onlineleben - 6:34 am on Oct 4, 2012 (gmt 0)

If you're in "airplane" mode the machine knows it's offline. If you're simply not within reach of a phone service or router, the machine doesn't know until it tries.

This could also have an influence on how long the batteries last. Trying to establish a connection costs energy. In flightmode all radio related stuff on the pad/phone is switched off.

my wife said to me, "Why does everything have to be so complicated with you?"

You could start one of the most viewed and commented posts on Webmastrworld with this topic. :)