Gadgets: Monitoring your car speed

As of 1996, all cars sold in the United States were required to have an on-board diagnostics port. Usually under the steering wheel, it is used by mechanics to narrow the search for what's wrong with a car when the "check engine" light comes on.

Now a company has figured out a few things that consumers can do with the port. Lemur Monitors, based in Newfoundland, has introduced the $70 SafeDriver. Intended to put the reins on your children's driving, the SafeDriver module, which plugs into the car's data port, monitors the highest speed the car has obtained, how often the car has come to a sudden stop and how far the car has gone.

If your children get the smart idea to pull the module out as they're revving up or reinsert it, without the correct PIN, the readout will display "tamper," giving you the edge on them.

So the next time your teenage charmers tell you the car was going only 35 mph for five miles, you'll know if they are telling the truth.

BlackBerry lovers are a loyal bunch, but even the most rabid must have viewed the features of the iPhones and Android phones with envy.

The new BlackBerry Torch 9800 is Research in Motion's attempt to inspire a little envy of its own. It is the first BlackBerry with a true touch screen and the first with a slide-out keyboard. It has handy shortcuts on the home screen, much like those found on Android. You go to favorite apps by sliding a finger sideways across the screen as you would on an iPhone.

The phone has also updated its camera to 5 megapixels and added handy new controls like a geo-tag button, automatic and manual flash and lots of settings like portraits, sports or night shots.

Available only through AT&T for $200 with a two-year contract, it may not be the phone for everyone, but BlackBerry fans (and those required to carry a BlackBerry for work) may just find themselves carrying a Torch.