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New laws are popping up everywhere that’ll make it illegal for you to punch keys on your Blackberry behind the wheel. Sure, it’s not safe, but sometimes we can get more done by communicating while in transit. What’s a commuting Blackberry addict to do?

The Canadian province of Ontario and State of Colorado are the latest places ready to ban the use of handheld devices while driving.

The Colorado handheld ban, (House bill 1094, sponsored by Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder) has passed a vote of the Senate Finance Committee. Colorado’s ban permits Bluetooth and hands-free devices if your over 18. The penalty is a class A violation and a fine of $100.

In Ontario, Canada the new law is a little more costly – violators will face a penalty up to $500. The Countering Distracted Driving and Promoting Green Transportation Act bans all electronic devices while driving. That means no calling, texting, emailing or even feeding your Tamagotchi while on the road.

Stay Connected While Driving

We agree that when you’re driving you need to keep your eyes on the road. But as much as we want to do the right thing, how many of us are guilty of checking our email at a red light or worse?

In the interest of keeping our BBGeeks driving back to us, we’ve compiled a short-list of devices that will legally keep you connected to your Blackberry. For starters, you can pick up a Bluetooth headset for a little as $30 – hook it up to one of these in-car communication options and your Blackberry is at your command.

Ford Sync, TomTom 910 and iLane are all good but very different systems depending on what you’re looking for – entertainment, GPS navigation or pure Blackberry communication.

Ford Sync

If you own certain Ford models, the Sync system (developed with Microsoft) provides access to your phone’s and SMS messages. What’s truly cool about Sync is that it’ll let you use voice commands to control your in-car MP3 player. But Sync is ultimately an in-car entertainment system, not really a messenger. The system can cost from $700 to $1500 depending on whether you want a screen – then it’s forever built into your car.

TomTom GO 910

TomTom is a GPS navigation system with some added communications bonuses. The navigation on many TomTom models delivers fun text-to-speech (TTS) instructions, you can actually change the voice to fit your mood.

The 910 goes a step beyond pure GPS by providing the ability to connect with your cell phone to give you hands free voice communication through your Blackberry. It’ll even read your incoming SMS messages. Another cool feature about the TomTom that won’t get with Sync is that you can take it with you to another car and just power it up through a cigarette lighter. The GO 910 is a $500 premium GPS system.

iLane

The most complete in-car Blackberry messaging solution is this little device made in Waterloo, Ontario. It might not control your MP3 player or give you directions to your little cousin’s recital, but it was specifically designed to be your Blackberry’s in-car voice.

With iLane you can call your contacts by name and have access to SMS messaging, calendar and all your email accounts including web-mail. It reads your emails and lets you reply with a recorded 1GB voice message. What about digital entertainment? While it might not be as cool as your MP3 collection, iLane will read you select content directly from the web – including tech-new and blogs like BBGeeks.com. iLane is the mid-priced option at $600.

Voice recognition systems have brought connected automotive technologies a long way. Nowadays you can talk to your car for access to news, entertainment and all your messages without risking the ire of Johnny Law.

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