Here’s the deal
Reports are coming in that as a result of the most recent attempted attack on an airliner, the TSA is banning the use of all electronics on many inbound international flights.
That means no iPod, no Nintendo DS, no laptop, no iPhone, no Blackberry, no noise canceling headphones, nothing that runs on electricity.
It also seems that they are requiring everyone to remain in their seats through the plane’s entire descent.
The extent to which these new rules are being enforced seems to be varying from flight to flight without much of a pattern.
Initial thoughts
The facts are still coming in, so I’m not going to draw many conclusions, but there is a difference between not being allowed to use electronics, and having to check them.
If you can bring your electronics in your carry-on, and not use them, that’s a lot better than a forced checking of electronics.
Why you ask?
That being said, these restrictions are probably total bullshit. Does Israel’s El Al airline put their passengers through this shit? I’m pretty sure they don’t, and they have the best security in the business. Basically all of their flights are international, and everyone who wants to blow up American planes, wants to do the same to Israeli planes as well.
More Info
TGW – United Breaks Guitars – In Defense of United Airlines (Arguably my snarkiest post)
The Geek Whisperer 
Many security experts can’t believe how a US airport failed to detect this easy trick. Even the CIA is now to be blamed for not sharing its file on Abdulmutallab!
‘JET terrorist Umar Abdulmutallab is a sexually frustrated loner who nurtured fantasies about holy war.’ SIMON HUGHES, Chief Investigative Reporter of The Sun reveals. And it seems that the security slip was caused by another inter-agency politics –the CIA did not share its file on Abdulmutallab. Was the CIA slip deliberate?:
‘The “intelligence community” agency that President Obama said fumbled security in the Detroit bomb plot was apparently the CIA, which compiled a report on Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab after speaking to his father but sat on the file for 5 weeks instead of circulating it to other agencies, reports CNN. The Nigerian’s attempt to blow up an airliner over Detroit could have been stopped if the report had been shared, according to a “reliable source.”
So i agree with you that most of these new TSA rules are senseless.