Can you bring a phablet on a US flight from Dubai?
Today, the Department of Homeland Security published a new set of restrictions forcing laptops and other electronics to be checked as cargo rather than carried into the cabin on flights from eight Muslim-majority countries. The restrictions have already drawn criticism on political grounds, but ambiguities in the order could also cause more practical problems.
Smartphones are explicitly exempted from the restrictions, while any device “larger than a smartphone” is included. That explicitly includes tablets, as well as e-readers, cameras, and handheld gaming units. But it’s often difficult to draw a clear line between phones and tablets, and given both political and practical ambiguities in how the new restrictions are to be enforced,...