August 25, 2015

Free app to send replies out when driving

Filed under: Automobiles,Technology by Orangemaster @ 3:35 pm

Dutch satirist Johan Vlemmix, who brought us questionable songs about wearing a burqa and buses full of Polish people, is currently designing a phone app.

Motivated by the amount of fines he has had for using a mobile phone while driving and causing minor accidents ‘with no injuries’, Vlemmix’s app would provide the equivalent of an ‘out of office’ reply but then an ‘I’m driving’ version for all incoming messages, including social media. The app would be available in September for Android and iPhone, and it will be free.

Besides replying to the recipient who wonders why you’re not answering them back quickly, Vlemmix would leave his phone alone much easier knowing a reply was sent. Maybe he needs to tell his recipients to chill or needs to learn to let go of his phone while driving and realise that it is illegal to drive and text because it’s dangerous.

Another argument from Vlemmix is that if ever the police were to stop you (well, him), he could prove he didn’t answer his phone. We’ve had two stories, Man fined 237 euro for scratching his ear and Man gets 150 euro fine for sticking finger in ear, where this app could have been useful.

(Link: www.ed.nl, Photo by Hello Turkey Toe, some rights reserved)

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May 26, 2014

Man fined 237 euro for scratching his ear

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 1:11 pm

mobile-phone-when-driving-alx-chiefRobert Bloem, aged 65, from Sint Pancras near Alkmaar was fined 237 euro for making a mobile phone call while driving.

Mr Bloem was stopped by the police late in the evening on 23 April (Noordhollands Dagblad adds, “in other words, it was dark”) who fined him on the spot. The driver explained that he hadn’t been making his phone call, but was scratching his ear instead (where have I heard this before?). When he offered his phone to the police so that they might check the call data they declined on the grounds that he “might have erased them”.

The police report says that Mr Bloem was holding “an object similar to a phone”. Mr Bloem has hired a lawyer who told the newspaper the object was “therefore not a phone”.

Sint Pancras is the sort of place where people drive around with 60,000 euro in cash on top of their car (or so they claim), so I am not surprised Mr Bloem can afford the court case.

(Photo by Alx_chief, some rights reserved)

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