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Using the cell-phone while on the move is riskier than most people realise.

Distracted driving has gained much attention because of the inflated crash risk posed by drivers using cell-phones to talk and text. But there are other kinds of problems caused by lower-stakes multitasking like distracted walking, which combines a pedestrian, an electronic device and an unseen step, the pole of a stop sign, a toy left on the living room floor or a parked (or moving) car.

The era of the mobile gadget is making mobility that much more perilous, particularly on crowded streets where too many multi-taskers jostle for road surface on foot or wheels while immersed in the beat of their own devices like cell-phones and MP3/video players. But cell-phone is by far the most dangerous because it requires active participation from its users. Texting (and Twittering) is increasingly popular and newer devices like the iPhone have thousands of new, engaging applications to preoccupy phone users. (more…)

Last Friday night, the trio of internet technologies and investments watchers TechCrunch, GigaOm and VentureBeat (known to some of their detractors as the Unholy Trinity) held their annual Crunchies Awards for entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists who support them. The long list of nominees and winners includes big names like Facebook, Twitter, Android & Chrome & Wave (by Google), Bing & Silverlight (by Microsoft). But the highlight of the show was by a group act called the Richter Scales and their hilarious song ‘In the Valley’ (sung to the tune of Coco Cabana by Barry Manillow) about Silicon Valley.