LOS ANGELES - Should you be arrested for walking down the street texting?
A New Jersey lawmaker wants to make it illegal, with a fine of $50 and/or 15 days in jail, similar to a jaywalking fine.
Clearly texting and Facebooking while crossing the street is a growing problem--pedestrian deaths are up 4% over the last 10 years--so something has got to change, right?
Now yes, the life of a pedestrian has changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and people rarely look up from their phones when they’re out and about.
And the people behind the wheel, even with texting and driving illegal in 46 states, many are still looking down at their phones while driving.
So this is a real problem. But would a law change things?
"What's next--we can't eat while we're walking?" asks Rick Patri of the Lucky Tackle Box subscription service on this week's #TalkingTech Roundtable podcast.
Garrett Henricksen of the Shootly app calls the idea of the law "ridiculous. How are you going to monitor so many people? We should pay attention to real criminal activity."
Photographer Rob Greer would consider a law that made it illegal to text--only while crossing the street. "Many of us are looking down at our phones to navigate our way around. We use the maps for walking directions."
Also on this week's show:
--We talk SEO--industry jargon for how to get your website found in Google, with one of the leading experts in the field, Greer.
--Henricksen tells about his new Uber-like app for finding a pro photographer on demand, Shootly.
--Patri explains why live video is great business--he live streams on Periscope daily, and on YouTube weekly for the Lucky Tackle Box subscription service, and says how going live pays off for businesses.
--And we talk music streaming, and why Spotify looks to be winning the subscription music wars.
This week yet another music service launched, a pro version of SoundCloud, offering unlimited music listening for $9.99 monthly. SoundCloud joins Apple, Google, Amazon, Spotify, Tidal, Rhapsody, YouTube and many more with a similar way to listen to anything you want. Right now, Spotify rules, with 30 million paying subscribers, to 11 million from runner-up Apple. Meanwhile, Spotify is reportedly on the verge of raising $1 billion in new financing. Why do they have such a lead over the others?
Listen to the #TalkingTech podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn and SoundCloud, follow USA TODAY tech columnist and #TalkingTech host Jefferson Graham on Twitter, @jeffersongraham.
