Who is going to explain to passengers why it is that they will be told to turn off any and all electronic devices during take off and landings for safety reasons and yet it's safe enough to use IPad's in the cockpit?
It's easy - bans on the use of consumer electronics during certain critical phases of flights are based on the fact that with a general use by passengers, there are an UNLIMITED number of POTENTIAL combinations of sources of interference with aircraft avionics. You simply cannot test for EVERYTHING, so the only prudent option is to have a blanket ban on it all.
The approval of iPads in the cockpit are based on extensive testing of a PARTICULAR device (ie a certain model of the device), in a PARTICULAR configuration, in a PARTICULAR position in the flightdeck, running a PARTICULAR suite of installed software. This is extensively tested in a controlled environment, and once absence of interference with aircraft systems (for a PARTICULAR airline, on a PARTICULAR serial number(s) of aircraft) is established, - approval is granted.
If it makes you or any other passengers any happier, rest assured that no operational flight crew will be allowed to whip out their own personal iPad and play "Words With Friends" below 10.000’ either....
