Skip to main content

FAA might approve the use of electronic devices during takeoff and landing


A source of irritation for air travelers who like digital devices continues to be the fact that most airlines force you to turn your gadgets off at certain stages of flight. The FAA has been conducting a study looking at the possibility of expanding usage for electronics on commercial aircraft during flight. According to the New York Times, the study may result in a significant change to the rules aboard commercial aircraft by the end of 2013.
The New York Times cites sources working with an industry group that the FAA set up last year to study the use of electronic devices on aircraft. This agency hopes to announce by the end of the year that rules for reading devices during takeoff and landing will be relaxed. However, the source is clearly saying that the change in rules would not include mobile phones.

The New York Times says that a member of the working group and an official at the FAA both confirmed this plan, but wanted to remain anonymous because they aren’t allowed to speak publicly. Both of the sources said that the FAA was under pressure to let people use reading devices or provide solid scientific evidence as to why travelers shouldn’t be allowed to use the devices. This will be very difficult to do considering some major airlines now allow pilots and other crew members to use iPads during all phases of flight.

This working group that the FAA set up last year includes some big-name participants including Amazon, the CEA, Boeing, the Association of Flight Attendents, and the FCC among others. The findings from this working group are expected to be announced by July 31, 2013. Part of the push for a change in the rules has to do with the growing number of wearable computing devices that will be coming to market. Specifically things like smartwatches along the lines of the rumored Apple iWatch and things like Google Glass wearable glasses.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

iPad (2022) and iPad Pro with M2 announced

Apple has announced their latest iteration of the iPad (entry level model) and the iPad Pro lineup with the new M2 processor. The event, held on the 18th of October as a recorded session displayed the key features of the iPads with the most significant being the base model iPad which has now received an upgrade. iPad 2022 This model of the base model iPad ditches the almost 12 year old home button and display layout and goes for a cleaner display only design found on the iPad Air . The chassis, which now comes with flatter sides and a TouchID fingerprint sensor on the top has also abandoned the lightning port in favor of USB C and it also comes with a set of pogo style connectors for accessories including a keyboard with trackpad.  Internally, the iPad comes either as a Wifi only (Wifi6) and a 5G cellular model and is offered with 64 or 256GB of storage. The processor has also been upgraded to the Apple A14 which is the same found on the iPhone 12 series and last year's iPad Air. L

HTC One to sell as TD 101 at China Mobile

HTC decided to invest in such a brand by launching the One series of smartphones last year, although the company was not able to impose its own product names to certain carriers. Then, just a few days ago, the company launched the HTC One, which is going to be the company’s only One-branded handset this year, a make-or-break kind of project for the Taiwanese Android maker that’s still having a tough time fighting against the competition, especially Samsung. We were under the impression that HTC will further invest in its One brand and not budge to carrier demands anymore when it comes to changing the name of the product – in the U.S., AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are going to sell it as the HTC One. But it looks like things aren’t necessarily so, and no, it’s not Verizon that’s going to get its way selling the One as the Droid DNA Plus, as it was recently rumored. We’re looking at China Mobile this time around, which has announced the HTC One as the HTC TD 101. That’s certa

Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 pro along with Pixel watch unveiled.

  Google announced their latest Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones along with the Pixel Watch - google's first wearable at a special launch event today. The devices, which are powered by Google's second generation Tensor SOC bring major improvements in photography which has always been Google's highlight. Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Google's Pixel 7 and the Pixel 7 Pro are Google's latest flagship phones for 2022. The devices, which have been developed around the Tensor G2 - Google's second generation processor developed on a 4nm architecture. The chipset, which consists of 2 Cortex X1 cores, 2 Cortex A78 cores and 4 Cortex A55 cores with a Mali G710 MC10 GPU cores and the chip is paired with 8GB of RAM for the Pixel 7 and 12GB RAM for the Pro variant. Both models come with 128 / 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage and the pro model comes with 512GB. The phones, which come with two different display sizes consist of a 6.3" 2400x1080 AMOLED display with 90Hz refre