Re:Lenovo Launches ThinkPad X1 Yoga at CES with OLED Display
by JoshTriplett on Monday January 04, 2016 @08:38AM
(#10835532)
> For that, the laptop must be on and booted. The main advantage of the hardware rfkill switch is that you can flick it to disabled before booting or waking up the laptop, so that it doesn't even try to connect before you can get to the wireless icon.
Fair point. However, planes don't require turning off wifi or bluetooth during normal flight anymore. (And even when they did, no actual harm was done either way.)
Re:Lenovo Launches ThinkPad X1 Yoga at CES with OLED Display
by cesarb on Monday January 04, 2016 @08:52AM
(#10835599)
> However, planes don't require turning off wifi or bluetooth during normal flight anymore.
When I last flew (domestically, last year), the instruction was still that devices could only be used if they had an "airplane mode" function. Things might be different in your country. (And yes, I know normal 802.11 probe request packets won't do much interference, if any, to airplane systems. Still, it doesn't harm to flick the rfkill switch to disabled.)
Re:Lenovo Launches ThinkPad X1 Yoga at CES with OLED Display
by JoshTriplett on Monday January 04, 2016 @09:04AM
(#10835650)
The requirement in the US, and other countries I've flown in or through, was to disable cellular radios, not wifi or bluetooth.
Sometimes airlines fail to communicate that well. A friend of mine had a flight where they first warned against using any device with any kind of radio transmitter, shortly followed by "please enjoy our in-flight wifi".
For that, the laptop must be on and booted. The main advantage of the hardware rfkill switch is that you can flick it to disabled before booting or waking up the laptop, so that it doesn't even try to connect before you can get to the wireless icon.
(I've done that before: on a plane, want to use the laptop, which is sleeping in the bag; just flick the rfkill switch and open the lid to resume from suspend.)