Tag: Driving »

As long as you don't live close to your place of employment or in a budding metropolis with massive transportation systems, driving is most likely at least a small part of your daily life.  Unfortunately, there are far too many crazy drivers on the roads who forget that driving is a privilege, not a right.  The problem is, many drivers don't actually realize they are reckless until it is too late.  And just because no one has informed you of your navigational inadequacies doesn't mean that they do not exist.

For this very reason, the new iOS application iDriveControl was created.  Never before has their been a tool that not only can keep you abreast of your own failures, but potentially save your life in the off chance you were to end up in a collision.  But don't take our word for it, why not glance over some of theirs?

iDriveControl turns an iPhone into a black-box that records the position of your vehicle, provides information about the safety of driving by signaling dangerous turns, accelerations and braking.

If you have an accident, your iPhone sends an email with the position of your car to a list of selected people. If you choose, you can have all the data recorded on the web and you can even check them in real time at the www.idrivecontrol.com.

So not only do you get comprehensive analysis of your driving habits, but also the means to store the data remotely should something, God forbid, ever happen to your phone.  While this would be great for helping to keep yourself in check, it would be even more ideal for a parent of a young driver.  The ability to backseat drive, without ever having to step foot in a vehicle is reason enough to make this an instant purchase.

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We all love technology, but while it has made life so much easier it has also made driving a lot more dangerous. While folks simply talking on cell phones pose enough of a safety risk, those sending text messages or checking email are even more dangerous. Now, when it comes to email at least there's a solution, as Email’nDrive allows you to send and receive messages without taking your eyes off the road or hands off the wheel.

Email’nDrive will read emails received aloud to drivers, which allows you to keep up on important messages while maintaining your focus at the wheel. The pro version of the app also supports composing messages via voice, so you can put together a response without ever having to touch your iPhone. It's a wonderful concept, and one which does a great deal to enhance vehicular safety. The program is designed to work with popular email servers such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and more, and can be configured to work with Exchange if you know how to configure IMAP.

Though the app has the potential to be truly revolutionary there are still some bugs which needs to be sorted out first. Many users are reporting crashing issues, so there's a chance after you download the app that it won't work properly. Also, Email’nDrive must be actively running in order to work properly, so you can't just have it sitting in the background while doing other things. Of course, if you're driving you probably shouldn't have other apps open anyway, but the type of person who is willing to email while driving is also likely the same type who will be doing all sorts of other distracting things rather than paying attention to the road.

For those interested the basic version of the app is available for free, or you can get the pro upgrade for $5. Enjoy and drive safe!