The TSA has been known to
take issue with products designed in Cupertino before, but for one particular traveler, it was Apple's thinnest laptop ever that caused the latest holdup. Upon tossing his ultra-sleek slab of aluminum underneath the scanner, security managed to find enough peculiarities to remove it from the flow, pull it aside and wrangle up the owner for some questions. Apparently, the TSA employee manning the line was flabbergasted by the "lack of a drive" and the complete absence of "ports on the back," and while hordes of co-workers swarmed to investigate, the user's flight took off on schedule. Thankfully, said owner was finally allowed to pass through after some more in-the-know colleagues explained in painfully simple terms what an SSD was, but the poor jet-setter most definitely paid the price for trying to slip some of the latest and greatest under the sharp eyes of the TSA (and cutting it close on time, of course).
[Image courtesy of
ABC]
posted Mar 10th 2008 7:58AM
You're telling me that this phone is WIRELESS? Terrorist!
watch out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AWw7t5zj0
that vid wasn't as awful as I thought it was gonna be. best line is around 1:10 that was f*cking hilarious
Don't these people look at the news on the Internet or Television?
Do these people even have a life?
Or are they - gasp! - androids? Maybe they're jealous of new technology? I'm going to listen to Mr. Roboto from Styxx now.
Why didn't he just put it in a manilla envelope?!
haha, the man is famous now!!! i mean the TSA..
Hard to believe.
It didn't actually have a bomb in it, just a detonator, you had to plug the bomb in externally.
WHAT? if I was TSA, I would hold up the traveler, let him miss his flight and ask him to dismantle his MBA and make him show me that it's really a SSD.
@purezerg
i think that the problem was that they didn't see a hard drive in the x-ray machine. u know, that uber advanced piece of technology for looking through things whose user never makes ANY mistakes?
Funny as it is, ive had a laptop opened up (read: DESTROYED) by Heathrow security... reason? The left speaker seemed slighly more oval then the right one....
Hard to believe he actually paid so much for the SSD upgrade maybe...
Hard to believe the edges are that thin that they could be used as a weapon.
I don't think it was a question about believing or not that was a laptop, it was just the fact that the air had edges thinner than accepted.
@ Boing:
You can't do that since the bomb's USB-connector is too big for the MacBook Air USB-port.
@John
Guess you'll have to link it up wirelessly then... wait.. can't do that on a plane.. :P
@ purezerg:
you need to stop believing in terrorism and terrorists. they don't really exist, and aren't going to pop up from around the corner either. it's just what the government wants you to believe.
@ Boing: Awesome!
i smell lawsuit!!!!!!!! LOL
ohh well...take that! Macbook Air will only give ya headache's...in head and wallet....
After this i hope he got a free ticket in first class...
Free ticket? First Class?? HAH! That guy was lucky the TSA even let him go and not arrest him for having a RAZOR thin laptop that could slice someone's throat!
Nope TSA and airline policy is that you show up early enough that being delayed by security doesn't make you miss your flight. If you don't show up early enough it's your own fault. That's why they usually recommend you show up 2 hours early.
Yeah..and prolly you could cut the cockpit door with it! better then an axe!.....
Sometimes i am glad i don't live in a country with such abusive measures......losing cause TSA inspectors are dumb...
TSA's slogan should be "Where did you want to go today?"
or "whoops"
TSA - Thousands, Standing Around
They can't be that dumb... they just can't
obviously you don't travel, my friend.
You're talking about people who don't screen checked-in baggage for bombs and think that screening passengers carry-on luggage and shoes is going to prevent all threats. You're also talking about people who are hired only on the basis that they can pass a simplistic background check.
@Kunikos
Checked luggage is most certainly checked. That's why they wipe the little swabs around it before you check-in. They're looking for explosives residue. (This might just be my local CHS - but then again it certainly speeds things up by bringing the screeners to the line instead of vice-versa)
Kunikos:
Carts of checked baggage go through a roll-through, high-powered X-Ray machine.
@letstakeawalk
Even if they do cotton swab the outside of the luggage, couldn't whomever that was inclined just WIPE the OUTSIDE of the luggage before entering the airport? This airport security check seems kinda easy to bypass... maybe we should be looking for more stringent tests?
Actually, they aren't cotton swabs...they are specially designed collection traps that can detect traces of explosives. I won't go into the details of how it works, but the method of how and where they obtain ths samples are very accurate and effective. Explosives are very sticky in nature and almost every surface is porous; creating perfect conditions to retain traces.
Oh yes, they can. I had a US border guard throw out 55 lbs of Premium dog food because it might contain beef, along with 18 cans of Chef Boy Ardee Ravioli because it might contain beef which they cant let into the country even though it was made there. I must also mention that the border guard did NOT throw out the Cuban sugar, which he walked past a couple of times.
The Macbook Air is a poorly designed, poorly contrived piece of crap that pales in comparison to most other laptops/ultraportables. I could fix the macbook air with a simple redesign in which I'd add a port expander on its spine.
What bothers me about this sensationalist story is that it not only points out how stupid TSA is, but, its going to make more technology dummies out there want one. This is the "race to the bottom" the Sony executives mentioned.
I couldn't agree more. The BBC compared the Air to some other ultra-portables and determined it is heavier, less featured, and more expensive. They actually said that it lacks so many ports that it is often less practical than a normally spec'd if not slightly bigger laptop.
The Macbook Air is not a poorly designed piece of crap at all, its a superbly designed laptop. Sure it lacks ports etc, but that is hardly the point. Have you actually held one ? Its superb. There are some of us that want something for simple net access whilst commuting and don't need any expansion options. The Air is perfect for accessing the web and email and for light business use. My only issue with it at the moment is price. And before you jump al over me for being an apple fanboy I should point out that I am a complete PC user, at work and at home. The only Apple product I've ever owned is my iPhone. I agree its not for everyone, but your comments (and others) are based purely on your needs, not the needs or gadget lust of others.
And your next issue looks like it'll be the TSA- make sure to get to the airport *extra* early...
@Jamar
Why assume I'm from the US ? I don't have to contend with the TSA or any of the security restrictions they impose.
If you even pass through the US on an international flight you'll have to deal with the TSA as well, not just if you're leaving or arriving there.
> I could fix the macbook air with a simple redesign in which I'd add a port expander on its spine.
ooh.. and then I bet you'd add a floppy drive, an RS232 port, and a parallel port, to talk to your Epson dot matrix printer.
/fool
Another day, another mindless anti-Apple flame from Flashpoint.
@ Jamar:
Just FYI, but one must book a flight using a hub outside of the US rather early as they're booked out faster than the alternative(i.e. to fly through the US). Almost everyone I know does their damndest to avoid the US because of the possible hassles.
Here are some nice bedtime stories for you (BTW, I know where I am NOT going for a holiday, as there's always Disneyland Paris & Tokyo):
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10470890
http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/34108prs20080213.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/weekinreview/14preston.html?_r=2&ref=weekinreview&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
" I could fix the macbook air with a simple redesign in which I'd add a port expander on its spine."
Who are you? Are you Jonathan Ive?
Though I don't understand why it would drop firewire port, I don't think this is a "poorly contrived piece of crap" because of an insufficient of ports.
@seanchk: "The Air is perfect for accessing the web and email and for light business use."
So is my HTC Touch. Laptops are generally meant to be more productive and full-featured than phones, aren't they?
Sounds like the same complaints people had about the iMac when it first came out: What? No floppy drive? It will never work! I could fix it, just let me add a floppy drive back in...
TSA = "Thousands Standing Around"
Or my personal favorite: "Totally Stupid A$$holes!"
They should all be fired!
You're an idiot.
for serious... those thick bastards should be trained better... or read a newspaper once in a while to know about new technology and gadgets...
-Never seen nor held or MacBook Air: check
-Haven't experienced TSA: check
Unabashed, ill-informed, biased Apple hating: check
Do you not think that Apple should put it on themselves to have some kind of relationship with the TSA or other agencies to ensure that their products are somehow made known and not mistaken for something else? This seems like a no-brainer especially given that this product is designed for the bourgeoisie traveler.
Sure SSD manufacturer's could do the same. Overall, I think it's part of corporate responsibility - from "cradle to grave" so to speak. Or perhaps the TSA agent was sick on new techie gadgets training day (if such a thing exists)?
Considering the Mac Book Air's battery only gets less than 4 hours - and it doesn't have a built in optical drive, I hope his flight would have been a short one cause that thing certainly lacks the entertainment I get from my X60S Lenovo.
Except the Lenovo is big and heavy for a laptop. Ever think that the AIR is meant for a specific audience -- people for whom "thin and simple" is worth top dollar? The MacBook Air isn't a DVD player or a game console, but for traveling salespeople, it's perfect.
3.5 lbs and 10.6" x 8.3" x 1.1" - I'm not sure that exactly big, or heavy.
Was the security a big yellow bald guy eating donuts?
"Ooh, they have the Internet on computers now!"
I hate commenting with just lol but lol.
This is totally understandable since most TSA agents work the day shift at McDonald's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z33gpRWWXPA
Don't knock TSA too hard. After all, where are all the out of work mortgage brokers suppossed to go?
I'm glad we have Transport Canada. They're generally a lot cooler, in my experience. This shows a wonderful combination of the ignorance of these employees (do they not watch TV/read the papers/read an internet news site/live somewhere not under a rock?) and then their incompetence. If he turns it on and it does computer things, shouldn't he be let through? Then of course, we get to the point of maybe a) they didn't recognize the GUI and b) the lack of any error messages meant that it couldn't be a PC. Silly TSA.
You also didn't have a terrorist attack that killed 3000+ people in one of your country's major cities. This could be why "Transport Canada" experience is "generally a lot cooler."
They still take security very seriously. I had a homemade iPod charger in my bag once. They asked me to show it charging my iPod. I did it, they said cool and sent me along. They tend to be a lot friendlier while doing their job than their counterparts to the south.
I'd also like to bring your attention to Air India Flight 182. It is a disaster that occurred after a plane left Canadian soil, and the result is the largest disaster involving an airplane ever, if you don't include the people who died on the ground in September 11th.
We take our security very seriously. You just don't often hear of being stopped for silly reasons.
"the lack of any error messages meant that it couldn't be a PC"
Your PC gets a bunch of error messages the moment you turn it on? You must be QUITE tech savvy! Awesome show, great job.
I'm pretty sure Canadian security is a lot less angry and bitter because they don't have to deal with angry douchebags nonstop all day who insist they are better than the person working security, and are willing to always let them know what they think.
Face it, most American business men and women are hurried, ill-tempered jerks who look down on everyone and think they're God's gift to the world. Many who aren't business people in America carry the same mindset, oddly enough.
Bob thats a tired argument. Our government has gotten a lot of mileage from fearmongering.
A fraction as much competent security is worth more than the abundance of useless security we have now.
"if you don't inlude all the people that were killed on the ground on 9/11"
How do you count people killed by terrorism if you don't count people killed by terrorism?
Isn't this a bit like saying that Iraq is the safest place on the face of the earth per capita as long as you don't count all of those people killed by bombs?
The people on the ground can't be controlled by the TSA. Leaving them out of the picture, however tragic, there were more deaths in the Canadian incident. Not that I'm proud of that. Terrorism is bad. We need effective and efficient security to deal with it.
Yeah, our screeners are a lot more laid back.
Leaving Vancouver International one time, I had to explain to my parents what the screener was doing when he was doing the residue check on my laptop.
The screener overheard me, and joked when the check was done, "Oooh, bad news, it's positive, you're not getting on your flight." I laughed at him and told him, "Yeah right, if it was, those two cops chatting over by the wall would have me on the ground already."
He laughed and handed back my laptop.
I guess you missed the part where another TSA agent explained to the first about SSDs. I would be careful about attributing ignorance to all of the TSA based on something that 1 person did. Certainly, to assume is to make ... you a very unpopular person in general.
The passenger should have gotten to the airport earlier. Everyone knows security can be a bitch. When I fly, I get to the airport a minimum of 2 hours before departure time. Usually I'm through security and at the terminal in 20 - 25 minutes but all they gotta do is pull me aside for one stupid thing and it turns into a huge delay.
Hey Ralph, doesn't it bother you that you have to arrive early at the airport in case someone who perhaps isn't truly qualified for their job messes up? Think about any other situation.
Would you accept a 2 hour wait at the doctor's in case the nurse messes up? Or factoring in more time because an employee is known to mess up? It's important that airport security does their job, but seriously, they do need to be held to a higher standard.
This sounds like guerilla marketing to me.
"There's no way this is a laptop, no drive, no ports, its so small and sleek...."
"No, it is! It's Apple's new macbook air!"
I thought the exact same thing when I read this. Sounds like Apple trying to boost what little interest there is in the Air.
I agree, what about eeePC? isn't it smaller without a harddrive?
Yes, Steve. There's so little interest stores can't keep it in stock, and people like you just cannot stop commenting on it. Clearly there's no interest in it at all. And yes, obviously Apple had something to do with it, since they own the TSA and tell their employees to play dumb. It couldn't possibly be because most TSA employees aren't smart enough to work a toaster, could it?
Lucky for you, common sense doesn't seem to be a requirement for being able to comment on Engadget.
Zak, I think you missed shanoboy's and Steve's point. If it is indeed guerilla marketing, then the whole event never happened, and it's just a made up story to showcase the Air.
Also, if I were Steve I would've used the word "demand" instead of "interest". There is a lot of interest in the Air, as it was the highlight of the Macworld keynote, and it is a very unique product. However, the demand for the product is surely less than Apple would've hoped. (The price is too high for now)
couldn't he of made them check apple.com real quick?
Ya, that's all we need, TSA fools browsing the internet and not doing their jobs.......
Wait.... they already don't do their jobs.
K, I guess Internet for them is ok.
when we feel TSA is too lax we complain we aren't safe...when we feel they are too paranoid we complain again...
Kudos to Steve Job's PR department for this one. Great idea!
I felt perfectly safe flying before all their crap security measures, and I would still feel just as safe now even if they had not changed their security even slightly.
I have accidentally left my rather large pocket knife in my backpack, and after I took my shoes off, stripped all metal off my body, and was manually scanned because the rivets in my jeans set off the alarm, I grabbed my backpack still with my large knife in it, and walked to my plane. I felt so much safer having gone through all that hassle. :-P
They did an internal test a year or so ago, to see how prepared the TSA was, and they found that they missed 13 out of 15 attempts to smuggle bombs/guns/knifes and other illegal items.
Very Sad!
"If he turns it on and it does computer things, shouldn't he be let through? Then of course, we get to the point of maybe a) they didn't recognize the GUI and b) the lack of any error messages meant that it couldn't be a PC. Silly TSA."
If they turn it on IT MIGHT EXPLODE!!! Or not.
yes the AIR is beautiful, but not really light and not really capable, so somewhere weirdly in between.
Get yourself a ASUS EEE PC, its not fancy but just small, mobile and does the basics for a super cheap price, what more do you need (unless you want a media machine and not a wireless machine)
*slides some money under a table*
The boss said to tell you that you really earned your pay today :).
HAHA...These people are supposed to guard our airports and they are not up on current technology? Wow, I feel safer!
What a bunch of idiots. What do they do with tablet PCs that come through?
"OMG HE SAID TABLET! AS IN DRUG TABLETS! ARREST HIM!"
"uh... it's a tablet PC."
"OMG HE SAID TABLET AGAIN! SHOOT HIM!"
pfft....that's nowt....Try getting a Dell Vostro 1500 through the airport scanner.
They stopped me with mine. The vostro's air ducts look like miniature hand scythes under x-ray, and it took me an age to explain to the guys in security at Manchester Airport UK what an airduct was and why it was needed.
To be honest anyone who owns a MBA is a pretentious twat, and deserves to to stopped at the airport
I see why your username is technophobe.
touché, but the guy clearly didn't have anything important to do otherwise he would have brought a real computer!
Perhaps his employer bought the MBA for him.
I would have not brought a private Laptop on a business trip - might not be covered by the employers insurance.
Right, if businessmen aren't rendering 3d images and encoding video on the go they have nothing important to do...
Just because you or I can't imagine paying money for an underspec'd machine, doesn't mean that nobody can. Some people value form or style or weight more than horsepower. And the MBA is perfectly capable of doing all the day-to-day things an average user does. I wouldn't buy it, but I can see why some people would.
Woah, woah, woah..."a real computer"? Who's the pretentious twat here?
I'm a professional. I use my laptop for everything I do. I do engineering and testing and programming and give presentations and crunch numbers. To be honest, I almost never use my DVD drive and only use two ports on my laptop on a regular basis: one of the USB ports and the audio out jack. I use a MacBook Pro with a bluetooth mouse. Don't get me wrong. I would never buy a MacBook Air, simply because the extra weight of the MacBook Pro is completely outweighed by the size of the screen. But really, that's it. If a MacBook Air with a 15"+ screen and a bigger hard drive was available at the time I bought the MacBook Pro, I probably would have purchased a MacBook Air.
There's a whole lot of BS out there about what it doesn't have. My previous laptop was a Sony Vaio GRV680. It was one of the early "desktop replacement" laptops. It had everything and enough juice to still be an awesome laptop in 2008. It didn't matter that it had everything. Most of the ports hardly ever got used and all that beef resulted in a meltdown from heat issues. On top of that, it had a sucky OS.
My point: More is not always better, and functionality/practicality is rather individual. We all have different requirements. Computers are like fitted jeans. One size does not fit all. Most people force themselves into something painful because everyone else is doing it.
So, stop being such a twat. :-)
Gian
I think I'm more shocked that someone actually bought the SSD version.
I'm with you, buddy. Buying the SSD option is just throwing away money for nothing.
it could be that the traveler bought the ssd mba cause it was the only one in stock. the mba's are selling very well for apple, in some stores they're out of the ones with the traditional hd and have maybe one or 2 with the ssd in stock. they too are hot sellers.
Are you f-ing kidding me? What do they say when an OQO, Vaio or oh say a Treo comes through. Go f yourself TSA. Oh and while you're at it, clean up the GD walkway! If I have to walk the Richard Reid/Shoebomber Line just to board a flight, at least make me not have to soil my socks on the dirtiest floor in the airport.
Not sure what you're talking about...I have yet to have an issue with my Treo going through security. Regarding your other comment, WEAR SOCKS! Heaven forbid you should have to walk five feet across a mat or concrete floor in stocking feet. Or do your socks have holes in them?
I don't know about your airport, but the ones I travel through generally sanitize that area at least once or twice a day. I've watched them while waiting for the checkpoint to open at 4 AM!
This is nothing but Apple propaganda. This most likely was dreamed up in some back room apple planning session to generate fake excitement about their sub-revolutionary product. Give me a break. Simply turning the machine on would have been enough to convince TSA.
The eeePC could be worse. "I refuse to believe that's a fully featured laptop, it looks like a toy."
Of course the explosives in a MacBook Air can't be changed without returning it to an Apple Store, so the TSA should be more than happy to let it on the flight.
Oh, I feel SO sorry for this guy... What idiot doesn't get to the airport at least 2 hours early because they know it's going to take forever to actually get through security and to your terminal? I don't believe they were looking at the laptop for 2 hours trying to figure out what it was. The guy was late getting to the airport, and wanted to blame someone else instead of saying "damn, I was late and I missed my flight." No, lets blame everyone else but yourself. Why do people have to blame everyone else when they do something wrong? Non story. I got mad at myself for wasting time reading it, and his stupid little "blog post" about it. What a moron...
Yet you replied anyway.
I'm sure the guy enjoyed the wait until his new flight while sipping free drinks in the executive lounge. (He bought a $3000 computer, so I'm sure he was flying business and/or is a frequent flier.) As an added bonus, he doesn't need to worry about his 4 hour battery life, 'cause the lounge and airplane likely have a power port.