I have no trouble believing that they were on laptops. Working on a computer can be very engrossing, which is why working on a laptop should be banned on the flight deck.
ALL of these "electronic devices" can be extremely engrossing (have you ever witnessed a Blackberry zombie? I'm surrounded by them. To think that pilots are probably crack-berry'ing at 30-thousand feet at the expense of my gullible self sitting back in cattle-class is highly disturbing to me, to say the least). This all takes place at the detriment of safety, as well as other quality-of-life aspects. There are new psycho-sociological disciplines being created to deal with 'man's' newfound 'addiction' to the internet, blackberrying, "Twi t t ering" (what a fu_king disgrace to the sensibility of humankind - now I suppose we can hear 'real-time' from pilots at 3400FL about how their last bowel movement went), and on and on.
The proliferation of these devices is creating an entire society of dumbed-down, "ADD-infected" inability-to-pay-attention ignorati.
The entire commercial aviation industry is facing enough issues as it is - it had better clamp down on this latest right away. Folks here may not like my strong words - but mark them down ... this issue is real, and regardless of what happens in this particular case, does anyone who's thoughtfully and carefully considered what I have to say think it's going to go away? Au contraire - it will only increase.