Smartphones: Gone too far?

Recently Sprint unveiled its latest edition in the race for the ultimate Smartphone, the Kyocera Echo Dual-Screen phone.

As if texting and driving wasn't bad enough. Now you'll be able to text AND watch a hilarious video courtesy of Youtube, all the while trying to keep it between the lines.

Honestly, I don't think even the most daring drive-and-texters is going to attempt to pull this off, but I may be wrong.

As Smartphones become more and more advanced, cell phone companies are looking for the next big thing.

The Echo bares resemblance to the Nintendo DS, the dual screen portable gaming system. You know, the one you see kids and young teenagers having their eyes fixated on as you try to ask them a question.

I shouldn't talk. I've gotten caught up in the Smartphone craze as much as the next person, recently securing an HTC Evo Shift. It's nice and it comes in handy. But in the grand scheme of things, as long as it dials and sends text messages, anything else is just gravy.

And along the same line of thinking, anyone notice the latest Chevy commercial? A guy receives a good night kiss from his date and she leaves to enter her apartment. He hops in the car, wondering just how well his date went. So he flicks on On-Star and instantly receives a Facebook status update telling him that his lady friend thought it was "the best first date ever."

Talk about instant gratification. So much easier than actually asking her if she had a good time.

On-Star is a great service, especially for those who have been in a traffic accident. But is this the avenue we really need to go with the service? The aforementioned texting and driving is bad enough, now we have audio Facebook updates to further distract our attention from the road.