From a recent article in Travel Weekly by Andrew Compart:
Apple is teaming up with 6 airlines to offer fliers seat connections that will power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on their seat back displays. Participating airlines are: Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United beginning in mid-2007.
My iPod competes with my passport for most valuable item to travel with. (After January 8, the passport has a definite edge.) Listening to an iPod is a great way to get through the throng of street vendors (and beggars) in Beijing. I know, it sounds rude and elitist, but by day 7, I had been offered 1200 Mao watches, received 875 solicitations for money and had dozens of experiences in alternate personal space boundaries. I earned my solitude.
Concierge.com, a great site by Conde Nast Traveler, has a great article on traveling with the iPod. I especially like the tip about Griffin's iTalk microphone attachment to capture voice recordings. On that same trip to Beijing, the guides were fantastic! Very knowledgeable, funny and (mostly) young and hip. I couldn't take notes fast enough. Plus it's more fun to just enjoy the moment. A digital recording would enable me to be present now and recap later. I'll be checking that out at the Apple store later today...