When I was growing up, I knew better than to wear a baseball cap at the dinner table and risk the wrath of my mother, a woman of Italian descent who could cook up a storm and asked (demanded, really) proper manners in return. To this day I won't wear a hat at a dinner table, even if is socially acceptable on a casual basis, but I have been known to whip out my smartphone for one reason or another, a practice my mother would have also banned if they were around when I was growing up, and one that can result in a higher dinner bill.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is calling for the first-ever nationwide ban of cell phone use for any reason while behind the wheel of an automobile. The proposed ban would outlaw the use of all personal electronic devices (PEDs, except those designed to support the driving task) in all 50 states and the District of Columbia while operating a motor vehicle, a controversial safety recommendation with unanimous support from NTSB's Board.

A San Francisco judge on Thursday ruled that a city-wide ordinance mandating that cell phone vendors warn customers about radiation are a little too strict, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The judge took issue with both the specific warning messages and how they have to be posted, and then ordered the city to change both.

As far as we know, you can't make a career out of taking pictures with your cell phone, but you can take a college course teaching you how not to take crappy photos with one. All you have to do is attend Immaculata University in Philadelphia where communications professor Sean Flannery has made it his goal to teach students how to take the best pictures possible with their mobile phones.