According to the New York Times, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will reconsider relaxing its restrictions placed against the use of tablets and e-readers during takeoff and landing, though smartphones are to remain off-limits.
There’s been mounting public pressure as the popularity of tablets have soared over the years. After all, it’s quite ridiculous that the 100 million tablet and e-reader owners can use their devices that, mind you, have been designed with travel needs in mind only while sitting in an airport for a couple of hours, but not on an airplane potentially for a lot more hours. Even more ridiculously, pilots have begun to use iPads for flight navigation, yet passengers remain closed off.
The biggest stumbling block will be finding an easier way to test the compatibility of devices with aircrafts. Current regulations require that each version of each type of device—i.e., the original iPad, the iPad 2, and the new iPad—be tested individually on flights with no passengers. That’s a lot of time, gas, and more importantly, money.
[via Business Insider]
