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A new driving simulator called "Drive Smart Virginia" hopes to show youth the effects of texting while driving. Since it's only a simulator, the program will show teens the repercussions of texting while driving without having to face any of the consequences. "I was texting my friend Morgan saying 'Hey' and I killed a guy," said Highschool freshman Ericka Lester after she experienced the simulator. Texting isn't the only way to get distracted while driving. Eating, drinking, talking, grooming, as well as using a mobile device for anything--to update social media, check emails, or read sports scores--can increase a driver's chance of getting into an accident. However, since texting is the one activity that can take a driver's eyes off the road for the longest time, it's the most dange...

On Tuesday, April 29, phone company Sprint announced it will offer a phone optimized for playing music along with discounts for Spotify's premium music streaming service. According to Yahoo News, the HTC One M8 Harman Kardon edition, a special edition of the HTC One smartphone, will feature special audio technologies that will enhance sound quality. The two technologies will restore the sound frequencies lost during audio compression, ultimately providing optimized audio quality for playing music. The Harman Kardon edition One also boasts a unique black finish with champagne highlights. Customers who sign up for Sprint's Framily friends and family program will also receive six free months of Spotify Premium access, cnet.com reports. After the first six months, Sprint customers can co...

For carmakers around the world, increasingly strict global CO2 emissions standards seem to be pointing in one direction: the electric engine. According to DigitalTrends.com, Subaru is the latest auto manufacturer to consider further development of an electric car model to introduce in the U.S. before emissions regulations are tightened again in 2018, according to The Japan News. Currently, American car purchases account for about half of Subaru's global sales. “Electric vehicles are [effective] products to help cope with these new regulations,” Yasuyuki Yoshinaga, president of Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries, told The Japan News. Subaru will likely make a decision by the end of the year. While Subaru has previously experimented with electric cars in the last five years, this i...

The possibilities the internet provides are virtually limitless. People now have greater, faster access to information, and can easily communicate with one another with little more than a mobile device and an internet connection. Applications such as Viber and Google + have eclipsed the need for expensive cell phone plans, while Skype and other secure video and audio programs allow real face-to-face interaction. In addition, several other programs are continuously solicited to the public that change the way people think about interacting with one another. These technological advances have even proven helpful for doctors, particularly sports medicine professionals. Called telemedicine, the use of video and audio tools and apps on smartphones, mobile devices, cameras and computers are tak...

"Google says that cars it is programming to drive themselves have started to master the navigation of city streets and the challenges they bring, from jaywalkers to weaving bicyclists -- a critical milestone for any commercially available self-driving car technology," Fox News reported Monday. Google's self-driving cars previously traveled relatively straightforward, rural highways only. New software enables the automated vehicles to pick up on cyclists, hand signals, instructions from crossing guards, buses, and pedestrians walking alongside or crossing the road. With some improvements, experts argue that self-driving cars will make the roads safer. The cars will likely drive even better than humans. "A self-driving vehicle can pay attention to all of these things in a way that a human...

The U.S. has lost some 7.5 million industrial jobs since the employment sector hit its peak in 1979, in large part because companies chose to ship their manufacturing jobs to less-expensive overseas markets. However, that trend is reversing, and, according to a new report, the U.S. now ranks second in overall competitiveness. It trails only China. On Friday, the report released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said that the U.S. was a “rising star” of global manufacturing. It also said that China’s place as the top manufacturer was, if not being explicitly challenged, “under pressure” because of increased labor and transportation costs as well as reduced productivity growth. Conversely, the U.S. is becoming a better market for manufacturing thanks to the lower cost of natural gas...

After spending the better part of a decade in disaster mode, the American economy has used the past four years to gradually bounce back to a relatively stable state, according to recent reports. In fact, millions of Americans are now back to work. But of course, with these numbers come a bit of good news and a bit of bad news. The good news? A bolstered economy means an enlivened workforce, with nearly 4 million jobs being created in the past few years. The bad news? The overwhelming majority of these employment opportunities have come at places like McDonald's, Taco Bell and retail shops in strip malls. In a grander sense, the economy's bounce-back has yielded far more low-paying jobs than better-paid ones. But who cares, as long as there are jobs at all, right? The housing market, ...

“Our accountability isn't the best here,” said David Carter, Deputy Chief of the Phoenix Fire Department. He was speaking about the 850 keys that have gone missing over a period of 15 years, blaming losses on the department's poor record keeping. According to the department's recent audit, 63% of the original 1,350 copies that the city had in 1999 have vanished over the years. The missing keys aren't used to directly access buildings and homes, but are used to unlock key boxes, which are security devices housing keys that actually do unlock buildings. Such a system allows the fire department to access commercial buildings and apartment complexes when closed without having to break down doors or windows to enter, while also minimizing the amount of keys needed. The system was also int...