Cell phones help reduce traffic accidents!

We've heard plenty of stories recently about how cell phones can visit all manner of disasters on the human race, from rendering us infertile to burning our houses down, not to mention the death and destruction that they wreak on the roads.

So it's about time we got a good news story about the world's favorite gadget. Nissan announced today that it is working on a program that will enable cell phones to communicate with their cars in order to reduce the risk of the pedestrians being knocked down. Nissan's Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) uses 3G cellular communications networks to collect GPS data on the position of mobile-phone wielding pedestrians in relation to cars on the road. If the system detects that a pedestrian is directly in the path of a vehicle, it will alert the driver of a potential accident by activating a visual or audible warning in the cabin.

The pedestrian-location system is part of a wider trial of new technologies that Nissan is conducting in partnership with Japanese wireless company NTT Docomo in Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo, so don't expect it to be available on your next Sentra. If the technology does make it to production, however, it raises some interesting questions about the idea of banning gadgets in order to protect pedestrians from traffic accidents.

Via CNET Crave

Apple iPhone's Asia availability in '08 stays

This probably won't affect us Asian folks and it's still anyone guess when the iPhone will be available in the US. We know in June, but when?

Editors' note: 18 April 2007--According to a Reuters report, the iPhone is on schedule to be available in the US by the end of June and AT&T's wireless unit has an exclusive US deal to sell the highly anticipated handset.

According to CNET News.com's Tom Krazit, the main reason the Cupertino company's latest version of Mac OS X is scheduled for a later release in October was because it had to pull engineers from the Leopard development and have them work on the iPhone instead. In a statement on the Apple Web site, the "iPhone contains the most sophiscated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price--we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team".

Apple also said the "iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned". According to CNET Crave, FCC certification documents for the iPhone still haven't surfaced online. The moment it does is probably when we'll have more news on a launch date.

Does that mean we still have to wait until 2008 before we can get the iPhone. Yeah, probably so.

Nokia 6120 classic: HSDPA candy bar

Following the E90 Communicator, N95 and 6110 Navigator, Nokia has today announced the 6120 classic to beef up its HSDPA lineup.

Slated to be available in Singapore by August, the 6120 classic is your typical candy-bar phone with a simple yet classic design-- something which Nokia excels in. Powered by the robust Series 60 platform, the quadband 6120 classic also comes with Bluetooth stereo, a microSD card slot and a 2-megapixel camera at the rear.

So far, the technical specifications don't look too exciting, but for those who've been waiting for a slim Nokia HSDPA handheld, this could be it. We're still waiting for local pricing details but our friends in Europe can expect to fork out about 260 euros (before subsidies and taxes) for this candy-bar when it arrives.