Back in March, Postini reported that 94% of all email is spam!  If you're lucky you have a great spam filter and most of it never reaches you. But if you think spam is annoying on your computer based mail client, it’s even more annoying when you’re listening to your email by phone. 

That’s why Voice Assist doesn’t read anything tagged as spam and we’re adding more user controls so you can be very specific about which email you want to hear.  We understand that when you’ve only got a few minutes to listen to email you only want to hear the important ones.

So when you're listening to your emails by phone and have an idea for how you'd like to filter what you hear, let us know.  Use our feedback form to talk directly to the development team.

Even before all this talk in Washington about a nationwide ban on texting while driving, a number of States already had legislation on the books.

The Governers Highway Safety Association (GHSA) has an up-to-date list of the laws in each State related to texting while driving, cell phone use while driving, and handsfree laws. 

Current state cell phone driving law highlights include the following:

• Handheld Cell Phone Bans for All Drivers: 6 states (California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington), the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from talking on handheld cell phones while driving.
  • With the exception of Washington State, these laws are all primary enforcement—an officer may ticket a driver for using a handheld cell phone while driving without any other traffic offense taking place.
• All Cell Phone Bans: No state completely bans all types of cell phone use (handheld and hands-free) for all drivers, but many prohibit cell phone use by certain segments of the population.
  • Novice Drivers: 20 states and the District of Columbia ban all cell use by novice drivers.
  • School Bus Drivers: In 16 states and the District of Columbia, school bus drivers are prohibited from all cell phone use when passengers are present.
• Text Messaging: 17 states and the District of Columbia now ban text messaging for all drivers.
  • Novice Drivers: 9 states prohibit text messaging by novice drivers.
  • School Bus Drivers: 1 state restricts school bus drivers from texting while driving.
• Preemption Laws: 8 states have laws that prohibit local jurisdictions from enacting restrictions. In 6 other states, localities are allowed to ban cell phone use.
• Some states, such as Utah and New Hampshire, treat cell phone use as a larger distracted driving issue.
  • Utah considers speaking on a cellphone to be an offense only if a driver is also committing some other moving violation (other than speeding).

The Times posted a simple interactive game to illustrate how hard it is to drive and text at the same time.  While it's clearly not like driving, it's a good reminder of the impact of multi-tasking on reaction time.  Give it a try - use the numbers on your keyboard not keypad.

With all this discussion about "distracted driving", articles like this one by David Coursey in Computer World are coming to the same conclusions as we did. 

"Better speech technology could make texting while driving more than dangerous, it would become obsolete. No longer would it be necessary for a driver to read teensy words from a tiny screen or type using an equally downsized keyboard--these could be replaced by simply talking and listening".

With speech recognition based services there's no need for a keypad, you just use your voice to say what you want to do.  For example, to make a call using Voice Assist you just say "Call" followed by the name of a person in your address book, or to send a text message you say "Text" and the name of the person.  Voice Assist also allows you to use simple speech commands to listen and reply to your email.  So for example, you can say" next" and "previous" to navigate through the list of emails, and "reply" to compose a message back.

Simple speech commands make it really easy to things done.  No keypad required.

The recent Virgina Tech Transportation Institute report has brought the hazards of texting while driving back into the spotlight.  Now legislators across the country are talking a nationwide ban.

According to an article by KEN THOMAS, Associated Press, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina plan to unveil legislation to require states to ban texting or e-mailing while operating a moving vehicle while driving.

"The federal government ought to pass a law banning this dangerous and growing practice to protect the millions of Americans on our nation's roads. It is a matter of public safety," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

The legislation would require states to ban texting or e-mailing while operating a moving vehicle or lose 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding. It would be patterned after the way the Congress required states to adopt a national drunken driving ban.

The transportation secretary would be required to issue guidelines within six months of the measure being signed into law, and states then would have two years to approve the bans on texting and driving.  The bill would target the activity in a moving vehicle and not prohibit a driver from texting or e-mailing in a stopped car.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have already passed laws making texting while driving illegal.