But how can I deny my phones cute little buzz when it calls to me? Answer me, use me, love me…I hear one ring and all thoughts of those cute furry squirrels slip away. The temptation is just too much. But I’m committed, so lately I’ve been looking into other technologies that will help in my quest to save the squirrels. Check out my reviews below. 

Auto SMS: While this application is only available for android, it is a double hitter. The app reads incoming texts out loud, and sends back a customizable “sorry, driving right now” text. Because Eighty-nine percent of teens say that the reason that they text while driving is because they feel pressured to answer a text message within five minutes of receiving it, this seems perfect. You get whatever information was sent, and you can stay safe without feeling rude. While I haven’t tried the app myself, it’s boasting tons of great reviews.

 Drivesafe.ly: I downloaded this app for my iPhone, because it’s seemed to have a lot of cool features, and there aren’t a lot of apps that do this kind of thing in the Apple store. However, after I took a few test runs with this app I am disappointed to say that it did not live up to my expectations. A lot of the features it advertised are not really possible because of the way ios works. What I will say is when you take away all the bells and whistles, it was easy to start up before my drive, and it did stop my phone from alerting me that I had incoming texts, removing the temptation to check my phone. For that reason, I would recommend it.

Can’t text: I tried this app out on a friend android device, and it worked really well. It didn’t alert us to
 any incoming texts, and we had fun deciding what our auto reply message would be. The only con to this app was when we forgot to turn it off. But I suppose you would run into that problem with any app.

Drive Mode: If you’re on the blackberry, drive mode can help you curb your texting while driving urges by doing something similar to the other apps. What I liked about it was it also auto replies to emails, if that is your area of weakness. Drive Mode is free for people AT&T, and will be coming to other devices soon.

Siri: I took a Siri equipped phone out for a spin to see if I could do some hands free texting. While it was seemingly simple, Siri and I were never really on the same page, and I ended up taking my attention away from the road more than once. It is not something I would make a habit of. This video does a good job of explaining the problems someone would run into using Siri and driving. I never actually sent a text, and decided it would just be easier to wait until I got home.

The simplest solution to the texting and driving problem is will power. Just don’t pick up your phone. But if you’re someone like me, who is serious about not driving while distracted and just needs a bit of extra help I would definitely recommend you look into these and other options available. Now if I could only find an app that would talk to my friends in the back seat, feed me my burger, pick the right song to play, I would really be distraction free! Until then, I will just keep fighting the good fight.

However, I’m just not a funny person. I try, but people only laugh at my jokes in the “wow, that was so bad its funny”  or “I will give her some pity” kind of way. My employers typically laugh at me, not with me. My friends take every opportunity to use the “Sure! You’re funny…… looking” joke.

I decided to take it upon myself to become a master of all this funny so I would fit in better here.  After hours of research and days of practice I thought I was ready to present myself as a transformed employee, and take the title of funniest one here.  My target was the upcoming employee meeting. All the big wigs of the company would be there, even the professor. I waited patiently for the perfect moment, as I had read timing was everything. Finally we reached break in between topics, and I had what I thought was the joke of the century prepared. It would be a perfect segway into the next topic! I gave myself a brief mental pep talk, and then blurted it out:
Q: How to you attract a rich squirrel?  No one said anything.  A: With Cashews!  Everyone stared. There was a lot of face to palm motions, and then we moved on.

Heart broken, I spent the rest of the meeting distracted, thinking about my next move. I thought I was done for. When the meeting was over, I started to packing up my things, when the professor approached me. He has set up a meeting for later today, about my humor. I guess we will see what happens.

At Warning Label Games we are pretty mischievous, but we have good hearts. Our slogan is Play Bad, Do Good. It’s ironic, but it makes sense. You have fun playing the villain in our games, while helping to address serious issues that impact society. What’s more, it’s good for you when you share!

Recent research from UC Berkeley claims people feel better when they gossip and tell others about someone behaving badly (it’s interesting – check it out at http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/01/17/gossip/).

According to one of the researchers, the gossip study is “scientific confirmation of that ‘scratching-a-lingering-itch feeling’ of relief we get from clucking our tongues when someone’s out of line”. So we know you won’t be able to resist playing ‘bad’ in our games – they’re that fun and addictive – but imagine how good you’ll feel when you share it with others! Go ahead, play bad, gossip, do good!

Gossip with us on Twitter and Facebook

• In June 2011, time spent in mobile apps officially overtook time spent web surfing. 47% of that time was spent playing games (Source: Appsfunder)

• 53% of all gamers are women, and the number one user segment is economically stable females 35-44, rivaling males 18-25.

• 70%-80% of all mobile downloads are games.

• 37% of iphone owners game daily.

• In 2010, the mobile entertainment industry was worth $33 billion dollars, with gaming representing $8 billion of that. 

• By 2014, games are expected to produce $11 billion in revenue. 

• 50% of revenue from the top grossing ipad apps comes from in app purchases and in game purchases are expected to reach $11 Billion dollars by 2015.
  (Source: geekaphone)