News: When An iPhone Is Not A Phone

This is an interesting article about an airline passenger who was held and questioned by police for watching a video on his iPhone. The passenger said an ATA flight attendant had him questioned by the airport police because he refused to stop watching a movie on his iPhone during the flight. The iPhone was in "airplane mode," the passenger said, with all the communication signals turned off.

This got me thinking do flight attendants have to take classes on using handheld technology? What I mean is I have a Treo 700P it looks exactly the same when on as off (see photo) with the exception of the top of the main screen, that says "Phone Off". There are so many devices such as iPhones, BlackBerries, etc, it would be really hard to know if a users phone is on or off. Plus to add to the complexity, I can have my in "Phone Off" mode and still have Bluetooth enabled. This really needs to be defined the FAA/FCC as when and what we can do as passingers. What are your thoughts?

Source Non-Mobile: http://blogs.courant.com/travel_columnists_leblanc/2007/10/when-a-phone-is.html

Tags: Airlines, Mobile, Legal, Safety
Technorati Tags: Airlines, Mobile, Legal, Safety