[vacri]

I've left something running on my phone and had it 'dump charge' overnight when usually it would last another day. There's all sorts of ways to unexpectedly lose charge.

This new rule will get them a lot of public kickback if they continue to enforce it. Bottles of water or nailclippers are cheap and have no personal attachment. Phones are expensive and people's lives are wound around them - not to mention that especially in this digital age, I wouldn't be suprised if more than a few people travel with no itinerary beyond what's kept on their phones.

[late2part]

Could it be that this is all part of a dragnet to track ESN/MEID of people's devices?

[Bluestrike2]

No one would be incompetent enough to willingly involve the TSA of all entities in their operations.

[monksy]

I'm pretty sure there is already effective ways to track ESN/MEIDs via wireless means without having to resort to manually entering it. Heck there are even databases that can map the two to the individual owners.