Big Brother says no texting

contactImgTexting while driving seems to be the hotbed issue of today’s world. Even though texting is only one of a multitude of distractive factors in the car, 18 states will have legislation by January 2010 banning text messaging in vehicles. But for those parents who don’t think the law is enough to keep their kids from texting, help has arrived!
TXTBlocker is a piece of software installed onto a mobile device that prevents the phone from calling out, texting, or e-mailing while you are driving. Emergency calls are still allowed, but your phone pretty much becomes a useless brick whenever you move faster than 5 MPH. On the FAQ section of the TXTBlocker website, they explain how the software knows you’re driving with the following: “TXTBlocker™ uses a variety of proprietary technologies to monitor the mobile phone’s location, acceleration, and velocity. Our guess is GPS. It also offers the feature to check where the device is located, simply by logging onto their website. Creepy.

The list of compatible phones is pretty limited. Support is primarily for the BlackBerry series, with Android and iPhone capabilities coming later. But if you bought your teenage driver a brand new smartphone, you probably can afford to shell out the $24.99 setup fee + $9.99 a month.

P.S. Be forewarned, if you go to the TXTBlocker website, it plays a audio file of a mother explaining exactly how totally awesome this service is. On every page. You also can’t turn it off.