I am writing this on a plane, having endured several minutes during take-off without my electronic equipment turned on. But as soon as the seatbelt sign went off, my laptop went on and I got down to work, slightly frustrated that so few flights have WiFi yet. I’m not the only one who waited for the signal to spring into action. Around me, many passengers now have earphones in: some watch movies on iPads, some listen to music on iPods. A few absorb themselves in the more traditional media of newspaper and books.