New laws to come into effect across Australia will see drivers having to put down their mobile phones whilst in the car. Although different states will have different implementation of the law, some states, including Victoria will see a marked change whereby phones need to be in a holder fixed in the car with calls being answered without touching the phone.

Coming into effect on 9 November, fines will be $220 for repeat offenders.

Of course this is nothing new to drivers in the UK and many States in America where drivers have been used to reducing the calls they make whilst in the car, and making those calls with the aid of a Bluetooth car kit or hands free kit such as the Parrot MKi 9000

Here at Bluetooth car kits, we like to focus on products that improve your in car calling experience, however in the past we have looked at satellite navigation devices that also have Bluetooth enabled hands free calling. There are obvious advantages in that you only need to purchase one device that will carry out several functions. Also in this security conscious world, it means you only have to remove, and carry, one piece of technology from your car.

The Tom Tom GO 940 Live is currently the top of the range Tom Tom model and has the much touted ‘Live’ over the air update service and Google search, that allows you to find and navigate to the cheapest source of fuel in your area. Beware though, this service is free only for the first 3 months and then will cost an additional £7.99 per month, so adds an additional cost of ownership to the Tom Tom Go 940.

But do not discount this device just yet. It is the top of the range, with a 4.3” screen to help with navigation, packed with the friendly and easy to use Tom Tom software.  If you are driving a lot, then there are significant benefits over a more basic model, such as traffic status updated every 3 minutes, safety alerts via Road Angel, and the ability to search for a business via Google, navigate to it, and call them hands free all from the single device.

Turning to the hands free calling, as with other devices we have looked at the quality tends to deteriorate on noisy roads, particularly compared with a fully fitted hands free kit which will usually include a dedicated microphone. If you are looking at a visor mount hands free, or earpiece device as a comparison, the quality on the Tom Tom Go 940 is acceptable and does have built in echo cancellation and noise reduction technology, and the features you would expect, such as automatic pick up for total hands free operation are included. You can also copy the directory from your phone to the Tom Tom Go.

There is an MP3 player included and FM transmitter to play your songs through the car radio. There is 4GB of memory for storage.

In summary, you get a lot of features, great navigation and Bluetooth hands free as well. If the price is right for you, the Tom Tom G0 940 Live may be as well.

By professional quality, we mean a kit that needs to be installed into the car electrics, so that it uses your audio speakers and overrides the car stereo when you receive a call.

Although these kits are more expensive that visor mounted car kits, or ear piece kits, and you need to add the cost of the fitting and installation, when you compare this to the cost of your car, and that you have an integrated solution that is not reliant on battery power, the costs are relatively small.

So which kit should you choose? The first consideration is compatibility with your car (most kits will fit most cars) and also with your mobile, or mobiles if you have more than one phone in the family. Again most Bluetooth enabled kits are compatible with most Bluetooth enabled phones.

Feature sets are often very similar and will often mirror the capabilities of your mobile.

The quality of the call and the noise reduction can vary between car kits and manufacturers, but apart from this you should select the style of the control module and how it will fit in your car.

Two recent additions to the market are the Motorola IHF1000 and the Parrot MKi9000, both offering a range of features for under £100 plus installation.

For those drivers under 18, the law will be even more strict, banning completely electronic communication whilst driving, both talking or texting, including hands free talking.

Whilst the option to use a cheaper corded handset is available under the law, a Bluetooth handsfree kit or earpiece, provides flexibility, and usually more features.

Other alternatives, such as a sun visor mounted Bluetooth car kit are a compromise between a fully fitted car kit, and an earpiece solution.

If the law can help to reduce accidents then the change must be a positive one, and as the California Highway Patrol reported that there were 1,232 collisions in 2006 that were attributed to handheld cell phone use, compared with 71 collisions that involved hands-free use, the statistics suggest that this will indeed be a positive change.

A first offence fine of $164.50 will be followed by a follow up fine of $222.00 for a second offence and then $337.00 for any subsequent offences.

Nova Scotia is the second province in Canada to ban drivers using cellphones and as with other areas that have passed similar laws, handsfree speakerphones are allowed, as are earpieces.

But developers are working to overcome the dangers. Answering a call without having to press a button on a device can help believes Charlie Klauer, a Virginia Tech researcher who worked on a recent study with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

And systems that can dedect when a driver may have lost focus on the road are also in development.

“Technology now makes it possible to monitor the driver’s condition or state and have some remedial steps so that you can have a more refined response,”

according to Mary Stearns, acting chief of advanced vehicle safety technology at the Volpe Center, a US Department of Transportation research facility in Cambridge. This would help make handsfree devices more akin to talking to a passenger in the car, who can sense when there may be a danger ahead and stop talking, something that the person on the other end of a call can not do, at least not yet.

The bill was approved 107 votes to 47; Police would be able to stop drivers that are in violation, landing first-time adult offenders a $100 fine.

If passed, the hands-free bill would make Massachusetts the 6th American state to make handsfree compulsory, but it still has to pass through the Massachusetts Senate where there is opposition from key legislators.

The innovative handlebar control connects wirelessly to the speaker and microphone attached to your helmet, and via Bluetooth to your mobile phone which you can leave in your pocket or bag.

In addition to promising crystal clear sound, and volumes that increases with your speed, the kit has an FM RDS radio (it actually speaks the name of the station when it is tuned in!) and the capability to connect to a Music player on your Bluetooth mobile, or via a cable to your MP3 player.

Full information on the SK4000 Motorcycle handsfree kit

Now this statistic comes from a company called Yap, makers of software that will allow you to dictate text messages without needing to touch your mobile, and will also read back received text messages to you – obviously both safer than holding and looking at your mobile whilst driving, something you see all too often happening in this country, And which is clearly in breach of the current law.
Whether or not the Yap solution will still be deemed to be unsafe and illegal in this country is yet to be seen. The software is also not yet available to download although Yap anticipate it will be made available for ‘minimal cost’.

This is what they say about the product -

Yap™ has created a next generation automated freeform speech recognition platform that makes mobile consumer applications easier and faster to use.

Apart from safety, the system is said to make texting quicker, but if you are talking your texts, it has to be asked, why not just call?

Chief Supt Kenny Scott, of

In line with the new penalties, he has been fined £60 and has had three points put on his driving licence.

We can confirm that a 50-year-old man was given a fixed penalty following an alleged road traffic offence on the M74 on Wednesday, 7 March.

said a police spokeswoman.