When I came back from Singapore I had the pleasure of finally flying an Airbus A380 – the largest commercial airliner in the world.

I was deeply impressed with the aircraft. It flew gracefully. It was incredibly quiet. The cabin was amazing and spacious.

All these things withstanding, probably because I’m a massive nerd, I was most impressed with the in-flight entertainment system.

I have taken a series of (bad) photos of the system below. Some highlights include:

• A USB port to allow you insert a thumb drive. Most spreadsheet, presentation, or word-processing documents can be opened on the screen and modified using a full QWERTY keypad on the back of the system controller!
• An ethernet port to allow for limited Internet access (when it’s available).
• A video input jack to allow you to play video on the screen from a third party device like an iPod, iPhone, portable DVD player, or video camera.
• Language tutorials. I believe there were 19 languages available. Not a bad thing to learn on your way to Asia!
• Loads of a games with a controller that reminds me of a Nintendo NES controller. They’re some 3d games in there, a bit laggy, but not a bad way to pass the time.