As I understand it (and I admit I could be wrong, I haven't flown internationally other than military flights), the countries that are allowing the laptops to stay in the bags are using a newer brand of X-Ray. A (very) few airports within the U.S. are testing these now, and I'm seriously hoping they'll become much more widespread. Right now there are a few different brands we are using, and there are marked differences between even them. Primarily, it's a cost issue (as everything is).

This is one of the reasons we have our much-talked-about "80% failure rate", because our technology simply isn't up to par with what it could (and should) be. The more tests we fail, because we simply cannot see the items in the bag with the tech we're using, the more justification we have to spend more money on acquiring better technology.

Specifically regarding large electronics, some of you may have seen what they look like on an X-Ray, and some of you may not have. The more dense the electronics, the more batteries and other opaque items, the harder it is going to be to see the rest of the contents of the bag. While I don't agree with screeners requiring *all* electronics out of the bag, I cannot deny that it does make our job considerably easier if it is done. And laptops are, quite literally, the number two most difficult item to see through (X-Box is number one). So a simple, blanket policy of "all laptops out of the bag" makes this (in theory) consistent, and streamlines a lot of the process.