by David Pogue
A GROWING number of states and countries have passed laws banning cellphone use while driving. But if we're really going to be serious about safety, we need laws against the even more distracting things people do while they drive. Which brave lawmaker will propose the No Fixing Hair, Fishing the Back Seat Floor for Baby Bottles or Arguing About Politics While Driving Act?
At least there's one glimmer of good news: new audio-entertainment sources like iPods and satellite radio are making AM radio less and less of a distraction. No longer must you glance down to change the channel the 600th time the same herbal supplement ad comes on.
Last week, though, commuters, exercisers and people sitting around for jury duty gained an ingenious new audio alternative: books on phone.
Its actual name is Audible Air, and it's a way to download spoken recordings from Audible.com to the Palm Treo cellphone and other wireless gadgets -- over the air, wherever you happen to be. But to appreciate its significance, you must first understand how Audible works.
Audible.com offers digital "books on tape" for the intellectually inclined. Today, 600,000 people listen each month to Audible's spoken recordings of over 7,000 books and 47 magazines and newspapers. Most people these days listen to Audible recordings -- or "content," as the company annoyingly calls them -- on portable players like iPods and Palm organizers, after first downloading them to their computers. (In fact, you get a free iPod Shuffle when you sign up for six months of Audible service, or a free Creative MuVo with a one-year contract.)