GeekSugar

Key 2 Safe Driving Turns Off Your Phone While You Drive

GeekSugar — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:33:40 -0700

Text messaging or talking on your cell phone while driving is a nasty habit, dangerous and illegal. It's hard to break habits sometimes though, but you don't have to rely on willpower alone.

The service Key 2 Safe Driving stops you from even being able to talk or text while driving. They configure your car key to connect with the service over Bluetooth or RFID, so every time your key goes into the ignition and turns on the engine, your cell phone becomes inactive, except for dialing 911.

You can configure it to let you talk with a hands-free device if you're an adult, and not at all if it's for a teen. This is a good solution if you find it hard to break the communication cycle while you're driving, or if you're in charge of someone who can't get the no-texting, no-talking message either. Best of all, Key 2 Safe Driving suggests that you may be able to parlay your usage of their service into an insurance discount.

Interested? It's not quite out yet, but you can place a pre-order now.

Source

iDialUDrive App Helps You Stay Handsfree

GeekSugar — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:00:00 -0700

With California's Hands Free Law in full effect, I'm always looking for creative ways to help me stay handsfree so I can keep my eyes on the road. Even those two or three seconds you spend navigating your way to your contacts list to dial a number are a few seconds too long to spend looking down.

Well a new handy app called iDialUDrive works as a simple way to automatically dial your contacts - without using your hands! With iDialUDrive you can create custom lists of the people you want to call, then by pressing one control, this App will call the first entry in your call list. After the call is finito, it will hang up for you and continue down the list automatically so you don't have to lift a finger!

iDialUDrive costs 99 cents from the Apple App Store in iTunes.

Would You Want to Learn How to Drive on Your Nintendo DS?

GeekSugar — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:01:20 -0700

I'm not one to underestimate the power of a Nintendo DS Lite, but to use one to teach you how to drive - you've got to be kidding me! DreamCatcher Games and JoWooD Productions are developing Drivers Ed Portable - a game for the DS. Don't worry, it won't do what I initially thought and freaked out about, which was taking students through driving steps while actually driving. But what this game will do is help prepare teens for the written portion of their driver’s license exam by featuring two separate teaching tools: testing and training.
The game will include exams for all 50 US states, 13 Canadian provinces and territories, as well as Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and is said to be available this Fall. I'm honestly not going to knock this until I try it, and with kids being such avid gamers these days, it may be the extra incentive they need to get down to driving business. Drivers Ed Portable plus real life one-on-one driving training, and I'm a huge fan. What about you?
Source

Parking Meter Alarm: Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:00:36 -0700

For all my geeks who tool around in their own car (your girl geeksugar is a public-transportation dependent) and live in a city, this might be the perfect gadget. You set this Parking Meter Alarm when you park your car and it counts down the time you've put money in the meter for - and it'll beep at five-minute intervals when it's about to run out, so you can be ticket free.

It even holds a stack of quarters for the meter! But is it something you could do on your own? If I drove, I know I'd have it, and I'd also have no qualms about letting a robot park my car!

Do You Use Your Cell During Your Commute?

GeekSugar — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:00:07 -0800

If you're like me and use your commute time to keep in touch with friends and family members you may want to rethink your habit.

According to a recent article in The Los Angeles Times researchers from the University of Utah have determined that drivers that talk while on the road drive "more hesitantly than undistracted drivers and, as a result, are increasing everyone's average drive time by five to 10 percent."

Source

Say Good-Bye To Cell Phone Driving

GeekSugar — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:00:25 -0700

Gabbing away on your cell phone while driving can be really dangerous, especially when you're in a busy city or driving at high speeds. I happen to have grown up in a rural area, where there are hardly any cars on the road and everyone drives ridiculously slow, I think I tricked myself into thinking it's okay to drive and talk. The Raw Feed has reported that Highway Safety and Technology has created an automated detection system that will reveal who is talking on their cell phones while driving. Using electronic sensing equipment, this system will act as a cell-phone radar for police. It will be available to U.S. police departments as early as this fall, so beware my cell phone loving friends - including you Brit! As my dad says "hang up and drive!"

Source

Every Beatles Song on an Apple-Shaped USB Drive

GeekSugar — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:06:47 -0800

Only 30,000 of these limited-edition Beatles USB drives will be made, and are expected to be released in North America on Dec. 8. For $280, the 16GB drive contains the entire Beatles catalog, plus extras like videos, album art, and photos. Since they'll probably sell like hot cakes, you can preorder yours now via the official Beatles store.

Beatles albums still aren't available in the iTunes store and I'm curious how fast these devices will sell out. The concept is great and the drive has a cool design, but would you fork over nearly $300 for the digital music files?

Steampunk 4GB Flash Drive: Love It or Leave It?

GeekSugar — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:41:34 -0700

I was totally up on the steampunk craze, and although I would never be able to afford this $3,000 (yes, that's three zeros) 4GB Steampunk Flash Drive, I can appreciate its workmanship. Hand crafted with love by Etsy user WillRockwell, the drive is listed at such a high price because Will says that's what it would take to "pry the drive out of my hands and take it from my world into yours." I totally understand the sentiment, Will. That's one hot flash drive.

SMB 3 External Hard Drive Sends My Gaming Heart Aflutter

GeekSugar — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:05:45 -0700

I'm not ashamed to say that I think Super Mario Bros. 3 is one of the best games of all time - but which game is your favorite? - so when I saw this SMB 3 External Hard Drive on Etsy, I couldn't contain my excitement. In an excellent example of recycling old games, this crafty DIY'er installed a 160GB HDD Seagate SATA II hard drive inside the gaming cartridge, which is totally USB powered so you don't have to plug in.

Even better? It comes with the original black protective encasing. . . amazing! If you have some game cartridges lying around at home from days gone by, you could probably DIY this yourself on the cheap, but if you want the novelty of having your own SMB 3 cartridge to hold all of your important data, this great external drive will set you back $120.

Heal Your PC From Viruses With the Dr. Hard Drive Bag

GeekSugar — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:02:09 -0700

I can give you multiple reasons why I love this concept piece I found on Coroflot. Not only is this hanging hard drive packed with virus-scanning software to help you track down any bugs that may have attacked your computer, but it can also recover any corrupted files, so it's actually a useful piece of equipment.

Plus, it's kinda cute in a totally out-of-left-field kind of way, and it flashes and glows in the dark while it's doing its thing. I'm hoping the concept artist releases these soon, cause I can really see myself picking one up, even if it's just for the fun of it!

View 5 Photos ›