Name: DriveSafe.ly
Price: Free for basic, $13.95 for pro
Supported platforms: Android, Blackberry. Windows Mobile and iPhone support are coming soon.
How it works: DriveSafe.ly reads text messages and emails aloud on the phone's speaker. It also allows you to select several auto-reply messages to respond hands-free, although it's unclear if this is only available as a pro feature. It's also unclear whether the basic free model is a beta, as clicking on most of the site's links just prompt you to install the app.
Name: TXTBlocker
Price: $24.99 initially, then $9.99/month
Supported platforms: Blackberry, and some others
How it works: This is one of the most annoying websites I've ever seen, with a lady in the lower corner of the screen cheerfully telling me about the product, who disappears once you click a button to shut her up, only to have her audio come back, unblockable, when you go to any other page on the site. This, combined with the generic "sexy blonde" picture on the main page, as well as the ludicrous price, would have deterred me from becoming a customer even if they supported my phone.
That said, TXTBlocker allows you to set time and location restrictions for texting or talking on the phone. One suggested use of this is to prevent kids from texting at school. There is a safe list of numbers, like 911, that can always be dialed. You can also block texting or using the phone while the phone is traveling at certain speeds. So pretty much the same stuff that Textecution does, but for much more money.
Do any of these apps appeal to you? Are there any not on this list? If I knew I had a problem with texting while driving, I'd probably like the idea of someone else, like my spouse, having control over it. There's obviously a need for some kind of solution to the problem of texting while driving, as it seems like people aren't going to restrict themselves. On the other hand, couldn't you just put your phone in the backseat or trunk while you're driving, so you have no temptation?
(Photo: frankieleon)
]]>I fixed it for you.
]]>It never actually occurred to me before this thread that having our phones off during class interferes with that system. :/
]]>That said, we have virtually the same classroom policies! While some students are dumb, I'd much rather overestimate than underestimate their intelligence and ability to execute some kind of social grace
]]>@Keavy_Rain: I would have made a citizen's arrest right then and there. Yeah, I would risk time in jail to make a point, why not? This issue has made me grumpy beyond belief.
]]>@techphets: In Ontario it's now the law: Hands-free devices ONLY when driving.
It's simple common sense. Hang up the damn phone and drive.
]]>How about putting the phone on the back seat or in the glove box when you get in? It's free.
If drivers were killing only themselves by using a phone or other distractions while driving, I'd have no problem with that. Get them out of the gene pool.
What bothers me is that they usually end up killing innocent bystanders instead of crashing on their own in the middle of nowhere.
]]>What the hell did any of these fools do before they had the technology? Oh, I know. Wait until they got back to the office to respond to an e-mail. Jeez.
]]>@Trai_Dep: Depends on the situation. I have a long highway drive to work every day, and it's a 55mph zone where I'll generally go 60-63. If people are tailgating me when I'm going at that speed, that's their problem not mine. In those cases, I prefer some of the other methods listed about.
]]>If they are in a privacy stall one can always laugh at them, make comments about them being on the phone, etc. if you know they are stuck with pants down ha ha
]]>There is an exact correlation between how nasty they are about it, how closely they are following me and how slow I go in response.
If certain people's kids don't know how to play "road chess" that's not my problem. I'm the queen and they are obviously ADD infested little pawns lol.
]]>@techphets: Agreed.
It's especially bad because its a lot harder to text on most smartphones. When I had my...non smart phone (a dumb phone, I guess?) I could text while driving fairly easily, because feeling my way across the buttons was easy and I had the button combinatinos for each letter memorized.
On the smart phone, you really need to see the keyboard, and the times I have texted while driving on mine (a Blackberry Curve) I've found that I cannot keep my eyes on the road for any length of time.
I just try not to altogether now.
]]>@Digitizer: What some term "a painful paralysis while piloting a vehicle hurtling at 80MPH", I prefer to call "break-in training period".
@Coles_Law: As an added bonus, once they stopped drooling, screaming and defecating, they'd be ideal customers for a plug-in recharger! Well, and a Handi-Wipe or two.
]]>@TheWillow: or iPhone users are too dumb to read so they dont text.
(Im just bitter becasue I dont have an iPhone...I however am not bitter that I dont have ATT)
]]>All those delightful signs telling you to put your phone on 'manner mode', and to refrain from talking on it while on the train.
One time I did see someone talking really loudly with no concern for anyone else on the train. 1) I was surprised by how annoyed I was by it. 2) The Japanese people were looking at him like he was a deranged drug addict. Kind of a mixture of scared/appalled.
]]>@Trai_Dep: As an added bonus, it would reduce the battery life to about 15 minutes, further removing any distraction.
]]>However I don't think they could do anything to you for answering a call during class but you would have probably gotten a good talking to from the professor.
]]>@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): That's one thing the subway is good for (for now).
I've seen regional rail systems (in PA and VA) starting to have quiet cars - and all the notices indicate that the cars were established at passenger groups' request. Maybe your commuter train service needs some lobbying?
]]>More colleges, because of situations like Virginia Tech, have cell phone emergency notification systems and request that professors allow students to leave cells on, or have a designated person in the classroom with their cell on in case of emergency.
]]>Whether your paying for college yourself or your parents are paying your way through college I can't imagine anyone who would feel good about going home and telling their parent that they failed a class or 2 and will have to repeat them (mostly due to texting), thus making their time in college more expensive and longer.
I can't imagine many professors who would tolerate it either. I would imagine most have a no cell phones rule on during class (except in dire emergency situations). It wouldn't be fun lecturing a class of zombies that are texting and not even paying attention to anything that the professor says.
Yes I realize that all will not listen, and those that don't will find out the hard way, but the foundation has to be there as well, they have to be taught early on by a school or a parent that texting in class will have consequences later on.
]]>I have a preset message on my phone which at least makes it look like the phone cares about me:
Automated Message: The user you have contacted is driving and will respond later.
This isn't automated but it does let you send the message at a red light within a few keystrokes rather than typing it out. Even if you are 200wpm on your phone but 40wpm at home on the computer. :)
I personally don't text and drive, have been foolish enough in slow slow neighborhoods with me the only one on the road and that was scary enough.
Now, what scares me is the new phones made for seniors. In my area which is a retirement mecca, I see the combination of slow drivers, and also fast drivers. They are all seniors and I literally had one tailgate me today. I couldn't figure out if they couldn't see well enough or if they were the proverbial "Hot Rod Granny". Nonetheless, if you combine the typical senior who goes under the posted speed, doesn't signal and then is texting, you have a recipe for major trouble.
]]>Also might want to avoid the internet. There are some websites that let you IM people that I know works perfectly on the iPhone.
]]>So we all leave our phones on vibrate and I tell them it's adult world -- if they get a call they must take, please step out and get notes later; if they get a text they must answer, please do so as quickly and discretely as possible.
It's very, very rare I have a problem with texting, which I think is partly because I allow them to use it within sensible limits. And partly because I have a good look of death.
(My entire theory of classroom discipline is that they're all adults -- so I don't have many behavioral rules, but I don't do make-ups, I don't post notes, I don't listen to grade pleas, I don't have excused absences. So they get more freedom in the classroom but more responsibility to not have me hold their hands.)
]]>However, it might be great for those of us who ride trains with autonomous grown-ups who LIKE TO SHOUT THEIR ENTIRE CELL CONVERSATIONS on the commuter train.
]]>@Garbanzo: Agreed. Surveys are BS for many reasons.
1. They manipulate the data to suit their needs.
2. People lie on surveys.
3. They give bogus multiple choice answers.
Personally I'm tired of the surveys on TV. It's all a big lie. I could conduct a survey right now that says I'm God. Yup one in five people have said that I'm God. But guess what? I'm not.
]]>I doubt it helps, but it makes more sense than reinforcing their notion that everyone else just doesn't know how to drive.
]]>I hope you guys never run into some suffering from Road Rage, you'd either get shot or beat up
]]>20% isn't "most people."
]]>Can we still check our mirrors or is that 10 times as distracting while driving??
]]>I don't recall where you work, but again, you really have to be the Jane Goodall of college students to see this stuff. Three years ago I would have been just as judgmental as you, and really, I'm hardly a font of sympathy for my "peers" who ask me why they're failing, then disregard my advice to "forget" their phones when they head to their more challenging classes. But I do think that kids -- and especially the sad, quivering masses of biological imperative called "boys" -- really do have some new challenges at school that those of us over about 25 didn't have. Adults created these problems, and I think it's at least partly up to adults to help kids mitigate the effects.
]]>Anything on a local device can be defeated given enough ambition (trust me on this.. I am a security professional, but I have never slept at a holiday inn express) and time.
As for trust and responsibility, we all know teenagers do exactly what their parents tell them without waiver..........
]]>I've seen grown adults, who should frickin' know better, texting while driving. Hell, I almost got hit by one when I was driving home from the mall last night. I honked my horn, she corrected, flipped me off, then resumed texting.
The only thing that's gonna stop these people is their own death or a death they caused that results in a wrongful death judgment that leaves them so financially destitute that they cannot afford a cell phone with texting.
]]>Oh no! What will I do if I can't text and drive?
]]>I agree, except our solution has been not to let them get their licenses until they are more mature and have better self control. This drives the kids (ages 17 and 18) absolutely nuts, but at least they're not on the roads endangering others or themselves.
]]>@Trai_Dep: how would a driver getting shocked by 20,000 volts be safer than a driver texting?
I imagine that amount of voltage would seriously impair someone's ability to drive...
]]>I'm serious, though I don't know if anyone can imagine what it's like without being in the middle of it day after day. I love personal responsibility and all, but you can't *really* expect an 18-year-old boy to ignore messages from girls during class.
]]>incorrect. the appropriate control functions need to be the parents. If you can't trust your child not to text and drive then you shouldn't allow them to text at all. parental responsibility, it's nothing new.
]]>Ah, nevermind; that'd be stupid and who would we place the blame on? Bring on the applications!
]]>The appropriate control of functions needs to be at the back end via the carrier. As much as I hate this idea since carriers love to bend you over a barrel, and use a glass covered spiked ball from the end of a flagpole to make sweet sweet love to you, it is the only way to guarentee that smart kids are not able to get around restrictions placed on local devices.. Sure they may try, but when they get rejection notices from carrier systems, they will get into the habbit of waiting, pulling over, or doing what they need to do on the phone in a safe manner.
]]>I prefer to endanger the lives of the innocent.
But if I had to choose I guess DriveSafe.ly because it's the only one not all out blocking
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