Tired of hokey in-flight movies or spotty DirecTV connections? United Airlines is adding an option for watching TV during flights that lets passengers stream content directly to their laptop, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch for free. The airline announced the new entertainment system in February and will roll it out on U.S. flights starting in April. United will preload 150 movies and 200 TV shows onto an on-board system. Passengers with compatible devices will be able to stream directly from a server on the plane, so there's no need to pay for in-flight WIFi service, and the airline won't have to worry about an entire airplane of people gobbling up bandwidth while binge-watching.
@highlight
United Airlines is adding free in-flight movie and TV streaming starting in April
@highlight
The service will work only with Apple mobile devices and Apple and Windows laptops
@highlight
United will preload 150 movies and 200 TV shows, swapping out the content monthly
Passengers can watch the movies and shows only while in the air, but @placeholder plans on making it work from "gate-to-gate" to reflect recent changes in mobile device policies.