads between our legs - so we can kiss our derriere goodbye.

Allowing people, strike that, a person wanting to have one-sided conversations in a silver tube streaking along at 450 mph at 30,000 feet sounds a little desperate to me.

Now, I’ve gotta go - I’m smoking a turkey (on the grill of course).

Yahoo! to go

Want to know why Microsoft is so hot to get into Yahoo!’s pants? Check out the new Yahoo! Go service.

Of all the non-device/non-network/non-service providers doing business with the wireless world, Yahoo! gets it the most.

Sure, I am a huge Windows Mobile fan, but the way that Yahoo! is linking the wired and wireless Web is two years ahead of everyone else.

Over the past month, the company also known as Google’s also-ran has been rolling out Yahoo! Go to different cell phone models (it’s a download into your phone that allows you to bookmark sites online and then take them with you - along with other virtual syncing services between your phone and your Yahoo! account).

It’s a client, sure, but it is closer to the Web based application model that works for the PC-based Internet for a cell phone than anything else out there.

As Google ramps up its mobile play with its new Android operating system for phones, and other venures, Microsoft is turning to Yahoo! to stay caught up.

Anyone agree/disagree? Any one besides me trying Yahoo! Go?

It might be too soon for “I told you so,” but …

I can’t believe I missed this in the shuffle last week, but here goes:

 Turns out that Nielsen has done another survey - this time on the efficacy of mobile advertisements.

According to the Reuters piece linked above, the number of cell phone users who saw an ad on their device rose 38 percent. A total of 58 million people saw ads (but it doesn’t say how many were distinctive users). Also no info on take rates or the like, but clearly, that is not a number to sneeze at.

But the story cites Nielsen as saying that a third of those with data services would be willing to get ads on their phones if it lowered their bills. Now couple that with cool content such as songs/ringtones/wallpapers/ringbacks - and you could have a content-for-ad swap dynamic.

In fact, the survey says that 13 percent of respondents would agree to ads if that improved the content on their phones.

To me, this is a clear indication that if the model is right, people won’t feel as if such ads are spam.

Speaking of content, link here to see about a cool new music service for the BlackBerry that is trying to rival the iPhone at the same time that Apple is trying to add more “businessman specials” to the iPhone’s application lineup with the beta release of its SDK earlier this week.

Thanks, but my wife already says I’m chained to my BlackBerry

LinkedIn is going mobile - sort of.

The business-oriented social networking site matched previous moves made by MySpace and Facebook by hooking into a wireless application.

You can now access your LinkedIn profile information, including contacts and the like, on an interface specially designed for the wireless Web (m.linkedin.com).

Tried it this weekend, and it wasn’t too bad. Very light on graphics, as is to be expected. You can send invites into the network pretty easily but it doesn’t have the send a message feature that is included on the full Web version.

If you are a big mobile user and a big LinkedIn networker, it will save some time in downloading, especially on a slower network. But if you are on a Wi-Fi connection or have access to a 3G wireless network and have a full browser on your BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device, go with the full version.