The potential of consumers talking while driving was a fear that kept Martin Cooper, Motorola engineer and the inventor of the first cell phone, awake at night, according to an interesting report in the New York Times today. He suggested a lock on the dial to keep users from making calls while in motion. This idea got lost as the business of in-car calling became more attractive, but other options have since arisen. The latest comes from ZoomSafer, which today launched a new Web site and partnered with cell-phone retailer Wirefly to offer free ZoomSafer-equipped BlackBerry smartphones to encourage safe driving. more

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) confirmed its acquisition of music streaming company Lala today, a potentially huge move if – but only if – it leads to music streaming for all Apple products. While the service as it is today takes more of a “taste-and-buy” approach to music than a pure subscription model, some believe Lala will mean a streaming subscription service is in the cards for Apple.

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As Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) and AT&T (NYSE:T) argue on TV whose network is fastest and most ubiquitous, independent performance testing firm Root Wireless has put their claims to the test, mapping out the performance metrics of all of the big four’s 3G networks in seven major metro markets. The findings were surprising. Though AT&T has taken a huge public relations hit for poor coverage and capacity on its high-speed packet access (HSPA) network, Root found that it’s network performed best in almost every single category from average download speed to level of connection failure (See TelephonyOnline’s related analysis of AT&T and Verizon’s networks). Root’s complete market data can be seen after the break. more