A new law in Ontario, Canada has banned the use of handheld devices while driving. This includes cellphones, GPS devices, MP3 players, etc. Slight problem: the law is broad enough that you can construe it to include doing things like changing the radio station or reaching for a cup of coffee.

Real, and available to pre-order. I refer to that BlackBerry wristwatch that was rumored for so, so long till it was “made official” several days ago. Created by Allerta (and not RIM), the watch, officially named the inPulse smartwatch for BlackBerry, will set you back $150 when it’s released in February, 2010.

Let’s be honest for a second here: unless we’re talking about the Motorola Droid, which should be on Verizon Wireless within a few weeks, we might as well not be talking about Motorola. It’d be like talking about Real Madrid and only mentioning Granero or Drenthe and not Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaká. (Good, making references that all of 11 people will understand.) But we’re going to that such a thing right now in talking about the Motorola Aura Diamond Edition. It’s £3,500, which converts to, roughly, $5,700. Yeah…

A group of researchers in France just recommended that we all limit our exposure to wireless devices, including mobile phones, Wi-Fi, and microwaves, because we really don’t understand how prolonged exposure to them can affect us. That’s particularly true with mobile phones, since they’ve really only been around for, what, 10 years? (Obviously there were available for longer than that, but Joe Public didn’t buy his first phone till a little bit later.) You can’t categorically say, based on 10 years of sometimes spotty data, that “phones are bad!” or “phones are good!” We simply don’t know.

So CTIA does this little survey twice a year just to measure how well (or poor) the wireless industry is doing. The result of its latest survey just hit the wires, and what immediately jumped out at me was this stat: around 4.1 billion (yes, billion with a “b”) text messages per day (!) were sent in the first half of 2009. I wonder how many of those are the always useful “k” message.

Embattled ratings company Nielsen has published some Internet findings that may interest you. (If not, go make a sandwich or something.) The big finding is that mobile access to the Internet has jumped 34 percent compared to last year, and it looks like women, teens and, yes, seniors make up the bulk of that increase. The mobile Internet: not just a place for 20-something men anymore. Darn.

Looks like the Obama Administration, which really ought to be focused on getting Americans like me affordable health care (unless doctors now accept World of Warcraft Gold as payment, lol!), has set its sights on eliminating the scourge of distracted driving once and for all. Case in point: Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood is holding a summit this week that has the ultimate goal of “finding ways to eliminate texting while driving.”

And here I thought the megapixel race was over! Guess not, what with Samsung showing off, for the very first time, the SCH-W880, the world’s first cellphone with a 12-megapixel camera. Because how many times have you said to yourself, “Man, I want to take a photo of this unusual drink, but only have the iPhone’s rubbish camera”?

A well-meaning law, yes, but one that just misses the mark. I refer to, of course (as if you have any idea what I’m talking about), the Road User Amendment Rule 2009 in New Zealand. It would make it illegal to use a cellphone as a navigation device while inside a car.

Some pretty big iPhone news to share with y’all this morning: the iPhone will no longer be exclusive to O2 over in the UK, becoming available on Orange “later this year.” So for all of you in the U.S. who one day hope to see the iPhone on a different wireless provider (like, say, Verizon Wireless, differences between CDMA and GSM notwithstanding), well, you now have a precedent.

You get the feeling that Palm had something to hide today. On the surface that makes no sense, considering it officially announced the Pixi, the company’s second webOS-based phone, this morning. (The company’s first webOS phone, the Pre, launched to much fanfare last May, owing to an almost Bill Goldberg winning streak-like level of hype.) But as you’re already aware, Apple had an announcement or two of its own today, including the inclusion of a digital camera on the iPod nano. It’s unfortunate, but Apple events are really the black holes of this industry: on Apple event days, no other tech news can escape out into the wild. That is to say, unless your company name is Apple, Inc., you’d be better served laying low for the day, and make any announcements later in the week.

T-Mobile, Sprint, and now Verizon Wireless. Yup, the HTC Touch Pro 2 should be ready and waiting for you at your local VZW store on September 11. In what may be the first example of VZW customers getting a deal (compared to the other carriers), the phone is only $199 after $100 rebate and two-year contract.

We’ve already noted the dangers of driving while texting, but today there’s evidence that suggests many other people recognize the problem. A recent survey conducted by Nationwide Insurance says that some 80 percent of Americans support some sort of legislation “to restrict cell phone use while driving.” How you define “cell phone use” then becomes an issue.

Word on the street is that students plan to protest outside of the Nokia store in Manhattan because of the company’s alleged evildoing in Iran. The protest is being led by Project Nur, which is a student-affiliated “initiative” of the American Islamic Congress. Good luck, bro.

Sure Sony can’t solve its own problems but SE has brought in a new head, Bert Nordberg, and is officially placing Sir CEO Hoard Stringer as the head of the board. The resulting shake-up had better give SE a huge boost or else they’re going down.

Nordberg replaces Carl-Henric Svanberg.

Are you an English WAG? (And if you are, how did you hear about us, lol!) Good news, then, since Sony Ericsson just lifted the veil on this fashiony phone, the Jalou. I’ve been pronouncing it J-Lo, like the singer, all morning, so feel free to do the same.

Fosfor posted an incredible look at what has befallen phone manufacturers and why they’re all faltering. Mikael heeded over to Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s sites and tried to list all of the models available. Nokia had 44 and S-E had 70. He then points out that there are three iPhones at best and in reality there are only two.

It costs money to manufacture and sell things. While many of the phones on Nokia’s site may be out of production, they still show them to users as if they were available. This is wrong-headed and ridiculous.

The manufacturers will complain that carriers make them offer so many phones. Carrier A wants a cheap phone to sell to grandmas in Latvia while Carrier B wants a fancy phone to sell to the rich in South Africa. Cry me a river. Are we really that neophiliac that every country and every carrier has to have something a little different? Do we really have to bend our desires to what companies that essentially sell the transmission of bits over radio waves want?

Seven years ago the National Highway Safety Administration called for a complete and total ban on the use of cellphones while driving. That includes hands-free kits, too. Now, a lot has changed in the seven years since this draft proposal was made—for one, the number of cellphones in the U.S. has gone from 170 million to 270 million.

Apparently it’s not a matter of “if” Microsoft will bring the Xbox, in some capacity, to the wonderful world of mobile entertainment, but “when.” So says< Corporate Vice-President Shane Kim, at least; if you can't trust Mr. Kim, then who can you trust?