http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTUTuSqqG4
There are several reasons why you shouldn't have your electrical devices turned on on a plane during takeoff and landing:
1) You're supposed to be listening to the flight attendant or a video go over safety procedures which are often given during taxi and takeoff.
2) Having your cell phone on during a flight will drain your battery really quickly as it searches for towers.
3) Devices of all kinds can sometimes malfunction and give off some really weird EM, which may possibly cause interference even if designed not to.
There are several reasons why it shouldn't matter:
1) People are leaving their phones and stuff on anyway for pretty much every flight, and there's never been a plane crash caused by an electronic device left on. There are people who
want to crash planes, so yeah.
2) Stray EM can come from anywhere, including the ground, outer space, or the plane's own electronics, so planes should really be shielded against such things, and pilots should be trained to handle it.
3) Systems on the plane can have issues even without stray EM, so planes should be designed for redundancy, and pilots should be trained to handle it.
If it's a problem, and it's clearly not since nobody's ever been hurt by an electronic device on a plane, planes should be designed better and pilots should be trained better. Short of banning these devices from every flight (every flight includes private flightsgood luck with enforcement), people will always leave their devices on either by mistake or on purpose so you're going to have to deal with it.