By Stephen Silver Ever reach into your pocket at the end of a long flight to turn on your phone, only to realize it was on all along? You’re not alone. A study released Thursday found that 30 percent of U.S. airplane passengers have accidentally left a personal electronic device turned on while on a plane. According to the “Portable Electronic Devices on Aircraft” study, jointly conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX),  69 percent of respondents say they have used an electronic device in-flight. The study comes as the federal government is considering relaxing restrictions on in-flight...

The Consumer Electronics Association released some interesting data yesterday about electronic devices on planes. • Ninety-nine percent of flyers bring a portable electronic device on a flight with them. That's a lot of gadgets! • Thirty percent of them have forgotten to turn off a device at some time. Whoops! Another interesting breakdown is this: The study found that when asked to turn off their electronic devices, 59 percent of passengers say they always turn their devices completely off, 21 percent of passengers say they switch their devices to “airplane mode,” and five percent say they sometimes turn their devices completely off. Of those passengers who...

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By Stephen Silver Of the many constant pet peeves associated with modern-day air travel--from inexplicable delays to intrusive security measures to really, really bad food--I think the one that bothers me most is needing to turn off electronic devices during landing and takeoff. This was bad enough years ago, when the flashing of the “turn off electronic devices” sign meant needing to turn off your Discman before you finished listening to your Barenaked Ladies CD. Now, in the age of the smartphone and tablet, it’s downright oppressive. Roughly eight out of 10 people I’ve seen on airplanes in the last two years...

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Carly Fleischmann, an autistic nonverbal teenager, was made to put away her iPad, her only form of communication, during an American Airlines flight, reports Babble.com. Carly was diagnosed at the age of two with autism and an oral motor condition that prevented her from speaking. Doctors told Carly's parents that she would never surpass the intellectual capacity of a small child. Now at age 17, Carly has proven these professionals wrong. After years of intensive therapy, Carly has figured out her own form of communication by typing on her computer and iPad. She's now an author with over 42,000 Facebook fans...

One of the more annoying things to owners of e-readers who travel is the restriction against using electronic devices during taxi, take-off, and landing. The FAA’s regulations restrict using these devices out of concern that they could interfere with the avionics of the airplanes. And while the FAA has said that airlines are free to request exemptions for particular devices, the testing required to request that exemption is costly enough that most airlines would prefer to let their passengers go on being annoyed. However, Nick Bilton of the NY Times’s “Bits” blog reports that when he called the FAA last week...

Anyone who’s ever used Google Maps with an iPad knows that the device is great for navigation. But now the FAA has reached the same conclusion. On Wired’s “Autopia” blog, Jason Paur reports that the FAA has just allowed a charter jet company to begin using the iPad and aviation chart app Mobile TC as a substitute for bulky, heavy paper charts. The app and device underwent rigorous safety testing to convince the FAA to allow it, and its use will require having a second approved electronic device (probably another iPad) in the cockpit for redundancy. An FCC...