Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category

This week, as we've sifted through TheCarConnection.com's email for your questions, we've found an interesting one concerning Bluetooth connectivity. We're big users of the hands-free frequency, though we do advocate that you make all calls from a parked car, not a moving one.

We're also experienced in setting up difficult and easy Bluetooth connections, from the simple-as-pie 2010 Kia Soul to the occasionally cranky Ford SYNC system. From our hands-on testing of nearly 300 cars a year, we can confirm what a reader from Virginia's found out--that Bluetooth isn't the universal connection it's cracked up to be.

Harris Miller writes:

My wife...

Is technology a better way to keep us from talking and driving? The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says it could be, while it also cautions that talking-and-driving laws aren't always as effective or durable as legislators think.

In a release issued today, the IIHS says it's studied how drivers react in the long term, to laws banning handheld cellphone use. The insurance industry-funded research group studied drivers in two metro areas where handheld cellphone use has been banned--the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland in one group, and New York and Connecticut in the other. In both groups, the IIHS found that handheld...

Crowdsourcing has become a popular means of gathering data in the 2.0 world, and now it's come to the driving community via Trapster, a mobile application that helps drivers avoid speed traps. Trapster is available on variety of platforms -- iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and more -- and it's seen about 1 million downloads so far. The way it works is pretty straightforward: when drivers see a speed trap, they post that information to Trapster via their mobile device, thus alerting folks who follow in their wake. Which sounds great, you know, except for the part about driving and fiddling with a cell phone. [TechCrunch]