I would be very enthusiastic about this if it were true... I asked once the purser about the rule when I felt disturbed about a noisy chatter some rows behind me - the answer was that mobile phones can be used as long as the doors are open.

Made 3 segments with LX this weekend (and 13 within the last 4 weeks), and can (unfortunately) not confirm to have seen what you saw.

I understand your displeasure abot the ipod, though. I guess that you had a crew which enforced the (yes, really existing) rules a bit too strict - the reason of the ipod-ban is that you have to listen to the announcements. Nothing else.