[seandougall]

> whether one can trust iOS airplane mode to fully take the phone offline.

I mean, if Apple says airplane mode turns off the cell radio, that’s a falsifiable claim, so you don’t have to take it entirely on faith. It might be possible to hide it in the UI, but you can’t hide a radio signal.

[mirimir]

Right, but I was most curious about the persistence of the setting.

Say you set airplane mode. And then the phone sleeps. Will it still be in airplane mode after you wake it?

Or say you shut the phone off, and restart it. Is it still in airplane mode?

That's an issue because, as soon as it's not in airplane mode, it knows where it is.

And that reminds me, does airplane mode disable GPS? Because if it doesn't, it's more or less pointless, from a geolocation perspective.

[gruez]

>Say you set airplane mode. And then the phone sleeps. Will it still be in airplane mode after you wake it?

>Or say you shut the phone off, and restart it. Is it still in airplane mode?

Yes.

>And that reminds me, does airplane mode disable GPS? Because if it doesn't, it's more or less pointless, from a geolocation perspective.

Why does that matter? You can turn location services off. Moreover, GPS functions passively. Turning it on doesn't transmit your location to anyone.