According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a private group funded by auto insurers, bans on cell phone use while driving do not reduce the number of car crashes. The finding comes on the heels of the National Transportation Safety Board's recent recommendation that states ban all use of mobile devices while driving, including use with hands free technology.

The Insurance Institute compared crash rates between states that enforce such bans and those that don't, and found that the bans did not reduce the incidence of automobile accidents, although the bans were found to decrease the amount of phone usage. The Institute found the same was true for texting

No need for your smart phone anymore now that the folks at iPhoneIslam (also the creators of Face Time 3G) have developed PhoneIt-iPad, an app that turns your iPad into a fully functioning phone. The app allows you to send and receive both calls and texts. All you need is a 3G iPad (with iOS 4.3.3) with a 3G SIM card (rather than the normal data SIM card) and the app. The app is $20 and you won't find it in the App Store since it requires a jailbroken iPad. You can find it at the Cydia store. Check out the video after the break...

Toshiba's new Thrive tablet is now officially available for preorder through several online retailers including Amazon , Office Depot and Toshiba's retail page.

The Thrive boasts a 10.1 inch wideview display with 1280 x 800 HD resolution (720p) and a dual core NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor. It has a 2 megapixel forward facing camera and a 5 megapixel camera on the back. It is powered by Android 3.1 Honeycomb and supports Adobe Flash. Connectivity includes HDMI, USB 2.0 and mini USB ports, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and an SD card reader. It is also capable

In a joint effort, the Draper Laboratory and MIT have developed a nanosatellite, ExoPlanetSat, that's mission will be to locate potentially life supporting Earthlike planets beyond our solar system. It is scheduled to launch next year and complement NASA's much larger Kepler satellite and the French operated CoRot satellite.

ExoPlanetSat will use the same technology that the larger satellites use to detect alien worlds. Using a technique known as transit observation, the satellite will use its high performance optics to detect dimming of a star caused by an orbiting planet passing in front of it. By precisely measuring the drop in brightness researchers can determine the size of the orbiting planet, and by observing the amount of time an orbit takes, the distance of the planet from the star can be calculated. In order for these

It is now confirmed that Verizon will be launching the LG Revolution next Thursday, May 26th. It will be the third (along with the Droid Charge and HTC Thunderbolt) of Verizon's four 4G LTE devices that were showcased earlier this year at CES to hit the shelves.

The Revolution will be the first device loaded with Bing rather than Google Search and will come with Netflix. It is equipped with a 1GHz SnapDragon processor and operates on the Android 2.2 Froyo platform, which is disappointing since Android 2.3 Gingerbread is available. On the plus side it has a large 4.3" touchscreen. Other features include a 5 megapixel rear facing camera with an LED flash and a 1.3 mp forward facing camera. It is capable of recording 720p HD video and comes with an image

A few weeks ago data researchers discovered a file on the iPhone that stores timestamped coordinates of the phone's location, effectively tracking your every move. In addition, the file was downloaded to iTunes every time a sync was performed. Apple dismissed it at first, but after the issue grew in notoriety the company finally addressed it in iOS 4.3.3, which stops the phone from storing locations when the location services are turned off and stops it from downloading to iTunes. Now a project known as openpaths wants your data.

Initiated by the New York Times' R&D Lab, openpaths is a database of user-contributed location files. Researchers believe that they can use donated data to better understand a variety of problems including

Two weeks ago a location tracking issue with iOS 4 GPS enabled devices came to light when data researchers discovered a file within the operating system that contained data about the phone's whereabouts. Not only did the file contain the phone's physical coordinates along with timestamps, but it was discovered that this information was transferred to iTunes every time a synch was performed. At the time Apple made no comments as to the purpose of the file or how to disable it. Most speculation leaned toward the file having something to do with future projects involving location based advertising. Whatever the case, there was a lot of media coverage and such Big Brother-ish activity raised concerns for consumers, so Apple has decided to address the issue with the next iOS update, iOS 4.3.3.

According to BGR's source at Apple, with iOS 4.3.3 the data file will no longer be backed up on iTunes when a synch is performed. The size of the location database will be reduced and it will be entirely

According to a recent report released by Distimo, a Utrecht, Netherlands based app store analytics firm, the Android Market will overtake Apple's App Store in number of apps available by this July. Android Market's growth rate is clearly outpacing the App Store's and has been doing so since January. In fact, the Android Market surpassed the App Store in number of free apps in March (134,342 free apps vs. 121,845). According to the report, the "Google Android Market is predicted to have only 40,000 applications less than the Apple App Store for iPhone by the end of June 2011, and will close the remaining gap before the end of July 2011."

Not only will the Android Market surpass the App Store in terms of smartphone apps, but Distimo projects that "if all application stores maintain their current growth pace, approximately five months from now Google Android Market will be the largest store in terms of number of applications followed by the

Movie rental giant Redbox today announced that it will be offering video game rentals at more than 21,000 of its locations by June 17th this year. This may not be news to some, as the company has been experimenting with video game rental at over 5,000 of its locations since August 2009. Since then Redbox has rented over one million video games, a figure that Redbox feels demonstrates the popularity of video gaming in the U.S. In fact, around 64% of Americans own a video game console according to Interpret New Media Measure.

In the press release, Redbox president Mitch Lowe humbly announced that "Redbox will increase consumers' access to video game rentals by leveraging [its] incredible technology and business model to keep rental prices low for consumers." That low price will be $2 per game per day. Available games

Ever since the arrival of GPS enabled mobile devices people have come up with all sorts of Big Brother-esque conspiracy theories. Security researchers have now bolstered these theories with the discovery of a file within iOS4 that keeps timestamped records of the phone's location.

While looking for a source of mobile data on the iPhone, data scientists Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan discovered the file. At first they weren't sure how much data was in the file, but after extracting and visualizing it, " it became clear that there was a scary amount of detail on our movements," according to Warden. They found that not only does the file contain the latitude and longitude along with a timestamp, but that the file is copied from the phone to the owner's computer every time they are synched.

According to Warden, "Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been." Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, (see iPhone tracking discussion after break)...