iPhone News Updated

Apple’s new Siri could get you into hot water behind the wheel.

Siri may be a seductively smart companion. But let the new iPhone’s voice-activated Gal Friday sit beside you as you drive up Highway 101 and you might also get into trouble with the law.

You can talk to Siri while driving, cops say. Just don’t touch her.

“It’s legal to talk to Siri, as long as the phone’s not in your hand,” says San Jose police Lt. Chris Monahan. “But if you have to push the phone to activate her, or if you ask for directions and she puts them up on her screen for you to read, then California’s hands-free law says your’re breaking the law.”

Section 23123.5 of the motor-vehicle code clearly states that “a person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using an electronic wireless communication device to write, send, or read a text-based communication.”

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Mercedes to introduce new iPhone-centric infotainment

At the Mercedes-Benz TecDay 2011 event in Germany, Mercedes revealed its concept infotainment system, @yourCommand, a voice- and gesture-controlled cloud-based system in the F 125 research vehicle. While that system is a few years away from being integrated into production vehicles, Mercedes also announced that in a few months it will begin selling a new infotainment option developed specifically for the iPhone.

Mercedes didn’t provide much detail about the future infotainment system except to say that it will leverage the iPhone’s processing power “to create a revolutionary user interface with fluent transitions and animation.” The car maker also said that various iPhone information and functionality will be displayed on the in-dash display, and will be accessed using the COMAND controller.

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