get paid to drive safely

Do you like to multitask while driving? SafeCellApp will PAY you to put down the phone. The new points-based program rewards you for every mile that you drive without distractions.

This app uses iPhone's GPS to track how many miles you've driven safely -- i.e., without talking on the phone or texting. Each mile driven safely equals one point, and 500 points can get you a $5 gift card to retailers like Amazon, Apple, and Macy's. For emergencies, you can press a big emergency button and make a call. And even though your GPS location is being tracked everywhere, you are supposedly the only one who has access to the details of your whereabouts.

At $12, SafeCellApp is considered pretty expensive for an app, but the idea is that you'll make it all back with safe driving. Although you'd have to (safely) drive a whopping 1,200 miles before you break even. Personally, I can't imagine this being an effective incentive to get people to stop calling/texting while driving. The only person I can imagine having the patience to drive without distractions for 500 miles is my mom, and she's the kind of person who would never pick up the phone while driving in the first place.

SmartGrid, SmartPhone, now SmarterCar?

Will your next car be a smartphone?

It’s clear that as technology advances, we are able to increasingly stay connected to our networks. Often, we can hardly hold a conversation without someone pulling out their phone to check something. This has definitely not been lost on auto manufacturers Ford and GM as they intend on making it easier for us to continue this while we are in our cars.

The current plan is to add the ability to talk and text on a touch screen that sits on the dashboard, which will eventually allow you to update your Facebook status by voice as well.

As many of us probably discovered when we were writing our Ford memo, Ford will be rolling out “App Link” that links smart phones to some Ford vehicles, a precursor to this step.

But as the article also inquires, how safe is this? Laws have been passed in most states that limit the driver’s interaction with their phone and with good reason. It will be interesting to see if this allows enough of a “hands off” approach that will actually make a difference in driver safety.

Microsoft Has No Plans To Make Another Smartphone, Exec Says

From Steve Ballmer’s speech on November 4, 2009, I found Microsoft is very clear about the trend of cloud computing and how television, mobiles, and personal computer would be integrated to this trend. While Microsoft is the first company among these three to touch into the mobile market, its early vision seems doesn’t help it even to stay in this market. A recent article published in WSJ Blog by Jeanette Borzo claims that Microsoft Has No Plans to make another Smartphone, according to Microsoft executives.

Microsoft is going to stick to core businesses and has no plans to develop a new Smartphone device, such as its ill-starred Kin handsets, the chief financial officer of Microsoft’s mobile-communication business said Thursday. While Apple is enjoying its huge success of the latest iPhone 4 and Google’s Android operating system continues to win popularity with consumers, Microsoft seems still didn’t show how it will deal with mobile market and how to save the windows mobile system. It is the similar case for its Bing and Live services. Even though both of these attempts show Microsoft’s resolution to compete with Google on cloud services, their strategy is much less clear than Google or even Apple. Microsoft claims to stick to its core business, but maybe that's not enough for it to compete with Google.