Early this week the FAA approved American Airlines to carry ipads in the cockpit for their pilots. Ironically, during the same week actor Alec Baldwin was scolded by American Airlines for failing to shut off his ipad on a flight out of LAX to JFK. It does seem a little hypocrisy for American Airlines to approve ipads inflight for pilots and not passengers. However, the truth of the matter is that the ipads in the cockpit are totally different from passenger versions. The pilots ipads are called EFB's or Electronic Flight Bags. The EFB's are used to replace all the manuals we carry in our black flight bags. So the EFB's will only contain charts, airport analysis information, navigation data, aircraft performance charts, and weight & balance material. The EFB will not have any ability to search the internet. Furthermore, the EFB's are specially modified for the airlines and have been fully tested to make sure they don't interfere with the cockpit instruments and the batteries don't catch fire. The passengers ipads have not been tested & therefore there still remains a risk that it could interfere with the cockpit instruments & the battery catching fire.