Using ebook readers on aeroplanes?

[Chi Cygni]

I am absolutely sure it wasn't broken. I had it in my small purse which I put on the belt, it went through scanner, and the woman said "there's a computer inside" I took it out to show her and the screen was normal as always. It had a padded leather cover. I opened the cover and said "look this is not a computer, it's an ereader" One staircase later to the upper level of the airport when I sat down to read and turned it on ---- screen in thick stripes, no reset, off/on helped. I had it replaced.

With the new one I travelled in September. The same cover PLUS I wrapped it in aluminum foil (on hearsay it can protect from radiation) everything went smoothly although my luggage was almost empty (weaker scanner in another country?). The same procedure on return. I took it out of the luggage where it was sitting all the time, tucked among clothes (not too deep which I now regret) I turned it on at home and kaboom, dead, the same stripes in different configuration. This is (was, now I have Opus) extremely frustrating and annoying as I just arrived in Belgium where I hoped to be able to read books in my language. What is worse that ereader is tied to a bookstore and books I bought for it cannot be read on anything else.

The common line here is it always happened after air travel when I switched it on. I never dropped any of them. Cannot be cold, I don't think so. The only harmful effect I assume is the xray it went through. Or else I have no idea

I will never take Opus with me nor the ipad because it freaks me out now. I wonder what the company will say when I send them back the same faulty looking thing and if they will replace it. I want money back.

sniff.

[parkher]

I think, the reason you have to switch devices off during take offs and landings is that in the case of a crash the switched on devices perhaps are more likely to cause a fire, at least some of them.
Just so there are less sparkles in a pool of aviation fuel.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by parkher

I think, the reason you have to switch devices off during take offs and landings is that in the case of a crash the switched on devices perhaps are more likely to cause a fire, at least some of them.
Just so there are less sparkles in a pool of aviation fuel.

ummm no

[RSaunders]

Originally Posted by FF2

Do READERS have to be removed from carry-on luggage like laptop computers or are they treated more like cell phones and camera and mp3 players and can they remain inside the luggage during scanning?

I fly with my reader all the time. I remove it, because I have to open my briefcase to get out my laptop anyway. If I don't, they ask to run it through again about 3/4 of the time. Now my briefcase is full of computer cables and other scary looking wires. My wife just has hers in her purse, and that causes a rerun only 1/4 of the time. It's really a function of how hard it is to figure out what they are looking at, so I take it out to speed up the line.

Regarding damage to readers by radiation. I've sent my Sony through over 100 times in it's plastic case (see here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11420). It's never had a problem. I acknowledge that the reports of devices rebooting are possible, if the radiation glitches a bit of memory, but I can't imagine that the radiation would permanently damage a device.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

I am absolutely sure it wasn't broken.

Do you happen to have a picture of the screen that you can post?

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Do you happen to have a picture of the screen that you can post?

yup. Here: http://hoth.w.interii.pl/c/eb600.jpg

I didn't drop it. I treated them both like eggs... the second one has thicker lines.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

yup. Here: http://hoth.w.interii.pl/c/eb600.jpg

That looks like physical screen damage (the borders of the white area look like cracks). A direct impact is not the only reason for breaking a screen, something that "twists" the device is also very likely to break it. Besides, a screen could break unexpectedly some time after the impact or twist has happened, the breaking remains "latent" until it shows (ever seen a cooled bottle of water remain liquid until you touch it or move it, when it begins to freeze almost instantly?). Extreme and sudden changes in temperature, as could happen in the baggage compartment of a plane, might help breaking or showing a break in a screen too.

As unsatisfactory as it seems, I'd say you were just unlucky.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

I am absolutely sure it wasn't broken. I had it in my small purse which I put on the belt, it went through scanner, and the woman said "there's a computer inside" I took it out to show her and the screen was normal as always. It had a padded leather cover. I opened the cover and said "look this is not a computer, it's an ereader" One staircase later to the upper level of the airport when I sat down to read and turned it on ---- screen in thick stripes, no reset, off/on helped. I had it replaced.

With the new one I travelled in September. The same cover PLUS I wrapped it in aluminum foil (on hearsay it can protect from radiation) everything went smoothly although my luggage was almost empty (weaker scanner in another country?). The same procedure on return. I took it out of the luggage where it was sitting all the time, tucked among clothes (not too deep which I now regret) I turned it on at home and kaboom, dead, the same stripes in different configuration. This is (was, now I have Opus) extremely frustrating and annoying as I just arrived in Belgium where I hoped to be able to read books in my language. What is worse that ereader is tied to a bookstore and books I bought for it cannot be read on anything else.

The common line here is it always happened after air travel when I switched it on. I never dropped any of them. Cannot be cold, I don't think so. The only harmful effect I assume is the xray it went through. Or else I have no idea

I will never take Opus with me nor the ipad because it freaks me out now. I wonder what the company will say when I send them back the same faulty looking thing and if they will replace it. I want money back.

sniff.

Outch. that's scary. Did you had the reader with you ? Or was it in the baggage compartment ?

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by Jellby

As unsatisfactory as it seems, I'd say you were just unlucky.

Thank you Jellby for your answer. Those readers then must have been faulty before they reached me. The screen itself is not broken it just has lines. (I understand you mean some invisible crack underneath which lead to this) I'm no expert so I can only guess. Knowing that I really treated them with care and no twist or physical break was done by me, as an unexperienced buyer I assumed it must have been the scanner radiation. Oh well, I'm done with that company anyway. Imagine the second reader sometimes took more that 5 seconds to refresh the page, not to mention it froze every other day plus battery lasted 2 days of reading.

Eowyn

the first one (on the photo) developed those lines 10 minutes after it went through scanner in my handbag. No sudden change of temperature occured. The second reader died on arrival at home after travelling in the luggage compartment, wrapped cautiously.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

The screen itself is not broken it just has lines. (I understand you mean some invisible crack underneath which lead to this)

Yes, the screen is not a single pane, but it's composed of different layers. The outer layer is the one you see and touch, that's probably plastic and not easily breakable, but there is some inner layer (with the electrodes, I believe) which is typically made of very thin glass (though apparently there are new screens with this layer made of plastic too), and is therefore prone to cracking. When the glass layer breaks you usually see something like your photo.

I'm no expert either, but the above is what I've understood mainly from reading this forum

[EowynCarter]

the first one (on the photo) developed those lines 10 minutes after it went through scanner in my handbag. No sudden change of temperature occured. The second reader died on arrival at home after travelling in the luggage compartment, wrapped cautiously.

Given how fragile e-ink screen are, and the frequent mishandling of luggages in airport, the second part don't surprise me.
As to the first this is definitely weird. Unless the screen was hit at some other moment.

[pwjone1]

As an Electrical Engineer, I think I partly understand the request to turn off all electrical devices. You can have electromagnetic interference (EMI) from any electronic device. It doesn't have to be designed to transmit or receive, it's going to happen, so long as it's on. It's generally a function of the cycle times and so forth, for a digital device, but there can effectively be harmonics, tends to leak where the cases are not quite designed right, or there's an external connection point, etc. The airplanes electronics or sensors could be sensitive, depending on the frequencies involved. They should be normally designed to be a little tolerant, people forget to turn things off. But new devices come along all of the time, so.... Plus, it's probably just simplest to tell people to turn them off, rather then spend time arguing about whether device x is OK on plane y. Probably overly cautious in terms of a well designed electronic device, FCC OK'd, etc., and I would expect that the laws will change within the next 10 years, but I suppose the FAA is just being cautious.

On a flight back from Zurich, there was a beep as I went through the entry door to the airplane, asked and was told it was a phone detector. Rather new Boeing, so that was an interesting development. Ironically, my phone was powered down at the time (Europe, CDMA is pretty useless), but my Kindle 2 e-Reader was not, had just been reading it in the lounge, closed it to get on the plane (although I thought I had wireless off). I'm not sure why the door detector, they don't usually make you turn the phone off until the door is closed and they're pulling away, but maybe they're getting ready to have you power the phone off on entrance to the plane. There were a couple of new security measures in place for this flight, they really played 20 questions about my laptop (which was new, somehow they don't seem to like newer laptops) and various other bits and pieces of electronic devices, anything with a battery.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

yup. Here: http://hoth.w.interii.pl/c/eb600.jpg

I didn't drop it. I treated them both like eggs... the second one has thicker lines.

That's definitely a physically broken screen. The funny pattern comes from a crack in the glass layer underneath.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Yes, the screen is not a single pane, but it's composed of different layers. The outer layer is the one you see and touch, that's probably plastic and not easily breakable, but there is some inner layer (with the electrodes, I believe) which is typically made of very thin glass (though apparently there are new screens with this layer made of plastic too), and is therefore prone to cracking. When the glass layer breaks you usually see something like your photo.

I'm no expert either, but the above is what I've understood mainly from reading this forum

Jellby is correct. You won't feel a broken screen, because the top layer is plastic. The break is underneath in the substrate. Either an impact or twisting of the device can cause broken screens, and eInk screens are relatively fragile.

I don't know how or when it happened, but your device definitely has a broken screen. I don't think it had anything to do with the radiation from the scanner.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by Soph94

Hi, just wondering what people's experiences are using ebook readers on aeroplanes? We're usually told (well in Aus anyway) not to use any MP3 players/electronics during takeoff and landing, and just wondering if ebook readers are generally classed in that category?

There is no technical evidence that 3G signal, a cellphone or an ereader with wifi on, can affect in any way, an airplane's controllers.

Having said that, there are some flight attendants that they don't care ... others, will make your life miserable if you don't do what they say. Remember, they don't know anything about technology, they are just following processes. Because there are so many electronics devices out there and so many new gadgets, they don't want to take the risk and basically want everything off, no matter what. It would be a nightmare to test each and every new electronic device and see if will or will not certainly affect an airplane's instruments.

Actually, I think iPAD will be recently certify by fcc, here in USA, so can be used by pilots and read "live" maps while traveling, as second option to on board instruments.