Study Finds Drivers on Cell Phones Are as Bad as Drunk Drivers

A recent study confirms what many of us have suspected for years. Using a cellphone, hands-free or not, impairs you as much as driving legally drunk. (0.08% blood-alcohol) What’s interesting is that it isn’t the device, but the conversation. This should also mean that chatting it up with passengers while driving isn’t a good idea either. Hopefully this study will at least add some weight to arguments for implementing laws banning cellphone use in cars.

New cell phone to prevent drunk dialing | News.blog | CNET News.com

According to this article on C|Net’s gadget blog, the next big thing in cellphones could be a breathalizer. The idea is to try and ward off behavior you might regret. My favorite part: “The phone can also be programmed to block selected numbers in the address book–bosses, moms, exes, pizzerias–if the breath analyzer records a blood-alcohol concentration over 0.08.”

Sony unveils Flash-based UMPC | Reg Hardware

As flash drives have gotten bigger, faster and more reliable, they have slowly been taking the place of traditional magnetic and optical storage media. This has set the stage for a storage revolution that is already well underway. Last month, Samsung announced that they would be releasing a laptop and UMPC device each fitted with a 32GB flash drive instead of a hard disk. Not to be outdone, Sony announced a similar configuration for it’s latest line of UMPC, the VAIO UX. It will take some time before flash devices can fully replace traditional hard disks, but at the rate storage has been increasing, it probably won’t be long.