safety

iPhone app tells you if you drive like a jerk

Is your idea of driving hell someone sitting in the passenger seat telling you how to drive?

Well, here's something even more fun: an iPhone app that grades your driving and tells you if you if you're a danger to society.

State Farm, the fine upstanding insurance company, has launched a Driver Feedback app that acts as your driving schoolteacher.

According to State Farm, the three parts of your driving that need to be measured are, wait for it: acceleration, braking, and cornering.

Strangely, this omits staring at people out of the window, nodding off at the wheel, and talking on your iPhone while on the road.

This little demon of an app needs only to be activated before it gives you a score at the end of every journey you take. Which, for some, would surely rank alongside having your eyebrows being bitten away by a rabid centipede.

It is entirely understandable that companies are creating apps for everything they can think of to somehow inveigle their way into people's increasingly smartphoned lives. … Read more

Software alerts parents of Facebook users (podcast)

ZoneAlarm SocialGuard (download) from Check Point Software Technologies is a Windows program released today that allows parents to monitor children's Facebook activities to see if they're bullying, being bullied, friending strangers, or engaging in potentially dangerous online activities.

No stealth mode For parents to monitor their kid's profile, the child has to sign in once with his or her Facebook user name and password. That password is not passed on to the parent and the parent can't actually see the child's profile or what they're posting. Instead they get alerts of anything that the … Read more

2011 Hyundai Equus is earns top safety award

Hyundai's flagship model, the 2011 Hyundai Equus, just received a "Top Safety Pick" rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The $58,000 luxury sedan rated "Good" in all crash protection safety categories including front, side, rollover, and rear.

The Equus features the Vehicle Stability Management (VSM) system, which governs the Electronic Stability Control (ESC), the electronic parking brake, smart cruise control, the collision-warning sensor, and the seat belt tensioning system.

Additional safety features include Hyundai's Lane Departure Warning System, nine standard airbags (advanced dual-front airbags, front and rear seat-mounted side-impact airbags, … Read more

ScreenRetriever helps monitor kids' online activity (podcast)

When my kids were teens, my wife and I would occasionally walk into the room when they were on the Internet. We wouldn't stand there for long, but we would glance at the screen to make sure what they were doing was appropriate. The rule was that they had to use a computer in a public area of the house with the door open. We didn't spy on them, but we did check in now and then.

Now there's a software program that will let you do the same thing but from a different part of the … Read more

Facebook's anti-bullying poster boy: Justin Bieber

Facebook announced Wednesday that it has partnered with teen idol Justin Bieber--yes, that Justin Bieber--and MTV's "The Thin Line" public awareness campaign to combat cyberbullying and other forms of digital abuse on the Web. Contributors to MTV's map of anti-abuse tactics from around the country will now be eligible to win prizes that include a "personalized voice-mail greeting from Justin Bieber."

Facebook's broader role in this does not appear to be particularly large. But attaching its name to this sort of initiative is important: Among Facebook's younger users, cyberbullying and other forms … Read more

Contest: $10,000 for winning Internet safety video

Security firm Trend Micro is launching its second annual "What's Your Story" contest to encourage youth and others to submit short videos on Internet safety and privacy.

Categories include being a good online citizen, using a cell phone wisely, and maintaining your online privacy.

The contest is open to anyone 13 and older in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., including students, teachers, and entire classrooms. In addition to the first-prize winner there will be six $500 prizes. Three will go to the best school entries in each category and three will go to the … Read more

Apple criticized in Chinese environmental report

Apple has been accused by a coalition of 36 Chinese environmental groups of ignoring hazardous and unhealthy conditions at the factories in China where its components are assembled.

Released yesterday by the Institute of Environmental and Public Affairs (IPE), the report "The Other Side of Apple" ranked the iPhone maker dead last among 29 other tech companies for their responsiveness to health and environmental concerns in China.

Specifically, the report claims that Apple ignored concerns at Wintek, a factory that makes touch screens for the iPhone and iPad as well as components for other companies. Wintek came under … Read more

Top 5 smartphones that won't kill you (as quickly?)

Nobody seems to know if cell phone radiation is harmless or setting up the biggest public health crisis in history. Until that little question is answered, here are five great smartphones that heat your flesh less.

If you want to look up the SAR number of any phone, CNET has that list.

Australia flood sends cars down river (video)

If you are anywhere near a flood that covers an area greater than the size of France and Germany combined, some unsolicited advice: don't park near a river.

An office worker captured footage of a fast rising river in Toowoomba, Australia. The river soon gave way to a flash flood that swept away cars parked along the river's bank. One by one, the river floated them downstream. One brave (or foolish) man rescued his SUV from the deluge, but the rest of the vehicles ended up dogpiled against a bank of trees.

Fortunately for the videographer, his car … Read more

Follow-up report: President Obama signs Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act into law

It looks like automakers will be required by law to add audible alerts to silent-running electric vehicles to keep sight-impaired pedestrians safe.

President Barack Obama this week signed into law the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act (S. 841), which will protect the blind and other pedestrians from injury as a result of silent-vehicle technology, said the National Federation of the Blind.

The new bill, sponsored by Senator John Kerry, and 29 other co-sponsors, allows the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) begin crafting standards for an alert sound.

"The National Federation of the Blind is pleased that this critical legislation … Read more