Gadgets Blog

Yes, You have come to the right place!  This is the Smarter Gadgets Blog and not the Smarter Fashion Blog.  But don’t these sunglasses look really hot?  With the release of these fashion forward sunglasses, Trispecs has completely changed the way we think of our basic Blue tooth headsets.

Who does not want to protect their eyes with a pair of cool designer glasses in summer?  But how do you pair it up with your head set for cell phones and MP3 players?  Thanks to Trispecs we don’t need to discard one for the other.  We can have all the three actions happening at the same time!  How?  It has STEP labs patented noise elimination technology akin to that used for US Defense projects built right into the sunglasses along with stereo and call controls.  The STEP software uses advanced algorithms to separate the voice on the phone from unwanted background noises like the wind, traffic etc and eliminates them to provide unprecedented voice clarity and also stereo sound from your portable music player.  All this without any cumbersome and ugly looking wires!  The buttons for controlling the volume, voice dial and music controls including Play/Pause, Fwd and Back are hidden strategically behind the glass frame.  The device is switched on and off by retractable ear buds that can be hidden behind the ear when not in use.  The lenses are made of spherical polycarbonate with high-impact resistance and UV protection to 400 nm and are RX compatible.  It comes in cool shades of black, white, silver, blue, red and gold and can be purchased from TriSpecs Store for $199.99 to $224.99.

Okay, really?

We all know how some people just can’t drive a single car properly while using a cell phone, so why do some still believe they can operate a mass transit vehicle?  Flashback: September 2008, Los Angeles Metrolink train injures 135, kills 25 people, including the engineer, who was texting.  And just last Friday, a Boston underground trolley crashed downtown. The driver told police he was texting his girlfriend.  This crash only injured about 50 people, no deaths, but it was enough for transit authorities to mobilize policy to ban carrying cell phones at all while on duty.

Here’s the thing, these people obviously made poor choices.  Driving while distracted or “under the influence” is not only irresponsible, someone, a lot of someones, could die (and have).

We’re all guilty of multitasking while driving… hell, I’ve seen a guy next to me reading a newspaper (unfurled across the steering wheel) in stop-and-go traffic, another guy having a business meeting with his papers and charts strewn across the dash and in his hand, and still another getting a face full of burger with one hand and a super large drink in the other… and while the rest of us think they’re dumbasses and try to get away as quickly as possible, to my knowledge none of these things are illegal.

To my point… like anything else, it’s a user error.  Take guns for example (here we go), left alone, the gun itself doesn’t harm anyone.  It’s the hostile or ignorant user who introduces his will and causes harm.  Or like alcohol, in itself not a problem.  It’s the user who decides to drink too much and then drive, jump off a building, etc.  I don’t mean to be insensitive, just looking at plain facts.

In California, we need hands-free devices to talk while driving but I still see people ignoring that law.  They’re just as oblivious to other drivers as they were before…and somehow have a righteous indignation when they almost hit me while they pull out of a driveway without looking…what’s that about?  (Yeah, I’m talking to you, Mr. Stripey-Shirt-Black-BMW-Driver!)

Texting, or cell phone use, in itself, is not “the devil.”  It’s the poor decision making of the user to text or talk while he should be focusing on something more important, like driving.

But you know what?  Where the public’s safety is concerned, if we can’t count on each other to make better decisions and to be responsible for each other, then maybe a transit policy banning vehicle operators from even carrying a cell is appropriate.

And for the rest of us who drive with the masses as opposed to driving the masses, we should look at these accidents as worst case scenarios and smarten up before legislation tells us to.  I mean really, does it have to be a written law with risk of fines or jail time before we as a people realize we should be more responsible? C’MON!

Don’t be a dumbass.

Sources: CNN.com, CBSnews.com, Ridelust.com

Find at Smarter.com:  Shop for cell phone headsets.