I’m surprised airplane mode is still a thing. It doesn’t matter for the purpose it was created, and letting users disconnect with a single toggle goes against the modern capitalist surveillance state. I guess it’d save battery since your phone wouldn’t be trying to connect to a new cell tower every few seconds?
Then again, on my Android tablet the mode doesn’t even disable the radios anymore. I can still use WiFi and Bluetooth just fine with it enabled. I’m not sure what airplane mode actually does these days.
Oh ffs… Okay, let’s get it through your pea sized brain. THE BASE STATION WOULD PROVIDE NO ACTUAL CONNECTIVITY. It is only there so the phones connect to it, and not a station outside the plane, during the times its dangerous for hundreds of phones to be constantly reconnecting to different stations.
To continue your WiFi analogy… imagine a WiFi router without the modem/WAN connection. It provides a local network to connect to, but no internet connectivity.
Doesn’t matter, the cell towers will still be barraged with hundreds of high intensity requests for several seconds. It’s akin to a very underpowered and inefficient radio jammer.
It’s a tablet that doesn’t have cell coverage. As far as I can tell no form of connectivity it offers is blocked in airplane mode. I guess it’s only there because base Android includes the toggle?
They changed it at some point and added a toggle for “sensors” (at least on my android phone) that is different than the airplane mode toggle.
My best guess is this is because of accessories like Bluetooth headphones and services like inflight wifi and the need to turn back on those toggles causing some friction or confusion that makes people toggle off airplane mode which I believe breaks federal law in some countries.
For what it’s worth the “kill all radios” button has existed longer than we have called it airplane mode. My Pocket PC had a switch on the side, not totally unlike the iPhone silent switch but you had to move it with the stylus.
I’m surprised too, since last time i’ve travelled by plane, if i recall it correctly, all passengers were asked to turn off their devices and there was nothing like “enable airplane mode”. But it’s only for taking off and landing. Maybe it’s different in different countries. Maybe my memory is hallucinating tho
But i do have some questions about this mode and why it’s still called like this, not some other way. Well, your case just makes a good example of how outdated some things’ naming is.
I’m surprised airplane mode is still a thing. It doesn’t matter for the purpose it was created, and letting users disconnect with a single toggle goes against the modern capitalist surveillance state. I guess it’d save battery since your phone wouldn’t be trying to connect to a new cell tower every few seconds?
Then again, on my Android tablet the mode doesn’t even disable the radios anymore. I can still use WiFi and Bluetooth just fine with it enabled. I’m not sure what airplane mode actually does these days.
It can cause issues on the ground as hundreds of phones try to connect to many overlapping cell towers at 800km/h.
Put a base station on the aircraft, all phones can connect to it at low power.
it’s called wifi
That’s already a thing, I’m talking about putting a 4g/5g/6g base station on an aircraft.
with the prices they charge for the wifi, what do you think would happen to ticket costs if they added a 5G transciever?
The point isn’t to provide 5G but to reduce devices reaching outside the plane for connection…
if they could get carriers onboard to sponsor the installation then maybe.
Oh ffs… Okay, let’s get it through your pea sized brain. THE BASE STATION WOULD PROVIDE NO ACTUAL CONNECTIVITY. It is only there so the phones connect to it, and not a station outside the plane, during the times its dangerous for hundreds of phones to be constantly reconnecting to different stations.
To continue your WiFi analogy… imagine a WiFi router without the modem/WAN connection. It provides a local network to connect to, but no internet connectivity.
It’s funny you think it would increase costs. It’s parts and bandwidth. GBs for cents.
it would increase costs because that’s what airlines do whenever they get a new gadget.
No it really isn’t. You’re just making shit up.
“Welcome to your eight-hour flight. If you would like to use wifi, please sign up for only $40 per hour. Enjoy your voyage!”
yeah that’s the main reason it’s kept around.
This is the closest most people will ever get to the buzzing the tower scene from Top Gun.
…but they can’t from that high.
Doesn’t matter, the cell towers will still be barraged with hundreds of high intensity requests for several seconds. It’s akin to a very underpowered and inefficient radio jammer.
Wifi, bluetooth, and cell signal all use different antennae and serve very different purposes.
It’s a tablet that doesn’t have cell coverage. As far as I can tell no form of connectivity it offers is blocked in airplane mode. I guess it’s only there because base Android includes the toggle?
Yea it definitely used to be. I remember having to turn bluetooth back on to use some headphones.
They changed it at some point and added a toggle for “sensors” (at least on my android phone) that is different than the airplane mode toggle.
My best guess is this is because of accessories like Bluetooth headphones and services like inflight wifi and the need to turn back on those toggles causing some friction or confusion that makes people toggle off airplane mode which I believe breaks federal law in some countries.
For what it’s worth the “kill all radios” button has existed longer than we have called it airplane mode. My Pocket PC had a switch on the side, not totally unlike the iPhone silent switch but you had to move it with the stylus.
I’m surprised too, since last time i’ve travelled by plane, if i recall it correctly, all passengers were asked to turn off their devices and there was nothing like “enable airplane mode”. But it’s only for taking off and landing. Maybe it’s different in different countries. Maybe my memory is hallucinating tho But i do have some questions about this mode and why it’s still called like this, not some other way. Well, your case just makes a good example of how outdated some things’ naming is.