Getting your (smaller) gadgets like iPad and Kindle aboard the plane

Remember those carefree days when the only thing you had to worry about boarding the plane with was a small laptop bag, a magazine, and your cell phone? No problem getting all that through security. But as more and more people slow things down by bringing all their luggage through security instead of checking it, and the number of gadgets per capita keeps climbing, it's important to have a strategy for boarding with all your gear.

My initial strategy is to get everything off my belt and out of my pockets and into my laptop bag, before I go through the security screening checkpoint. Nikon Coolpix in a belt-loop carrying case? Cell phone in its leather holster? Pedometer? All off my belt and in a pocket of the laptop bag. (I do make a point of clearing out the excess stuff that's accumulated in said laptop bag before going on trips.)

Unless you have a new, TSA-approved, open-flat laptop case that holds just the laptop in one side, this is the point at which your laptop has to come out of the carrying case and go through the X-ray scanner in its own bin -- or at least with nothing above it or below it in the bin.

But what about your Kindle? Your iPad? Your Dell Mini 9? Official TSA policy is that any electronic device smaller than a standard-sized laptop "should not need to be removed from your bag or their cases." I keep that TSA page bookmarked on my iPad in case I need to show it to any confused screeners, but of course I won't refuse to let TSA screeners run anything of mine through the scanner separately, if they really want to.

And your spare batteries? Any battery that's not in its device should be in a protective carrying case or something else that will insulate it from other batteries or other metal items. Spare lithium batteries (not in a device) can't be carried in checked luggage, but are allowed in carry-on luggage.

As for sensationalized coverage of a passenger's iPad getting him on the no-fly list, it had nothing to do with the iPad. The reality is that being an unruly jackass in general, or refusing to obey clear airline crew member instructions in particular, is not going to lend itself to your future travel happiness. All electronic devices, including all of the above, must be turned off for taxi, take-off, and landing, or as otherwise instructed by your crew.