Speeding, using a mobile phone while driving and dropping litter top the list of rules and regulations regularly flouted, a survey has found. Other laws often broken are eating while driving, parking on pavements and not wearing a seatbelt.

Email has turned into a nuisance that is costing companies millions of dollars. In a study last year, Dr Thomas Jackson of Loughborough University, England, found that it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email. So people who check their email every five minutes waste 8 1/2hours a week figuring out what they were doing moments before.

Consumers increasingly want more sophisticated mobile handsets, and smartphone sales are expected to grow 52% this year compared to last year, according to Gartner. The firm adds that smartphone sales will reach over 700 million units, accounting for 65% of all handset sales. This will represent nearly $200 billion, Gartner said.

The 684-page report’s conclusions singled out advertising/marketing as well as movies as likely influences on youth smoking. With regard to films, the chief recommendation made in the report is that “anti-tobacco advertisements” should be included before feature films “to partially counter the impact of tobacco portrayals in movies.

While half of the survey respondents rated Blu-ray’s quality as ‘much better’ than standard DVD technology, another 40% termed it only ’somewhat better,’ and most are very satisfied with the performance of their current DVD players.