Safecell App Helps iPhone Users Stop Texting And Driving

The Safecell application for iPhone and Android phones gives incentive to choose not texting or calling while you drive. I really like the idea of this app, which actually rewards users who leave their cell phone alone while they drive. I need encouragement to put the phone down as much as everyone else. Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about distracted Alberta drivers, and this could be a very handy tool to let people avoid the texting and driving trap.

Like most iPhone users, I’m an addict. I check email, facebook and Twitter. I like texting, and when I’m at loose ends I might play a game or two on my phone. With all of these fun activities, it is so tempting to continue texting and using the phone while I am in a vehicle, even if I’m the driver. It doesn’t seem that dangerous, does it?

Well, the evidence shows that texting while driving reduces your reaction times to a 70 year old driver, or worse. Texting is responsible for a lot of traffic accidents, many of them resulting in death. Society needs to find a solution to this problem.

Safecell can help drivers make the right choices. If you start up the Safecell app when you start your trip, it tracks your position and notifies you of local laws regarding cell phone use in vehicles. When a text or call comes in, Safecell will warn you of the potential consequences of picking it up while driving.

But the best part about Safecell is that it records a users cell phone use while driving, awarding points for safe behavior. Users can eventually trade these points for all sorts of rewards, with vendors such as Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and many others. 500 points are valued at $5, and the users of Safecell get a point for every safe mile driven.

With all of the great rewards available, it is an awesome way to earn an iPod, Amazon products, even travel vouchers from a cruise line. At the same time, the roads will be safer in places like Alberta, Canada. It’s a win win situation, so please, check out the Safecell Application and see if it’s right for you.

December 26, 2010 | | Tags: , , , , | 14 Comments »

The Otter Texting App Helps Stop Texting While Driving

Millions of cell phone users text every day while driving, and studies as well as common sense show this to be a very dangerous activity. Fortunately, new smartphone apps are appearing on the market to help keep people from texting while driving. One such application is Otter, now available for Android and Blackberry. Sadly, it was not yet available for iPhone when this post was written, but hopefully soon will be.

Otter lets phone users control their texting in a vehicle in more than one way. There is a really good video which shows the features of Otter, better than I can describe them (check out the Otter video here). GPS based motion sensing technology allows the user to set Otter to block incoming texts and calls, if so desired.  While the vehicle is in motion, the Otter app will silence alerts and ringtones and allow the driver to focus on the task at hand, driving. At the same time, customized reply messages can be created which allow users to inform callers and texters that they aren’t being ignored, and their message will be returned when safe.

Parents can set Otter to do these functions in their teenager’s phone, with a password. This allows parents to set ground rules for their driving aged children to keep them safe behind the wheel, eliminating temptation.

My personal opinion is that spouses should be able to passcode the phones of their husbands and wives with the Otter application to keep them safe behind the wheel, not just teenagers. Everyone seems to be in denial about how dangerous it is to be a distracted driver. Yes, teenagers are texting and driving, but so are housewives, salesmen, and truck drivers!

I would love to try out Otter myself, but unfortunately that isn’t possible on the iPhone at this time. Apple, get with the program and help us have this functionality! You don’t want Android to get the drop on you, do you? Texting and driving is a safety issue, and phone manufacturers are enabling people to make poor choices. I think all of the companies which put phones on the market should be trying to eliminate cell phone use by drivers.

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I App Ologize For Stacking Up On Crappy Apps, I mean Crapps

Photo on 2010-03-08 at 14.54Ernie recently posted Stick It Up Your App as part of his ongoing battle against pointless sillyness. Now I realize Ernie is all for pointful sillyness, such as green beer on St. Patrick’s Day. And, I’d have to agree that many of the apps I personally loaded onto my iPhone were not only pointless and silly but also didn’t work very good.

For instance, Grenade Lite. If it’s the free version they attach the word Lite to it, and charge varying amounts of money to upgrade to the full flavoured version. Unfortunately for them, I’m cheap as a monkey so I never upgrade. Anyways, you slide your finger across the screen to pull the pin out of the grenade and a few seconds later, it “explodes”. Wow. Problem with this app? When you pull the pin on a real grenade, the handle flies off. Anyone that has watched Avatar could easily verify that even futuristic CG grenades work this way. The programmers of this app didn’t even figure out how a grenade works before they made their crappy app, or CRAPP. And, it really has no point. Its not like I’m going to throw my phone to fake a grenade, so I gotta hold it and let it “explode”. That’s not how we did it in the army.

Yeah, I’ve downloaded farting apps, apps that shoot virtual on screen guns, an app that loads a new insult every time you shake the phone, and one where a cow moos at you every time you talk. These were all Crapps. I had one app that just shouts “Woooooo!” every time you push the button. It makes you glad we are improving the universe with such important and functional technological advances.

But then there are all the super useful apps. Like eReader, which lets me read books anywhere and for a lot less money each than a paper book. Or Pocket Wikipedia, which allows me to win arguments on the go with those who don’t have all the facts at their fingertips. And how about Flixter, which allows me to easily find out movies playing and showtimes at local theaters. And lets not forget that I can even get phonecalls! That’s right, not only can I do all that other stuff but I can receive calls, make calls access voicemails, and even phone 911 from my iPhone. Not to mention texting. And of course, I am never one of those distracted texting drivers. I make handsfree calls with bluetooth while on the road.

What self respecting Hi Tech Redneck wouldn’t want to pack around a dozen ebooks and at least two gun apps?

March 8, 2010 | | Tags: , , , , , , | 33 Comments »

Stick It Up Your App

I’ve been hearing a lot about all of the different apps that are available for your iPhone. Apps to help you find your favourite cheese, apps to keep up to date on every sports score you could possibly imagine (and a few you can’t), apps to make you a better amateur ornithologist, there’s even an app to cause synesthesia (I’m not joking about that one, the description for an app called Bloom actually says, “See the music”). Now I can see how some people might find things like that useful, but I thought of a couple of other apps that a regular Joe like me could really use.

My room-mate moved out recently but she hasn’t removed all of her belongings yet. She left her t.v. and DVD player behind; unfortunately she took all the remotes with her. Therefore I want to be able to point my iPhone at the electronics and have it figure out how to change the channels and fully operate the DVD player. Just to be clear though, I don’t want to have to go through the hassle of looking at the t.v. to figure out what brand it is and then having to read a list of corresponding codes and then having to enter the proper code into my phone. I mean if I have to do all that I might as well just break down and buy a universal remote.

The other app I want; you know when you’re in the living room and then you go to the kitchen to do something, but when you get there you realize that you’ve completely forgotten what you went in there to do? I want my iPhone to tell me what I was going to do. But I don’t want to have to, like, talk to it and tell it to remind me of stuff. If I’m going to do that I could just as easily get a note pad and pen. Isn’t that the whole point of having an iPhone is to make my life less complicated.

While I’m at it, I should be able to just enter a few key words and then have an app that will flesh out an, approximately, 350-400 word blog post (in my own unique voice, of course). Now those are some useful apps. Incidentally, I’m trademarking/copyrighting these apps right here and now. So, if they ever become reality Steve Jobs is going to owe me some money.

Oh and one other thing, I want an app so that my iPhone can actually send and receive calls (even though that’s about the least useful thing I can imagine using a phone for).

March 7, 2010 | | Tags: , , | 20 Comments »