

On the Hong Kong-to-Singapore leg of my SQ1 flight from San Francisco, a B777 aircraft, an air steward noticed my iPhone connected to the in-seat USB port.

He then told me I couldn't charge my iPhone this way. It seems it's not a question of not enough juice in that port but because the USB port does not have a circuit breaker and will keep charging even when the battery is full. Apparently it may overload the circuits or something.

I even offered to disconnect my iPhone when it was full but he wouldn't have any of it. So

I disconnected my iPhone from the USB port.

This is new to me. I have seen many people use it, myself included, without being told off.

It seems strange to me that you would design a plane with a USB port that cannot do what normal USB ports on computers do.

Anyways, I just switched to charging via the in-seat power socket (good thing I had my iPhone charger head with me).

So these SQ USB ports, are they only good for flash drives? Strangely, their Krisworld magazine touts connecting your iPhone to the Krisworld system to access your own movies and music via the in-seat screen and the connection method? The USB port.

They did have an asterisk on the iPhone bit that stated "On Selected Aircraft Only". So maybe my B777 was not one of the "Selected Aircraft".

Maybe Singapore Airlines can go to Sim Lim Square and pick up new USB ports for these planes. I heard got offer.