USB security, Google, Bing, and technology that makes up dumb

Go away for a couple of days, as I did over the weekend, and when you return your email inbox is filled with several hundred essential emails, at least half of which are not essential at all. In my case, many are newsletters I subscribe to; perhaps I should be more ruthless in unsubscribing.
So it was perhaps good news that Mozilla has launched a software project designed to let people better manage the ever more voluminous stream of messages coming from sources such as Twitter and Facebook into their e-mail. Whether it will help me, as I don't use either Twitter or the social messaging aspects of Facebook, is another matter.
Here are some other interesting items worth checking out...
In a masterpiece of timing, both Google and Microsoft Bing announced new developments with their search engines. (Google seems to be releasing a new development almost every month at the moment. It's hard to keep up. Is it worth keeping up?)
The great thing about today's nearly universal connectivity is how easy it is to share information, pictures and other material with your business associates, friends and family. The bad thing about it is how easy it is for strangers to get access to your data. This is especially true when we carry so much on our USB flash drives, DVDs, laptops and other portable media. A freebie, SafeHouse Explorer, can secure your data on all media, protecting it from unwanted prying eyes.
Like it or not, come Sunday using a handheld mobile phone while driving will be an offence in New Zealand. The lads at the Stuff technology site have some tips on what's allowed, what's not, and how to cope.
Speaking of cellphones, Steve Tobak at BNet asks whether new technologies such as cellphones are making us dumb? (A hint: he believes they are.)
If that's the case, hold on to your hats, because PC World lists five new technologies it believes will change everything. Now can we have a list of the five most significant unintended consequences...