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Smartphones vs. Teens

By Kris Eddy | More Articles
December 15, 2009 | Comments (14)

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What's the most useful smartphone app, real or imagined?

Darcy Ahl, who was in the car when her 16-year-old son tried to answer his phone while driving, has created an app that parents of teen drivers might really like -- as might the rest of us on the road with folks who have more manual dexterity than common sense.

Reports The Los Angeles Times:

"Ahl came up with an idea for a smart phone application that prevents drivers from talking on the phone and texting while driving. … The application iZUP uses GPS technology to detect a car's speed. If a car is traveling over 5 miles per hour, the application sends incoming calls to voice mail and holds text messages. It also blocks outgoing text messages and calls, except emergency 911 calls."

For now, the application is available only for Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM  ) BlackBerry phones and handsets that run on Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT  ) Windows Mobile and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG  ) Android operating software.  

What do you think would be the most useful app to have on your teenager's phone, whether he or she would appreciate it or not? How could other software for Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) iPhone, Palm's (Nasdaq: PALM  ) Pre, and other smartphones help out worried parents?

Sound off in the comments box below. We're listening even if your teen isn't. For each post, the Fool will donate $0.10 to the Thurgood Marshall Academy in Washington, D.C., in furtherance of financial literacy.

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Fool online editor Kris Eddy owns no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article. Try any of our investing newsletters free for 30 days. The Fool has a disclosure policy.


Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

  • Report this Comment On December 15, 2009, at 3:04 PM, bluepolasky wrote:

    What if you are a passenger and need to call your parents?

  • Report this Comment On December 15, 2009, at 3:20 PM, Fool wrote:

    Why teach our kids wisdom when you can just enforce it! How about we teach our kids (and ourselves and peers) about distracted driving..

  • Report this Comment On December 15, 2009, at 3:27 PM, TMFKris wrote:

    The parent can put in phone numbers that won't be blocked, presumably their own, the LAT reports. Also, there's a PIN number that the parent could punch in to disable the block if the teen were going to be a passenger on a long trip. Although that would let the driver borrow the phone, I suppose.

    Kris (Motley Fool copyeditor)

  • Report this Comment On December 15, 2009, at 3:46 PM, Turfscape wrote:

    Fool wrote:

    "How about we teach our kids (and ourselves and peers) about distracted driving."

    Yeah...cause kids always listen and obey. Just like with drinking, and drugs, and sex. None of those are problems anymore because we have those awesome faith-based initiatives that tell kids to abstain.

  • Report this Comment On December 15, 2009, at 4:16 PM, InfoThatHelp wrote:

    Teens love to reason. Make the app interactives such as adding a screen to the app that says 'are you sure you wanna talk on the phone now?' while the teen is driving.

  • Report this Comment On December 15, 2009, at 5:02 PM, lution wrote:

    sounds like an app that needs to be on every cell phone, not just ones teens own....

    NOW GET OUT OF THE #@$@# LEFT LANE SINCE YOU CAN"T TALK AND DRIVE AT THE SAME TIME LADY!!

    (my appologies to all women that don't talk and drive, this one was doing 40 in a 55... and no, I'm @ home now when I'm posting this.)

  • Report this Comment On December 15, 2009, at 9:53 PM, foolishdoog wrote:

    what if your on public transportation or a passenger in another car? this app is has more holes than a french.....person

  • Report this Comment On December 16, 2009, at 2:13 PM, TMFBent wrote:

    This is an application that everyone will want everyone else to use.

  • Report this Comment On December 16, 2009, at 2:18 PM, Turfscape wrote:

  • Report this Comment On December 16, 2009, at 3:29 PM, Knoxville555 wrote:

    Considering most cars have bluetooth now this app is worthless.

    I like the no texting while driving though, that is just amazing.

  • Report this Comment On December 16, 2009, at 3:30 PM, kwill10 wrote:

    My idea for an app that you'd want teens to have? One that, once they text the same person 3 times in less than 5 minutes, would automatically call that person so that they can complete the conversation in 1/50 of the time that it would take to continue it via texting.

  • Report this Comment On December 16, 2009, at 3:50 PM, Knoxville555 wrote:

    lol at Kwill. I love that Idea. Non verbal seems to be a teens choice of communication these days. :sigh:

  • Report this Comment On December 16, 2009, at 4:21 PM, DragonlordPromet wrote:

    lol, well said kwill10

  • Report this Comment On December 17, 2009, at 11:48 AM, BrianBristow wrote:

    My ideal smart phone would have a breathalyzer built in. You can monitor your BAC (Up nicely off its lows). Once you reach a certain level, you would no longer be able to call business contacts. The next level up would lock out ex-girlfriends (I still love you!). The next would prevent calling anyone outside of a few preselected friends (Dude... remember that time in highschool...) and above another threshold, any attempt at communication would call a cab and automatically send your gps coordinates.

    Seriously.

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