See, now this could get interesting... Here we have the iBook, a marvel of modern design. While it's reportedly too big to operate comfortably on a plane, it is a portable, and that's one of the things people are expected to do with portables. You've all been there-- you're on the plane, it reaches cruising altitude, and all the guys in suits unsheath their company-issued black laptops, fire 'em up, and make a brief pretense of "working" by firing up Microsoft Office and reading a couple of documents before playing Solitaire for the rest of the flight (or as long as their batteries will allow). It's like a business ritual to establish the laptop pecking order, or something; he who has the most expensive laptop is the Alpha-Suit.

The iBook's a bit different, of course. As a consumer-geared portable, it won't score you any points among the Suits (like you'd want that!), but it's sure to draw attention from everyone who glimpses its translucent clamshell looks. In addition to looking cool, the iBook's long battery life means you can while away the hours by listening to MP3s or playing games. The thing is, the iBook is also Apple's first product to support AirPort, that nifty wireless networking architecture that we can personally claim is Mondo Cool™. But you know that little warning you hear on the plane about never using cellular phones in flight? AirPort works its magic in much the same way, so if you've got an AirPort-enabled iBook and you take it on the plane, you really should turn off the AirPort card before boarding. Apple's just posted a Technote warning people to do this.

Apparently failure to disable the AirPort card "may interfere with the avionics of the aircraft." That's a deliciously vague statement, but we choose to interpret it thusly: if you're in flight and you pull out your iBook to play a little Tomb Raider, if you haven't turned off the AirPort card, right about the time Lara Croft's backflipping across a yawning chasm, your plane slams into a mountainside-- because AirPort + AirCraft = MidAirCollision. We imagine this could cause some significant damage to your iBook; it's rugged, but it's not that rugged.

So, please, kiddies-- always disable your AirPort card before boarding. It's a simple process; one click on the Control Strip and you're all set. Besides, it's a good habit to get into, since the AirPort card draws power from your battery. You'll probably experience longer battery life if you keep the AirPort card off when not in range of your Base Station or whatever. Sadly, it sounds like this means wireless Unreal deathmatches at 30,000 feet just weren't meant to happen.